Awesome Planet Earth

Stunning pictures showcasing our awesome planet and it's breathtaking natural beauty.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.


Beautiful Earth



Bird of Lights



Dreamscape



Earth's Belly Button



Flowery Pathway



Ice Crystals



Lenticular Cloud



Misty Forest



Paradise



Porco Rosso's Secret Base (alluded to the 1992 Miyazaki 's animated feature film Porco Rosso)



Rays of Dawn



Sea Shells



The Marks of Wind



Wave of Clouds



Yellow Stream

Pandas

These photos were taken in China, Beijing, at the Panda Reserve
They are too cute not to share.
Enjoy

Cutest Animal Interaction Pictures

I came across the cutest animal interaction pictures ever.

Cutest Animal Interaction Pictures

Spectacular Waves

I came across these amazing pictures of waves. These photographs are breathtakingly beautiful.

From Spectacular Waves

Amazing Icebergs

The artistic hand of God.

Amazing Striped Icebergs

Icebergs in the Antarctic area sometimes have stripes, formed by layers of snow that react to different conditions.

Blue stripes are often created when a crevice in the ice sheet fills up with meltwater and freezes so quickly that no bubbles form.

When an iceberg falls into the sea, a layer of salty seawater can freeze to the underside. If this is rich in algae, it can form a green stripe.

Brown, black and yellow lines are caused by sediment, picked up when the ice sheet grinds downhill towards the sea.

Amazing Iceberg Pictures

Chimpanzee Mating Rituals

German researchers working in Africa (the Ivory Coast) have determined that female chimpanzees mate more often with males who share their meals with them, specifically meat.

The scientists, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, believe that the females "reward" the males with long-term sexual relationships as long as they keep bringing on the food. (This somewhat monogamous behavior is unusual, because chimps are usually pretty promiscuous.)

Why? Their guess is that the "girls" are impressed because they recognize that hunting down meat is dangerous work.

(Source: Reuters)