April 01, 2008
Longnose Hawkfish, Namena Island, Fiji, 2004
Photograph by Tim Laman
Longnose hawkfish, like this brightly patterned creature resting in a bed of soft coral off Fiji Island's Namena Island, are tropical marine fish known for their needle-like snouts and striking red-and-white scales. The fish's common name originates from its hawklike habit of perching on the high ground of reefs, where it surveys its surroundings for predator or prey.
April 02, 2008
Aurora Borealis, Acadia National Park, Maine, 2005
Photograph by Michael Medford
Nature's light show—aurora borealis—bathes Maine's Acadia National Park in a pink glow. These dazzling patterns in nature, called aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere, are created when charged particles outside the Earth's atmosphere collide with atoms in the upper atmosphere, producing a glowing display of curtains, arcs, and bands stretching across the sky.
April 03, 2008
Just-Hatched Froglets, Papua New Guinea, 2001
Photograph by George Grall
Carrying out his fatherly duty, a male Oreophryne frog in Papua, New Guinea, guards his clutch and two newly hatched froglets that rest atop the egg mass. Like many of the Microhylidae family, these frogs bypass the tadpole stage, developing fully within the egg. Male frogs embrace their clutch each night to keep the eggs moist and protect them from predators such as insects.
April 04, 2008
Lights on Street, Key West, Florida, 1999
Photograph by Jim Richardson
Headlights leave a stream of light in a time-exposed photograph of a busy Key West street. Key West is also known as the Conch Republic, a reference to a mock secession the island staged in protest of an April 23, 1982, roadblock the U.S. Border Patrol set up en route to Key West. When complaints that the roadblock hurt tourism went unanswered, the island's mayor declared the Keys' independence from the U.S.
April 05, 2008
Lights on Street, Key West, Florida, 1999
Photograph by Jim Richardson
Headlights leave a stream of light in a time-exposed photograph of a busy Key West street. Key West is also known as the Conch Republic, a reference to a mock secession the island staged in protest of an April 23, 1982, roadblock the U.S. Border Patrol set up en route to Key West. When complaints that the roadblock hurt tourism went unanswered, the island's mayor declared the Keys' independence from the U.S.
April 06, 2008
Blue Mosque, Iran, 1999
Photograph by Alexandra Avakian
A tranquil reflecting pool mirrors a blue-tiled mosque in Iran. An Islamic republic since the country's autocratic monarchy was overthrown in 1978, Iran is ruled by a supreme religious leadership that controls most aspects of Iranian society. But a youthful populace—70 percent of Iranians are under 30—with increasing access to Western media is beginning to push against its boundaries.
April 07, 2008
River Boats, Sitlakhya River, Bangladesh, 1993
Photograph by James P. Blair
A canoe glides past fishing boats at dusk on Bangladesh's flood-swollen Sitlakhya River. Notched into eastern India, this predominantly Muslim nation is a dominated by water, with the Bay of Bengal to the south, mighty rivers throughout, and seasonal monsoon and cyclones that flood up to a third of the country every year.
April 08, 2008
Leopard Seal With a Penguin, Antarctic Peninsula, 2006
Photograph by Paul Nicklen
Photographer Paul Nicklen watched as this 12-foot-long (3.7-meter-long) female leopard seal toyed with her catch, a live penguin chick. "She dropped it on my camera," he said. "Then she opened her mouth and engulfed the camera—and most of my head. After 45 minutes of more threats, she finally relaxed and ate."
April 09, 2008
Workers Planting Rice, India, 2003
Photograph by William Albert Allard
Women from India's so-called Untouchable caste plant rice in a large field. Consigned by birth to the lowest social strata, Untouchables number some 160 million, about 15 percent of India's people. Considered impure by Hindu law, they are generally permitted to perform only the most menial jobs.
April 10, 2008
Whale's Tail, Frederick Sound, Alaska, 1999
Photograph by Michael Melford
Commercial hunting of humpback whales, like this one flashing its flukes in Alaska's Frederick Sound, reduced their population to just a few thousand worldwide in the 1960s. But an international whaling ban has helped them rebound, and new census numbers show the North Pacific population alone could be more than 10,000 and possibly as many as 25,000.
April 11, 2008
Port Royal Golf Course, Southampton, Bermuda, 1971
Photograph by Emory Kristof
With the sea itself for a water hazard, the 8th hole—a challenging par three—tests vacationing golf buffs and visiting pros. Beyond the green, the two tones of ocean water mark shoals near shore and greater depths to seaward.
Northernmost coral isles in the world, the Bermudas sprawl atop a seamount that climbs from the ocean floor 16,000 feet [4,877 meters] below. Barely breaking the surface in many places, the low-profiled islands nowhere rise more than 260 feet [80 meters] above sea level.
April 12, 2008
Green Mountain Sunset, Vermont, 1998
Photograph by Michael Yamashita
The Green Mountains glow as a rose-colored sunset descends on a far corner of Vermont known as the Northeast Kingdom. This region, known simply as "the Kingdom" by Vermonters, is famous for its maple syrup, covered bridges, ski slopes, and the riot of fall colors that blankets its woodlands each September.
April 13, 2008
Redfin Butterflyfish, Fiji, 2004
Photograph by Tim Laman
A redfin butterflyfish navigates the coral of Fiji's Vatu-i-ra Channel. This waterway, which separates Fiji's two biggest islands, is home to an immense variety of fish living amid some 2,500 square miles (6,500 square kilometers) of reefs and submerged plateaus. Conservationists are seeking to protect the region by winning its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Seascape.
April 14, 2008
Karo Woman, Omo Valley, Ethiopia, 2000
Photograph by Jodi Cobb
A woman from the Karo tribe, with customary short braided hair, looks through the doorway of a mud building in Ethiopia's Omo Valley. With under a thousand members, the Karo are the smallest of the valley's four main tribes.
Karo men and women are known for their ritual scarification. Men scar their chests to represent rivals killed from enemy tribes; women with scarred chests are considered sensual and attractive.
April 15, 2008
Palmyra Ruins, Syria, 1999
Photograph by Annie Griffiths Belt
These monumental stone pillars are among the incredible remains of the second century B.C. kingdom of Palmyra, Syria, an oasis and trade crossroads in the Syrian desert.
Roman forces sacked Palmyra in A.D. 273 after its powerful queen Zenobia challenged imperial rule. The city continued to be an important landmark after Roman conquest, hosting silk caravans from China, spice traders from India, and perfume merchants from Arabia.
April 16, 2008
Cape Fur Seal and Bull Kelp, South Africa, 2002
Photograph by David Doubilet
A young Cape fur seal forages amid bull kelp near Gansbaai, South Africa. The large numbers of great white sharks here, drawn by huge seal populations, give Gansbaai the unofficial title of Great White Capital of the World. Great whites rarely enter kelp forests, and fur seals seek them out as refuges from their arch nemeses.
April 17, 2008
Baby Alligator Snapping Turtle, Florida, 1999
Photograph by George Grall
A baby alligator snapping turtle in a Florida swamp perches on the outsize skull of a record-breaking ancestor. At its largest, the monstrous reptile weighed a whopping 250 pounds (113 kilograms). With its spiked shell, beaklike jaws, and thick, scaled tail, this species is often referred to as the "dinosaur of the turtle world."
April 18, 2008
Multicolored Reef, Tukangbesi Islands, Indonesia, 2005
Photograph by Tim Laman
Layers of coral, sea fans, crinoids, and sponges make up a healthy reef off Indonesia's Tukangbesi Islands. Lighted by a photographer's strobe, this scene would explode in brilliant colors, but in natural light, it looks altogether different. Scientists are studying how wavelengths of light change at depth and how fish perceive these colors.
April 19, 2008
Huli Tribesmen, Papua New Guinea, 2000
Photograph by Jodi Cobb
Decked out in elaborate costumes, striking facial paint, and wigs of human hair, the men of the Huli tribe in the highlands of Papua New Guinea prepare for a sing-sing, an annual festival of clan pride. Together, the men preen, strut, shimmy, and shake their feathered costumes, mimicking the local birds of paradise.
April 20, 2008
Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia, 1997
Photograph by David Doubilet
A school of fish swims over a coral formation in the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia. Like a few grains of rice sprinkled on a sea of blue, the French territory in the South Pacific is a paltry 1,359 square miles (3,520 square kilometers) of land scattered over one million square miles (2.6 million square kilometers) of ocean, an area as large as Western Europe.
April 21, 2008
Byzantine Coin, Sinop, Turkey, 2001
Photograph by Randy Olson
Explorers pulled this ancient Byzantine coin from a Black Sea wreck near Sinop, Turkey. Millennia ago, the Black Sea was a freshwater lake. When the last ice age waned some 12,000 years ago, salt water from the Mediterranean breached the Bosporus Valley, transforming the Black Sea into its current state—a toxic, brackish, oxygen-deficient pool, perfect for preserving ancient wrecks.
April 22, 2008
Cloudy Sky, Location Unknown, 2004
Photograph by Peter Essick
Piles of cotton-like cumulus clouds fill the sky on a clear day. Mid-level cumulus clouds form between 6,500 feet (2,000 meters) and about 20,000 feet (6,000 meters). They form when humid air cools enough for water vapor to condense into droplets or ice crystals. A single cloud can hold billions of pounds of water, but may not always produce rain.
Earth Day, celebrated annually on April 22, marks the anniversary of the 1970 birth of the environmental movement. Scientists warn that rising temperatures worldwide could fuel extreme weather—just one of many damaging effects of global warming.
April 23, 2008
Women Carrying Firewood, Sudan, 2003
Photograph by Randy Olson
Women carry bundles of firewood on their heads in the Sudanese desert. In rural African cultures, the responsibility of foraging for firewood usually falls to the women. In Sudan's brutally dry desert, where little vegetation grows, it can take several hours each day to collect enough wood to cook with.
April 24, 2008
Cars Passing the Colosseum, Rome, Italy, 1981
Photograph by O. Louis Mazzatenta
Nearly 2,000 years ago, the Colosseum was built to host gladiator duels, battle reenactments, and other public spectacles. Now, the 50,000-seat stone-and-concrete amphitheater serves Rome in another capacity: as a traffic circle.
April 25, 2008
Red-and-Green Macaws, Bolivia, 2000
Photograph by Joel Sartore
A mated pair of red-and-green macaws soars above the forest in Bolivia's Madidi National Park. These long-lived birds mate for life, and couples spend nearly every minute together.
April 26, 2008
Mudbrick Houses, Shibam, Yemen, 2005
Photograph by George Steinmetz
The city of Shibam, Yemen, rises from the Rub al Khali, or Empty Quarter, a sea of sand that occupies one-fifth of the Arabian Peninsula. The distinctive mud-brick skyscrapers that house Shibam's 5,000 residents have earned the city its nickname: "Manhattan of the Desert."
April 27, 2008
Horse Herders, Darhad Valley, Mongolia, 2003
Photograph by Gordon Wiltsie
Mongolian herdsmen drive horses back into the Darhad Valley after wintering on the other side of the 10,000-foot (3,000-meter) mountains that rise in the background. People have moved their herds over these mountains for generations. But a government effort to transition Mongolia's nomadic people to more stable urban lives could soon mean the end of this twice-yearly trek.
