Patterns in Nature: Mysterious Earth

Salt piles line the shoreline of Lake Retba, Senegal.
The high salinity content of the lake provides a livelihood for salt collectors.
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A biplane flies above Monomoy Island, Massachusetts.
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Sand Dunes, Rub al Khali. The borders of four nations
- Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates -
blur beneath the shifting sands of the Rub al Khali, or Empty Quarter, desert.

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Cavelike dwellings built into soft rock dot the Cappadocia region of Turkey.
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Drying Fronds, Kenya. Fronds dry in neat lines around a tree in Kenya.
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Fairy circles, or grassless patches, spot the Namib Desert in Namibia,
seen here from an airplane.
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Photosynthesizing bacteria in a New Zealand thermal pool
absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen.
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Lichens grow on a granite gravestone in Lake Champlain, New York.
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Reflecting off water, light paints peacock-feather patterns onto a rock wall
in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah.
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Curled Millipede. Exhibiting its main defense mechanism,
a millipede curls into a tight spiral.
In this fashion it protects its legs-on average between 100 and 300,
not the thousand its name suggests-inside its body.
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The scales of an Atlantic salmon, such as these on a fish in Quebec, Canada,
can help biologists determine the fish's age.
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Diatoms.Seen here 400 times their true size, diatoms are a type of algae found
in oceans, fresh water, and soil.
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Basket Sea Star, Cuba. The complexly branched arms
of the basket sea star, or starfish, catch plankton for the echinoderm. Fonte

Sunlight radiates through the Xpacay cenote in the Mexican Yucatán.
Cenotes are freshwater sinkholes usually found on the Yucatán peninsula.
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The bony plates of a snapping turtle's carapace protect it from predators.
Snappers are freshwater turtles found in much of North America.
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