View of Pumice Plain and Mount St. Helens, Washington, 2000
Photograph by Jim Richardson
Vegetation has returned to the scenery of Washington’s Pumice Plain, which was stripped of life after Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980. Despite the immense pyroclastic flow (a mix of hot gas and ash) that scoured these plains after the eruption, the purple flowers of prairie lupines appeared within a few years and accelerated the landscape’s recovery.
(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Mount St. Helens: Nature on Fast Forward," May 2000, National Geographic magazine)
September 22, 2008
Bat Eating a Frog, Barro Colorado Island, Panama, 2007
Photograph by Christian Ziegler
A fringe-lipped bat on Panama's Barro Colorado Island holds a Tungara frog in its powerful jaws. This bat's extra-large ears help it detect frogs from the sound of their mating calls, even distinguishing the songs of edible species from those of toxic ones.
(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Winged Victors: Panama's Adaptable Bats," June 2007, National Geographic magazine)
September 23, 2008
Cerro Llullaillaco, Argentina, 1999
Photograph by Maria Stenzel
A view from the top of Cerro Llullaillaco (Yu-YAI-ya-ko) shows the stark expanse of the Andes Mountains in western Argentina. In 1998, Llullaillaco's 22,000-foot (6,700-meter) summit yielded an Inca ruin containing dozens of artifacts and three perfectly preserved children sacrificed some 500 years ago. It still ranks as the world's highest archaeological site.
(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Frozen in Time," November 1999, National Geographic magazine)
September 24, 2008
Chiru Expedition, Chang Tang, Tibet, 2002
Photograph by Galen Rowell
An expedition member hauls a custom-built ricksha laden with supplies across the desolate Chang Tang alpine steppe in northern Tibet. A group of elite mountaineers put together the expedition to witness births at the remote calving grounds of the elusive chiru, or Tibetan antelope.
The expeditioners chose to use lightweight rickshas instead of four-wheel-drive vehicles, which would get stuck in the mud and spook the chiru with engine noise.
(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Walking the Chang Tang," April 2003, National Geographic magazine)
September 25, 2008
Fossil Mold, Aus, Namibia, 1998
Photograph by O. Louis Mazzatenta
A paleontologist in Aus, Namibia, makes a mold of a Pteridinium by brushing multiple layers of latex on the fossil. Though their remains are common in many parts of the world, much about these and other similar Precambrian life forms has puzzled scientists, including whether they were plants, animals, or something in between.
(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Life Grows Up," April 1998, National Geographic magazine)
September 26, 2008
Killer Croc, Gatumba, Burundi, 2004
Photograph by Bobby Model
A villager of Gatumba, Burundi, displays a photograph of an infamous Nile crocodile known as Gustave as workers in the background wade in the Rusizi River. Estimated in 2004 to be 20 feet (6 meters) long and 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms), Gustave is reputed to have devoured scores, even hundreds people along the Rusizi and Lake Tanganyika.
(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Have You Seen This Croc?" March 2005, National Geographic Adventure magazine)
September 27, 2008
Black Sea Castle, Yalta, Russia/Ukraine, 1987
Photograph by Steve Raymer
The neo-Gothic Swallow's Nest castle perches 130 feet (40 meters) above the Black Sea near Yalta in southern Ukraine. Built by a German noble in 1912, the flamboyant seaside residence now houses an Italian restaurant.
(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Ukraine," May 1987, National Geographic magazine)
Tibetans believe both the negative and positive things done during Losar, the Tibetan New Year celebration, reverberate through the year to come. Here, Buddhist monks from the Tsurphu Monastery near Lhasa chase away bad spirits with a dance honoring the dharmapala divinity.
(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Tibet Embraces the New Year," January 2000, National Geographic magazine)
September 29, 2008
Crumbling Billboard, Arizona, 1997
Photograph by Vincent J. Musi
A crumbling billboard overlooks Arizona’s historic stretch of Route 66. This fabled road once linked towns of all sizes from Chicago to Los Angeles, serving as the main thoroughfare for generations of westward migrants.
(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Romancing the Road," September 1997, National Geographic magazine)
September 30, 2008
Thermal Vent, New Zealand, 2004
Photograph by Peter Essick
Scientists believe that forests, grasslands, and the waters of the oceans act as carbon sinks—stealing back roughly half of the carbon dioxide we humans emit, slowing its buildup in the atmosphere and delaying its effects on climate.
Eons pass before carbon, buried in the Earth's crust, issues as a gas from a volcanic vent in New Zealand (above), or locked up in limestone, erodes off mountains. Carbon cycles faster when decaying from a leaf or traveling as wind-tossed pollen.
(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "The Case of the Missing Carbon," February 2004, National Geographic magazine)