A paraglider casts a shadow over the dunes of Niger's T énéré desert. A south-central tract of the Sahara, the 150,000-square-mile (400,000-square-kilometer) Ténéré is one of Africa's most forbidding regions. Hot, dusty harmattan winds blow across the bone-dry desert, which receives an annual rainfall of about 1 inch (25 millimeters).
(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Journey to the Heart of the Sahara," March 1999, National Geographic magazine)
一把滑翔伞投射的阴影在非洲中西部国家――尼日尔的(Tenere)沙漠。它是一个位于撒哈拉沙漠的南部中心的沙漠,合计达到十五万平方英里(四十万平方公里),(Tenere)沙漠是非洲最为可怕的地方之一。酷热环境、满是灰尘的、干燥的热风越过极为干燥的沙漠,在那里每年的降雨量大约是一英寸(25毫米)。
Easter Island, 1979
Photograph by Gordon Gahan
Giant stone moai stand on Easter Island's stony slopes. Earlier explorers believed the stone statues were worshipped as gods by native Polynesians, but Captain James Cook and his men speculated in 1774 that they were constructed to honor ancestors, a view still held by many today. (Text adapted from and photograph from the National Geographic book Voyages to Paradise: Exploring in the Wake of Captain Cook, 1981)
主标题:复活节岛,1979 巨石雕像竖立在耶稣复活节岛的石斜坡面,最早的探险家认为石雕像是本土玻利维亚人们崇拜神灵而作,但是一位船长厨师和其他人,在1774年推测是为了尊敬他们的祖先。这一景观持续到今天。
Chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica) ride out high surf on blue-ice icebergs near Candlemas Island in the South Sandwich Islands. Safe for the moment from predaceous leopard seals, chinstrap penguins are the second most abundant species in Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic.
Breaking Surf, Bora-Bora, French Polynesia, 1997
Photograph by Jodi Cobb
Lacy breakers lap the coral reef that rings Bora-Bora, an ancient sunken volcano 165 miles (266 kilometers) northwest of Tahiti in French Polynesia's Society Islands. Surrounded by sugar-white beaches, an electric-blue lagoon, and some of the clearest water on the planet, Bora-Bora is home to hundreds of species of tropical fish. Not surprisingly, it's one of the world's top spots for divers.
(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "French Polynesia: Charting a New Course," June 1997, National Geographic magazine)
法国属的玻利尼西亚多岛群岛,季节性东北冷风吹袭,浪拍海岸,1997.
The tentacles of a box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri) trail behind it and can reach 15 feet (4.6 meters) in length. Found in northern Australia and adjacent waters, a sting from this species can be deadly. This species of box jellyfish, the largest, can have as many as 60 tentacles.
Photograph by David Doubilet
Meltwater sculpted the dagger-like shaft of ice near a cave in Matanuska Glacier in Alaska's Chugach Mountains. Matanuska is an active glacier, advancing about one foot (0.3 meters) every day.
Photograph by George F. Mobley
"Spanning a West Virginia canyon 3,000 feet [914 meters] wide, the New River Gorge Bridge transformed 44,000 tons of steel and concrete into structural art as graceful as the morning mists drifting below it. Opened in 1977, it replaced an 1889 trestle—and 40 white-knuckled minutes on one-lane switchbacks—with 40 seconds on cruise control."
—From “New River’s Deep Soul,” June 1999, National Geographic magazine
Photograph by Susie Post Rust
A school of salema attempts to outmaneuver a hungry sea lion near the Galápagos Islands by circling to confuse the predator. Galápagos sea lions dive down some 120 feet (37 meters) on average to feed, returning to the surface after a minute or two to breathe.
Photograph by David Doubilet
Grand Staircase-Escalante Outpost, Utah, 1999
Photograph by Len Jenshel
Striated red-rock mountains capped by a piercingly blue sky overlook a weather-beaten outpost in Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Part of southern Utah's "red rock country," Grand Staircase-Escalante was named a national monument in 1996, adding a 1.9-million-acre (768,903-hectare) slice of parched, mineral-rich wilderness to U.S. protected lands.