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Natural Wonders

Journeys Themes

Audio Slideshows

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Audio slideshows

Narrated by experts in their fields, the slideshows combine stories, music and images giving you a new way to explore the world from the air.
Rivers

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Rivers

Rivers shape the landscape and are essential to life on the land. Follow the courses of some of the world’s largest and most important rivers.
Cuisine

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Volcanoes

Each culture enjoys its own unique cuisine. Discover some regional delicacies that range from classic global staples to unusual local treats.
Mountains

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Mountains

Mountain ranges are the most distinctive landforms visible from the air. Discover some of Earth's highest, longest, oldest and most spectacular.
Natural Wonders

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Natural Wonders

Discover some of nature’s most unusual events, creations and formations that can be found across the globe and find out why they exist.
Sacred Landscapes

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Sacred landscapes

Many cultures assign holy significance to the landscape around them; uncover some of the world’s most sacred sites and the people who worship them.
Colonial Arrivals

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Colonial Arrivals

Explore the colonial history of some of the world’s greatest port cities and the roles the individual colonialists and explorers played.
Islands

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Islands

Thousands of islands, large and small, dot our planet’s seas; find out the different ways in which they were formed, from volcanoes to coral.
Natural Resources

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Natural Resources

Gathering valuable resources such as metals, chemicals or water has led to communities developing in areas that might otherwise seem inhospitable.
Energy

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Energy

We consume more energy now than ever before – find out where this fuel comes from and how it is harnessed across the globe.
Festivals

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Festivals

Celebrations unite communities across the world; join the party with traditional village festivals or millions-strong street parties.
Indigenous cultures

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Indigenous cultures

Discover fascinating customs of ancient cultures from across the planet and learn how they live side-by-side with the modern world.
Sport

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Sport

Sports are at the heart of many different societies, both testing our physical limits to the maximum and uniting nations through tournaments.
Farming and agriculture

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Farming and agriculture

Food is one of our most basic human needs: discover how farming and agriculture differ across the varied cultures and climates of our world.

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Natural Wonders

More than 30,000 flamingos descend on the Makgadikgadi salt pans during the wet season.

El Niño and La Niña are two extreme phases of a natural climatic cycle that cause erratic weather across the globe.

Wild salmon can swim 1,400km and climb 2,000 vertical metres returning to spawning sites in the Salmon River and its tributaries.

The Wallace Line is a bio-geographic boundary separating Asian species in the west from Australasian species in the east.

With each tide, Australia's Buccaneer Archipelago experiences a unique natural phenomenon known as Horizontal Waterfalls.

Craters of the Moon Lava Field is made up of 60 lava flows from a series of eruptions that began 15,000 years ago.

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Bali, Indonesia at 13,000m - The Wallace Line

The Asian Palm Civet is found in Bali but does not occur naturally east of the Wallace Line.

The Sunda pangolin is found on Bali but not Lombok, separated by the Wallace Line and Lombok Strait.

The critically endangered Bali Starling is the island's only endemic bird, meaning that it is not found anywhere else in the world.

This satellite image shows Bali sandwiched between Java, to the west, and Lombok, to the east. The Wallace Line follows the Lombok Strait, separating Bali from Lombok.

A nocturnal tarsier with its distinctive large brown eyes, one of the Asian species only found to the east of the Wallace Line, clings to a tree on the island of Sulawesi.

The Sulawesi crested macaque is one of the endemic species found only on the island of Sulawesi, which lies to the east of the Wallace Line.

A map showing the Wallace Line, which runs off the coast of Borneo between the island and Sulawesi. The Weber and Lydekker Lines are other similar bio-geographical boundaries.

The huge rafflesia flower, up to a metre across and blooming in the wild in Borneo, is one of the many species which only appears west of the Wallace Line and is not present in Australasia.

1908 - A portrait of Alfred Russel Wallace, the British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist who proposed the Wallace Line, a natural biogeographic boundary between species.

The imposing Komodo Dragon, found only on a few islands across Indonesia east of the Wallace Line. Their large size is due to few natural predators on the islands.

A red-ring-tailed possum. These marsupials are found only in Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and exist east of the Wallace Line.

This map of the Earth's tectonic plate boundaries shows a close correlation between the Wallace Line and the boundary between the Eurasian (green) and Australian (orange) plates.

A Sumatran orangutan, found only on the island of Sumatra and not in neighbouring Borneo, is much smaller than its Bornean neighbour - an example of species not crossing water boundaries.

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Tuvalu, Pacific Ocean at 13,000m - El Niño and La Niña

During El Niño, warm surface water collects in the east and central Pacific, causing unusually wet weather in places that would ordinarily be drier.

During La Niña, cold currents rise towards the surface in the East Pacific, with warmer surface currents pushing west and bring rain to the western Pacific.

Two diagrams showing the difference between ocean current flows and their effects on weather conditions during normal conditions and El Niño.

Two diagrams showing the difference between ocean current flows and their effects on weather conditions during normal conditions and La Niña.

Graph showing global temperature anomalies since 1950, suggesting a clear increase in temperatures caused by El Niño and La Niña in the last three decades.

Satellite image showing the Pacific during the 1997 El Niño. Purple indicates reduced sea level (in the region of Tuvalu) , and white indicates increased sea level. During La Niña, this pattern is reversed.

Map showing sea surface temperatures during La Niña. The blue across the mid-Pacific indicates below-average sea temperatures that bring drought to Tuvalu.

Diagram showing the global changes in weather during El Niño. Tuvalu is located in the mid-Pacific, and is one of the few places to receive wet weather during El Niño.

Diagram showing the global changes in weather during La Niña. During this time, Tuvalu is located in a dry region, which brings drought to these isolated islands.

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King Sound, Australia at 8,000m - Buccaneer Archipelago

Horizontal waterfalls occur in the Buccaneer Archipelago when the changing tide draws strong currents through the narrow gaps between the islands.

As global sea levels rose at the end of the last ice age, Australia's coastline was flooded resulting in islands such as the Buccaneer Archipelago.

When the tides come in or flow out of Buccaneer Archipelago, fast flowing water pushes through the narrow gaps between the islands creating horizontal waterfalls.

Buccaneer Archipelago can be seen as the cluster of islands fringing the northeastern coast of King Sound.

As the tide builds up behind the gorges, it can't flow through quickly enough. At times, walls of water up to four metres high can build up.

Horizontal waterfalls flow through the gaps between the Buccaneer Archipelago islands as the fast-changing tide creates strong currents.

Torrents of water cascade through the gorges of the Buccaneer Archipelago with each changing of the tide.

The shallow water of the Buccaneer Archipelago is the perfect environment for mangrove forests to thrive, shown here at the bottom of the image.

Buccaneer Archipelago contains some of the most remote islands in Australia off the northwest coast of the Kimberley.

Buccaneer Archipelago fringes the northern edge of King Sound. Each time the tide changes, strong currents push through the gaps between the islands.

The coastline of the Kimberley is scattered with islands. Buccaneer Archipelago is the largest cluster of islands, with up to 1,000 making up the archipelago.

Buccaneer Archipelago is made up of the tops of hills that have been left exposed while the rest of the land was flooded at the end of the last Ice Age.

Horizontal waterfalls and whirlpools make navigating the Buccaneer Archipelago by boat particularly challenging.

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Craters of the Moon, USA at 1,000m - An "outdoor museum of volcanism"

Location of Craters of the Moon National Monument in relation to the Snake River Plain and Idaho.

The Great Rift is a 100km long crack in the surface of the Earth, and was the point of origin for the volcanic activity that formed the Craters of the Moon.

Craters of the Moon Lava Field is the largest lava flow on the Snake River Plain. There are 60 separate lava flows that form the field.

Map showing Craters of the Moon National Monument, showing Craters of the Moon Lava Field and the smaller Kings Bowl and Wapi Lava Fields.

Star trails from within the belly of Great Owl Cavern. Craters of the Moon has several lava caves and tubes, formed by lava cooling after eruptions from the Great Rift.

Looking out over the Craters of the Moon National Monument Lava Field towards Blizzard Mountain.

Craters of the Moon Lava Field within the borders of the National Monument. The monument now covers an area half the size of Rhode Island, about 1,800km².

Big Cinder Butte stands out against the flat lava flow. With each eruption at Craters of the Moon, new lava covered over older volcanic formations.

The entrance to a lava tube in Craters of the Moon National Monument.

An example of the variety of unusual lava formations found in the Craters of the Moon National Monument.

Tourists inside a lava tube in the Craters of the Moon National Monument. Lava tubes are formed by the outside of a lava flow solidifying, while the warmer liquid lava inside flows out.

There are 25 volcanic cones preserved in Craters of the Moon National monument. Here, a path cuts through a cluster of cinder cones.

The desolate landscape of Craters of the Moon National Monument was created by eruptions that took place over 13,000 years.

Remnants of a burst lava bubble along one of Craters of the Moon lava flows.

Tunnels and caves are found across Craters of the Moon; this is Indian Tunnel Cave, a lava tube with a collapsed roof.

Craters of the Moon was designated as a national monument in 1924, and has since been extended in size to encompass the surrounding volcanic landscape.

Craters of the Moon Lava Flow spills out over the Snake River Plain from the Great Rift, which runs for 100km directly cutting across the plain.

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Makgadikgadi, Botswana at ground level - The beautiful transformation of the wetlands

A flock of resting Lesser flamingos at sunset - thousands and thousands flock to the wetlands to feed after the replenishing rains.

A storm gathers over the Kalahari Thirstlands, promising water and life for the parched landscape below.

Antelope drink from a hole dug to allow water seepage during a drought.

Wildebeest make the most of the abundance of water during the rainy season.

A flock of flamingos taking off across the Makgadikgadi pan.

An elephant drinks from a hole dug to allow water seepage. Savuti Camp, near the border with Zambia.

Antelope drink from a hole dug to allow water seepage.

An elephant cools itself by plastering mud on its skin, and makes the most of what little water is available.

A baobab tree on Lekhubu Island prior to the rain: these trees store vital moisture in their trunks between periods of rain to survive the drought.

Zebra find much needed relief at a waterhole after the water has been replenished by the seasonal rains.

A lion waits its turn to drink from a vital watering hall.

Clouds gathering on the horizon promise rain over the Makgadikgadi salt pans.

A baboon waits for his turn to drink from a hole dug to allow water seepage.

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Salmon River, USA at ground level - The Great Salmon Migration

Sunbeam Dam, built by Sunbeam Consolidated Gold Mines Company in 1909 to provide power for mining operations in Jordon Creek, 13 miles away.

Ice harbour dam on the Snake River, about 8 miles from its confluence with the Columbia River: this is one of the many dams that wild salmon have to navigate between the Pacific and the Salmon River Mountains.

A map highlighting the Salmon River, leading into the Snake River and eventually the Columbia River: wild salmon use this route to migrate from fresh to salt water.

An example of a salmon ladder in Alaska: the ladders assist the salmon in passing through the man-made dams.

An example of salmon fry, hatching from eggs in the gravel: this happens up stream in fresh water.

Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) from the Northern Pacific Ocean: the fish turn red whilst spawining.

An example of a female salmon, on her side, flicking stones with her body to create a redd for her eggs.

Sunbeam Dam, built in 1909 to supply hydroelectric power to gold mines, and breached in 1934 to provide a migration path for sockeye salmon.

Salmon Lake (lower centre), argued to be the source of the Salmon River, and the appropriately named Sawtooth Mountains in the distance.

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© 2013 Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)