2025’s best photos of the natural world, from volcanoes to icebergs

Mount Etna in Sicily is the most active stratovolcano in the world, a tall conical volcano formed by repeated eruptions of viscous lava. In February, it erupted with ash clouds and a lava flow that spread over 3 kilometers, leading to the partial closure of the local airport. One of the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites has been captured. This is an image of a lava flow on February 12th.

Giant iceberg Listed in harbor at Innaarsuit. in western Greenland in July, hanging over a village of 180 people for more than a week. Authorities warned people to stay away in case it collapses and crushes something or creates a destructive wave. This is the second time in less than a decade that a huge iceberg has threatened the city. As Greenland melts, more icebergs are breaking off from its glaciers.

Hurricane Melissa was tied with the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 as the strongest storm to ever make landfall around the Atlantic Ocean. On October 28, it hit Jamaica with winds of nearly 300 kilometers per hour and 76 centimeters of rain, destroying buildings, including these buildings in Black River. Early analysis suggested Climate change has strengthened Melissa's winds approximately 16 kilometers per hour. This year marked only the second time on record that there were three Category 5 hurricanes.

The Qiantang River in China is home to the world's largest tidal channel, a phenomenon where the tide enters a shallow river, creating a wave up to 9 meters high that can travel up the river at speeds approaching 40 kilometers per hour. Locals have nicknamed the tidal wave the “silver dragon”, and surfers come to ride it for tens of kilometers. People are watching here tidal wave in Jiaxing in October.

May 29 Birch glacier in the Swiss Alps collapsed under the weight of 9 million tons of fallen rock that gradually accumulated from the mountain above. The landslide buried most of the 800-year-old village of Blatten, with the force equivalent to a magnitude 3.1 earthquake, and the Lonza River was dammed. The village was evacuated, only one person died. Scientists have blamed the falling rocks on thawing permafrost, the permanently frozen soil that holds mountains together. At current rates of carbon dioxide emissions, 90 percent of glaciers in the Alps could disappear by 2100.

In January, wildfires swept from the wooded hills of northern Los Angeles and destroyed entire neighborhoods like this one in Pacific Palisades. Potentially the most expensive natural disaster in US history, fires killed 31 people destroyed 16,000 structures and caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. Some blame California's home insurance rules for encouraging risky construction near wooded areas. But global warming has also extended the fire season. and made hot, dry and windy conditions more likely.