Good morning!

usagov:

From America’s Great Outdoors:

Arches National Park in Utah preserves over 2,000 natural sandstone arches, like the world-famous Delicate Arch, as well as many other unusual rock formations. In some areas, the forces of nature have exposed millions of years of geologic history. The extraordinary features of the park create a landscape of contrasting colors, landforms and textures that is unlike any other in the world. 

Photo: Jim Karczewski - National Park Service

Utaaaaaahhhh!

Contemporary Geoglyphs by Jocelyn Duke

jstn:

The blog of Donald Pettit, currently aboard the ISS:

You notice patterns: clouds over cold oceans look different than clouds over warm oceans. Sometimes the continents are all cloud-covered, so you have no recognizable landmass to help you gauge where you are. If you see a crisscross of jet contrails glistening in the sun above the clouds, you know you are over the United States.

Lightning storms flash like gigantic fireflies looking for mates half a continent away. You see patterns on the ocean surface, swirls and vortices on large scales, wave diffraction patterns around capes, solitary waves forming long lines out in the middle of nowhere, and rivers that look like they are spilling milk chocolate into turquoise oceans.

globalspin:

Planet of Aurora by Göran Strand

The promised aurora came at last. Me and a friend went out to capture the beauty, and what a show it was. I made two panoramas of my friend while he was taking pictures.

Behold our planet.

kateoplis:

Lake Powell

Most conflicting lake of my life. The Glen Canyon Dam is an atrocity, but Lake Powell is heaven. Sea kayaking there in college is a wonderful memory. I want to go back.

In the garden.

dbreunig:

Noah Shachtman brings us this amazing picture:

That teeny-weeny, toy-looking thing to the left? An 18-wheeler truck. The giant egg to the right? The biggest spy drone anyone has ever made…

By the middle of next year, the Air Force hopes, the airship will be hovering in the skies over Afghanistan, where it will use a supercomputer and a pile of surveillance gear to look down on the battlefield — 36 square miles at a time.

(Via Danger Room)

kateoplis:

Nikon Small World Photomicrography: sand by Yanping Wang