Frozen methane bubbles, Canada

They look otherworldly, like flying saucers that dropped into the water and froze, or ancient, ice-encapsulated jellyfish.

In fact, these icy circles are frozen methane bubbles – pockets of gas that, when trapped underwater and frozen, form a spectacular landscape.

Blood Falls, Antarctica

The name says it all. Blood Falls, in East Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys, looks like slowly pouring scarlet-red blood, staining snowy white Taylor Glacier and Lake Bonney below. It’s a surprising – and creepy – sight to behold.

Sailing Stones, USA

When visitors stumbled upon scores of heavy stones that appeared to have moved across the dried lake bed of Racetrack Playa in California’s Death Valley National Park, leaving a tell-tale trail in their wake, scientists were baffled.

Kawah Ijen Lake, Indonesia

Travellers flock to the Indonesian island of Java to see the magnificent Kawah Ijen volcano – but what they don’t expect to find is the stunning turquoise-hued caldera lake at the volcano’s summit.

Hidden Beach, Mexico

It’s a vacationer’s dream: a secret beach tucked away from the masses, with shade, sun, and pristine water. This dream comes true at Playa Del Amor, more commonly known as Hidden Beach, on one of the Marieta Islands off the coast of Mexico.

Pink Lake Hillier, Australia

Fly over Western Australia for a rare visual treat: nestled among dense emerald-green woodlands surrounded by the deep blue of the Southern Ocean are a series of lakes in a shocking shade of bubblegum pink.

Fairy Circles, Namibia

Across the arid grasslands of the Namib Desert lies an eerie sight: millions of circular patches of land void of plants, each between 2m and 15m in diameter, arranged in a honeycomb-like pattern across 2,500km of land.

Crater of Fire, Turkmenistan

A fiery hole in the ground might sound like something out of Lord Of The Rings, but we assure you it’s real and has been burning in Turkmenistan since 1971.

NORTHERN LIGHTS, ARCTIC CIRCLE

These dancing celestial hues have been both feared and revered throughout history. Today, although we know their cause – charged particles ejected from the sun reacting with the earth’s atmosphere – they are no less awe-inspiring

BIOLUMINESCENCE, MOSQUITO BAY, PUERTO RICO

This phenomenon can be seen regularly in only six places around the world. The most spectacular is Mosquito Bay, on Puerto Rico’s Vieques Island, which holds a Guinness World Record for the brightest ever.