Atlantic Gallery

Earths volcanoes and earthquakes

Earth's volcanoes and earthquakes. Map of the Earth, centred on the American continents, showing the location of earthquakes (yellow dots) and volcanoes (red triangles). These are concentrated along the boundaries (red lines) of the tectonic plates that make up the Earth's crust. These tectonic plates move over the molten rock below them, colliding with and moving past, under and over each other. Immense pressures can build up, which are released during an earthquake. Where a plate is being destroyed under another one (seen around the Pacific Ocean), volcanoes form as the molten rock rises to the surface. Volcanoes can also form at isolated hotspots, such as Hawaii

© GARY HINCKS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Earth from space, satellite image

Earth from space. Satellite image showing North and South America as seen from 35, 000 kilometres above the Earth's surface. North is at top and the Moon is at upper right. Clouds (white) are seen, as are seas and oceans (blue). Land cover ranges from vegetation such as forests and grassy plains (green) to arid areas such as deserts, mountains, and scrublands (brown). This image combines data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite and NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)

© NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER (NASA-GSFC)/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) two breaching in evening light, Moray Firth

Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) two breaching in evening light, Moray Firth, Inverness-shire, Scotland, UK, August, sequence 2/2. Photographer quote: A day of overcast cloud cleared in the last ten minutes of sunset spilling golden light through a small gap between the cloud base and hill top. A group of dolphins seized the moment and performed a perfect synchronized leap in the low warm sunlight. And I smiled, sighed with relief, and went home happy! Did you know? The bottle nose dolphins in the Moray Firth are said to be worth more than £4m to the Inverness economy through tourism revenue