"I remember thinking at the time that this was like something from a movie set of a fictional distant planet," says Harvey Harrison, who shot this photo in California's Death Valley National Park.
Courtesy Harvey Harrison
Morocco —
Alex Ros thinks of southeastern Morocco between Tata and Tafraoute as one of Earth's hidden nooks: "As if the planet was a large living room, with furniture and areas that people regularly use, but far off in one of its corners, behind a large couch and side table with old coffee table books on it, underneath a rug that hasn't been moved for years, is a tiny pathway you had no idea was there."
Courtesy Alex Ros
North Carolina —
"A heavy snow after midnight turned our backyard into deep space, with trees," writes Brent Larson. He stepped outside as it was snowing in Charlotte, North Carolina, "and was amazed by the sharp, cold silence, like life had just hit the reset button. I was trying to capture that feeling, but captured a surreal scene instead."
Courtesy Brent Larson
Svalbard Islands, Norway —
Jutka T. Emoke Barabas says the pristine beauty of the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, in Norway, "captures my heart and soul every time I visit."
Courtesy Jutka T. Emoke Barabas
Svalbard Islands, Norway —
"It is such a great experience to see this frozen 'wonderland' of the glaciers, the snow covered ragged edged mountains, the blinding white or colorful icebergs which seem to have their very own life when a sun ray hits them," writes Jutka T. Emoke Barabas.
Courtesy Jutka T. Emoke Barabas
Namibia —
Sarah Reese snapped this shot of a stack of rocks while lying down in the salty dirt of the Etosha Pan, a flat saline desert in the middle of Namibia's Etosha National Park. "There are no other rocks near this small stack. It was really odd to see them in this otherwise empty space," she says. The rocks are a cairn, or a stack of stones used as a marker.
Courtesy Sarah Reese
Maui, Hawaii —
Kristi DeCourcy says the colors in the cinder cones of the Haleakala volcano remind her of images from Mars. She stood on the Kalahaku Overlook at Haleakala National Park in Maui to capture this image.
Courtesy Kristi DeCourcy
Atacama Desert, Chile —
The view of Chile's Atacama Desert at sunset reminded Tim Benson of Mars, "with the red coloring of the stone and the vast isolation and absence of life. Very moving, very serene, it felt as though we had departed the world."
Courtesy Tim Benson
Iceland —
"Just returned from Iceland where the terrain can be lush and green with hundreds of waterfalls or barren and desolate with steam and smoke coming out of the ground," writes Stacey Schwartz. "It made me think I had landed on Mars."
Courtesy Stacey Schwartz
Peru —
John Vogel was on a minibus traveling between the city of Arequipa and Colca Canyon in Peru when he saw this odd landscape. "Looking at the photo now, it almost looks like two photos combined into one photo. That's how great I find the contrast between the dark rocky foreground and the bright blue sky with the snow-capped volcano."
Courtesy John Vogel
Seabrook Island, South Carolina —
Carol Locey was walking along the desolate beach a few years ago on Seabrook Island when she came to a rippling, muddy part of the beach that reminded her of what she imagined the surface of the moon would look like.
Courtesy Carol Locey
Cape Town, South Africa —
Kevin Kasmai captured this shot while traveling south from Cape Town toward the Cape of Good Hope. "The images of the clouds rushing down Table Mountain on a windy day in Cape Town and the views overlooking the Cape of Good Hope towards the southern ocean were unlike any I had seen before," he says.
Courtesy Kevin Kasmai
Iceland —
Doug Simonton has captured various photographs of Iceland's unique landscape over the past two years. "It's hard not to see the ground boiling up steam and not think you're on another planet," he says.
Courtesy Doug Simonton
Iceland —
"Iceland is a place of severe contrast. You have glaciers sitting next to volcanic hot spots, and sometimes you might not even know it," says Simonton.
