80 beautiful photos from around the world for Earth Day

Some of the flora and fauna of Yemen's Socotra Archipelago look straight out of a surrealist painting. The islands house several species found nowhere else on Earth.

While China has gifted Giant Pandas to several zoos around the world, the best place to see them (and their tiny, fuzzy babies) is in the panda sanctuaries of Sichuan Province, where 30 percent of the world's pandas live.

The Belize barrier reef is the largest barrier reef in the northern hemisphere -- an important and sadly endangered marine environment.

Canaima National Park, located in Venezuela along the border of Guyana and Brazil, is home to the world's tallest waterfall, Angel Falls.

The Serengeti in Tanzania, one of the world's most iconic savannah habitats, witnesses the impressive annual migrations of vast herbivore herds, including zebras and wildebeest.

Angkor Wat temple

Durmitor National Park in Montenegro was formed by glacial activity. The park's Tara river canyon houses one of Europe's deepest gorges.

Bulgaria's Pirin National Park has some 70 glacial lakes within its boundaries -- remnants of the planet's last ice age.

Argentina's Los Glaciares National Park is home to the 99-mile-long Lake Agentino, where it's possible to see three glaciers birthing giant igloo icebergs into the cold waters.

The series of lakes, caves and waterfalls of Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia are nothing short of majestic.

A rainbow appears over the center of the Punchbowl Crater, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, HI,

The Colorado River has been slowly carving out the Grand Canyon for millions of years. It's Mother Nature at her most dramatic, with mile-deep chasms and sprawling mesas.

Sunrise at Taj Mahal on Jamuna river

The ancient beech forests of Germany represent one of Europe's purest beech stands, and walking through this temperate forest offers sense of deep serenity.

petra,jordan

Grotto Falls in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Blue skies over Stonehenge historic site

A bull elk bugles in Moraine Park in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Mushroom-shaped fairy chimneys line the landscape at Pasabag, in the historical Cappadocia region of Goreme, Turkey.

Natural attractions don't get much more bucket list-worthy than Australia's Great Barrier Reef -- a collection of some 3,000 smaller reefs that are home to thousands of species of fish and marine birds.

Cocos Island National Park, located off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, attracts divers from around the world with the opportunity to observe sharks, rays, tuna and dolphins.

Fraser Island off the southern coast of Australia is the world's largest sand island and home to half the world's freshwater dune lakes, found in its interior.

The pyramids of Egypt were already old when the first tourists from ancient Greece started showing up in Giza and wrote about their experiences. The pyramids' sheer scale has drawn visitors and inspired wonder for thousands of years.

Located in Central Java, Indonesia, the Borobudur Temple complex was built during the 8th and 9th centuries, and is today considered one of the world's most important Buddhist monuments.

The 19 islands that make up the Galápagos offer a living study in evolutionary processes and one of the best opportunities in the world for up-close wildlife viewing.

The dramatic landscape of Western Norway is dominated by some of the world's longest and deepest fjords -- both a UNESCO World heritage site and a popular cruising region.

At the edge of the Antrim plateau in Northern Ireland, some 40,000 black basalt columns jut out of the sea in a surreal formation known as Giant's Causeway.

Easter Island Statues

Set atop a rocky islet on the sandbanks between Normandy and Brittany is one of France's most romantic places, the fairytale-like Mont-Saint-Michel Benedictine abbey.

According to UNESCO, Great Smoky Mountains National Park has almost as many trees as all of Europe, representing 130 natural species. With 11 million visitors per year, it's the nation's most visited national park.

More than 1,600 karst islands and islets jut out of the waters of Halong Bay in Northern Vietnam, creating a setting as mystical as it is breathtaking.

Tucket amid the snow-capped peaks of China's Sichuan Province sits Huanglong valley and its series of strangely beautiful travertine lakes and waterfalls.

Whether you visit Iguazu National Park on the Argentinian side or Iguaçu National Park on the Brazilian side, the waterfall -- one of the world's largest -- is sure to impress.

The Ilulissat Icefjord, Denmark's only natural UNESCO World Heritage site, is where the active and fast-moving Sermeq Kujalleq glacier reaches the sea, making it an excellent place to see (and hear) an iceberg being calved.

Jeju Island, located off the southern coast of South Korea, was created by volcanic activity and remains the site of one of the world's most spectacular networks of lava tube caves.

The cliffs and rock formations found along the Dorset coastline in England tells a story of the Earth's geological history with its rich collection of fossil sites and geomorphologic features.

Clouds,sunshine and terraces

The jagged peaks, lush valleys, iridescent lakes, brilliant fall foliage and waterfalls of all shapes and sizes attract 1.5 million visitors to China's Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve each year, making it one of the country's most popular natural attractions.

Students of geology or anyone with a fascination with volcanoes should add the Volcanoes of Kamchatka to their bucket list. Located on the Kamchatka peninsula of Russia, the area is one of the most volcanically active regions in the world.

Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, towers 19,340 feet above the surrounding plains. The national park of the same name is also home to several endangered species.

Peru Machu Picchu

Located in southeastern Siberia, Lake Baikal is the world's oldest and deepest lake with about 20 percent of the planet's unfrozen freshwater. It's nicknamed the Galápagos of Russia for the staggering diversity of freshwater animals that live there.

When asked to name the world's most romantic destination, many a starry-eyed traveler will name Venice, with its gondola-filled lagoons and extraordinary architecture.

Lake Malawi National Park covers the southern expanse of the deep, giant Lake Malawi -- one of the country's top tourist attractions.

Laurisilva of Madeira, a largely virgin forest in Portugal, represents the largest surviving area of laurel forest in the world.

Each autumn, millions upon millions of monarch butterflies converge upon the area known as the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, in the mountains 62 miles northwest of Mexico City. No one is sure how they find their way back to the same site after an eight-month migration.

At 17,057 feet, Mount Kenya is Africa's second tallest peak. Expert mountaineers come to conquer its highest peaks, while trekkers often have Point Lenana -- the third highest of Mount Kenya's peaks -- on their bucket lists.

Iconic Mount Etna smolders above the island of Sicily -- a constant reminder of nature's more destructive forces.

The Namib Sand Sea, a series of coastal dunes on the coast of Namibia, is the only coastal desert in the world to experience fog, making the environment there extremely unique.

Brazil houses one of the world's largest freshwater wetlands -- an area known as the Pantanal -- and the Pantanal Conservation Area enjoys spectacular biodiversity.

The beehive-shaped cones and towers known as the Bungle Bungle Range sit within UNESCO-listed Purnululu National Park in Western Australia.

Chichen-Itza

Rwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda includes the continent's third highest peak, as well as some of its most spectacular alpine scenery, making it a favorite destination with hikers.

Sunset at Malacca Straits Mosque

Even if you haven't heard of Sagarmatha National Park, you've most certainly heard of its most famous peak, Mount Everest.

Salzburg, Austria.

The provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi make up the South China Karst region, a land of stone forests and limestone pillar-lined rivers.

The endangered tropical rain forests of Sumatra in Indonesia includes three national parks where the endemic Sumatran orangutan live.

temple

When you think of picture-perfect alpine scenery, you probably envision something pretty close to the Swiss Alps.

Kinderdijk early morning sun

Serious scuba divers know that the Philippines have some of the best sites along with the best prices. One of those sites, the Tubbataha Reefs, have an incredible density of marine life and serve as a nesting site for majestic sea turtles.

Taos Pueblo is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Tiwa-speaking Native American tribe of Puebloan people.

The mists from the jaw-dropping Victoria Falls can be seen from more than 12 miles away.

Ayutthaya

Germany's Wadden Sea is a flat, temperate coastal wetland that provides a variety of transitional habitats for a huge range of plants and animals. Some 12 million birds come here to breed or winter each year.

The 3,000 sandstone peaks and pillars of Wulingyuan Scenic Area in China's Hunan Province seem like something out of a fairy tale.

The warm-temperate ancient forests of Yakushima on Japan's Yaku Island are completely unique in the region.

Yellowstone National Park, the oldest and largest of the US's national parks, contains half of all known geothermal features in the world.

Yosemite National Park allows visitors to see a whole host of natural wonders in a single day, including Half Dome, El Capitan, Yosemite Falls and the Merced River.

Tanah Lot Temple.Bali Island. Indonesia.

Kenya's Lake Turkana sits within three national parks. It's Africa's saltiest lake and an excellent place to observe migrant birds, Nile crocodiles and hippopotamus.

Lijiang old town and Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in China

New Caledonia in the French Pacific Ocean has one of the planet's most extensive reef systems, some located in serene lagoons perfect for diving and snorkeling.

Canadian Parliament and Rideau Canal (XXXL)

Hanging Monastery, China

A great egret sits on top of a dead tree in Florida's Everglades National Park, near South Bay, Fla.