2025s best photos of the natural world, from volcan...

What’s Happening

Let’s talk about A village buried by a landslide, the world’s largest tidal bore and the aftermath of ferocious storms and wildfires appear in our pick of images from environment stories this year Environment 2025’s best photos of the natural world, from volcanoes to icebergs A village buried by a landslide, the world’s largest tidal bore and the aftermath of ferocious storms and wildfires appear in our pick of images from environment stories this year By Alec Luhn 26 December 2025 Facebook / Meta Twitter / X icon Linkedin Reddit Email Mount Etna erupting European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery Mount Etna in Sicily is the world’s most active stratovolcano, which is a high, conical volcano created of viscous lava.

In February, it erupted with ash clouds and a lava flow that travelled 3 kilometres, forcing a local airport to partially close. One of the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites captured this image of the lava flow on 12 February. (and honestly, same)

Melting ice reveals millennia-old forest buried in the Rocky mountains An iceberg in Innaarsuit, Greenland Dennis Lehtonen / SWNS A giant iceberg drifted into the harbour in Innaarsuit in western Greenland in July, looming over the village of 180 for more than a week.

The Details

Authorities warned people to stay away in case it collapsed and crushed something or generated a destructive wave. This is the second time in less than a decade that a massive iceberg has threatened the town.

As Greenland melts, more icebergs are calving off its glaciers. Hurricane Melissa destroyed buildings in Jamaica RICARDO MAKYN/AFP via Hurricane Melissa tied with the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane as the strongest storm to ever make landfall around the Atlantic Ocean.

Why This Matters

On 28 October, it pummelled Jamaica with winds of nearly 300 kilometres per hour and 76 centimetres of rain, destroying structures including these buildings in Black River. Early analysis suggested climate change intensified Melissa’s winds by about 16 kilometres per hour. This year saw three category 5 hurricanes for only the second time on record.

The scientific community tends to find developments like this significant.

The Bottom Line

This year saw three category 5 hurricanes for only the second time on record. Free to The Earth Edition Unmissable news about our planet, delivered straight to your inbox each month.

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