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Photograph by Brian Skerry
From "Seamounts," National Geographic, September 2012A diver explores a shallow, coral-encrusted seamount slope near Raja Ampat, Indonesia; the remotely operated vehicle can descend to survey deeper reaches.
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Photograph by Anup Shah, Nature Picture Library
From "Visions of Earth," National Geographic, September 2012Indonesia—Empty-handed after a trip to a feeding area, Doyok the orangutan hangs out in Borneo's Tanjung Puting National Park. The rehabilitated primate was released into the wild some 20 years ago but occasionally returns for a bit of banana and milk.
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Photograph by Robert Clark
From "Roman Walls," National Geographic, September 2012HADRIAN’S WALL, ENGLAND
Barbarians would have stared up at this section, which runs along a cliff near the northern town of Once Brewed. In its heyday, the wall was 14 feet high and stretched 73 miles, from coast to coast. A deep ditch reinforced parts of it. Today a walking trail runs alongside it. -
Photograph by Robb Kendrick
From "West Texas Drought," National Geographic, September 2012PEP
Gusting winds fling dirt from barren cotton fields onto Farm to Market Road 303, near a small community called Pep. Parts of West Texas saw next to no rainfall in 2011. -
Photograph by Brian Skerry
From "Seamounts," National Geographic, September 2012An abandoned trawl net blankets part of the El Bajo Seamount in Mexico’s Gulf of California, destroying corals. Overfishing has depleted the once vibrant ecosystem here and at seamounts worldwide.
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Photograph by Stephanie Sinclair
From "Yemen," National Geographic, September 2012Lights atop the 300-foot minarets at four-year-old al Saleh Mosque glow during a storm in Sanaa. The $60 million house of worship is Yemen’s largest and most extravagant, named for Ali Abdullah Saleh, who stepped down in February after 33 years as president. It opened with claims of promoting moderate Islam. But militant groups have only gained strength.
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Photograph by Blerta Zabërgja
From "Top Shots," National Geographic, September 2012Zabërgja was 22 when she watched this sunset from a rooftop. "I was feeling like Alice in Wonderland, all grown up and facing the chaos of the real world!" says the painter and photographer, now 28. "I love heights and took this self-portrait to capture the feeling it gives me."
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Photograph by Jeff Berkes
From "Top Shots," National Geographic, September 2012Storm chaser Berkes, 32, spent 36 hours in below-zero windchills and up to 70-mph gusts to make this self-portrait in Barnegat Light, New Jersey. "Every storm, big or small, summer or winter, draws me to it. I picked this location because it was where the worst weather was expected," he says.
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Photograph by Brian Skerry
From "Seamounts," National Geographic, September 2012An expanse of cabbage coral attached to the slope of a seamount near Raja Ampat provides shelter for crabs, shrimps, and other animals. Passing schools of fish may feed on these invertebrates as well as on plankton brought up by strong currents.
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Photograph by Robert Clark
From "Roman Walls," National Geographic, September 2012QASR BSHIR, JORDAN
Built around A.D. 300, this cavalry outpost on the edge of the desert is one of the world’s best preserved Roman forts. With between 70 and 160 horsemen, the fort kept Arab nomads from attacking caravans carrying frankincense and myrrh. -
Photograph by Stephanie Sinclair
From "Yemen," National Geographic, September 2012Generators keep the lights blazing at a wedding in Sanaa’s Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage site, where power cuts are frequent.
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Photograph by Robert Clark
From "Roman Walls," National Geographic, September 2012AMMAN, JORDAN
Imposing architecture and art followed Roman armies to the farthest flung corners of the empire. The curled fingers were part of a statue that may have stood over 40 feet tall at the Temple of Hercules, in Amman, Jordan, around A.D. 160. Romans knew the city as Philadelphia. -
Photograph by Brian Skerry
From "Seamounts," National Geographic, September 2012An orange sheephead, slender wrasses, and other fish swim through a forest of coralline algae and kelp stalks swaying in the current around Cortes Bank. "The communities you find on seamounts are like oases in otherwise deep water," says Bruce Robison, senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California.
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Photograph by Brian Skerry
From "Seamounts," National Geographic, September 2012A harbor seal peers from a kelp forest on Cortes Bank, a series of undersea peaks and plateaus off the coast of San Diego. This shallow, light-filled summit supports a wide variety of animals and plants.
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Photograph by Robb Kendrick
From "Extreme Weather," National Geographic, September 2012TEXAS
Tumbleweeds catch in the furrows of an unplanted cotton field near Brownfield, southwest of Lubbock. High winds and a record-breaking heat wave led to damaging erosion, says Buzz Cooper, who runs a cotton gin nearby. “It was just like a hot fan in an oven," he says. -
Photograph by Robb Kendrick
From "West Texas Drought," National Geographic, September 2012SAN ANGELO
Well drillers Clark Abel (top) and his son, Justin, install the head of a windmill that will pump water from a new and deeper well. Drought is good for their business—but in the long run could drive people away from West Texas. -
Photograph by Ray Yeager
From "Top Shots," National Geographic, September 2012After searching the bird feeders in Yeager's yard, this squirrel stopped on the back deck to pick up fallen seeds. "It seemed to be using its tail as an umbrella, as a shield from the falling snow," says Yeager, 62. "After several minutes the snow began to build up on its tail, but the little guy kept eating."
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Photograph by Brian Skerry
From "Seamounts," National Geographic, September 2012Dusk falls as the DeepSee returns to the surface and to its support ship, the Argo, at the end of a day of mapping and exploring Las Gemelas.
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