Two blue whales, a mother and her calf, swim through the open ocean in this aerial photograph. The calf is blowing (spouting, exhaling) with a powerful column of spray. The blue whale is the largest animal ever to live on Earth.
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Location: San Diego, California
Image ID: 02304
A great white shark opens it mouth just before it attacks its prey with a crippling, powerful bite. After the prey has been disabled, the shark will often wait for it to weaken from blood loss before resuming the attack. If the shark looses a tooth in the course of the bite, a replacement just behind it will move forward to take its place.
Species: Great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias
Location: Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico
Image ID: 19452
2006 Mavericks surf contest champion Grant Twiggy Baker of South Africa. Final round, Mavericks surf contest, February 7, 2006.
Location: Mavericks, Half Moon Bay, California
Image ID: 15299
Surf grass on the rocky reef -- appearing blurred in this time exposure -- is tossed back and forth by powerful ocean waves passing by above. San Clemente Island.
Species: Surfgrass, Phyllospadix
Location: San Clemente Island, California
Image ID: 10237
Carlsbad Coast Highway Sunset, from Terramar and North Ponto to Oceanside and Camp Pendleton. The smoke stack that marked the old Encina Power Plant was removed in 2021. Oceanside Pier is seen beautifully lit in the distance. Rising in the distance is San Onofre Mountain (1722') topped by a tall signal tower, one of the southern peaks in the Santa Ana Mountains.
Location: Carlsbad, California
Image ID: 37479
Carlsbad Coast at Sunset, Terramar and the Oceanside Pier, with Camp Pendleton and the San Onofre power plant in the distance on this incredibly clean and crisp evening view. Rising in the distance is San Onofre Mountain (1722') topped by a tall signal tower, one of the southern peaks in the Santa Ana Mountains.
Location: Carlsbad, California
Image ID: 37482
Panorama dimensions: 1106 x 3500
The bisons massive head is its most characteristic feature. Its forehead bulges because of its convex-shaped frontal bone. Its shoulder hump, dwindling bowlike to the haunches, is supported by unusually long spinal vertebrae. Over powerful neck and shoulder muscles grows a great shaggy coat of curly brown fur, and over the head, like an immense hood, grows a shock of black hair. Its forequarters are higher and much heavier than its haunches. A mature bull stands about 6 1/2 feet (2 meters) at the shoulder and weighs more than 2,000 pounds (900 kilograms). The bisons horns are short and black. In the male they are thick at the base and taper abruptly to sharp points as they curve outward and upward; the females horns are more slender.
Species: American bison, Bison bison
Location: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Image ID: 13120
Blue whale and San Onofre Nuclear Power generating station, raising fluke prior to diving for food, fluking up, lifting its tail as it swims in the open ocean foraging for food.
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Location: Dana Point, California
Image ID: 27337
Ocotillo Wind Energy Turbines, at night with stars and the Milky Way in the sky above, the moving turbine blades illuminated by a small flashlight.
Location: Ocotillo, California
Image ID: 30239