Rainbow Mountains, Zhangye Danxia National Geological Park, China

Cataclysmic colors

If you need proof that beauty can come from chaos, look no further than the Rainbow Mountains of Zhangye, China. When Insular India collided with the Eurasian tectonic plate 55 million years ago, the punishing force crumpled Earth's crust so drastically it formed not only the mighty Himalayas, but this watercolor landscape some 600 miles to the northeast. As tremendous tremors reconfigured vast swaths of flatland, once-smooth layer cakes of hardened silt and sand were thrust off kilter, creating the angular stripes we see today.