25 awe-inspiring photos of geometric shapes found in nature

Sarah SchmalbruchMay 9, 2020, 23:17 IST

The garden displays millions of flowers every year.Yves Herman/Reuters

Nature is home to perfectly formed shapes and vibrant colors.
When seen up close, snowflakes have incredibly perfect geometric shapes.
Circles are found in tree stumps and oceans, while straight lines are seen on beaches and fields.
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Nature truly is home to optical illusions, landmarks, and much more.

Sometimes, you'll even find shapes hidden in nature — a rainbow that's a perfect semi-circle or hexagonal honeycombs.

We rounded up photos of both natural and man-made shapes that can be found in the outside world.

Some of them are more perfect than others, but there's no denying that these images are all breathtaking.

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These dried up blocks used to be part of a pond.

Sand dunes. CHINA OUT/Reuters

The red sand dunes of Namibia create some beautiful shapes.

Desert dunes. Shutterstock.com

Ripples created by wind create even more patterns.

These round shapes are created by the sea ice that forms over the Arctic Ocean.

The Arctic ice is thinning. Kathryn Hansen/NASA/Reuters

The photo above shows two members of the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy retrieving supplies that had been dropped by parachutes in the summer of 2011.

These rectangular plots make up the Fresno-Clovis Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility in Fresno, California.

Fresno-Clovis Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility. Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

This photo was taken in 2015.

These daffodils almost fit into each other.

Daffodils. Toby Melville/Reuters

The flowers were seen at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London.

A rare, perfectly round "supermoon" occurred in September of 2015.

The shadow of the Earth cast a reddish glow on the moon. Matt Cardy/Getty Images

The supermoon was a result of a lunar eclipse that coincided with the closest full moon to Earth.

This geometric tourist attraction spans over 300 acres and is located in a small village in China.

The attraction is located in Zunyi in China's Guizhou Province. VCG/Getty Images

Locals built the attraction themselves with sorghum, as well as peach and plum trees, in less than eight months.

The design is known as a giant bagua — a diagram with eight sides that symbolizes an ancient Chinese energy map.

Locals built the attraction themselves with sorghum, as well as peach and plum trees, in less than eight months.

The design is known as a giant bagua — a diagram with eight sides that symbolizes an ancient Chinese energy map.

The Colle des Mees is France's largest solar farm. The farm is home to 112,780 solar modules, spread out over almost 500 acres.

The farm is located in Les Mees in Southern France. Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters

The solar panels produce renewable energy and represent 100 MW of power.

Keukenhof Park is located in Lisse in the Netherlands and is considered to be the largest flower garden in the world. Its clean borders and vibrant colors are striking.

The garden displays millions of flowers every year. Yves Herman/Reuters

Keukenhof employs some 30 gardeners. This year, you can tour it virtually.

When the sun and moon aligned over Earth in May 2012, the sun turned into this ring for a short period of time.

The solar eclipse as seen from Hirai Daini Elementary School in Tokyo, Japan. Issei Kato/Reuters

The solar eclipse dimmed skies over parts of North America and Asia.

The orderly rows in this photo are bales of hay, formed thanks to the tractor.

A field in France. Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

This photo was taken in Coquelles, near the city of Calais in Northern France.

These spheres aren't UFOs — they're actually clouds.

Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. Michael Dorogovich/Shutterstock

The clouds pictured above are called lenticular clouds. When the temperature drops low enough, these stationary clouds often form on the downside of a mountain range.

Boat trails can look like art from above.

Boats in the ocean. Ivan Brcic/iStock

Two boats make circles in the ocean near Croatia.

Stick-straight lines cross through snow-blanketed fields in Mühlethurnen, near Bern, Switzerland.

That looks like one cold horse ride. Michael Buholzer/Reuters

It looks like a beautifully crisp, cold day.

This undated NASA photo shows the moon as well as the borders of the troposphere, the tropopause, and Earth's atmosphere.

The photograph was taken by the Expedition 28 crew aboard the International Space Station. NASA/Reuters

The troposphere is the orange portion in this photo. It's the lowest and most dense portion of the Earth's atmosphere. The troposphere ends abruptly at the tropopause, which appears in the photo as the sharp boundary between the orange and blue colored atmosphere.

This palm oil plantation in Indonesia's South Sumatra province looks like four perfect triangles from above.

This photo was taken in 2010. Beawiharta/Reuters

Indonesia is the world's top producer of palm oil.

These long rectangular strips form a vegetable field in Thailand's Pathum Thani province.

Farmers work in the field. Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters

This photo was taken in October of 2011, after a massive flood covered a third of the country.

When viewed on a calm day, when the water below is still, it looks as if the Rakotzbrücke creates a perfect circle, thanks to its reflection.

The bridge stretches across the Rakotzsee in Gablenz, Germany. Lukasz Stefansk/Shutterstock

Built in the second half of the 19th century, the stunning Rakotzbrücke gets its second name from an old legend claiming that dangerous bridges such as this one were built by the devil.

When seen up close, snowflakes have incredibly perfect geometric shapes.

A snowflake. Mike Segar/Reuters

Snowflakes seen up close are truly incredible.

Trees have perfectly round rings.

Tree rings. Igor Cheri/Shutterstock

Dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, is a scientific method that uses these rings to determine how old a tree is.

This photo shows a close-up of a cut ash tree.

Dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, is a scientific method that uses these rings to determine how old a tree is.

This photo shows a close-up of a cut ash tree.

This amazing double rainbow appeared after heavy monsoon storms.

Nipton Road in Searchlight, Nevada. Gene Blevins/Reuters

It was seen in Nevada in 2012.

It's crazy to think that this intricate web — which is both full of shapes and a shape itself — was made by a spider.

A stunning spider web in Kosovo. Hazir Reka/Reuters

This web was found in Acareva, a village in Kosovo.

This is an example of "Tessellated Pavement" in Tasmania, Australia.

"Tessellated Pavement" in Tasmania, Australia. Wikimedia/JJ Harrison

"Tessellated Pavement" occurs naturally, when erosion causes flat rock surfaces to form almost perfect rectangles.

Tessellated Pavement occurs naturally, when erosion causes flat rock surfaces to form almost perfect rectangles.

These tear-drop-shaped leaves come from an aloe vera plant.

An aloe plant. Sabine Hortebusch/Shutterstock

Aloe vera can be used to help with a number of ailments, including sunburn.

These honeycombs near Colmar, France, are perfectly hexagonal, but it's the shades of the honey in them that mystified bee keepers.

The unnatural shades were affecting bee clusters throughout the Alsace region in 2012. Vincent Kessler/Reuters

Bee keepers in Northeastern France were alarmed when bees started producing honey in shades of blue and green. They eventually attributed the odd-colored honey to residue from containers of M&M candy, which is processed at a biogas plant near the hives.

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