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2020 in review: Nature's scary beautiful wonders

Nature's wonders, from storms that raze homes to the striking aurora borealis

Last updated: December 24, 2020 | 14:10

Reuters and Compiled by Christian Borbon, Senior Web Editor

2 MIN READ

1/20

Locals harvest their potatoes as Mount Sinabung spews volcanic ash in Karo, North Sumatra province, Indonesia.

2/20

Lightning strikes are seen above the skyline of Shanghai's financial district of Pudong, China.

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A woman from the Turkana tribe walks through a swarm of desert locusts at the village of Lorengippi near the town of Lodwar, Turkana county, Kenya.

4/20

Embers are seen from a burning tree during the Glass Fire in St. Helena, California.

5/20

Large waves hit the harbor wall at Newhaven, southern Britain.

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A woman takes a selfie as her friend adjusts her makeup in a pink muhly grass field at a park in Hanam, South Korea.

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Nancy Allen and Brian Allen stand outside their house as high winds push smoke and ash from the Currowan Fire towards Nowra, New South Wales, Australia.

8/20

The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) is seen over the sky near Rovaniemi in Lapland, Finland.

9/20

The Comet C/2020 or "Neowise" is seen in the sky behind St Mark's Tower, a 17th-century coastal fortification near the village of Bahar ic-Caghaq, Malta

10/20

The bulk carrier ship MV Wakashio rests on a reef after it ran aground at Riviere des Creoles, Mauritius.

11/20

A field of flowers is seen during the annual blossom in Castelluccio, Italy

12/20

A man walks on a road blanketed with volcanic ash from the erupting Taal Volcano in Tagaytay, Philippines.

13/20

Environmental activist and campaigner Mya-Rose Craig, 18, holds a cardboard sign reading "Youth strike for climate" as she sits on an ice floe in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, hundreds of miles above the Arctic Circle.

14/20

Trees are illuminated by a burning fire below during the CZU Lightning Complex Fire in Boulder Creek, California.

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A fallen tree lies in an area of the Amazon jungle that was cleared by loggers and farmers near Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil.

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A tanker drops fire retardant as the Bobcat Fire burns near Juniper Hills, California.

17/20

A farmer burns a sugar cane field at night as local growers try to avoid arrest by authorities, who banned the practice to curb smog, in Suphan Buri province, north of Bangkok, Thailand.

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Bioluminescent algae glows in the crashing waves as a lifeguard tower sits on an empty beach during the outbreak of the coronavirus in Encinitas, California.

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Residents are silhouetted as they watch the Blue Ridge Fire burning in Yorba Linda, California.

20/20

A woman takes a selfie at a salt production site on the bed of a drained area of the Sasyk-Sivash lake near the city of Yevpatoria, Crimea.

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