The photograph you see above isn’t the result of Photoshop or infrared photography. Captured by Spanish photographer Palíndromo Mészáros, it shows what the landscape of Ajka, Hungary looked like half a year after the Ajka alumina plant accident — an industrial disaster in which 35 million cubic feet of toxic waste flooded the land to a height of around 6.5 feet. Mészáros lined up the thick red line caused by the sludge with the horizon line to obtain this surreal image.

A stray puppy walks along abandoned train tracks near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on August 19, 2017 near Chornobyl, Ukraine. An estimated 900 stray dogs live in the exclusion zone, many of them likely the descendants of dogs left behind following the mass evacuation of residents in the aftermath of the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Indonesian women sit on a hill as the Suralaya coal power plant looms in the background in Cilegon, Indonesia, on January 8, 2023. A plan for how Indonesia will spend $20 billion to transition to cleaner energy was submitted Wednesday, Aug. 16, to the government and its financing partners, the planners said. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)

A fuzzy caterpillar on a basil plant in west Bengal, India on December 25, 2023. The caterpillar’s defence system is its hair, which has microscopic barbs that break off easily in the skin of would-be predators. (Photo by Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Vehicles clog a highway during a hazy day in Beijing, China, Wednesday, February 26, 2014. Beijing remained cloaked in hazardous white pollution hiding much of its skyline Wednesday, despite the announced closures or production cuts at 147 of the city's industrial plants. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

Salt-resistant plants grow in sand made up of small fish bones on the shore of the Salton Sea before sunrise in an area where a controversial development would create a new town for nearly 40,000 people on the northwest shore of the biggest lake in California, the Salton Sea, on March 21, 2012 south of Mecca, California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Farmers take a break for lunch while celebrating National Paddy Day, also called Asar Pandra, that marks the commencement of rice crop planting in paddy fields as monsoon season arrives, in Kathmandu, Nepal, June 29, 2020. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Farmers dry red peppers in Gaotai County, Zhangye City, Gansu Province, China, September 13, 2023. It is reported that Gaotai County pepper planting has a history of 300 years. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)