At 10,582 square kilometres, the Bolivian salt flats – otherwise known as Salar de Uyuni – are the largest on the planet and contain between 50 and 70% of the world’s lithium reserves. After exploring Chile and Argentina, photographer Joel Santos decided to travel to Bolivia in January 2017 to check the salt flats off his bucket list. With an electrical storm rolling in, Joel and his two travelling companions were the only souls left on the vast flats and captured the eerie flats without a person in sight. (Photo by Joel Santos/Barcroft Images)

A destroyed tank sits by the side of a road leading to Abi Adi, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, on Tuesday, May 11, 2021. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front was on top of a coalition that ruled Ethiopia for nearly three decades. That changed in 2018, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed rose to power as a reformist. Abiy alienated the TPLF with efforts to make peace with its archenemy, Eritrea, and rid the federal government of corruption. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

English actress and model Gemma Chan attends the “Eternals” red carpet during the 16th Rome Film Fest 2021 on October 24, 2021 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Massimo Valicchia/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

General view of the atmosphere at the Halloween celebrating in city centre on October 29, 2021 in Newcastle, United Kingdom. (Photo by Newcastle New Projects)

Party-loving Brits headed out to enjoy the first weekend of indoor drinking in months; many – like these lasses in Liverpool on May 22, 2021 – were keen to make up for lost time. (Photo by London News Pictures)

Photographers wear clothing with cooling fans and staff members wear cloths that protects them from the sun as they prepare for fashion photo session on a street, amid a heatwave warning in Shanghai, China on July 25, 2022. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

This is the incredible moment a fierce lightning bolt crashed against the Grand Canyon illuminating the steep canyon walls. Shrouded in darkness, the breath-taking landscape was shocked into life as mother nature sent the bolt storming down to Earth. As it cracked against the rocks the bright blue bolt illuminated the South Rim of the canyon, considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. With just the Desert View Watchtower in the foreground, the lightning was perfectly framed by the canyon which is located in Arizona, USA. (Photo by Travis Roe/U.S. Dept. of the Interior/Caters News)

Some of the best entries so far in the 2016 Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. There are two weeks left to enter, and the winners will be announced in September. Here: Aurora over Laksvatn Fjord, Laksvatn, Norway. The aurora borealis dances in the skies over the town of Laksvatn, with the Milky Way to the left. The image is a single shot with no compositing, only post-processing to bring out the aurora, and some colour corrections. The photographer Matt Walford said: “I love the way the northern lights look like they are just wistfully dancing over the fjord, framed by the mountains on either side”. (Photo by Matt Walford/National Maritime Museum)