These spectacular landscapes may look like something from another planet – but they are in fact colorful salt ponds which stretch for miles. Despite being better known for tech companies and expensive property – San Francisco, California is also home to this vibrant quilt of color spanning the South Bay Area. From eerie green pools to gothic shades of red the surreal landscapes are caused by the organisms or micro-algae living within them. Photo: Aerial view of the salt ponds in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Cris Benton/Caters News)

In this Monday, July 20, 2015 photo, Bill Lattin, the Southern California Timing Association president and Speed Week race director, stands in the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. A small city of tents, trailers and thousands of visitors appears almost every August in the Utah desert to watch cars, motorcycles and anything with wheels rocket across gleaming white sheets of salt at speeds of 400 mph. But wet weather has forced the cancellation of Speed Week for the second straight year and revived a debate about whether nearby mining is depleting the Bonneville Salt Flats of their precious resource. (Photo by Rick Bowmer/AP Photo)

A farmer harvests rice on a field in Lalitpur, Nepal, on October 30, 2014. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Renaud Lavillenie of France in action while competing in the Mens Pole Vault during the Air Show “Berlin fliegt!” at Brandenburger Tor on August 12, 2011 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Joern Pollex/Bongarts/Getty Images)

A gaggle of geese graze in a field at Holly Tree Farm in the Cheshire countryside as they are fattened up for Christmas on November 10, 2011 in Knutsford, England. Roasted goose is gaining in popularity as an alternative to turkey during the Christmas meal of the festive period. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Inside the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia’s Danakil desert, camel caravans are used to carry salt. For centuries, the essential mineral has been mined by the Afar people, known for their ability to withstand extremes. The terrain is rugged, travelers are scarce and so are motor vehicles, where the average annual temperature is the highest in the world, and can rise to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, 50 degrees Celsius. (Photo by Ziv Koren/Polaris)