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)

A train drives along a field at a salt production site at the Sasyk-Sivash lake near the city of Yevpatoria, Crimea, November 14, 2017. A saltwater lagoon known as Lake Sasyk-Sivash on Ukraine's Crimea peninsula is the source of a rare resource: pink salt. The mineral is tinted by tiny algae that produce the pigment beta-carotene. Each autumn, seasonal workers collect thousands of tons of pink salt for processing and export. (Photo by Pavel Rebrov/Reuters)

An instructor guides a student from the General Yermolov Cadet School as she aims with a gun during a field exercise outside the south Russian city of Stavropol January 24, 2015. The General Yermolov Cadet School in Stavropol is a state-run institution that teaches military and patriotic classes in addition to a normal syllabus. (Photo by Eduard Korniyenko/Reuters)

A view of the Hazelwood Power Station across the cooling pondage at sunrise on March 21, 2012 in Melbourne, Australia. The brown coal fueled power station, located in Latrobe Valley is the oldest in Victoria and provides the state nearly 25% of its energy. In 2005 Hazelwood was labeled Australia's least carbon efficient power station by WWF Australia and continues to be a target of issue of environmentalist groups. (Photo by Hamish Blair/Getty Images)

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 villager pours brine into troughs at ancient salt fields on May 5, 2005 in Yantian Village on Hainan Island, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

Demonstrators are seen running for shelter from a protest against plans for new austerity measures October 19, 2011 in Athens, Greece. Greece's largest labor unions have called for a 48-hour strike, while the Socialist government is beginning to push through legislation for cost cutting reforms. (Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)