New Scientist has compiled a striking collection of images capturing key environmental events of 2025, from volcanic eruptions to glacial collapses. These photos highlight the year's dramatic natural phenomena, underscoring the impacts of climate change. The selection features scenes from Sicily to Greenland, illustrating both destructive forces and natural wonders.
In its review of 2025's environmental stories, New Scientist showcases photographs that document a year marked by extreme weather and geological activity. One image from February captures Mount Etna's eruption in Sicily, the world's most active stratovolcano. Ash clouds rose alongside a lava flow extending 3 kilometres, leading to a partial closure of a nearby airport. The European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite recorded the scene on 12 February.
A dramatic photo from July depicts a massive iceberg in Innaarsuit, western Greenland, towering over the village of 180 residents for more than a week. Authorities urged caution due to risks of collapse or tsunamis, marking the second such incident in under a decade amid accelerating glacial melt.
Hurricane Melissa's devastation in Jamaica on 28 October is another highlight. With winds nearing 300 kilometres per hour and 76 centimetres of rain, the storm—tied for the strongest Atlantic landfall ever—destroyed buildings in Black River. Early studies attribute a 16 kilometre-per-hour wind boost to climate change, part of a record-tying year with three category 5 hurricanes.
The collection also includes the Qiantang River's tidal bore in China, observed in Jiaxing in October. Known as the 'silver dragon,' this wave reaches 9 metres high and travels at 40 kilometres per hour, drawing spectators and surfers.
A tragic landslide on 29 May buried much of the 800-year-old Swiss village of Blatten when 9 million tonnes of rock collapsed the Birch glacier, equivalent to a magnitude 3.1 earthquake. The area was evacuated, resulting in one fatality, with scientists linking the event to permafrost thaw. At current emission rates, 90 per cent of Alpine glaciers may vanish by 2100.
January's wildfires in northern Los Angeles razed neighbourhoods like Pacific Palisades, killing 31 people, destroying 16,000 structures, and causing damages in the hundreds of billions of dollars—potentially the costliest US disaster. Factors include extended fire seasons from global warming and policies encouraging development near wildlands.
