If these frozen formations were named by more literal minds, we might know them as simply "reverse icicles." But the Andes, including this mountain pass rising above Chile"s Atacama Desert, were mapped by poetically inclined Spanish explorers. They likened formations like these to a congregation of penitent parishioners kneeling at mass: hence the common name "penitentes" for such packed-snow pinnacles.
A throng of ice and spires
Today in History
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Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch on the institution s 175th anniversary
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American bison
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Terraced fields of green
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Staircase of turquoise pools
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It’s Giving Tuesday
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Every day is Napping Day for this screech owl
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World Art Day
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Happy Mother s Day!
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Racers pushing past sunflowers in the 2018 Tour de France
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Birds of a feather
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Russell lupines, Lake Tekapo, New Zealand
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Navajo Bridge in Marble Canyon
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Agüero, Huesca province, Spain
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Nubble Island’s only industry
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Humpbacks return to the Inside Passage
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Long-eared owl in the Czech Republic
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Zion National Park turns 103
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Reflections of the night sky
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Veterans Day
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1.1 billion opportunities for a better world
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Moselle River loop near Kröv, Germany
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Love on ice
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Venice Skatepark, Los Angeles, California
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50 years of Earth Day
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Astronomy Day
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Penguin Awareness Day
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Flying high on National Bird Day
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Harvest season begins
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Celebrating Madagascar on its Independence Day
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Innerdalsvatna Lake, near Ålvundeidet, Norway