National Geographic’s Best Images of 2016

Lightning forks across the purple sky as hundreds of thousands of cranes roost in the shallows of the Platte River, Nebraska. (Randy Olson/National Geographic)

National Geographic Magazine has selected its most striking and evocative photos from 2016.

From raging storms to glowing cityscapes, the photographs are some of the finest published by the magazine in the last 12 months.

Here are some of the very best images, selected from this year’s archive of 2,290,225 photographs taken by 91 photographers for 107 stories.

Photographer Stephen Wilkes stitched together more than 1,000 pictures to create this image of Yosemite National Park, with the sky morphing from day to night. (Stephen Wilkes/National Geographic)

Rhinos gather to feed on a South African ranch. (Brent Stirton/National Geographic Magazine.)

The Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park smokes and glows, as pictures form above. (Michael Nichols)

Daredevil Steven Donovan flips into a pool in Glacier National Park. (Corey Arnold/National Geographic)

Purple twilight hangs over the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia at Delphi. (Vincent J Musi/National Geographic)

Norwegian research vessel “Lance” drifts along with the Arctic sea ice, tracking the changes to the environment. (Nick Cobbin/National Geographic)

The city lights of Taipei burn in multicolour after dark. (Dina Litovsky/National Geographic)

A fleck of blood drips from the tip of a vulture’s beak. (Charlie Hamilton James/National Geographic)