Patterns In Nature

Nautilus shell Another organic example of a logarithmic spiral in nature. (Thinkstock)

Patterns in nature can come from surprising places.

Here, some stunning examples surfaced by Wired magazine.

Please click the photos for larger images:

Snowflake Crystallized water forms repeating patterns. This photo was taken in 1905. (MoPA Photo Forum/ Wilson A. Bentley) 3 / 10Share to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to Pinterest ClosePrevious imageNext image

Canyons Aerial views help us see some patterns not readily observable on the ground, like the fractal pattern of Canyon de Chelly in Arizona. (Image courtesy of NASA.gov)

Deforestation Just as trees form a pattern, so does the lack of them. This image of Rondonia in western Brazil shows one of the most deforested regions of the Amazon. (Image courtesy of NASA.gov

Romanesco broccoli The green relative to cauliflower is an example of the spiral curve, often found in the natural world. (Thinkstock)

Mountaintops The Himalayas include some of the tallest peaks on earth. The pattern made by the creation of the mountains is visible in this stunning photo from NASA. (Image courtesy of NASA.gov)

Snowflake through a microscope This supermodern photo showing the crystal patterns of a snowflake was taken in 1890. Wilson A. Bentley, who had been fascinated by snowflakes since his childhood in Vermont, attached a microscope to his camera to record the intricate details. (Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives)

Clouds Marine stratus clouds over the South Atlantic Ocean somewhere off the west coast of Angola, Africa, create a grooved pattern

Ammonites are an extinct group of prehistoric invertebrate marine animals.The predatory, squidlike creatures first appeared 240 million years ago and eventually died out with the dinosaurs. But they left behind some cool looking shells. (Photo by didier.bier/ Flickr)

Frozen landscape The pattern imprinted in the frozen Alaska landscape can be viewed from above. In this true-color image, the veins of the Yukon River spread out like the roots on a tree. (Image courtesy of NASA.gov)