A SPOOKY forest, stripped of life by a natural disaster? Not exactly. Spanish photographer snapped this scene on a trip to Iceland.
He set out to capture the colossal ice walls of the country鈥檚 biggest glacier, Vatnaj枚kull, which holds about 3300 cubic kilometres of ice. Instead, he fell for these branch-like formations in a puddle at his feet.
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The photo covers an area about a metre square. The branches grow each day as the mud filters meltwater, then freeze in place at night. Rubia thinks the fineness, porosity and density of the mud combine with the slight slope to generate the patterns.
鈥淚t is a living pattern, a forest that continuously reshapes itself,鈥� he says.
The image was placed second in the 鈥淣ature鈥檚 studio鈥� category of the GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淧uddle mysteries鈥�
