Atacama Penitente Ice Formations

In the high-altitude reaches of the Atacama Desert, these peculiar ice formations known as Penitentes emerge. Despite the extreme lack of rainfall here, these icy spires form slowly through the freezing of moisture in the air. Sublimation, the direct conversion of ice to vapor, then sculpts the snow and transforms it into intricate formations, an otherworldly spectacle in one of the world's driest deserts.