13 images that demonstrate the amazing power of nature

Herringbone paving bricks are no match for tree roots that really want to go somewhere. Take THAT, civilization.

In California—where this picture was snapped—even the trees are into show business.

Given the apparent age of this ferris wheel, you’re probably safer swinging from the tree branches anyway.

The New World Shopping Mall in Bangkok, abandoned since 1999, brings whole new meaning to “sleeping with the fishes.”

Consider this a warning not to forget where you locked your bike—especially when you’re surrounded by the bicycle-eating trees of Vashon Island, Washington.

Left to its own devices, the desert will always win—like in this mining town in Kolmanskop, Namibia, which was abandoned in 1954.

The beautiful temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia are famously being reclaimed by the jungle.

Año Nuevo Island in California was a playground for the rich in the nineteenth century. Nowadays, it’s a breeding ground for seabirds, seals, and sea lions.

The USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, an American naval transport ship, was deliberately sunk in 2009 to create the world’s second-largest artificial reef.

The Aral Desert in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan used to be the Aral Sea, the fourth-largest body of water in the world. Overfishing and irrigation have now reduced the sea to a mere ten percent of its previous volume, but its ships provide great shelters for camels.

We think these hungry trees are reason enough to close the road…

Ice colonizes the basement of the original Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in New Jersey.

The Jet Star roller coaster in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, was an iconic remnant from Hurricane Sandy until it was torn down in May, 2013.