Flavorwire

Sometimes, trapped in our cities and close to the ground, we forget just how beautiful the planet really is. But Paul Bourke, a Research Associate Professor at the University of Western Australia, decided to explore the world from his chair with the tools directly at hand — namely, Google Earth. Bourke’s ongoing Google Earth Fractals series, which we spotted over at My Modern Met, exposes the incredible colors and textures that make up good old Mother Earth, some of them astounding to behold, and all of them found on Google Earth. Plus, each photograph on Bourke’s site is accompanied by a KMZ link, so you can locate the area on Google Earth on your own computer, and explore from there. Click through to see a few awe-inspiring scenes from Bourke’s series, and then be sure to head on over to his website to check out the project in full.

Egypt. Image credit: Paul Bourke