El Calafate, Argentina (2007) — The ice of the Perito Moreno Glacier took centuries, maybe even millennia, to slowly turn from snowflakes into glacier ice crystals. The amount of change that occurs during this transformation is essentially imperceptible over the course of a human’s lifetime. Yet it only takes a matter of seconds for giant sections of ice, which are large enough to dwarf nearby sightseeing boats, to vanish.

Iguazú, Argentina (2007) — Iguazú Falls stretches for 1.7 miles on a rather circuitous route—shaped like a wildly deformed horseshoe—between the shorelines of Argentina and Brazil. On the Argentine side, the waterfalls penetrate more deeply into the jungle.

Iguazú, Argentina (2007) — The butterflies at Iguazú National Park simply outshine all the surrounding flowers. Their vividness and delicacy is a tremendous balance to the power and grandeur of Iguazú Falls.

Iguazú, Argentina (2007) — This blob is a mass of caterpillars called a rolling swarm. The caterpillars (species Perreyia flavipes) are the larvae of sawflies, which are relatives of bees, wasps, and ants. While it may at first seem like they are using biomimicry to appear bigger than lowly caterpillar size, they also group this way, astonishingly, for speed. Ordinarily, piling up a mass of organisms is most likely to slow things down. But these caterpillars have found a way to make their own moving walkway, like you find at an airport. Since the bottom layers of caterpillars are moving forward, any caterpillars on top will pick up a boost of speed. By continually cycling through top and bottom positions, this rolling swarm can move more than twice as fast as a single caterpillar.

Disclaimer: The footage used for these historical video clips was shot many years ago for reference purposes related to writing. The compact digital camera used was an early adopter of video. Back then compact digital cameras were very limited in quality and capability compared to where they stand now. So, the footage obviously does not meet today's standards.