According to the locals, the sands of this secluded Norway beach are infused with gemstone particles.

Rusting, graffiti-covered tanks litter the beach of this island, once used by the U.S. military for target practice.

This industrial area was the dumping ground for massive amounts of trash, some of which washes up as tiny bits of sea glass.

Crushed coral and crystals give the sand its signature coloration.

Living fossils in this remote Australian bay provide a glimpse of what Earth may have looked like 3.5 billion years ago.

Constant erosion has created a surreal landscape of bleached and preserved fallen trees.

Centuries-old hoofprints and wagon tracks reveal themselves after a good winter storm.

Iron Age runes and ruins hide in plain sight along this Portuguese beach.

A nesting ground for four of the world’s seven marine turtle species, most of which are endangered.

The eerie remnants of an ancient forest were hidden under the sand for centuries.

An otherworldly, fossil-rich cobble beach holds Viking graves, cairns, and other remains.

Much of what constituted mid-century Liverpool now litters a beach outside of town.

When waves crash onto this section of beach, the rocks sing a song.

A mining town, now abandoned, was built in a canyon so narrow that the railroad ran right through the hotel lobby.

An abandoned town is hidden in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

This bridge is so steep it looks like a rollercoaster.

The disdain for this dysfunctional dam is reflected in a giant pair of scissors painted on the concrete face.

The oldest steel ship in Iceland has been beached for years and is now a rusting ruin.

The third version of this tall sailing ship sits, rusted and burnt, in Lake Ontario.

All that remains of the fishing-vessel-turned-warship is its weathered hull.

Far from the shore, this sandy victim of the Skeleton Coast looks like it was plopped in the middle of the desert.

This rusted shipwreck directly in front of a century-old abandoned lighthouse looks almost surreal.

This wrecked ghost ship has been rusting on a Greek beach since the 1980s.

Abandoned ships along a deserted beach feel like the set of a post-apocalyptic thriller.