Hypnotic patterns and hues in the Geamana Valley, within Romania’s Apuseni Mountains, have been captured in this drone shot by Romanian photographer Gheorghe Popa. But the Natural History Museum reveals that behind the beauty of the striking colours and shapes lies 'an ugly truth'. It says: 'In the late 1970s, more than 400 families living in Geamana were forced to leave to make way for waste flowing from the nearby Rosia Poieni mine – a mine exploiting one of the largest deposits of copper ore and gold in Europe. The picturesque valley became a ‘tailings pond’ filled with an acidic cocktail, containing pyrite (fool’s gold), iron and other heavy metals, laced with cyanide. These toxic materials have infiltrated the groundwater and threatened waterways more widely. The settlement was gradually engulfed with millions of tons of toxic waste, leaving just the old church tower protruding and the sludge still piling up. [Popa's] composition – "to draw attention to the ecological disaster" – captures the elemental colours of heavy metals in the river and the ornate radiating banks of this shockingly toxic landscape.' The image is highly commended in the Natural Artistry category