The Week in Pictures: Perseverance lands on Mars and extreme cold in Texas

Spectators cheer during Six60's performance at Sky Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand on Feb. 13, 2021. The Six60 Saturdays concert series have been the country's largest outdoor concerts since the start of the pandemic. 

Lava gushes from Mount Etna near Catania, Sicily, on Feb. 16. 

As Tuesday’s volcanic activity was largely expected, areas surrounding the crater were secured and there were no reported injuries or deaths. But nearby residents said the eruption was unusual in that big chunks of volcanic stones carpeted the area, not just ash.

A traditional Chinese Opera performer from the Sai Yong Hong troupe applies eye makeup backstage before a performance on the first day of the Lunar New Year in Bangkok on Feb. 12.

A girl wearing a protective mask and face shield against the spread of Covid-19, holds incense sticks while praying with her mother at the Surya Dharma temple during Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations in Pekanbaru, Indonesia, on Feb. 12.

People push a car free after spinning out in the snow in Waco, Texas, on Feb. 15. The winter storm that brought snow, ice and plunging temperatures across the southern Plains caused a power emergency in Texas.

Brett Archibad, whose home was without electric power, entertains his family as they try to stay warm in the BlackHawk neighborhood in Pflugerville, Texas, on Feb. 16.

A woman gets her hair dyed and cut on the frozen Babelitis lake while a man swims  in an ice hole behind her in Riga, Latvia, on Feb. 15. 

A Munholland United Methodist Church clergy member spreads ashes on the forehead of a congregant during a drive-thru Ash Wednesday prayer in New Orleans on Feb. 17. Ashes were administered with a long Q-tip as a Covid-19 safety precaution measure.

People sift through the rubble of homes at the Ocean Ridge Plantation in Brunswick County, N.C., on Feb. 17 after a tornado hit the area Monday night.

"Alter Flecken's" 80 half-timbered houses in the old town of Freudenberg, western Germany on Feb. 13.

Juanta J. Gordon receives the Moderna vaccine from her daughter, nurse Zyra D. Gordon Smith at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago on Feb. 13.

Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the Progress MS-16 cargo spacecraft blasts off to the International Space Station (ISS) from the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on Feb. 15.

Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon stands on his kitchen counter to warm his feet over his gas stove in Austin, Texas on Feb. 16. Power was out for thousands of central Texas residents after temperatures dropped into the single digits when a snow storm hit the area on Sunday night.

Snow blankets Lycabettus hill in Athens on Feb 16. 

Snow is common in Greece’s mountains and in the north of the country, but much rarer in the capital. Hundreds of toppled trees downed power cables, causing blackouts in several suburbs, while one area on the city’s northern fringes was declared in a state of emergency for the next month. 

Men dressed up in costumes for Carnival run along a street in Rio de Janeiro on Feb. 13.

Rio's city government officially suspended Carnival and warned it would have no tolerance for those who try to celebrate with open street parades or clandestine parties.

A butterfly lands on Naomi Osaka's face during the Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia, on Feb. 12.

Magnolia, a French bulldog, wears a Chanel pouch during New York Fashion Week on Feb. 16.

Women have a snowball fight at the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem on Feb. 18.

Perseverance, a car-sized robotic explorer that will search for traces of ancient microbial life and collect what could be the first rocky samples from Mars that are sent back to Earth, moments before wheels touched down on the red planet on Feb. 18.

People wait in line to fill propane tanks in Houston on Feb. 17.

Customers waited over an hour in the freezing rain to fill their tanks. Millions in Texas still had no power after a historic snowfall and single-digit temperatures created a surge of demand for electricity to warm up homes unaccustomed to such extreme lows, buckling the state's power grid and causing widespread blackouts.

Worshippers wearing face masks make offerings of incense sticks during the first day of Chinese Lunar New Year at Wong Tai Sin Temple, in Hong Kong, on Feb. 12.

Camila Iachini, 8, performs with her bike during celebrations for the 400th anniversary of the founding of Caracas' Petare neighborhood in Venezuela on Feb. 17.

An anti-government protester rides a bicycle in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Feb. 14. The protest against the government of President Jovenel Moise was mostly peaceful, with a few clashes breaking out between demonstrators and police, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets.

A sheep walks inside a pen during the traditional "Martes de Challa" celebration to thank "Pachamama," Mother Earth, on the last day of Carnival in La Paz, Bolivia, on Feb. 16.

Last week's gallery: A bear on the loose and Brady wins again