Discovering the wonders of our world

Fraser Island

2010-10-17T23:48:00.002+07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Fraser Island Native name: K'gari
Fraser Island view from Indian Head.jpg
View north from Indian Head, 2004
Geography
Location Australia
Coordinates 25°13′S 153°08′E / 25.217°S 153.133°E / -25.217; 153.133Coordinates: 25°13′S 153°08′E / 25.217°S 153.133°E / -25.217; 153.133
Area 1,840 km2 (710 sq mi)
Highest elevation 244 m (801 ft)
Highest point Mount Bowarrady
Country
Australia
State Queensland
LGA Fraser Coast Regional Council
Largest city Eurong
Demographics
Population 360 (as of 2006)
Density 0.2 /km2 (0.5 /sq mi)
Ethnic groups White Australians (349)

Fraser Island, is an island located along the southern coast of Queensland, Australia, approximately 300 kilometres (190 mi) north of Brisbane. Its length is about 120 kilometres (75 mi) and its width is approximately 24 kilometres (15 mi).[1] It was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1992.[2] The island is considered to be the largest sand island in the world at 1840 km².[3] It is also Queensland's largest island, Australia's sixth largest island and the largest island on the East Coast of Australia.

The island has rain forests, eucalyptus woodland, mangrove forests, wallum swamps, sand dunes and coastal heaths. It is made up of sand that has been accumulating for approximately 750,000 years on volcanic bedrock that provides a natural catchment for the sediment which is carried on a strong offshore current northwards along the coast. Unlike many sand dunes, plant life is abundant due to the naturally occurring mycorrhizal fungi present in the sand, which release nutrients in a form that can be absorbed by the plants.[4] Fraser Island is home to a small number of mammal species,[5] as well as a diverse range of birds, reptiles and amphibians, including the occasional saltwater crocodile. The island is part of the Fraser Coast Regional Council and protected in the Great Sandy National Park.

Fraser Island has been inhabited by humans for as much as 5,000 years.[4] Explorer James Cook sailed by the island in May of 1770. Matthew Flinders landed near the most northern point of the island in 1802. For a short period the island was known as Great Sandy Island. The island became known as Fraser due to the stories of a shipwreck survivor named Eliza Fraser. Today the island is a popular tourism destination. Its resident human population was 360 at the census of 2006.

Lake Vostok

2009-11-08T23:36:00.003+07:00

Lake Vostok (Russian: восток, "east") is the largest of more than 140 subglacial lakes found under the surface of Antarctica. It is located beneath Russia's Vostok Station, 4,000 meters (13,000 ft) under the surface of the central Antarctic ice sheet, within the Australian Antarctic Territory. It is 250 km long by 50 km wide at its widest point, thus similar in size to Lake Ontario, and is divided into two deep basins by a ridge. The water over the ridge is about 200 m (650 ft) deep, compared to roughly 400 m (1,300 ft) deep in the northern basin and 800 m (2,600 ft) deep in the southern. Lake Vostok covers an area of 15,690 km² (6,058 mi²). It has an estimated volume of 5,400 km³ (1,300 cubic miles) and consists of fresh water. The average depth is 344 m. In May 2005 an island was found in the center of the lake.

Radar imaging
Airborne ice-penetrating radar data first showed lakes beneath the Antarctic ice-sheet in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The existence of Lake Vostok was first noted in 1973 by scientists of the Scott Polar Research Institute,[1] but not named by them.
Russian and British scientists delineated the lake in 1996 by integrating a variety of data, including airborne ice-penetrating radar imaging observations and spaceborne radar altimetry. It has been confirmed that the lake contains large amounts of liquid water under the more than three-kilometer thick icecap, promising to be the most unspoiled lake on Earth. Its water is very old, with a mean residence time in the order of one million years (as compared with six years for Lake Ontario, which is typical for lakes of that size).[2]
Temperature
The average water temperature is around −3 °C (27 °F); it remains liquid below the normal freezing point because of high pressure from the weight of the ice above it. Geothermal heat from the Earth's interior warms the bottom of the lake. The ice sheet itself insulates the lake from cold temperatures on the surface.
Ice core
Researchers working at Vostok Station produced one of the world's longest ice cores in 1998. A joint Russian, French, and U.S. team drilled and analyzed the core, which is 3,623 metres (11,890 ft) long. Ice samples from cores drilled close to the top of the lake have been analyzed to be as old as 420,000 years, suggesting that the lake has been sealed under the icecap for between 500,000 and more than a million years. Drilling of the core was deliberately halted roughly 100 metres (300 ft)[3] above the suspected boundary where the ice sheet and the liquid waters of the lake are thought to meet. This was to prevent contamination of the lake from the 60 ton column of freon and aviation fuel Russian scientists filled it with to prevent it from freezing over.
From this core, specifically from ice that is thought to have formed from lake water freezing onto the base of the ice sheet, evidence has been found, in the form of microbes, to suggest that the lake water supports life. Scientists suggested that the lake could possess a unique habitat for ancient bacteria with an isolated microbial gene pool containing characteristics developed perhaps 500,000 years ago.[4]
Environment
Ecosystems
Since Lake Vostok consists of two separate basins divided by a ridge, it has been suggested that the chemical and biological compositions of these two ecosystems are likely to be different.
Pressure and oxygen
Lake Vostok is an oligotrophic extreme environment, one that is supersaturated with oxygen, with oxygen levels 50 times higher than those typically found in ordinary freshwater lakes on Earth. The sheer weight of the continental icecap sitting on top of Lake Vostok is believed to contribute to the high oxygen concentration. Besides dissolving in the water, oxygen and other gases are trapped in a type of structure called a clathrate. In clathrate structures, gases are enclosed in an icy cage and look like packed snow. These structures form at the high-pressure depths of Lake Vostok and would become unstable if brought to the surface.[2]

No other natural lake environment on Earth is as rich in oxygen and it is speculated that any organisms inhabiting the lake would have needed to evolve special adaptations to survive. These adaptations to an oxygen-rich environment might include high concentrations of protective enzymes.
Due to the lake's similarity to the Jupiter moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus, any confirmation of life living in Lake Vostok would strengthen the prospect for the possible presence of life on Europa or Enceladus.[5]

In April 2005, German, Russian, and Japanese researchers found that the lake has tides. Depending on the position of the Sun and the Moon, the surface of the lake rises between 1 and 2 cm. The researchers assume that the fluctuation of the lake surface has the effect of a pump that keeps the water circulating, which would be necessary for the survival of microorganisms if there are any.

To probe, without contamination, the waters of Lake Vostok for life, plans were initiated in 2001 by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to start with a melter probe — the so-called "cryobot" — which melts down through the ice over Lake Vostok, unspooling a communications and power cable as it goes. The cryobot carries with it a small submersible, called a "hydrobot", which is deployed when the cryobot has melted to the ice-water interface. The hydrobot then swims off and "looks for life" with a camera and other instruments.[6][7]
In January 2006, Robin Bell and Michael Studinger, Geophysical researchers from Columbia University, announced in Geophysical Research Letters the discovery of two smaller lakes under the icecap, named 90 Degrees East and Sovetskaya.
It is also suspected that the Antarctic subglacial lakes may be connected by a network of subterranean rivers. CPOM glaciologists Duncan Wingham (University College, London) and Martin Siegert (University of Bristol, now University of Edinburgh) published in Nature in 2006 that many of the subglacial lakes of Antarctica are at least temporarily interconnected. Because of varying water pressure in individual lakes, large, sub-surface rivers may suddenly form and then force large amounts of water through the solid ice.[2]

Nibiru and Doomsday 2012: Questions and Answers

2009-10-20T16:14:00.000+07:00

Nibiru and Doomsday 2012: Questions and Answers

Stories about the fictional planet Nibiru and predictions of doomsday in December 2012 have blossomed on the Internet. There are now (June 2009) more than 175 books listed on Amazon.com dealing with the 2012 doomsday. As this hoax spreads, many more disaster scenarios are being suggested. “Ask an Astrobiologist” has received nearly a thousand questions about Nibiru and 2012, with more than 200 answers posted. Many new questions are similar to those already answered. Following is a list of the most popular “Twenty Questions” organized in a logical succession and answered in some detail.

In addition to my responses, there are some other good resources

Neil de Grassse Tyson posted a nice video clip on the Nibiru-2012 issue.
Wikipedia has several useful entries. Start with Nibiru Collision, then look atNibiru Mythology and Nibiru Sitchin). Also informative is the entry for 2012doomsday predictions.
For a detailed description of the origin of the Planet X / Nibiru cult see the discussion by Phil Plait on his Badastronomy website.

David Morrison,
NAI Senior Scientist
June 1, 2009

1. What is the origin of the prediction that the world will end in December 2012?

The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. Zecharia Sitchin, who writes fiction about the ancient Mesopotamian civilization of Sumer, claimed in several books (e.g., The Twelfth Planet, published in 1976) that he has found and translated Sumerian documents that identify the planet Nibiru, orbiting the Sun every 3600 years. These Sumerian fables include stories of “ancient astronauts” visiting Earth from a civilization of aliens called the Anunnaki. Then Nancy Lieder, a self-declared psychic who claims she is channeling aliens, wrote on her website Zetatalk that the inhabitants of a fictional planet around the star Zeta Reticuli warned her that the Earth was in danger from Planet X or Nibiru. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012. Only recently have these two fables been linked to the end of the Mayan long-count at the winter solstice in 2012 – hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012.

2. The Sumerians were the first great civilization, and they made many accurate astronomical predictions, including the existence of the planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. So why should we not believe their predictions about Nibiru?

Nibiru is a name in Babylonian astrology sometimes associated with the god Marduk. Nibiru appears as a minor character in the Babylonian creation poem Enuma Elish as recorded in the library of Assurbanipal, King of Assyria (668-627 BCE). Sumer flourished much earlier, from about the 23rd century to the 17th century BCE. The claims that Nibiru is a planet and was known to the Sumerians are contradicted by scholars who (unlike Zecharia Sitchin) study and translate the written records of ancient Mesopotamia. Sumer was indeed a great civilization, important for the development of agriculture, water management, urban life, and especially writing. However, they left very few records dealing with astronomy. Certainly they did not know about the existence of Uranus, Neptune or Pluto. They also had no understanding that the planets orbited the Sun, an idea that first developed in ancient Greece two millennia after the end of Sumer. Claims that Sumerians had a sophisticated astronomy, or that they even had a god named Nibiru, are the product of Sitchin’s imagination.

3. How can you deny the existence of Nibiru when discovered it in 1983 and the story appeared in leading newspapers? At that time you called it Planet X, and later it was named Xena or Eris.

IRAS (the NASA Infrared Astronomy Satellite, which carried out a sky survey for 10 months in 1983) discovered many infrared sources, but none of them was Nibiru or Planet X or any other objects in the outer solar system. There is a good discussion from Caltech to be found at (spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/tchester/iras/no_tenth_planet_yet.html). Briefly,IRAS cataloged 350,000 infrared sources, and initially many of these sources were unidentified (which was the point, of course, of making such a survey). All of these observations have been followed up by subsequent studies with more powerful instruments both on the ground and in space. The rumor about a “tenth planet” erupted in 1984 after a scientific paper was published in Astrophysical Journal Letters titled “Unidentified point sources in the IRAS minisurvey”, which discussed several infrared sources with “no counterparts”. But these “mystery objects” were subsequently found to be distant galaxies (except one, which was a wisp of “infrared cirrus”), as published in 1987. No IRAS source has ever turned out to be a planet. A good discussion of this whole issue is to be found on Phil Plait’s website (www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/planetx/science.html#iras). The bottom line is that Nibiru is a myth, with no basis in fact. To an astronomer, persistent claims about a planet that is “nearby” but “invisible” are just plain silly.

4. Maybe we should be asking about Planet X or Eris, not Nibiru. Why does keep secret the orbit of Eris?

“Planet X” is an oxymoron when applied to a real object. The term has been used by astronomers over the past century for a possible or suspected object. Once the object is found, it is given a real name, as was done with Pluto and Eris, both of which were at some time referred to as Planet X. If a new object turns out to be not real, or not a planet, then you won’t hear about it again. If it is real, it is not called Planet X.

Eris is one of several dwarf planets recently found by astronomers in the outer solar system, all of them on normal orbits that will never bring them near Earth. Like Pluto, Eris is smaller than our Moon. It is very far away, and its orbit never brings it closer than about 4 billion miles. There is no secret about Eris and its orbit, as you can easily verify by googling it or looking it up in Wikipedia.

5. Do you deny that built a South Pole Telescope () to track Nibiru? Why else would they build a telescope at the South Pole?

There is a telescope at the South Pole, but it was not built by NASA and not used to study Nibiru. The South Pole Telescope was supported by the National Science Foundation, and it is a radio telescope, not an optical instrument. It cannot take images or photos. You can look it up on Wikipedia. The Antarctic is a great place for astronomical infrared and short-wave-radio observations, and it also has the advantage that objects can be observed continuously without the interference of the day-night cycle.

I should add that it is impossible to imagine a geometry in which an object can be seen only from the South Pole. Even if it were due south of the Earth, it could be seen from the entire southern hemisphere.

6. There are many photos and videos of Nibiru on the Internet. Isn’t that proof that it exists?

The great majority of the photos and videos on the Internet are of some feature near the Sun (apparently supporting the claim that Nibiru has been hiding behind the Sun for the past several years.) These are actually false images of the Sun caused by internal reflections in the lens, often called lens flare. You can identify them easily by the fact that they appear diametrically opposite the real solar image, as if reflected across the center of the image. This is especially obvious in videos, where as the camera moves, the false image dances about always exactly opposite the real image. Similar lens flare is a source of many UFO photos taken at night with strong light sources such as streetlights in the frame. I am surprised that people don’t recognize this common photo artifact. I am also amazed that these photos showing something nearly as large and bright as the Sun (a “second sun”) are accepted together with claims made on some of the same websites that Nibiru is too faint to be seen or photographed except with large telescopes.

One widely reported telescopic photo (www.greatdreams.com/nibiru-possible.jpg) shows two views of an expanding gas cloud far beyond the solar system, which is not moving; you can see this from the fact that the stars are the same in both pictures. A sharp-eyed reader of this website identified these photos as a gas shell around the star V838 Mon. Wikipedia has a nice write-up and a beautiful photo of it from Hubble. Another high school student was initially impressed by posted images of a red blob that were said to be of Nibiru. Then he worked out in his Photoshop class how to make just such pictures starting from scratch.
One video posted in summer 2008 on Youtube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDKtkWIx00A) shows a guy standing in his kitchen claiming that one of the objects discovered by a NASA x-ray telescope is Nibiru. What is his evidence? That since this false-color x-ray image released by NASA is blue, this must really be a nearby planet with an ocean. This would be hilarious if it were not used to frighten people.

7. Can you explain the fact that the area at (5h 53m 27s, -6 10’ 58”) has been blackened out in Google Sky and Microsoft Telescope? People suggest that these have been blackened out because those are the co-ordinates where Nibiru is located at present.

Several people have asked me about this blank rectangle in Orion in Google Sky, which is a presentation of images from the Sloan Digital Survey. This can’t be a “hiding place” for Nibiru, since it is a part of the sky that could be seen from almost everywhere on the Earth in the winter of 2007-08 when much of the talk about Nibiru began. That would contradict the claims that Nibiru was hiding behind the Sun or that it could be seen only from the southern hemisphere. But I too was curious about this blank rectangle, so I asked a friend who is a senior scientist at Google. He replied that he “found out that the missing data is due to a processing error in the image stitching program we use to display the Sloan survey images. The team assures me that in the next run through, this will be fixed!”

8. If the government knew about Nibiru, wouldn’t they keep it a secret to avoid panic? Isn’t it the government’s job to keep the population at ease?

There are many objectives of government, but they do not include keeping the population at ease. My experience is that sometimes parts of the government do just the opposite, as in the frequent references to various terrorist threats or warnings about driving accidents on long holiday weekends, which are no more dangerous than any other time. There is a long history of associating bad things with political opponents (older readers will remember the “missile gap” in the 1960 election, younger ones will note the many current references to who is or is not keeping the U.S. safe from terrorists). Further, social scientists have pointed out that many of our concepts of public panic are the product of Hollywood, while in the real world people have a good record of helping each other in a time of danger. I think everyone also recognizes that keeping bad news secret usually backfires, making the issue even worse when the facts finally come out. And in the case of Nibiru, these facts would come out very soon indeed.

Even if they wanted to, the government could not keep Nibiru a secret. If it were real, it would be tracked by thousands of astronomers, amateurs as well a professional. These astronomers are spread all over the world. I know the astronomy community, and these scientists would not keep a secret even if ordered to. You just can’t hide a planet on its way to the inner solar system!

9. Why does the Mayan calendar say the world will end in 2012? I have heard that they have been pretty accurate in the past with other planetary predictions. How can you be sure you know more than they did?

Calendars exist for keeping track of the passage of time, not for predicting the future. The Mayan astronomers were clever, and they developed a very complex calendar. Ancient calendars are interesting to historians, but of they cannot match the ability we have today to keep track of time, or the precision of the calendars currently in use. The main point, however, is that calendars, whether contemporary or ancient, cannot predict the future of our planet or warn of things to happen on a specific date such as 2012.

I note that my desk calendar ends much sooner, on December 31 2009, but I do not interpret this as a prediction of Armageddon. It is just the beginning of a new year.

10. What is the polar shift theory? Is it true that the earth’s crust does a 180-degree rotation around the core in a matter of days if not hours? Does this have something to do to do with our solar system dipping beneath the galactic equator?

A reversal in the rotation of Earth is impossible. It has never happened and never will. There are slow movements of the continents (for example Antarctica was near the equator hundreds of millions of years ago), but that is irrelevant to claims of reversal of the rotational poles. However, many of the disaster websites pull a bait-and-shift to fool people. They claim a relationship between the rotation and the magnetic polarity of Earth, which does change irregularly with a magnetic reversal taking place every 400,000 years on average. As far as we know, such a magnetic reversal doesn’t cause any harm to life on Earth. A magnetic reversal is very unlikely to happen in the next few millennia, anyway. But they falsely claim that a magnetic reversal is coming soon (in 2012) and that this is the same as, or will trigger, a reversal of rotational poles. The bottom line is: (a) Rotation direction and magnetic polarity are not related. (b) There is no reason to expect a reversal of magnetic polarity any time soon, or to anticipate any bad effects on life when it does eventually happen. © A sudden shift in rotational pole with disastrous consequences is impossible. Also, none of this has anything to do with the galactic equator or any of the other nonsense about alignments that appears on many of the conspiracy theory websites.

11. When most of the planets align in 2012 and planet Earth is in the center of the Milky Way, what will the effects of this be on planet Earth? Could it cause a pole shift, and if so what could we expect?

There is no planet alignment in 2012 or any other time in the next several decades. As to the Earth being in the center of the Milky Way, I don’t know what this phrase means. If you are referring to the Milky Way Galaxy, we are rather far toward the edge of this spiral galaxy, some 30,000 light years from the center. We circle the galactic center in a period of 225-250 million years, always keeping approximately the same distance. Concerning a pole shift, I also don’t know what this means. If it means some sudden change in the position of the pole (that is, the rotation axis of the Earth), then that is impossible, as noted in the answer to Question 10. What many websites do discuss is the alignment of the Earth and Sun with the center of the Milky Way in the constellation of Sagittarius. This happens every December, with no bad consequences, and there is no reason to expect 2012 to be different from any other year.

12. When the sun and the Earth line up on the galactic plane at the same time with the black whole being in the center couldn’t that cause something to happen, due to the fact that the black hole has such a strong gravitational pull.

There is a giant black hole in the center of our Milky Way galaxy, and like any concentration of mass it exerts gravitational force on the rest of the Galaxy. However, the galactic center is very far away, approximately 30,000 light years, so it has negligible effects on the solar system or the Earth. There are no special forces from the galactic plane or the galactic center. The only important force that acts on the Earth is the gravitation of the Sun and Moon. As far as the influence of the galactic plane, there is nothing special about this location. The last time the Earth was in the galactic plane was several million years ago. Claims that we are about to cross the galactic plane are untrue.

13. I am scared about the fact that the Earth will enter the Dark Rift in the Milky Way. What will this do? Will the Earth be swallowed up?

The “dark rift” is a popular name for the broad and diffuse dust clouds in the
inner arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, which block our view of the galactic
center. The entire “galactic alignment” scare is pretty crazy. Late in
December the Sun is always approximately in the direction of the center of
the Galaxy as seen from the Earth, but so what? Apparently the con-men who are trying to scare you have decided to use these meaningless phrases about “alignments” and the “dark rift” and “photon belt” precisely because they are not understood by the public. It is too bad, but there is no law against lying on the Internet or anywhere else except in a court of law. As far as the safety of the Earth is concerned, the important threats are from global warming and loss of biological diversity, and perhaps someday from collision with an asteroid or comet, not the pseudoscientific claims about 2012.

14. I have heard that the Earth’s magnetic field will flip in 2012just when the strongest level of solar storms in history is predicted to take place. Will this kill us or destroy our civilization?

Near solar maximum (which happens every 11 years approximately), there are many more solar flares and coronal mass ejections than near solar minimum. Flares and mass ejections are no danger for humans or other life on Earth. They could endanger astronauts in deep space or on the Moon, and this is something that NASA must learn to deal with, but it is not a problem for you or me. Large outbursts can interrupt radio transmission, cause bright displays of the aurora (Northern and Southern Lights), and damage the electronics of some satellites in space. Today many satellites are designed to deal with this possibility, for example by switching off some of their more delicate circuits and going into a “safe” mode for a few hours. In extreme cases solar activity can also disrupt electrical transmissions on the ground, possibly leading to electrical blackouts, but this is rare.

The last solar maximum occurred in 2001, so the next one was predicted for around 2012, 11 years later. However, the most recent solar minimum was unusual, with a period of a couple of years with almost no sunspots or other indications of solar activity, so scientists now guess that the next maximum will be delayed, perhaps to 2013. However, the details of the solar cycle remain basically unpredictable.

You are correct that the Earth’s magnetic field protects us by creating a large region in space, called the Earth’s magnetosphere, within which most of the material ejected from the Sun is captured or deflected, but there is no reason to expect a reversal of magnetic polarity any time soon. These magnetic reversals happen only once in 400,000 years on average.

15. I am confused about a report on the Fox News website that in2012 a “Powerful Solar Storm Could Shut Down U.S. for Months”. They referred to a report from the National Academy of Sciences that was commissioned and paid for by . If nothing is going to happen as a result of the event in 2012, why would allow such nonsense to be reported?

NASA is pleased with the National Research Council report on heliophysics. As you note, this report includes a worst-case analysis of what could happen today if there were a repetition of the biggest solar storm ever recorded (in 1859). The problem is the way such information can be used out of context. There is no reason to expect such a large solar storm in the near future, certainly not in2012 specifically. Your reference to “the event in 2012” illustrates this problem. There is no prediction of an “event in 2012”. We don’t even know if the next solar maximum will take place in that year. The whole 2012 disaster scenario is a hoax, fueled by ads for the Hollywood science-fiction disaster film “2012”. I can only hope that most people are able to distinguish Hollywood film plots from reality.

16. All my school friends are telling me that we are all going to die in the year 2012 due to a meteor hitting earth. Is this true?

Your friends are wrong. The Earth has always been subject to impacts by comets and asteroids, although big hits are very rare. The last big impact was 65 million years ago, and that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. TodayNASA astronomers are carrying out a survey called the Spaceguard Survey to find any large near-Earth asteroids long before they hit. We have already determined that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs. All this work is done openly with the discoveries posted every day on the NASA NEO Program Office website (neo.jpl.nasa.gov), so you can see for yourself that nothing is predicted to hit in 2012.

17. If Nibiru is a hoax, why doesn’t issue a denial? How can you permit these stores to circulate and frighten people? Why doesn’t the U.S. government do something about it!

If you go to the NASA home page, nasa.gov, you will see many stories that expose the Nibiru-2012 hoax. Try searching nasa.com under “Nibiru” or “2012”. There is not much more that NASA can do. These hoaxes have nothing to do with NASA and are not based on NASA data, so we as an agency are not directly involved. But scientists, both within NASA and outside, recognize that this hoax with its effort to frighten people is a distraction from more important science concerns, such as global warming and loss of biological diversity. We live in a country where there is freedom of speech, and that includes freedom to lie. You should be glad there are no censors. But if you will just use common sense I am sure you can recognize the lies. As we approach 2012, the lies will be come even more obvious.

18. Can you prove to me that Nibiru is a hoax? There are so many reports that something terrible will happen in 2012. I need proof because the government and are keeping so much from us.

It is not logical to ask for proof that the 2012 doomsday is a hoax. Your questions should be to the doomsday advocates to prove that what they are saying is true, not to NASA to prove it is false. If someone claimed on the Internet that there were 50-foot tall purple elephants walking through Cleveland, would anyone expect NASA to prove this wrong? The burden of proof falls on those who make wild claims. Remember the often-quoted comment from Carl Sagan that extraordinary claims demand extraordinary levels of evidence if they are to be believed.

However, I think that astronomers have reached the point where we can offer extremely strong arguments that Nibiru does not exist. A large planet (or a brown dwarf) in our solar system would have been known to astronomers for many years, both indirectly from its gravitational perturbations on other objects and by direct detection in the infrared. The NASA Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) carried out the first all-sky survey in 1983, and several subsequent surveys would also have seen Nibiru if it were there. Further, if a large mass passed through the inner solar system every 3600 years, we would see its disruptive effects on the orbits of the inner planets, and we don’t.

You don’t need to take my word for it. Just use common sense. Have you seen Nibiru? In 2008 many websites said it would be visible to the naked eye in spring 2009. If a large planet or brown dwarf were headed for the inner solar system in 2012, it would already be tracked by hundreds of thousands of astronomers, professional and amateur, all over the world. Do you know any amateur astronomers who are watching it? Have you seen any photos or discussion of it in the big popular astronomy magazines like Sky & Telescope? Just think about it. No one could hide Nibiru if it existed.

19. What about the scary ads for the new film 2012? They tell us to look at these Internet sites to verify the doomsday threat.

The pseudoscientific claims about Nibiru and a doomsday in 2012, together with distrust of the government, are being amplified by publicity for the new film from Columbia Pictures titled 2012, to be released in November 2009. The film’s trailer, appearing in theaters and on their website , shows a tidal wave breaking over the Himalayas, with only the following words: “How would the governments of our planet prepare 6 billion people for the end of the world? [long pause] They wouldn’t. [long pause] Find out the Truth. Google search 2012”.

The film publicity includes creation of a faux scientific website (www.instituteforhumancontinuity.org/) for “The Institute for Human Continuity”, which is entirely fictitious. According to this website, the IHC is dedicated to scientific research and public preparedness. Its mission is the survival of mankind. The website explains that the Institute was founded 1978 by international leaders of government, business, and science. They say that in 2004, IHC scientists confirmed with 94% certainty that the world would be destroyed in 2012. This website encourages people to register for a lottery to select those who will be saved; a colleague submitted the name of her cat, which was accepted. I learned from Wikipedia that creating this sort of fake website is a new advertising technique called “Viral Marketing”, by analogy with computer viruses.

20. Is it possible that the influx of questions you describe is part of some kind of campaign for a book or movie, in the hopes that the volume of denials is taken as more “evidence” that there is a conspiracy?

I ask myself the same questions every day, as the volume of mail I receive about Nibiru (along with various alignments and pole shifts) keeps increasing — now more than 20 per week. Clearly there is money to be made from people’s fear about an approaching doomsday. Some of this hype is apparently advertising for the science fiction disaster movie 2012 (see Question 19). Many websites are selling books and tapes about Nibiru or even “survival kits”. It is all very sad, that with so many real issues (such as global warming and financial collapse) people are being taken in by these lies. In the final chapter of a new astronomy book (The Hunt for Planet X) by Govert Shilling, he writes: “There is plenty to do for the debunkers – the archaeologists and astronomers who take a long and skeptical look at the tidal wave of Nibiru nonsense and explain with scientific precision what is wrong with this cosmic fairy-tale. They will have their work cut out in the next few years. And on December 22, 2012 there will be a new pseudoscientific cock-and-bull story doing the rounds and the whole circus will start all over again. Because no matter how many new celestial bodies are found in our solar system, there will always be a need for a mysterious Planet X.”

Foggaras .. Blood flow of life in deserts.

2009-10-20T00:00:00.002+07:00

Foggaras are traditional systems of water catchments and distribution typical of arid and semiarid areas. They are made up of horizontal underground shafts that drain water and convey it by gravity to areas where it is needed. The drainage tunnels catch only the quantity of water that can autonomously reproduce and represent a harmonious system of maintaining water tables that are thus fed through the catchments of humidity and hidden precipitation. As a matter of fact they are considered as real structures of water production. They have been widespread since the 1st millennium b.C. with different names: qanat, khettara,falaj, madjrat or minas. Foggaras are also traditional technologies belonging to the cultural heritage of peoples who safeguard this ancient and clever know-how in any situations. Closely related to the building of mausoleum and settlements, they characterize landscapes that their constructions made fertile.

Old Man of Hoy

2008-12-02T16:21:00.002+07:00

The Old Man of Hoy is a 137 metre (450 ft) sea stack of red sandstone perched on a plinth of igneous basalt, close to Rackwick Bay on the west coast of the island of Hoy, in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. It is a distinctive landmark seen from the Thurso to Stromness ferry, MV Hamnavoe, and is a famous rock climb. It is close to another famous site, The Dwarfie Stane.

History

The Old Man is probably fewer than 400 years old and may not get much older as there are indications that it will soon collapse. On maps drawn between 1600 and 1750 the area appears as a headland with no sea stack. William Daniell, a landscape painter, sketched [1] the sea stack with two legs from which it derived its name (dates vary 1814-1819). A print of this drawing is still available in local museums. Sometime in the early 19th century, a storm washed away one of the legs leaving it much as it is today although erosion continues and a large portion is likely to break away soon.

The Old Man appears in the "Trailer sketch" of the Monty Python's Flying Circus episode "Archaeology Today" in which the voiceover Eric Idle states that singer Lulu climbs the Old Man. It also appears in the opening scene of the video to the Eurythmics' 1984 hit song "Here Comes the Rain Again". Some people[citation needed] say it will last for 200 more years.

Climbing recordsThe stack was first climbed in 1966 by Chris Bonington, Rusty Baillie and Tom Patey over a period of three days, 13 years after Mount Everest was tackled. On 8-9 July, 1967 an ascent was featured in a live BBC outside broadcast, which had around 23 million viewers over the three-night period of the broadcast. This featured three pairs of climbers: Bonington and Patey repeated their original route, whilst two new lines were climbed - by Joe Brown and Ian McNaught-Davis; and by Pete Crew and Dougal Haston.

On 8 September 2006 the stack was climbed by Sir Ranulph Fiennes (aged 62) in preparation for his proposed climb of the Eiger in the following year. He was accompanied by Sandy Ogilvie and Stephen Venables.

The stack now has a number of climbing routes, but the vast majority of ascents, of which there are 20 - 50 in an average year, are by the original and easiest route at the British grade of E1 (5b) - one route being an E6. A small RAF log book in a Tupperware container is buried in a cairn on the summit and serves as an ascensionists' record.

Evidence from the original 1960s ascents is still present on the stack, in the form of a collection of wooden wedges hammered into the vertical corner crack of the second pitch. The belays consist of natural threads and wedged ironmongery, including (in 1994) a snow 'deadman' anchor forced into a crack. Some parties chose to divide the second (5b) pitch into two, bringing the second around to the base of the overhanging crack to belay from a hanging stance to keep the remainder of the pitch 'straight'. Care must be taken on the descent abseil at this point as it is relatively easy to jam the ropes on retrieval, and a stash of abandoned ropes cut from the stack bears testimony to this fact.

Anacondas

2008-04-21T01:54:00.002+07:00

Anacondas are four species of aquatic boa inhabiting the swamps and rivers of the dense forests of tropical South America. The Yellow Anaconda can be found as far south as northern Argentina.

Size
There is some debate about the maximum size of anacondas, and there have been unverified claims of enormous snakes alleged to be as long as 30–45 m (98.4–147.6 ft). According to Lee Krystek,[2] a 1944 petroleum expedition in Colombia claimed to have measured an 11.43 meters (38 ft) specimen, but this claim is not regarded as reliable; perhaps a more credible report came from scientist Vincent Roth, who claimed to have shot and killed a 10.3 meters (34 ft) specimen. Based on documented evidence, Anacondas can grow to about 23 feet long.

There are some reports from early explorers of the South American jungles seeing giant anacondas up to 18.2 meters (60 ft) long, and some of the native peoples have reported seeing anacondas up to 15.2 meters (50 ft) long,[3] but these reports remain unverified.

Another claim of an extraordinarily large anaconda was made by adventurer Percy Fawcett. During his 1906 expedition, Fawcett wrote that he had shot an anaconda that measured some 18.9 meters (62 ft) from nose to tail.[4] Once published, Fawcett’s account was widely ridiculed. Decades later, Belgian zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans came to Fawcett's defence, arguing that Fawcett's writing was generally honest and reliable.[5]

Historian Mike Dash writes[6] of claims of still larger anacondas, alleged to be as long as 30 meters (98 ft) to 45 meters (148 ft) — some of the sightings supported with photos (although those photos lack scale). Dash notes that if a 50–60 ft anaconda strains credulity, then a 150 ft long specimen is generally regarded as an outright impossibility.

It should be noted that the Wildlife Conservation Society has, since the early 20th century, offered a large cash reward (currently worth US$50,000) for live delivery of any snake of 30 feet or more in length. The prize has never been claimed. Also, in a study of 1,000 wild anacondas in Brazil, the largest captured was 17 feet (5.2 m) long.[7]

Recently an anaconda snake measuring over six meters and weighing nearly 150 kilos (330.8lbs) was captured in the backyard of an abandoned house in Parana, Brazil.[8]

Mount Fuji

2008-02-14T11:34:00.002+07:00

Geography

Mt. Fuji stands at 3,776 m (12,388 ft) high and is surrounded by five lakes: Lake Kawaguchi, Lake Yamanaka, Lake Sai, Lake Motosu and Lake Shoji. They, and nearby Lake Ashi, provide excellent views of the mountain. It is part of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. It is also an active stratovolcano. The climate is very cold due to the altitude and the cone is covered by snow throughout the year. The lowest recorded temperature is -35.5C while on August 16th 2007 the highest temperature was recorded at 18.2 C.

Scientists have identified four distinct phases of volcanic activity in the formation of Mt. Fuji. The first phase, called Sen-komitake, is composed of an andesite core recently discovered deep within the mountain. Sen-komitake was followed by the "Komitake Fuji," a basalt layer believed to be formed several hundred thousand years ago. Approximately 100,000 years ago, "Old Fuji" was formed over the top of Komitake Fuji. The modern, "New Fuji" is believed to have formed over the top of Old Fuji around 10,000 years ago. [1]
The volcano is currently classified as active with a low risk of eruption. The last recorded eruption started on December 16th 1707 and ended about January 1st 1708 during the Edo period. This is sometimes called "the great Hōei eruption." Fuji-san spews cinders and ash which fell like rain in Izu, Kai, Sagami, and Musashi.[2]
At this time, a new crater, along with a second peak, named Hōei-zan after the era name, formed halfway down its side. Scientists are saying that there may be some minor volcanic activity in the next few years.[citation needed]
Mount Fuji is located at the point where the Eurasian Plate (or the Amurian Plate), the Okhotsk Plate, and the Philippine Plate meet. Those plates form the western part of Japan, the eastern part of Japan, and the Izu Peninsula respectively.

Geology

xcvxcvxc

2008-02-13T22:49:00.001+07:00

xcvxcvxcv

Lechuguilla cave

2008-02-13T21:57:00.002+07:00

Lechuguilla Cave is, as of 2006, the fifth longest cave (120 miles (193 km)) known to exist in the world, and the deepest in the continental United States (489 metres (1,604 ft)), but it is most famous for its unusual geology, rare formations, and pristine condition.

It is located in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico. Access to the cave is limited to approved scientific researchers, survey and exploration teams, and National Park Service management-related trips.

Exploration history

Lechuguilla Cave was known until 1986 as a small, fairly insignificant historic site in the park's backcountry. Small amounts of bat guano were mined from the entrance passages for a year under a mining claim filed in 1914. The historic cave contained a 90 feet (27 m) entrance pit known as Misery Hole, which led to 400 feet (122 m) of dry dead-end passages.[1]
The cave was visited infrequently after mining activities ceased. However, in the 1950s cavers heard wind roaring up from the rubble-choked floor of the cave. Although there was no obvious route, different people concluded that cave passages lay below the rubble. A group of Colorado cavers gained permission from the National Park Service and began digging in 1984. The breakthrough, into large walking passages, occurred on May 26, 1986.[1]
Since 1986, explorers have mapped 118 miles (190 km) of passages and have pushed the depth of the cave to 1,604 feet (489 m), ranking Lechuguilla as the 5th longest cave in the world (4th longest in the United States) and the deepest limestone cave in the country. Cavers, drawn by the caves' pristine condition and rare beauty, come from around the world to explore and map its passages and geology.[1]
A story of questionable authenticity surfaced in April 1997 about Lechuguilla cavers breaking through into Carlsbad Caverns. It appeared in the "April Fool's 1997" edition of the Maverick Bull, a newsletter of a local chapter of the National Speleological Society. The story entailed the Lechuguilla cavers discovering a large "borehole" passage which led to a passage in the ceiling of the Mystery Room in Carlsbad Caverns. This article was definitely a joke.

Geology

Lechuguilla Cave offered even more than just its extreme size. Cavers were greeted by large amounts of gypsum and lemon-yellow sulfur deposits. A large variety of rare speleothems, some of which had never been seen anywhere in the world, included 20 feet (6.1 m) gypsum chandeliers, 20 feet (6.1 m) gypsum hairs and beards, 15 feet (4.6 m) soda straws, hydromagnesite balloons, cave pearls, subaqueous helictites, rusticles, U-loops and J-loops. Lechuguilla Cave surpassed its nearby sister, Carlsbad Caverns, in size, depth, and variety of speleothems, though no room has been discovered yet in Lechuguilla Cave which is larger than Carlsbad's Big Room.[1]
Scientific exploration has been conducted as well. For the first time a Guadalupe Mountains cave extends deep enough that scientists may study five separate geologic formations from the inside. The profusion of gypsum and sulfur lends support to speleogenesis by sulfuric acid dissolution. The sulfuric acid is believed to be derived from hydrogen sulfide released from oil reservoirs below. Thus, this cavern (as well as Carlsbad Caverns) apparently formed from the bottom up, in contrast to the normal top-down carbonic acid dissolution mechanism of cave formation.[1]
Rare, chemolithoautotrophic bacteria are believed to occur in the cave. These bacteria feed on the sulfur, iron, and manganese minerals and may assist in enlarging the cave and determining the shapes of some unusual speleothems. Other studies indicate that some microbes may have medicinal qualities that are beneficial to humans.[1]
Lechuguilla Cave lies beneath a park wilderness area. However, it appears that the cave's passages may extend out of the park into adjacent Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. A major threat to the cave is proposed gas and oil drilling on BLM land. Any leakage of gas or fluids into the cave's passages could kill cave life or cause explosions.

The World’s Worst Volcanic Eruptions

2008-01-22T13:15:00.000+07:00

The World’s Worst Volcanic Eruptions As Measured by Death Toll
This list of the world’s worst volcanic eruptions includes only those whose death toll can be reasonably documented. The death toll from some of the worst eruptions in history can only be guessed. The eruption of Santorini in Greece in 1650 BC destroyed competely destroyed entire civilizations. Scientist also theorize that an eruption of Tuba around 75,000 years ago caused a volcanic winter that came close to wiping out mankind.
1. Mt. Tambora, Indonesia April 10 - 15, 1816 Death Toll: 92,000
The eruption of Tambora killed an estimated 92,000 people, including 10,000 from explosion and ash fall, and 82,000 from other related causes.
The concussion from the explosion was felt as far as a thousand miles away. Mt. Tambora, which was more than 13,000 feet tall before the explosion was reduced to 9,000 feet after ejecting more than 93 cubic miles of debris into the atmosphere.
The effects of the eruption were felt worldwide: 1816 became known as the “year without a summer” because of the volcanic ash in the atmosphere that lowered worldwide temperatures. It snowed in New England that June, and crop failures were common throughout Northern Europe and North America. As many as 100,000 additional deaths from starvation in these areas are thought to be traced to the eruption.
2. Mt. Pelee, West Indies April 25 - May 8, 1902 Death Toll: 40,000
Thought to be dormant, Mt. Pelee began a series of eruptions on April 25, 1902. The primary eruption, on May 8 completely destroyed the city of St. Pierre, killing 25,000. The only survivors were a man held in a prison cell, and a man who lived on the outskirts of the town. Several ships also were destroyed with all hands.
3. Mt. Krakatoa, Indonesia August 26 - 28, 1883 Death Toll: 36,000
The August 1883 of Mt. Krakatoa (Krakatua) destroyed 2/3 of the island, ejecting more than six cubic miles of debris into the atmosphere. The sound of the explosion was the loudest ever documented, and was heard as far away as Australia.
Interestingly, it’s probable that no one died in the initial explosion. The casualties all came from the resulting tsunami.
4. Nevado del Ruiz, Columbia November 13, 1985 Death Toll: 23,000
A small eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano melted part of the volcano’s ice cap, creating an enormous mudslide that buried the city of Armero, killing 23,000.
5. Mt. Unzen, Japan 1792 Death Toll: 12,000 - 15,000
The eruption of Mt. Unzen was followed by an earthquake, which collapsed the east flank of the dome. The resulting avalance created a tsuanami which killed 12,000 to 15,000 in nearby towns.
6. Mt. Vesuvius, Italy April 24, AD 79 Death Toll: 10,000+
In one of the most famous eruptions of all time, Mt. Vesuvius erupted and completely destroyed the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The eruption, which is said to have lasted 19 hours, buried Pompeii in ten feet of volcanic ash. The intense heat—perhaps as much as 750 degrees—carbonized much of the organic material in the area. Many of the victims have been found with the tops of their heads missing—their brains having boiled and exploded.
7. The Laki Volcanic System, Iceland June 8, 1783 - February 1784 Death Toll: 9350
Nearly a year of constant eruptions created a dusty volcanic haze that created massive food shortages. Iceland suffered 9,350 deaths mostly due to starvation.
8. Mt. Vesuvius, Italy December 1631 Death Toll: 6,000
The notorious Mt. Vesuvius has erupted more than a dozen times since it destroyed the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The 1631 eruption killed as many as 6,000 people when lava flows consumed many of the surrounding towns. Boiling water ejected from the volcanos added to the destruction.
9. Mt. Kelut, Indonesia May 19, 1919 Death Toll: 5,110
Most of the casualties apparently were the result of mudslides.
10. Mt. Galunggung, Java, Indonesia 1882 Death Toll: 4,011

The Killing Fields

2008-01-01T13:11:00.000+07:00

The Killing Fields were a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Communist regime Khmer Rouge, which had ruled the country since 1975. The massacres ended in 1979, when Communist Vietnam invaded the country, which at that time was officially called Democratic Kampuchea, and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime. Estimates of the number of dead range from 1.7 to 2.3 million out of a population of around 7 million.[1]

The Khmer Rouge judicial process, for minor or political crimes, began with a warning from the Angkar, the government of Cambodia under the regime. People receiving more than two warnings were sent for "re-education", which meant near-certain death. People were often encouraged to confess to Angkar their "pre-revolutionary lifestyles and crimes" (which usually included some kind of free-market activity, or having had contact with a foreign source, such as a US missionary, or international relief or government agency, or contact with any foreigner or with the outside world at all), being told that Angkar would forgive them and "wipe the slate clean". This meant being taken away to a place such as Tuol Sleng or Choeung Ek for torture and/or execution.

The executed were buried in mass graves. In order to save ammunition, executions were often carried out using hammers, axe handles, spades or sharpened bamboo sticks. Some victims were required to dig their own graves; their weakness often meant that they were unable to dig very deep. The soldiers who carried out the executions were mostly young men or women from peasant families.

The Khmer Rouge regime arrested and eventually executed almost everyone suspected of connections with the former government or with foreign governments, as well as professionals and intellectuals. Ethnic Vietnamese, ethnic Chams (Muslim Cambodians), Cambodian Christians, and the Buddhist monkhood were the demographic targets of persecution.

The best known of the Killing Fields is Choeung Ek. Today, it is the site of a Buddhist memorial to the terror, and Tuol Sleng has a museum commemorating the genocide. A 1984 motion picture, The Killing Fields, tells the story of Cambodian journalist Dith Pran, played by Cambodian actor Haing S. Ngor, and his journey to escape the death camps.

Ball's Pyramid

2008-01-01T11:28:00.000+07:00

Ball's Pyramid is an erosional remnant of a shield volcano and caldera that formed about 7 million years ago. Ball's Pyramid is 20 km (13 miles) southeast of Lord Howe Island in the Pacific Ocean. It is 562 m high, while measuring only 200 m across.

Ball's Pyramid is located at 31°45′21″S, 159°15′02″E. It is part of the Lord Howe Island Marine Park.

Ball's Pyramid has a few satellite islets. Observatory Rock and Wheatsheaf Islet lie about 800 m WNW and 800 m WSW, respectively, of the western extremity of Ball's Pyramid. Southeast Rock is a pinnacle located about 3.5 km southeast of Ball's Pyramid. Like Lord Howe Island and the Lord Howe seamount chain, Ball's Pyramid is based on the Lord Howe Rise, part of the submerged continent of Zealandia.

History
The pyramid was named after Lieutenant Henry Ball who discovered it in 1788 at the same time he discovered Lord Howe Island (see the history section of that article). The first person to go ashore is believed to have been Henry Wilkinson in 1882, who was a geologist at the New South Wales Department of Mines.

The first successful climb to the summit was made on 14 February 1965 by a team of climbers from the Sydney Rock Climbing Club, consisting of Bryden Allen, John Davis, Jack Pettigrew and David Witham.[1]

There had been an earlier attempt in 1964 by another Sydney team that included adventurer Dick Smith (then just 20 years old) and other members of the Scouting movement. They were forced to turn back on their fifth day running short of food and water. In 1979 Smith returned to the pyramid, together with climbers John Worrall and Hugh Ward, and they successfully reached the summit. At the top they unfurled a flag of New South Wales provided to them by Premier Neville Wran and declared the island Australian territory (a formality which it seems had not previously been done).

Climbing was banned in 1982 under amendments to the Lord Howe Island Act, and in 1986 all access to the island was banned by the Lord Howe Island Board. In 1990 the policy changed to allow some climbing under strict conditions, which in recent years has required an application to the relevant state Minister (e.g.[2]).

In 2000/2001 the Lord Howe Island stick insect (Dryococelus australis) insect was found living on the pyramid.[3] (On the unsuccessful 1964 climb, Dave Roots had brought back a photograph of the insect, which the Australian Museum told him they thought was extinct.)

Yellow Mountain (Mt. Huangshan)

2008-01-01T11:05:00.000+07:00

As we know, the ancient Chinese people selected five great mountains in the country, that is, Mount Taishan, Mount Hengshan(south), Mount Huashan, Mount Songshan and Mount Hengshan(north). But whoever chose the mountains must have never seen Mt. Huangshan(Yellow Mountains), because as a Chinese saying goes, "After returning from Mount Huangshan, there is no need to see other mountains."

Located in the south of Anhui Province. Mt. Huangshan(Yellow Mountain) has 72 peaks, 24 streams, three waterfalls and two lakes Lotus Peak, Mount Huangshan's highest, is 1,864m above sea level. The four wonders of Mount Huangshan are strangely shaped pines, grotesque rocks, cloud seas, and hot springs. The beauty of Mt. Huangshan(Yellow Mountain) is so enchanting and unique that countless painters and poets have visited Mt. Huangshan(Yellow Mountain) to find inspiration. The Huangshan School of painting originated in the later years of the Ming Dynasty from the inspiration of Mount Huangshan's precipitous peaks. The poems and paintings about Mount Huangshan left by these artists and men of letters add cultural charm to the great mountain.

The pines with their fascinating shapes, the rocks with their strange contours, the sea of mist and clouds, and the hot springs -- these are the four wonders of Huangshan. Many of the pines on the mountain have their roots deep in rock crevices; the famous Welcoming Guests (Yingke) Pine is representative of these hardy trees. The temperature of the mountain's hot spring-water is around 42°C throughout the year. Clear and sweet, the water is ideal for drinking and bathing.

Tourists should not miss a visit to North Sea, (Beihai), West Sea (Xihai), Celestial Capital (Tiandu) Peak, Jade Screen (Yuping) Tower, and Cloud Valley (Yungu) Temple, which are among the prettiest sights on Mount Huangshan. Cool (Qingliang) Terrace is the best place for watching the sunrise and the clouds. Huangshan's charm has drawn many distinguished travelers, including poets, writers, and painters of various dynasties, and tourists continue to flock to this legendary mountain all the year round.

The most famous scenic spots of Mt. Huangshan(Yellow Mountain) include Lotus Peak, the Pock That Flew from Afar, and the Welcoming Guests Pine. At present, Mt. Huangshan(Yellow Mountain) is a national park and is on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

Tien Shan mountains, Discovering the wonders of our world

2007-12-30T23:44:00.000+07:00

Tien Shan mountains

coordinates42°02′06″N 80°07′32″E

The Tian Shan (Chinese: 天山; Pinyin: Tiān Shān; "celestial mountains"), also commonly spelled Tien Shan, and known as Tangri Tagh ("celestial mountains" or "mountains of the spirits") in the Uyghur language, is a mountain range located in Central Asia.

The now widely used name Tian Shan is a Chinese translation of the Uyghur name, which may in turn go back to a Xiongnu name, qilian (祁连) reported by the Shiji as the homeland of the Yuezhi, which has been argued[1] to refer to the Tian Shan rather than to the range 1,500 km further the east now known by this name. A nearby mountain range, the Tannu-Ola Mountains (Tuvan: Таңды-Уула Tangdy-Uula), also bears a synonymous name ("heaven/celestial mountains" or "god/spirit mountains").

The range lies to the north and west of the Taklamakan Desert in the border region of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China. In the south it links up with the Pamir Mountains. It also extends into the Chinese province of Xinjiang and into the northern areas of Pakistan, where it joins the Hindu Kush.

In Western cartography, the eastern end of the Tian Shan is usually understood to be just west of Ürümqi, while the range to the east of that city is known as the Bogda Shan. However, in Chinese cartography, from the Han Dynasty to the present, the Tian Shan is also considered to include the Bogda Shan and Barkol ranges.

The Tian Shan are a part of the Himalayan orogenic belt which was formed by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates in the Cenozoic era. They are one of the longest mountain ranges in Central Asia, stretching some 2,800 km eastward from Tashkent in Uzbekistan.

The highest peak in the Tian Shan is Jengish Chokusu which, at 7,439 metres (24,406 ft), is also the highest point in Kyrgyzstan and is on the border with China. The Tian Shan's second highest peak, Khan Tengri (Lord of the Spirits), at 7,010 m, straddles the Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan border. Mountaineers class these as the two most northerly peaks over 7,000 m in the world.

The Torugart Pass, 3,752 metres (12,310 ft) high, is located at the border between Kyrgyzstan and China's Xinjiang province. The forested Alatau ranges, which are at a lower altitude in the northern part of the Tian Shan, are inhabited by pastoral tribes speaking Turkic languages. The major rivers rising in the Tian Shan are the Syr Darya, the Ili river and the Tarim River. The Aksu Canyon is a notable feature in the northwestern Tian Shan.

One of the first Europeans to visit and the first to describe the Tian Shan in detail was the Russian explorer Peter Semenov in the 1850s.

Niagara Falls, Discovering the wonders of our world

2007-12-30T23:16:00.000+07:00

Location Niagara Falls (Ontario & New York)
Coordinates: 43°04′48″N 79°04′16″W / 43.080, -79.071

Niagara Falls (French: les Chutes du Niagara) is a set of massive waterfalls located on the Niagara River, straddling the international border separating the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York. The falls are located 17 miles (27 km) north-northwest of Buffalo, New York, 75 miles (120 km) south-southeast of Toronto, Ontario, between the twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York.

Niagara Falls is composed of two major sections separated by Goat Island: Horseshoe Falls, on the Canadian side of the border and American Falls on the United States side. The smaller Bridal Veil Falls also is located on the American side, separated from the main falls by Luna Island. Niagara Falls were formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age), and water from the newly-formed Great Lakes carved a path through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean. While not exceptionally high, the Niagara Falls are very wide. More than six million cubic feet (168,000 m³) of water fall over the crest line every minute in high flow,[1] and almost 4 million cubic feet (110,000 m³) on average. It is the most powerful waterfall in North America.[2]

The Niagara Falls are renowned both for their beauty and as a valuable source of hydroelectric power. Managing the balance between recreational, commercial, and industrial uses has been a challenge for the stewards of the falls since the 1800s.

Venezuela's Lost Worlds

2007-12-30T08:43:00.000+07:00

Canaima National Park is located in the south-east of Venezuela in Bolívar State close to the borders with Brazil and Guyana. The park protects the north-western section of the Guayana Shield, an ancient geological formation shared with Brazil, the Guianas and Colombia. The park was established in 1962 with an area of 10,000km2, but its size was increased to 30,000km2 in 1975 in order to safeguard the watershed functions of its river basins. At that time it became the world's largest national park, its area being equivalent to that of Belgium in Europe, or larger than the State of Maryland. In recognition of its extraordinary scenery and geological and biological values, the park was conceded World Heritage Status in 1994, forming one of a select list of 126 natural and natural-cultural World Heritage Sites worldwide. Canaima actually fulfilled all four of UNESCO's criteria for qualification as a World Heritage property. Ironically, the name of the park, which derives from the novel "Canaima" by Venezuelan author Rómulo Gallegos, means "spirit of evil" in the language of the Pemón, local inhabitants of the park.

A unique landscape formed from the oldest rocks on Earth
The best-known feature of Canaima National Park are its characteristic flat-topped mountain formations known as tepuis from the local indigenous name. These mountains were popularised in several novels from the early part of this century, many of them inspired by the 19th Century British botanist Everard Im Turn who lectured throughout Europe on his return. The most widely recognised of these novels is The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes novels, which describes the ascent of a South American plateau inhabited by prehistoric plants and dinosaurs.
The geological history of the area is only superficially understood. There are three main geological formations. The oldest is an underlying igneous-metamorphic basement formed some 1.2-3.6 billion years ago whilst South America was joined to Africa as the supercontinent Gondwanaland. Between 1.6 and 1 billion years ago, this was overlain with a sedimentary cover. The first of these formations is too deeply buried to be visible within the park, but second (known as the Roraima Group) forms the basis of the area's extraordinary topography (Huber 1995). It consists of quartzite and sandstone strata which were probably laid down in shallow seas or large inland lakes (Briceño et al. 1990) during the Pre-Cambrian period. Lastly, during Palaeozoic and Mesozoic times magma repeatedly penetrated the existing sediments forming intrusive rocks which are typically diabases, and to a lesser extent granites.
The tepui formations, not unlike those found in the deserts of northern Arizona, came into being by a process of erosion of the surrounding lands over millions of years. The tepuis are sandstone massifs, and it is thought that what are today mountains once formed harder or less faulted strata which were more resistant to erosion.
There is an impressive array of different soil types. The low mineral content of the parent rocks of the Guayana Shield, the high rates of weathering that occur in tropical climates and the age of the sediments has produced soils which are generally acid and nutrient poor. Only where there are more basic igneous intrusions are the soils capable of supporting luxuriant forests or cultivation.
One third of the plants are found nowhere else on the planet
The vegetation of the national park is quite strikingly divided between the mainly savanna-forest mosaic of the Eastern Sector of the park, known as the Gran Sabana, and evergreen forest in the west. It is still not clear what causes this difference and, in particular, how the savanna originated. Whilst some authors are inclined to believe the savanna to be a product of a rainfall shadow caused by the eastern tepuis, others consider the formation to be entirely anthropogenic, being a product of repeated burning by indigenous peoples. The truth undoubtedly lies in a combination of the two (Schubert and Huber 1989). The presence of 107 plant species found only in these savannas (Picón 1995), demonstrates that they have existed at least long enough to allow new species to form.
The savannas are dominated by grasses, typically Trachypogon plumosus and Axonopus pruinosus, and fire-resistant sedges like Bulbostylis paradoxa which forms a small cushion on which it raises itself above the ground to avoid the worst of the savanna blazes. Stunted shrubs like Palicourea rigida are also found at low densities. The high meadows, on the other hand are composed of typically Guayanan herbs such as the broadleaved species of the genus Stegolepis, a member of the Rapataceae, a family found only in the Guayana Shield and with one genus in West Africa; members of the Xyridaceae and Eriocaulaceae are also typical. The shrublands are usually composed of shrubs and bushes up to two metres tall, most of which are hard-leaved (coriaceous) and pertaining to several genera including Bonnetia and Clusia. The evergreen montane forests are often humid and luxuriant and include tree species of the families Leguminosae, Lauraceae, Vochysiaceae, Myristicaceae, Rubiaceae, Burseraceae and Annonaceae.
The tepui tops themselves are sometimes forested, with dwarf forests with members of theaceae (particularly Bonnetia roraimae), Araliaceae, Ericaceae, Compositae, Melastoataceae and Rubiaceae being prominent. In other cases, meadows prevail on the tops, typically with the composite Chimantea. One feature of these extremely nutrient poor environments is the presence of carnivorous plants, such as pitcher plants Heliamphora and sundews Drosera, which trap and digest insects as a supplement to mineral uptake through the roots. Pioneer vegetation is found on rocky outcrops with the bromeliads Brocchinia, Lindmania and Tillandsia being frequently observed (Schubert and Huber 1989).
An important formation in the lower altitudes close to the rivers and shallow valley bottoms of the Karuai, Apanwao and Yuruaní basins, are the seasonally flooded palm savannas, or "morichales", which are dominated by the "moriche" palm Mauritia flexuosa. A species rich herb layer of grasses, sedges and other plants is found with in these formations (Huber 1995).
Some 9400 species of higher plants have been recorded from the Venezuelan Guayana, of which 2322 are registered from the tepuis. This includes more than 700 species of orchid. The flora is highly endemic with 2 endemic families (Tepuianthaceae and Sacciofoliaceae), and 23 unique genera including Quelchia, Achnopogon and Chimantea of the Composite family, the Connelia bromeliads, the Tepuia heaths, the melastome Mallophyton, and Coryphothamnus of the bedstraw family. At the species level approximately 33% of the tepui species are endemic to the region with 99 species endemic to Chimantá alone (Huber 1995).
The fauna is yet to be thoroughly catalogued
Animal life is generally scarce all over the park and in all habitats, perhaps because of the extremely nutrient poor soils, which are unable to support a large biomass (Schubert and Huber 1990). In addition, there are relatively much fewer studies of animals than there are of plants, and thus our knowledge remains sketchy.
Reptiles and amphibians are poorly known. Amongst the frogs there is an endemic genus Oreophrynella with several species on the summits of the tepuis.
Some 536 bird species have been recorded from the park (Goodwin and Salas 1997). Of these, 42 are endemic to the tepui region. Examples include the Roraiman Nightjar Caprimulgus whitleyi, which is restricted to a few mountains in the south-east of the park, or the Tepui Tinamou Crypturellus ptaritepuiensis which is known from only two mountains within the park and has not been recorded for two decades.
Some 118 species of mammal have been recorded, but a further 92 are expected to occur (Ochoa et al. 1993). One of the few endemics is a small rodent Podoxymys roraimae from the summit of Roraima.
The park, being a large, relatively intact area, is important for the survival of tropical animals which are naturally found at very low densities and are elsewhere threatened with extincion. Thus, it is a refuge for large mammals such as puma Felis concolor, jaguar Panthera onca, tapir Tapirus terrestris, giant anteater Myrmecophaga tridactyla and giant armadillo Priodontes maximus. Likewise, avain top predators, like the legendary Harpy Eagle Harpia harpija, are also still to be found within the park.
Much more research is still needed in order to discover and classify the full range of species found within the park, let alone to truly understand the complex interrelationships of these basic elements and therefore the ecology of the area. This reflection has prompted entomologist Paul Spangler to comment of the tepui flora and fauna that "many of the experts who will study and classify these materials are not yet born" (in George 1989).

Bourke's Luck Potholes

2007-12-25T13:50:00.000+07:00

The Bourke's Luck Potholes are a famous tourist site in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. The Rock Formation was named after a miner called Tom Bourke, who found a bit gold here, but never got rich as the gold seam was located a short distance to the south of his claim.

Bourke's Luck Potholes

2007-12-25T13:46:00.000+07:00

Devils Tower

2007-12-25T07:13:00.000+07:00

America's First National Monument

Coordinates
44°35′25″N 104°42′55″W

Devils Tower rises 1267 feet above the Belle Fourche River. Once hidden, erosion has revealed Devils Tower. This 1347 acre park is covered with pine forests, woodlands, and grasslands. Deer, prairie dogs, and other wildlife are seen.
Also known as Bears Lodge, it is a sacred site for many American Indians.
President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower the first national monument in 1906.

Ao Phangnga National Park, Phangnga Province

2007-12-24T13:18:00.000+07:00

Ao Phangnga National Park

was established as a national park in 1982 to conserve and protect one of the most important coastal mangrove areas of the entire country. It located in the area of Amphoe Muang, Amphoe Takua Thung and Amphoe Ko Yao of Phangnga. The park covers the area of 400 square kilometres, mainly comprises of many isles of different shape and size. Caves and beautiful bays together with rock formations and mangrove are some of the park's major attractions. From Ao Phangnga, there are boat services at Tha Dan Pier in Amphoe Muang and at Surakun- Pier in Amphoe Takua Thung for tourists to visit the islands and its many attractions. There are;
Ko Panyi or Panyi Island

is among the main attractions. Quite small with only around two hundred families living here; mostly fishing for a living or selling souvenirs or running tourist restaurants. The villagers are mostly Muslims. The island may be reached by boat and visitors are welcome to tour the village where villagers can be seen producing fish sauce from koey, a tiny shrimp, or making shrimp paste - a very important ingredient in a Thai kitchen. The Village houses are inter-connected and built on poles one metre above the surface of the water. The Village has forgets on either side and is built on a mangrove reserve away from the high tide marks.
Ko Khao Ping Kan

locateded in Takua Thung district, derives its name from a broken rock formation with one part learning against one side of the hill. There is also another hill, nearby, called Khao Tpu, rising from the sea and looling very much like a giant nail with the head on top and the tail resting on the water.
Here may be seen a spectacular high cliff that appears to have been cloven in two, the halves supported by leaning against each other-a sight of rare and exquisite beauty.
Ko Tapu
"Nail Island" in English, is a small island located in front of Khao Ping Kan. The Base of the rock is quite narrow but having a broad peak, giving the strange a beautiful appearance of a spike driven into the sea.
Khao Khien
Here, in a mountain cavern, primitive paintings depicting fish, water lizard, dolphin, believed to be several thousand years old, may be seen.
Ko Nom Sao
These twin islands, also called Ko Ok Meri, are located nearby Ko Panyi.
Thum Lot Cave
This cave is another spot of interest in Ao Phangnga area. Similar in appearance but larger than Ko Talu. The mouth of the cave is about 50 meters wide, 40 meters high, and small boats may pass through. There are beautiful stalactites inside the cave which its total length of about 100 meters.
Ko Talu
This island is just beyond Ko Nom Sao. The middle part of it has been eroded by water and boats pass among giant stalacities from one side of the island to the other through a water-filled cavern.
Khao Machu
Here on a hilltop, there is a rock formation resembling a chow.
Ko Yao
Ko Yao covers an area of 137.6 square kilometers consisting of 2 main island: Ko Yao Noi and Ko Yao Yai, and several surrounding islets. Beautiful beaches include: Hat Pa Sai, Hat Tha Khao, Ao Tikut, Ao Khlong Son, Hat Loparent, etc. To get to Ko Yao from Ao Phagnga pier takes about 2 hours. Boats are also available from Ao Po, Phuket, the travel takes about 1 1/2 hours. Customs Landing, this island has an interesting pearl raising farm and excellent swimming and fishing with beautiful scenery.
The best time of the year to visit these places is between December and April when good quality accommodation can be found in Phangnga bay Resort from where you can see spectacular sunrises from the hotel's balconies.
There is a mountain range backdrop to the hotel. The hotel rents out boats for private parties, with attendent crews, to make trips to Panyi Island and Tham Lot. Room rates vary between 1,200 and 2,500 baht a night.

Ko Tapu National Park

2007-12-24T13:17:00.000+07:00

"Nail Island" in English, is a small island located in front of Khao Ping Kan. The Base of the rock is quite narrow but having a broad peak, giving the strange a beautiful appearance of a spike driven into the sea.

Guilin Hills

2007-12-24T12:59:00.000+07:00

Guilin is a city in China, situated in the northeast of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on the west bank of the Lijiang River. Its name means "forest of Sweet Osmanthus", owing to the large number of fragrant Sweet Osmanthus trees located in the city. The city has long been renowned for its unique scenery.

History

In 314 BC, a small settlement was established along the banks of the Li River.

In 111 BC, during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Shi An County was established, which could be regarded as the beginning of the city.

In 507 AD, the town was renamed Guizhou.

Guilin prospered in the Tang and Song dynasties but remained a county. The city was also a nexus between the central government and the southwest border, and it was where regular armies were placed to guard that border. Canals were built through the city so that food supplies could be directly transported from the food-productive Yangtze plain to the farthest southwestern point of the empire.

In 1921, Guilin became one of the headquarters of the Northern Expeditionary Army led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

In 1940, the city acquired its present name. In 1981, this ancient city was listed by the State Council as one of the four cities (the other three being Beijing, Hangzhou and Suzhou) where the protection of historical and cultural heritage, as well as natural scenery, should be treated as a priority project.

Physical setting
Elephant Trunk Hill, the Symbol of Guilin

Area: 27,809 km² Subtropical region Typical karst formation Mountains: Diecai Hill (叠彩山), Elephant Trunk Hill (象鼻山), Seven-Star Cave (七星岩), Wave-Subduing Hill (伏波山), Lipu Mountains and Yaoshan Mountains Rivers: Lijiang

Reed Flute Cave, Reed Flute Park, some of Guillin's best scenery

Attractions
The Jingjiang Princes City is a royal complex dating from the Ming Dynasty that lies near the center of modern Guilin.

Other scenic spots around Guilin include:

Seven Star Park Seven-Star Cave and Ludi (Reed-Flute) Cave Camel Mountain and Elephant Trunk Hill Piled Festoon Hill Crescent Hill Fubo Hill Nanxi Hill Erlang Gorge Huangbu (Yellow Cloth) Beach Moon Hill

Samaria Gorge

2007-12-24T09:14:00.001+07:00

The Samariá Gorge is a national park in the island of Crete, one of the major tourist attractions of the island.

The gorge is in the prefecture of Chania in the South West of Crete. It was created by a small river running between the White Mountains (Lefká Óri) and Mount Volakias. There are a number of other gorges in the White Mountains. Some people say that the gorge is 18 km long but this distance refers to the distance between the settlement of Omalos on the northern side of the plateau and the village of Agia Roumeli. In fact, the gorge is 16km long, starting at an altitude of 1250m, at the northern entrance, and taking you all the way down to the shores of the Libyan sea in Agia Roumeli. The walk through the National Park of Samaria is 13 km but you will have to walk the extra 3 km to Agia Roumeli from the exit of the National Park making it 16 km. The most famous part of the gorge is the section known as the 'Iron Gates', where the sides of the gorge close to about 4 meters in and reach up to 500 meters high.

The gorge became a national park in 1962, particularly as a refuge for the rare Kri-kri (Cretan goat), which is largely restricted to the park and a small island just off the shore of Agia Marina. There are several other endemic species in the gorge and surrounding area, as well as many other species of flower, bird, etc.

The village of Samariá lies just inside the gorge. It was finally abandoned by the last remaining inhabitants in 1962 to make way for the park. The village and the gorge take their name from the village's ancient church Óssia María (St Mary).

Coordinate
35° 16′ 16″ N, 23° 57′ 41″ E
Decimal
35.271111°, 23.961389°

Dadès River

2007-12-17T06:23:00.000+07:00

Dadès River (French: Oued Dadès) is a river in Morocco, located at 31.0025° N 6.5266667° W. It rises in the High Atlas and then turns south crossing through the Dadès Gorge, thence westward between the High Atlas and Anti-Atlas mountain ranges. Finally river meets Ouarzazate River and enters Draa River. The Dades Gorge is easily accessible by taxi from nearby Tinerhir. The scenery is significant with views of interesting rock formations. The valley itself is made lush and green by the river, while the surrounding area is rocky desert. There are simple communitities still living here in traditional houses. Women can be seen washing laundry in the river and laying it to dry on the surrounding bushes.

Hydrology

Flow rate of the river is highly seasonal with peak flows in the January to April period following the high precipitation and ensuing snowmelt. The water quality is alkaline, and summer water temperatures are in the range of 23 to 28 degrees Celsius. Electrical conductivity of the water is relatively high. (Hogan, 2006)

Ahaggar Mountains

2007-12-17T06:08:00.000+07:00

Country Algeria Highest point Mount Tahat - elevation 3,003 m (9,852 ft) - coordinates 23°17′N 05°31′W The Ahaggar Mountains (Amazigh: idurar uhaggar), also known as the Hoggar, are a highland region in central Sahara, or southern Algeria near the Tropic of Cancer. They are located about 1,500 km (900 mi) south of the capital, Algiers and just west of Tamanghasset. The region is largely rocky desert with an average altitude of more than 900 metres (2,953 feet) above sea level. The highest peak is at 3,003 metres (Mount Tahat). Assekrem is a famous and often visited point where le Père de Foucauld lived in the summer of 1905.

Description

The mountain range is mostly volcanic rock and contains a hot summer climate, with a cold winter climate (temperature fall below 0°C in the winter). Rainfall is rare and sporadic. However, since the climate is less extreme than most other areas of the Sahara, the Ahaggar Mountains are a major location for biodiversity and host relict species. The Ahaggar Mountains compose the West Saharan montane xeric woodlands ecoregion. The main city nearby the Ahaggar is Tamanghasset, built in a desert valley or wadi.

Today, the Ahaggar region is a prime tourist destination in Algeria.

Cultural

SignificanceThe Ahaggar massif is the land of the Tuaregs or Kel Ahaggar. The tomb of Tin Hinan, the god believed to be the ancestor of the Tuareg is located at Abalessa, an oasis near Tamanghasset. According to legend, the origins of Tim Lam are from Tafilalt region in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains.