The Environments

Eye of Africa, Mauritania

2012-03-29T14:37:00.001-07:00

The Richat Structure, also known as the Eye of the Sahara and Guelb er Richat, is a prominent circular feature in the Sahara desert of west – central Mauritania near Ouadane. This structure is a deeply eroded, slightly elliptical, 40-km in diameter, dome. The sedimentary rock exposed in this dome range in age from Late Proterozoic within the center of the dome to Ordovician sandstone around its edges.

Since the beginning of space missions, the Earth’s bulls-eye caught the interest of astronauts in the otherwise featureless Sahara Desert. Over the years, it has become a landmark for astronauts. At first, the circular pattern was thought to have been a meteorite impact, but now the 31 mile wide bulls-eye, called the Richat Structure, is believed to be uplifted rock, a circular anticline, laid bare by erosion. Some people call this bulls-eye in the Sahara the “Eye of Africa.

to view in google maps: http://en.geo-trotter.com/africa/map-africa-mauritania-eye.php

source: http://www.lovethesepics.com/2011/04/earths-bulls-eye-the-eye-of-africa-landmark-for-astronauts-14-pics/

Kjeragbolten, Norway

2012-03-27T04:36:00.001-07:00

Kjerag or Kiragg is a Norwegian mountain, located in Lysefjorden, in Forsand municipality, Ryfylke, Rogaland. Its highest point is 1110 m above sea level, but its northern drop to Lysefjorden attracts most visitors. The drop is 984 m (3,228 ft) and is just by the famous Kjeragbolten, a 5 m³ big stone which is plugged between two rocks.

Kjerag is a popular hiking destination. Some go there because Preikestolen has become too crowded, some to jump onto Kjeragbolten and quite a lot of BASE jumpers from all over the world go there to dive off the high cliffs. Kjerag is also a popular climbing destination, with many difficult routes going up its steep faces.

Kjeragbolten is the name of a massive bounder that’s wedged and completely stuck between the walls of two steep cliffs in Kjerag Mountains, Norway. Despite its spectacularly crazy visual appeal, Kjeragbolten is surprisingly easy to walk onto and pose for a photo. No special rock climbing skills are required, you don’t even need any special equipment. Just need a pair of fit legs to get you up on top of Kjerag Mountains and you’re set for a photo opportunity that will leave your relatives and friends in awe.

Easter Island, Chile.

2012-03-15T13:12:00.001-07:00

This island is one of the most mysterious places in the world. The island is world-known for its giant statues carved of stone. The giant statues look into the sky as if they are begging for mercy. Only stone statues know where their creators went. No one on the island knows the art of statue-making. No one knows how it could be possible to make those 20-meter high and 90-ton heavy giants. The statues used to be transported 20 kilometers far from the quarry, where ancient sculptors worked.

There has been a lot controversy over the origins of the Easter Islanders. evidence if archaeological findings, however, indicates discovery of the island by Polynesians at about 400 AD – led, according to legend, by Hotu Matua.

Easter Island (Rapa Nui: Rapa Nui, Spanish: Isla de Pascua) is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people. It is a World Heritage Site (as determined by UNESCO) with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park. In recent times the island has served as a warning of the cultural and environmental dangers of overexploitation. Ethnographers and archaeologists also blame diseases carried by European colonizers and slave raiding of the 1860s for devastating the local peoples^.

Easter Island is claimed to be the most remote inhabited island in the world

sources: google.com

wikipedia

The Hottest Place on Earth

2012-03-12T13:05:00.001-07:00

Dallol is a volcanic explosion crater (or maar) in the Danakil Depression, northeast of the Erta Ale Range in Ethiopia. It has been formed by the intrusion of basaltic magma in Miocene salt deposits and subsequent hydrothermal activity. Phreatic eruptions took place here in 1926, forming Dallol Volcano, numerous other eruption craters dot the salt flats nearby. These craters are the lowest known subaerial volcanic vents in the world, at over 45 m (150 ft) below sea level.

Numerous hot springs are discharging brine and acidic liquid here. Widespread are small, temporary geysers which are forming cones of salt.

Acidic lakes of the Dallol

Dallol Volcano Numerous hot springs are discharging brine and acidic liquid here. Widespread are small, temporary geysers which are forming cones of salt. (wikipedia)

Sulfur, salt, and other minerals color the crater of the Dallol volcano

One of the most unusual places on Earth is Dallol Volcano. It is dubbed to be the most colourful place on Earth and the hottest place in the world. This is the only volcano in the world below the sea level and without water over it. This place has got the only geysers of salt and acid in the world - and lots of them!

These unique phenomena have been created by a rare coincidence of several geological factors

Giant lens of salt

Nowadays Danakil Depression is dry desert - but in the past, in Miocene epoch it has been repeatedly inundated by the sea, forming a deep gulf. Every time when this gulf was cut off from the ocean, it dried out, leaving salt deposits.

As a result here has formed more than one kilometre thick layer of salt. Countless caravans have been coming here and mining the salt for centuries - and they still do it today.

Vapour, explosions and maars

Dallol Volcano is not a true volcano. Here, in the thick salt layers has intruded basaltic magma. As the groundwater descends deeper, it meets overheated rocks and turns into vapour. When the pressure of vapour reaches critical level, the ground (here - salt) above this superheated vapour is blown off in spectacular explosion, leaving a crater -maar.

Last time such explosion took place in 1926, some 1.5 km to the south-west from the main crater of Dallol Volcano. Now in the site of this explosion is located deep, 30 m wide, round pit, filled with orange brine.

Will there be more explosions in future? Most likely - yes. This can happen every second.

The 1.5 by 3 km large crater of Dallol Volcano has formed by the collapse of salt layers. Multiple hot springs above the hot magma have washed out the salt layers, leaving voids, which at some moment have collapsed.

Most colourful place on Earth?

The salts of Danakil Depression are white or transparent - just like the table salt. Here have been mixed diverse salts - the well known halite (NaCl), but also sylvite, carnallite, kainite.

Volcanic heat though brings up from the depths other, more colourful elements - the bright yellow sulphur and the iron. Iron adds lots of colors - green, blue-green, orange, brown.

All of this - the immense layer of salts and the colourful iron compounds and sulphur are blended by the countless hot springs in the crater of Dallol Volcano. This has resulted in one of the most unusual landscapes on Earth.

Crater is filled with small ponds of water (no, not water - a brine and often - sulphuric acid with pH below 1!) in different colors. In one pond the liquid might be in poisonous green color, but right next to it there might be a yellow or blue-green pool.

Ponds are divided by salt - and often this salt is white as snow, but also - green, orange, yellow.

Here have formed also rimstone formations - small stone dams. Again - this is unique place where can be seen rimstone formations made of salt, may be the only ones in the world. Elsewhere in the world rimstones are formed from travertine or sinter - and even such travertine rimstones are quite rare.

                                                                                                           sources: www.google.com
                                                                                                                      www.wondermondo.com
                                                                                                                           national geographic

Castle of Presule, Italy

2012-03-04T11:47:00.002-08:00

A dense winter fog cleared briefly to reveal this fairy-tale scene around the Castle of Presule in South Tirol, Italy. The main castle was built around 1500, but it contains portions of the original fortress erected on the site in the early 13th century.

Prösels Castle is a castle in the Gothic style which stands on the high plain below the Schlern mountain, in South Tyrol

In Italian it is sometimes called Castel Colonna, reflecting the fact that around the time of Leonhard II the Völs family started to add the Colonna family name to their own.
The castle remained in the hands of the family until its last member, Felix, Freiherr von Völs, died childless in 1810. For the next 50 years the castle stood empty and nearly fell into ruins. Between 1860 and 1978 the castle changed hands no fewer than 14 times, suffering periods of decay followed by attempted restoration before finally being abandoned to its fate. However, in 1981 the Kuratorium Schloss Prösels (Prösels Castle Curatorship) was formed to restore the building; the work was completed the following year.^[3]

Neuschwanstein, Germany

2012-03-04T11:36:00.001-08:00

Commanding a view of the bluish-green Alpsee lake and girded by dark forests, King Ludwig's fairy-tale marble castle Neuschwanstein rises from a lofty rock west of Hohenschwangau in Bavaria, Germany.

national geographic

Swallow's Nest Castle, Ukraine

2012-03-04T11:33:00.002-08:00

The neo-Gothic Swallow's Nest castle perches 130 feet (40 meters) above the Black Sea near Yalta in southern Ukraine. Built by a German noble in 1912, the flamboyant seaside residence now houses an Italian restaurant.

national geographic

2012-03-04T11:32:00.002-08:00

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2012-02-25T11:50:00.002-08:00

ok by now i have posted many pictures about different environments, and you have an idea about this blog. Almost every week there will be a different topic. I hope this blog will be as useful as possible.

Studying a Softball-sized Snail with a Pregnant Foot

2012-02-25T11:40:00.000-08:00

Snails living on and around hydrothermal chimneys in complete darkness provide excellent material for startling scientific discoveries (Photo taken by ROV Jason II, Dr. Charles Fisher, Chief Scientist)

By Kyle Reynolds, Benthic Ecology Lab

Can you imagine being pregnant in your foot? That’s just one of the fascinating things I discovered about the snail species I studied for my thesis. I studied animals at hydrothermal vents (seafloor volcanoes) and the adaptations they’ve made that help them cope with their harsh environments. Specifically, I looked at two species of snails thatlive about 1.5 miles deep in the southwestern Pacific at a hydrothermal vent system near Tonga and Fiji.

These snails get as big as softballs when full-grown and have evolved many ways to deal with life in a chemically toxic volcanic world. My thesis focused mainly on reproductive adaptations, and I was able to find many of those. Not only have they wrapped their larvae in protective coatings, they also house them for a short time in a pouch in their foot! Like I said – pregnant in your foot!

Hangin' at the vent: These black snails and a variety of neighbors make a living in a harsh environment (Photo taken by ROV Jason II, Dr. Charles Fisher, Chief Scientist)

from:
http://mlmlblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/pregnant-foot/

2012-02-24T11:13:00.001-08:00

Himalayas

2012-02-23T12:28:00.003-08:00

Pictures from: http://www.wisdom-study-abroad.com

Mecca Royal Hotel Clock Tower

2012-02-23T10:17:00.001-08:00

The tallest hotel in the world, and the tallest clock tower in the world. The world's largest clock face, and the world's largest building floor area. Floor area= 1,500,000 square metres (16 million square feet)
HEIGHT: 1972 feet.

Waterfalls

2012-02-21T12:17:00.001-08:00

Waterfalls

2012-02-21T12:15:00.001-08:00

Some beautiful pictures of waterfalls

Sea Level Rise

2012-02-21T08:51:00.000-08:00

Antarctic Ice Shelf

Photograph by Maria Stenzel

Higher, warmer seas undermine the massive ice shelves that jut out from the Antarctic continent, eroding them from beneath. A series of spectacular ice shelf collapses in recent decades have aggravated sea level rise not by the millions of tons of ice they dispersed into the oceans (that ice was already floating), but by allowing the glaciers they once contained to flow freely into the sea.
National Geographic

Calgary city

2012-02-21T08:18:00.000-08:00

Calgary is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada

Emerald Iceberg

2012-02-21T05:51:00.000-08:00

2012-02-20T09:01:00.001-08:00

nice view

2012-02-19T14:17:00.001-08:00

2012-02-19T08:14:00.001-08:00

who can stand in front of that??!!

2012-02-18T10:56:00.001-08:00

clean and pure water runs between the the two columns of green trees along a mountin that reaches the clouds

Welcome

2012-02-18T10:27:00.000-08:00

welcome to the environmental page. Here you can see different types of environments including natural and urban.