Natural Wonders

Victoria Falls

2011-06-06T15:11:00.000-07:00

The Victoria Falls constitutes one of the most spectacular Natural Wonders of the World. It is most commonly referred to as "Mosi-ao-Tunya" which means The Smoke that Thunders.

The Victoria Falls is located in the southern part of Africa on the Zambezi river between the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is attributed to as the world's largest sheet of falling water and it is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. In the year 1855, David Livingstone, the Scottish missionary and explorer, is believed to have been the first European recorded to view the Victoria Falls. This waterfall is 1708 meters (5604 ft) in width and 108 meters (354 ft) in height, which is roughly twice the height of North America's Niagara Falls and over twice the width of its Horseshoe Falls. The falls are formed as the full width of the river plummets in a single vertical drop into a transverse chasm, carved by its waters along a fracture zone in the basalt plateau. The dept of the chasm varies from 80 meters (262.5 ft) at its western end to 108 meters (354.3 ft) in the center, and this is called the First Gorge. The only outlet to the First Gorge is a 110 meters (360.9 ft) wide gap about two-thirds of the way across the width of the falls from the western end, through which the whole volume of the river pours into the Victoria Falls gorges.

The falls are actually split into a number of separate waterfalls owing to the small islands dotted along the top of the Falls that interrupt the curtain of water. Boaruka Island near the western bank and Livingstone Island near the middle are the two important islands on the crest of the falls that are large enough to separate the curtain of water even at the full flood. The other islands that divide the curtain of water into separate parallel streams are: Devil's Cataract, Main Falls, Rainbow Falls and the Eastern Cataract.

The river's annual flood season is from Feb to May with a peak in April. During this full flood season, the spray from the falls typically rises to a height of over 400 meters and sometimes even twice as height and is visible from upto 50 km away. So, during this time of the year, the falls cannot be seen on foot on the Zimbabwe side with clouds of spray rising height into the sky and drenching all tourists. But it is the best time to see "Moonbow" that forms in the spray, at the full moon, instead of the normal daylight rainbow. From May as the annual flood abates, the view of the falls gets better and most of the Victoria Falls can be seen.

source: http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Victoria_Falls

Cotopaxi

2010-12-03T13:23:00.000-08:00

Cotopaxi is the sight to behold. Towering above the neighboring Andean peaks in north-central Ecuador, South America, it is an almost perfectly symmetrical volcanic cone. Dominating the capital city of Quito skyline to the south, 19,348 feet in elevation, Cotopaxi is the second highest peak in the Ecuador and the highest continually active volcano in the world. Its flanks are largely covered by permanent fields of snow and ice. And it is the snow that presents the greatest peril when the volcano intermittently erupts. Cotopaxi means "Smooth Neck of the Moon" and the native people have worshiped the mountain for centuries.
Cotopaxi's shapely profile was a long time in the making, for it is actually composed of two volcanic structures, with the newer one superimposed on its ancient ancestor. The older volcano called Picacho, was formed long before any of the neighboring extinct volcanoes in this area of the Andes. Traces of its caldera (a giant crater like cavity formed when a volcano's top collapses in an explosion.) are still visible on Cotopaxi's flanks.

Cotopaxi is known as a Stratovolcano: built up with lava flows alternating with layers of ash and other volcanic materials that were exploded from its vent. But the most deadliest effects of its eruptions result from Lahars - gigantic avalanches of mud and meltwater that periodically come flooding down its flanks. The first recorded eruption of Cotopaxi was in 1533. Of the many that have occurred since then, the worst took place in 1877. The explosions were heard over a radius of more than 200 miles, clouds of ash and pumice completely darkened the midday sky and the accompanying lahars killed thousands of people. Evidence of that catastrophic flow can still be seen throughout much of the countryside of the Sierras. Though Cotopaxi remains active, it has been long since the last large eruption.

For more details, visit: http://galapagosonline.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/cotopaxi/

Wind Cave

2010-11-06T08:33:00.001-07:00

Wind Cave, located in the rugged Black Hills of South Dakota is one of the world's longest and complex cave. It was named for its very strong air currents that pass in and out of its entrance. Changes in barometric pressure rises apparently trigger these eerie winds. When the atmospheric pressure rises outside the cave, wind rushes in; then when the outside air pressure drops, the air rushes out again.
Wind Cave is remarkable for its unrivaled displays of the delicate rock formation known as Boxwork - The nature's intricate art wonders!. Boxwork is found in small amounts in other caves, but perhaps in no other cave in the world is boxwork so well-formed and abundant as in Wind Cave. [Boxwork is made of thin blades of calcite that project from cave walls and ceilings, forming a honeycomb pattern.] When the limestone containing the cave was uplifted some 60 million years ago, it was broken up by networks of intersecting cracks. Over long periods of time, seeping water deposited veins of the mineral calcite in the cracks. Later, when the cave was formed, the enveloping limestone was eroded away, while the more resistant calcite in the cracks was left projecting from the ceilings and walls in fragile, beautifully intricate patterns.
The Wind Cave National Park has a number of unusual attractions above the ground as well, 28,295 acres of mixed-grass prairie, ponderosa pine forest, and associated wildlife are the main features of this park.

Torcal De Antequera

2010-08-07T00:19:00.000-07:00

Torcal de Antequera is a limestone plateau in the mountains about 20 miles north of the port city of Malaga (Spain) on the mediterranean sea. All across the surface of the plateau, strangely eroded rock formations suggest the ruins of an ancient city. Oddly realistic sculptural forms and huge bastions that resemble ruins are seperated by labyrinths of alleys and rubble-strewn trenches.
No city ever rose on this site, however the ruins, in fact are the typical remnants of erosion in a limestone landscape. The limestone here, more than 2000 feet thick, was long ago broken up by vertical and horizontal fractures. At a time when the water table was high, the underground streams coursed through the fractures. The water dissolved the limestone and gradually enlarged the openings into a maze of galleries and chambers. Eventually the roofs of the tunnels caved in, forming the trenches - the streets and plazas of the ruined city. Ever since they were exposed, the rocky bastions that were left standing between the trenches have been attacked by wind and weather, which have gradually softened and reshaped their contours.
Meanwhile the water continues to work its way through the limestone that makes up the Plateau. Seeping through fractures at lower levels beneath the eroded surface, it is carving out new networks of channels, chasms, and caves. In time the ceilings may once again collapse, thereby revealing another, presently hidden underground landscape.

Dolomites

2010-07-15T22:28:00.000-07:00

The Dolomites are a series of mountain groups in north-eastern Italy, in the Italian Alps.

The Dolomites' cliam to fame is not great height: the tallest peak in this part of the Italian Alps, Monte Marmolada, reaches up only 10,964 feet. What makes Dolomites memorable is their incredibly bold contours, with stark, sheer-walled massifs rising straight up from gently inclined lower slopes. The contrast is especially striking in winter, when snow blankets the valleys and slopes but not the somber walls of stone. Looming against the horizon are massive rock formations that resemble needles, spires, castles, and fortresses. Saw-toothed ridges tower over distant valleys, while vertical walls rise straight up for 3300 feet and more. Dolomites are actually originated in a warm, shallow sea. Some 200 million years ago water covered the region, and a coral reef developed atop much older beds of shale and marl. Over the millennia the coral was compressed into a distinctive type of limestone that contains magnesium. Known as Dolomite, it was named after the 18th century French geologist Deodat Dolomieu, who first described the rock. During the period of mountain building that began 65 million years ago, the Dolomites were uplifted along with the rest of the Alps. As the mountains were rising, the forces of erosion began their work of wearing down. Valleys developed where the softer, more easily eroded shale and marl were exposed. The harder Dolomite, in contrast, wore away much more slowly. As a result, great mass of Dolomite remain more or less intact, forming the stark massifs that now typify this part of Alps.

Eyjafjallajokull Glacier

2010-04-22T09:51:00.000-07:00

Iceland is the best place to study about Glacier and glacial landforms. Almost all types of Glaciers are found here, ranging from the small cirque glaciers to extensive glacier caps. Glaciers are classified based on their size and relationship to topography. The smallest glaciers are confined to mountain valleys. These are called Valley glacier or Alpine glacier. Larger masses of ice cover an entire mountain range or volcano. These glaciers are called Ice caps and most glaciers in Iceland classify as Ice caps.
Eyjafjallajokull is the fifth largest glacier in Iceland. It is situated to the north of Skogar and to the west of Myrdalsjokull. The ice cap of the glacier covers an active stratovolcano with a summit elevation of 1666 meters, and a crater of 3 to 4 Km in diameter and has erupted rather frequently since the ice age. The last eruption was in 1821 - 1823, causing a fatal glacier run. And most recently erupted again in 2010. This recent eruption is thought to have begun on 20th march 2010, about 8km east of the top crater of the volcano. This first eruption in the form of a fissure vent (a linear volcanic vent through which lava erupts, usually without any explosive activity) did not occur under the glacier and was smaller in scale than had been thought by some geologist. On April 14th 2010, Eyjafjallajokull resumed erupting after a brief pause, this time from the top crater in the center of the glacier, causing meltwater (water released by the melting of galcial ice) floods to rush down the nearby rivers, forcing 800 people to be evacuated. This second eruption threw volcanic ash several kilometer up in the atmosphere and also has created a rare electrical storms.
Nature is admirable, peaceful and pleasant when it is silent but once active it is disastrous!

View Source: Wikipedia

Circumhorizontal Arc

2009-12-31T14:44:00.000-08:00

Circumhorizontal Arc, (sometimes known as Fire Rainbow for its flame-like appearance) is the rarest of all naturally occurring atmospheric wonder. It is an optical phenomenon, an ice-halo formed by plate shaped ice crystals in high level cirrus clouds.

For a circumhorizon arc to be visible, the sun must be at least 58 degrees high in a sky. Cirrus clouds containing relatively large plate shaped ice crystals must also be present. The arc is produced by this plate oriented crystals. Sunlight enters a near vertical side face and leaves via the lower near horizontal face (check the source for diagram). The refraction of the almost parallel solar rays through faces inclined at 90 degree produces the pure, bright and well separated prismatic colors. The colors are purer than those of the rainbow.

Source: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/chaform.htm

Grand Canyon

2009-11-20T13:55:00.000-08:00

"Grand" does not tell how truly incomprehensible this canyon is. Most people use such words as "marvelous" or "fantastic" but no word is really adequate to describe this amazing wonder of nature. The scene continually changes as light plays off the rocks and clouds, creating shadows and contrasts. The world seems larger here with sunrises, sunsets, and storms taking on an added dimension to match the landscape. The permutations are unceasing, and the moods are without end. This is a land to humble the soul.

Grand Canyon is in the northwest corner of Arizona, close to the borders of Utah and Nevada. The Colorado River, which flows through the canyon, drains water from seven states, but the feature we know as Grand Canyon is entirely in Arizona. Most of Grand Canyon lies within Grand Canyon National Park and is managed by the National Park Service. It was first protected in 1893 as a forest reserve in which mining, hunting and lumbering were permitted; upgraded to a game reserve in 1906, giving protection to the wildlife; and declared a national park on 26 Feb 1919 by Act of Congress. The climate at Grand Canyon is classified as semi-arid (south rim receives 15 inches of precipitation each year, only 8 inches each year reaches the canyon bottom). Many people consider Grand Canyon National Park the world’s premiere geologic landscape and a "geologic wonder". Grand Canyon contains many important geologic resources, including a vast fossil record ranging from Precambrian stromatolites to Ice Age mammal bones and dung found in caves; a potentially active volcanic field in the western Grand Canyon; a geologic history ranging more than 1.7 billion years; and the canyon landscape itself as the greatest example of arid land erosion. Grand Canyon owes its unique shape to the fact that the different rock layers in the canyon walls each respond to erosion in different ways: some form slopes, some form cliffs, some erode more quickly than others. The vivid colors of many of these layers are mainly due to small amount of various minerals, most containing iron, which impart subtle shades of red, yellow or green to the canyon walls. Climate plays an important role, too. If the climate at Grand Canyon were wetter, the planes and trees that grow there would be very different, and the canyon walls might be covered with lush vegetation.

For more information visit: http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/parks/grca/index.cfm

Mariana Trench

2009-08-05T13:53:00.000-07:00

Mariana Trench - It is the deepest part of the earth's ocean and the deepest location of the earth itself. Mariana Trench is located in the Pacific ocean, just east of the 14 Mariana Islands near Japan. The trench is about 1580 miles long with the mean width of only 43 miles. It reaches a maximum depth of about 10,924 meters at the Challenger Deep, a small slot-shaped valley in its floor, at its southern end.

Mariana Trench was created by ocean-to-ocean subduction, a phenomena in which a plate topped by oceanic crust is subducted beneath another plate topped by oceanic crust. The deepest part of the Mariana Trench is the Challenger Deep, so named after the British exploration vessel HMS Challenger II. So how come the Challenger Deep is so deep? - Well, the earth's crust is not one solid piece of rock, its really pretty thin. In fact its made up of huge plates of thin crust that float on the molten rock of the earth's mantle. While floating around the mantle the edges of these plates slide past each other, bump into each other and sometimes even crash. The oceanic crust is much heavier than the continental crust so when the plates crash into each other, the oceanic plate plunges downward toward the molten mantle, while the lighter continental plate rides up over the top. The forces driving the two plates are really intense so the underlying oceanic plate creates a trench where it drags the edge of the continental crust down as it descends underneath. This is what is happening on the bottom of the Pacific ocean off the Marianas Islands.

View Source: http://www.extremescience.com/DeepestOcean.htm

Great Blue Hole

2009-06-12T16:07:00.000-07:00

Great Blue Hole - A feature attraction of Diving, lies approximately 60 miles off the mainland out of Belize City, Central America. It is one of the astounding dive sites to be found anywhere on earth and an amazing natural wonders of the world. Its a part of the Lighthouse Reef System, and right in its center is a large, almost perfectly a circular hole approximately one quarter of a mile across. Inside the hole the water is 480 feet deep and it is the dept of water which gives the deep blue color. Hence the name Blue Hole. The blue hole is a perfectly circular limestone sinkhole more than 300 feet across and 412 feet deep. The array of bizarre stalactites and limestone formation which mould its inner wall seems to become more intricate and intense the deeper one dives. The hole is surrounded by circular reefs, that stretches for about 1000 feet and provide an ideal habitat for corals to attach and flourish. The hole itself is the opening to a system of caves and passageway that penetrate this undersea mountain. In various places, massive limestone stalactites hang down from what was once the ceiling of air filled caves before the end of the last Ice age. When the ice melted the sea level rose, flooding the caves.

Little light reaches the depths of the hole and water does not circulate freely. As a result the deeper areas inside the blue hole dont have the profusion of life associated with most drop-offs.

View source: http://ambergriscaye.com/pages/town/greatbluehole.html

Coral Reefs

2009-05-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

Corals are extremely ancient animals that evolved into modern reef building forms over the last 25 million years.

Corals are anthozoans, the largest class of organism within the phylum cnidaria. Stony corals make up the largest order of anthozoans, and are the group primarily responsible for laying the foundation of, and building up the reef structures. Stony corals are colonial organisms composed of hundreds to hundreds of thousands of individual, called polyps. The massive reef structures are formed when each stony coral pholyp secrets a skeleton of calcium carbonate. Although all corals secretes calcium carbonate, not all are reef builders.

Colonies of reef building corals exhibit a wide range of shapes but most can be classified within ten genral forms. They are 1. Branching corals 2. Digitate corals 3. Table corals 4. Elkhorn coral 5. Foliose corals 6. Encrusting corals 7. Submassive corals 8. Massive corals 9. Mushroom corals 10. Cup corals.

Coral Reefs grow optimally in water temperatures between 23 degree and 29 degree centigrade, but some can tolerate temperatures as high as 40 degree centigrade for a limited period of time. Most require very salty water ranging from 32 to 42 parts per thousand. The water must also be clear to permit high light penetration. Hence the number of species of corals on a reef declines rapidly in the deeper water.

View Source: http://www.coris.noaa.gov/about/what_are/

Dead Sea

2009-02-27T14:34:00.000-08:00

The Dead sea, one of the most spectacular natural and spiritual landscape is a salt lake between Israel and Jordan. It is almost six times as salty as ocean and hence nothing lives in it. The Dead Sea is completely landlocked and it gets saltier with increasing depth. Down to about 40 meters, the seawater comprises about 300 grams of salt per kilogram of seawater. That is about 8.6 times saltier than ocean. This salinity makes for a harsh environment where animals cannot survive. Fish accidentally swimming into the sea are killed instantly, their bodies are quickly coated with a preserving layer of salt crystals and are tossed onto shore by wind and waves. As well as there is no seaweed or plants of any kind in and around the water.

The shores of the sea is covered with white crystal of salts. The salts found in the Dead Sea are mineral salts, just like you find in the oceans of the world, only in extreme concentrations. There are more than 35 different types of mineral that are essential for the health and care of the body skin including Magnesium, Calcium, Potassium, Bromine, Sulfur, and Iodine. They are well known for relieving pains and sufferings caused by arthritis, rheumatism, psoriasis, eczema, headache and foot-ache, while nourishing and softening the skin. Because of the extremely high concentration of dissolved mineral salts in the water its density is more than that of plain fresh water. And human bodies are more buoyant in dead sea (which actually makes very tough to swim), so you bob like a cork.

It is 422 meters below the sea level and its shores are the lowest point on the surface of the earth. Scientist figure that the Dead Sea lowers by as much as 13 inches per year.

Perito Moreno

2008-11-06T02:14:00.000-08:00

Perito Moreno is one of the biggest natural spectacles of the world. It is located in Las Glaciares National Park in the south west of Santa Cruz province, Argentina. Perito Moreno is a 250 square kilometers glacier, 30 kilometers long, 5 kilometers wide and 80 meters high above the water. This icefield is the world's third largest reserve of fresh water and it is the only glacier in the world to be still growing. It was named after the Argentine explorer, Francisco Moreno, who played a great role in securing Argentina's territory in the conflict with Chile regarding the international border issue.

Like all glaciers, this one begins high in the mountains, (in this case - the Andes), which separate Argentina from Chile. At the source, snowfall is nearly constant, and the weight of all this snow compresses the lower layers into virtually solid ice. As the snowfall continues, gravity pushes the thick mass of ice outward—downhill in this case. So a glacier is basically the same as a river, except that the water is frozen. This river moves very slowly about one meter per day from its source roughly 30km away. As it descends, it encounters higher air temperatures and begins to melt. Some glaciers melt into the ocean; this one melts into a lake. The end of the glacier is a sheer wall of ice about 5km (3 miles) long and standing 60m (200 feet) above the water’s surface. When pieces fall off (a process known as calving), they make a tremendous roar and splash. Every 3 to 4 years the ice breaks and it is a fantastic natural performance not to be missed.

Perce Rock

2008-10-12T06:33:00.000-07:00

Perce Rock is one of the largest and most spectacular natural arches in the world. Its an island and sheer rock formation in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in Quebec, Canada. Famed for its extraordinary natural beauty, it is a popular tourist destination and is an important Bird Sanctuary. Bounded by sheer russet-colored cliffs, the rock is 1,420 feet (433 meters) long. From a height of 288 feet (88 meters) on the landward end, its top slopes down to 160 feet (49 meters) at the offshore end. The rock gets its name from a large 15 metre (50 ft) high arch near its seaward end.

Perce Rock does not stand alone. Just beyond it is a smaller rock, the Obelisk, also pierced by an arch. Standing still farther offshore is the much larger mass of Bonaventure Island. Bounded by cliffs 300 feet high, its top is virtually inaccessible to all but the seabirds that flock there to nest. Herring gulls and cormorants are the most numerous nesters on Perce Rock. And amoung the birds that swarm over Bonaventure Island is the largest colony of gannets in North America.

Autumn Colors

2008-09-10T05:56:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest shows in the natural world takes place every year in the forests of eastern Canada and the United States, as turning leaves paint the landscape spectacular colors from yellow, to orange, to deepest red and purple. How do leaves change color? - Leaves are nature's food factories. Plants take water from the ground and a gas called carbon dioxide from air. They use sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into glucose (this process is called photosynthesis), which they use as a food for energy and as a building block for growing. A group of pigments present in the leaf that helps the photosynthesis to happen and gives the leaf a green color is called chlorophylls. During the growing season, the plant replenishes the chlorophyll so that the supply remains high and the leaves stay green. In the late summer, the veins that carry materials from the leaf to the branch and minerals from the roots into the leaves are closed off as a special layer (cork cells) forms at the base of each leaf. It is during this time that the chlorophyll begins to decrease and disappears completly in relatively short time period.

This is when autumn colors are revealed. As the bright green fades away, we begin to see yellow and orange colors. These colors are present in the leaf throughout the growing season but are not visible as they are covered up by the green chlorophyll. In some trees like, maples, glucose is trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool nights of autumn cause the leaves turn this glucose into a red color. The brown color of trees like oaks is made from wastes left in the leaves.

Aurora Borealis - Northern Lights

2008-08-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

Auroras are natural colored light displays in the sky, which typically occur in the ionoshere and are seen particularly in the polar region. They are the nature's own fireworks, apparently dancing across the dark sky. Aurora Borealis originate from sun. During large explosions and flares, huge quantities of solar particles (plasma clouds) are thrown out of the sun into the deep space. When these solar particles are closing in on earth, they are captured by earth's magnetic field and are guided towards Earth's two magnetic poles ( north pole and south pole). Down towards these magnetic poles, the solar particles are stopped by Earth's atmosphere. There they collide with the atmospheric gases present and the collision energy between the solar particle and the gas molecule is emiited as a photon (light particle). Thus, many such collisions causes an aurora.

The auroral lights' colors are determined by the spectra of gases in the Earth's atmopsphere, and the height at which the most collisions take place. Incoming particles tend to collide with different gases at different heights. Thus the green light occurs at the altitudes of 120 to 180 km, red light occurs at even higher altitudes, while blue and violet occur mostly below 120 km. The most common auroral forms and structures are Homogeneous arc, Arc with ray structure, Homogeneous band, Band with structure, Corona, Curtain etc.

For more information visit: http://www.northern-lights.no/english/what/index.shtml

Lake Assal

2008-08-06T06:55:00.000-07:00

Lake Assal is a crater lake, located at the southern border of Tadjoura Region. It lies 155 meters below sea level and is the lowest point in Africa. Lake Assal has no outlet, streams flow into the lake and not away from it.

Lake Assal sits at the top of the Great Rift Valley in the Danakil Desert where summer temperatures sometimes reach 52 degree celsius and are accompanied by strong drying winds. It has a high evaporation rate. The air temperature is very high. Strong winds cause further evaporation. All this evaporation leads to an increasing concentration of salt in the water, making the lake a mineralized brine that is the saltiest body of water in the world. The surrounding plain, once the lake floor, is a glistening expanse of salt. During each wet season the lake level rises, and as the water slowly evaporates, another band of salt is laid down on the plain. In the southeastern part of the lake, small fish inhabit the springs, but if they are accidentally carried out into the main part of the lake, they die at once. Transported by the waves, their bodies are thrown onto the plain, rapidly covered with salt and thus preserved.

Uluru

2008-07-11T00:08:00.000-07:00

Uluru, also referred to as Ayers Rock, Northern Territory, Australia, is believed to be the world's largest free-standing rock. It is made of sandstone and measures 335m high, 3.6m long and 2 kilometer wide. The rock was formed more than 450 million years ago from horizontal layers of soft sands deposited on an ocean floor. Subsequent movements of the earth's crust upended the formation, turning the layers to a vertical position. The projecting remnant of a mountain that was once much larger was whittled to its present size and contours by long periods of wind and water erosion. The differences in the hardness of the upturned layers of sandstone have caused them to erode in different rates, resulting in the pattern of ridges and furrows across the surface of the rock.

The rock is composed of arkose, a course-grained sandstone rich in the mineral feldspar. Depending upon the atmospheric conditions and the time of the day, the rock can dramatically change color, anything from blue to violet to glowing red. During sunset the rock glows red and during rainy seasons the rock acquires a silvery-grey color, with streaks of black algae forming on the areas that serve as channels for water flow. Large caves are most numerous near the base of the rock. They have been used since time immemorial by the Aborigines, who decorated their walls with paintings and pictographs.

Pitcher Plant

2008-07-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

Pitcher plants (or pitfall traps) are carnivorous plants with leaves adapted for trapping insects. These plants grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients such as nitrogen and phosporous. Each leaf forms a "pitcher", a tubular shaped enclosure, usually containing a liquid. The insects which are attracted by nectar and sometimes by the brilliant coloration are prevented from climbing out by deflexed bristles and is drowned in the fluid. The small bodies of liquid contained within the pitcher traps are called phytotelmata. They drown the insect, and the body of it is gradually dissolved. Through a mechanism of digestion, the prey items are converted into a solution of amino acids, peptides, phosphates, ammonium and urea, from which the plant obtains its mineral nutrition (particularly nitrogen and phosphorus).

Its leaves and structure are expertly formed to survive and regardless of its conditions, the pitcher plant remains resilient, adaptable, and beautiful. Many of its species and hybrids, are cultivated as novelties for their large and showy pendent pitchers.

White Sands

2008-06-27T06:34:00.001-07:00

White Sands National Monument includes the most scenic part of the world's largest gypsum dune field and is located in southern New Mexico. The sand, as white as snow, is composed of fine crystals of gypsum, the same mineral from which plaster of paris is made. The source of the sand is the San Andres Mountains to the west of the basin and the Sacramento Mountains to the east. Both mountain ranges contain massive deposits of gypsum that was formed as an ancient sea evaporated some 100 million years ago. In a process that has gone on for countless centuries, seasonal rains and melting snow carry dissolved gypsum from the mountains down to lake Lucero in the lowest part of the basin.

In this harsh desert environment, the water soon evaporates and leaves a glittering crust of gypsum crystals on the lake bed. Weathering and erosion eventually breaks the crystals into sand-size grains that are carried away by the prevailing winds from the southwest, forming white dunes. The dunes constantly change shape and slowly move downwind, covering the plants in their path. Constantly on the move, the dunes advance upto 33 feet per year.

The gypsum does not readily convert the sun's energy into heat and thus can be walked upon safely with bare feet, even in the hottest summer months. Here and there, however, drought-resistant plants such as salt bush and yucca manage to survive. Here too are found highly specialized pocket mice, lizards, and other creatures whose white coloration makes them nearly invisble on the gleaming gypsum sand.

Giant's Causeway

2008-06-19T06:09:00.000-07:00

Giant's Causeway, is an extraordinary grouping of steplike basalt columns some 75 miles across the sea coast on the edge of the Antrim plateau in Northern Ireland. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Altogether there are 40,000 of these stone columns; some of them have four, five, eight, or even ten sides, but the majority are perfect hexagons ranging from 15 to 20 inches in diameter. Viewed from above, the columns look exactly like paving stones, all neatly fitted into place.
This striking landscape was caused by intense volcanic activity, which brought large amounts of molten basaltic lava to the surface. The molten lava cooled at a slow, very even rate. And as it cooled, the lava gradually contracted, forming prismatic patterns in the cooling rock. As cooling and shrinkage continued, the cracks on the surface extended through the entire lava mass to form a network of vertical joints seperating the flat-sided basaltic columns. Giant's Causeway is a National Natural Reserve, declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO, and is the most popular tourist destination in Northern Ireland. Similar assemblages of basaltic columns are found in many other places, but few can rival the precise geometry of those making up the Giant's Causeway.

Seashells

2008-06-12T05:36:00.000-07:00

A shell is a part of a sea creature known as mollusk. Mollusks are wormlike creatures and exist in the ocean, fresh water and also on land. The main characteristic of mollusks is that they dont have internal skeleton. Their shell serves as an exo-skeleton and protects them from the outside world. The shells are primarily composed of calcium carbonate, which is secreted by the outer surface of the mantle of the shell and are loosely attached to the animal body.

The food consumed by mollusk causes pigments to be produced within the mantle and based on this pigment secretion the outer shell's color and shapes are formed. If the pigment secretion is continuous, spiral or radial lines are formed. If the pigment secretion is periodic, then spots appear on the shell. When the mollusk dies, its shell is the one part that typically remains intact. Seashells are very often found in beach drift, which is deposited along strandlines on beaches.

Pamukkale

2008-06-07T00:39:00.000-07:00

From a distance the fantastic rock formations of Pamukkale (meaning "cotton castle" in turkish) in southwestern Turkey resemble a castle built of snow and ice. Tier upon tier, the dazzling white ramparts and parapets descend for more than 300 feet down a rugged mountainside. On closer inspection, however, the steplike series of overlapping basins looks more like a gigantic waterfall petrified by some mysterious, awesome force of nature. The strange rocks of Pamukkale are the improbable handiwork of hot springs.

Farther up the mountainside springs bubble from the earth, issuing a stream of water with a temperature of about 43 degree celsius and very high concentration of dissolved mineral salts. The water has been flowing down the slope, cooling, evaporating, and depositing the dissolved minerals. Bit by bit, the walls of the many stepped rocky terraces and basins took their present form. For centuries the spring water has been prized for its therapeutic properties. In ancient times the Romans built a thermal resort, Hierapolis, nearby.

Strokkur

2008-06-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

Ever since medieval times, Iceland has been famous for its many hot springs and geysers. Although the Geysir's performance has become less impressive in recent times, dozens of other hot springs continue to bubble and spurt in the same thermal area in southwestern Iceland. Amoung the most active and predictable in the group, located in a valley at the foot of a range of volcanic mountains, is Strokkur, the "churn". Every 4 to 10 minutes it shoots a jet of boiling water as high as 100 feet into the sky.

Fluctuations in the water level in its basin herald each eruption. As the turbulence increases, the surface of the water heaves up into a dome, then explodes into a cloumn of steam and water droplets. The clouds of vapour blow away on the breeze, but the water falls back to the basin to contribute to the next eruption. The abundance of geysers is due to Iceland's geological history. In this volcanically active zone, molten magama lies close to the earth's surface, where it heats underground water and powers its periodic eruptive escapes through fissures in the crust.

Eisriesenwelt

2008-06-03T04:43:00.000-07:00

The mysteries of Eisriesenwelt were not discovered until 1879. Subsequent exploration revealed that the cave system extends over a total distance of some 26 miles (42 Kilometers). Eisriesenwelt - the "world of the ice giants" - is the largest ice cave in the world. Much of the interior of this cave system high in the Austrian Alps is filled with the fanciful forms of stalactites and stalagmites similar to those found in other caves. But here the contours seem to be more fluid and the colors more translucent. The reason is: The underground formations are composed not of minerals but of ice.

Since the temperature in the cave remains at or near freezing all year round, water dripping from the ceiling solidifies into immense icicles, similar to stalactites. Drops falling to the floor freeze, to form spirelike stalagmites. In some places ice stalactites and stalagmites have joined into large floor-to-ceiling fluted pillars. Currently about 200,000 tourists come here every year. The cave with its entrance perched 3,300 feet above the valley floor, is accessible by cable car. Beyond the entrance visitors discover an artfully illuminated, shimmering fantasyland of ice sculptures on a mammoth scale.