The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who seek them
Earth
Marvelous, Majestic, Monolithic Domes
Dec 28th
braziltravelpictures.net
There is something awesome about a granite dome. Perhaps it’s the way it projects above its surroundings, emerging abruptly from the ground and rising so steeply to its rounded summit. Perhaps it’s the smooth, barren surface, hardly marred by a crack or crevice. Or maybe it’s just the size—a huge, single, uniform object that dwarfs an observer like no other. In any event, these geological curiosities have aroused the interest of observers for centuries—perhaps even millennia. More >
Madagascar’s Rainforests
Dec 10th
Madagascar, the world’s fourth largest island, lies in splendid isolation some 480 km (300 mi) off the south east coast of Africa, in the Indian Ocean. Its separation from Africa occurred between 150-180 million years ago, and produced the extraordinarily high levels of endemic species of flora and fauna for which the island is famed. Much of Madagascar’s forest cover has been destroyed during the last hundred years – 50 per cent of it since 1950. This deforestation is directly linked to coffee cultivation: because the most fertile land is used for export crops, the local inhabitants are obliged to clear the forested slopes for their own subsistence farming. More >
El Nino
Dec 9th
At intervals of about three to eight years, a remarkable disturbance of ocean and atmosphere occurs. It begins in the eastern Pacific Ocean and spreads its effects widely over the globe. This disturbance lasts more than a year, bringing droughts, heavy rainfalls, severe spells of heat and cold, or a high incidence of cyclonic storms to various parts of the Pacific and its eastern coasts. This phenomenon is called El Nino. The expression comes from Peruvian fishermen, who refer to the Corriente del Nino, or the “Current of the Christ Child,” in describing an invasion of warm surface water that occurs once every few years around Christmas time and greatly depletes their catch of fish. El Nino occurs at irregular intervals and with varying degrees of intensity. Notable El Nino events occurred in 1891, 1925, 1940-1941, 1965, 1972-1973, 1982-1983, 1989-1990, 1991-1992, 1994-1995, and 1997-1998 and 2002-2003. More >
The Aral Sea — A Dying Saline Lake
Dec 6th
by herwigphoto.com
East of the Caspian Sea, astride the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, lies an immense saline lake — the Aral Sea. Fed by meltwaters of high glaciers and snowfields in the lofty Hindu Kush, Pamir, and Tien Shan Ranges, the lake endured through thousands of years as an oasis for terrestrial and aquatic wildlife deep in the heart of the central Asian desert.
But in the last 30 years, the Aral Sea, once larger than Lake Huron, has shrunk to a shadow of its former extent. The volume of its waters has decreased by 66 per¬cent, and its salinity has increased from 1 percent to over 3 percent, making it more salty than sea water. Twenty of the 24 fish species native to the lake have disappeared. Its catch of commercial fish, which once supplied 10 percent of the total for the Soviet Union, has dwindled to zero. The deltas of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, which enter the south and east sides of the lake, were islands of great ecological diversity, teeming with fingerling fishes, birds, and their predators. Now only about half of the species of nesting birds remain. Many species of aquatic plants, shrubs, and grasses have vanished. Commercial hunting and trapping have almost ceased. More >
The Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift
Oct 26th
The Gulf Stream is the biggest and best-known western boundary current and originates in the Gulf of Mexico, flowing northward along the eastern coast of North America at 4 miles per hour (6.5 kph) and extending down 1500 feet (450m) from the surface. The flow of water is estimated to be 1 billion cubic feet (30 million m3) per second as it passes through the Straits of Florida – this is about 300 times the normal flow of the Amazon.
The Gulf Stream starts to move eastward off Cape Hatteras and meets the cold Labrador Current around the Grand Banks, giving rise to the notorious fogs of this area. As it moves into the Atlantic, the Gulf Stream becomes less defined and is called the North Atlantic Current or drift. The North Atlantic drift divides in the middle of the ocean, one branch moving south, the other carrying warm water to the shores of northwest Europe. More >
