1.
The Coral Island
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The Coral Island, A Tale of the Pacific Ocean is a novel written by Scottish author R. M. Ballantyne. Among the novels themes are the civilising effect of Christianity, 19th-century British imperialism in the South Pacific. In the early 20th century, the novel was considered a classic for primary children in the UK. Born in Edinburgh in 1825, and raised there, Ballantyne was the ninth of ten children, tutored by his mother and sisters, his only formal education was a brief period at Edinburgh Academy in 1835–37. At the age of 16 he travelled to Canada, where he spent five years working for the Hudsons Bay Company and he returned to Scotland in 1847 and for some years worked for the publisher Messrs Constable, first as a clerk and then as a partner in the business. Ballantyne wrote The Coral Island while staying in a house on the Burntisland seafront opposite Edinburgh on the Firth of Forth in Fife, according to Ballantyne biographer Eric Quayle he borrowed extensively from an 1852 novel by the American author James F. Bowman, The Island Home. Edmond describes the novel as a cocktail of other writing about the Pacific. The Coral Island is Ballantynes second novel, and has never been out of print and he was an exceedingly prolific author who wrote more than 100 books in his 40-year career. The first edition of The Coral Island was published by T and he wrote bitterly to Nelsons in 1893 about the copyrights they held on his books while he had earned nothing, for thirty-eight years reaped the whole profits. The Coral Island – still considered a classic – was republished by Penguin Books in 1995, published during the first golden age of childrens fiction, The Coral Island began a trend in boys fiction by using boys as the main characters, a device now commonplace in the genre. According to literary critic Frank Kermode, The Coral Island could be used as a document in the history of ideas, a scientific and social background for the novel is found in Darwinism, of the natural and the social kind. For instance, published a year before Origin of Species, Charles Darwins 1842 The Structure, Ballantyne had been reading books by Darwin and by his rival Alfred Russel Wallace, in later publications he also acknowledged the naturalist Henry Ogg Forbes. The story is written as a first person narrative from the perspective of 15-year-old Ralph Rover, Ralph tells the story retrospectively, looking back on his boyhood adventure, I was a boy when I went through the wonderful adventures herein set down. The account starts briskly, only four pages are devoted to Ralphs early life and he and his two companions – 18-year-old Jack Martin and 13-year-old Peterkin Gay – are the sole survivors of the shipwreck. The narrative is in two parts, the first describes how the boys feed themselves, what they drink, the clothing and shelter they fashion, and how they cope with having to rely on their own resources. The second half of the novel is more action-packed, featuring conflicts with pirates, fruit, fish and wild pigs provide plentiful food, and at first the boys life on the island is idyllic. They build a shelter and construct a boat using their only possessions, a broken telescope, an iron-bound oar. Their first contact with other humans comes after several months when they observe two large outrigger canoes in the distance, one pursued by the other
2.
Island
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An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, an island in a river or a lake island may be called an eyot or ait, and a small island off the coast may be called a holm. A grouping of geographically or geologically related islands is called an archipelago, an island may be described as such, despite the presence of an artificial land bridge. Example, Singapore and its causeway, or the various Dutch delta islands, there are two main types of islands in the sea, continental and oceanic. The word island derives from Middle English iland, from Old English igland, Old English ieg is actually a cognate of Swedish ö and German Aue, and related to Latin aqua. There is a difference between islands and continents in terms of geology, continents sit on continental lithosphere which is part of tectonic plates floating high on Earths mantle. Oceanic crust is also part of tectonic plates, but it is denser than continental lithosphere, Islands are either extensions of the oceanic crust or geologically they are part of some continent sitting on continental lithosphere. This holds true for Australia, which sits on its own continental lithosphere, continental islands are bodies of land that lie on the continental shelf of a continent. A special type of island is the microcontinental island, which is created when a continent is rifted. Examples are Madagascar and Socotra off Africa, the Kerguelen Islands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, another subtype is an island or bar formed by deposition of tiny rocks where water current loses some of its carrying capacity. While some are transitory and may disappear if the volume or speed of the current changes, others are stable, oceanic islands are islands that do not sit on continental shelves. The vast majority are volcanic in origin, such as Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, the few oceanic islands that are not volcanic are tectonic in origin and arise where plate movements have lifted up the ocean floor above the surface. Examples are Saint Peter and Paul Rocks in the Atlantic Ocean, one type of volcanic oceanic island is found in a volcanic island arc. These islands arise from volcanoes where the subduction of one plate under another is occurring, examples are the Aleutian Islands, the Mariana Islands, and most of Tonga in the Pacific Ocean. The only examples in the Atlantic Ocean are some of the Lesser Antilles, another type of volcanic oceanic island occurs where an oceanic rift reaches the surface. There are two examples, Iceland, which is the second largest volcanic island, and Jan Mayen. A third type of oceanic island is formed over volcanic hotspots. A hotspot is more or less stationary relative to the tectonic plate above it
3.
Coral
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Corals are marine invertebrates in the class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria. They typically live in colonies of many identical individual polyps. The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans, a coral group is a colony of myriad genetically identical polyps. Each polyp is an animal typically only a few millimeters in diameter. A set of tentacles surround a central mouth opening, an exoskeleton is excreted near the base. Over many generations, the colony creates a large skeleton that is characteristic of the species. Individual heads grow by reproduction of polyps. Corals also breed sexually by spawning, polyps of the same species release gametes simultaneously over a period of one to several nights around a full moon and these are commonly known as zooxanthellae and the corals that contain them are zooxanthellate corals. Such corals require sunlight and grow in clear, shallow water, other corals do not rely on zooxanthellae and can live in much deeper water, with the cold-water genus Lophelia surviving as deep as 3,000 metres. Some have been found on the Darwin Mounds, north-west of Cape Wrath, Corals have also been found as far north as off the coast of Washington State and the Aleutian Islands. In his Scala Naturae, Aristotle classified corals as zoophyta, animals that had characteristics of plants and were therefore hypothetically in between animals and plants, the Persian polymath Al-Biruni classified sponges and corals as animals, arguing that they respond to touch. The phylogeny of Anthozoans is not clearly understood and a number of different models have been proposed, within the Hexacorallia, the sea anemones, coral anemones and stony corals may constitute a monophyletic grouping united by their eight-fold symmetry and cnidocyte trait. The Octocorallia appears to be monophyletic, and primitive members of this group may have been stolonate, the cladogram presented here comes from a 2014 study by Stampar et al. which was based on the divergence of mitochondrial DNA within the group and on nuclear markers. Corals are classified in the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria and they are divided into three subclasses, Hexacorallia, Octocorallia, and Ceriantharia. The Hexacorallia include the stony corals, the sea anemones and the zoanthids and these groups have polyps that generally have 6-fold symmetry. The Octocorallia include blue coral, soft corals, sea pens and these groups have polyps with 8-fold symmetry, each polyp having eight tentacles and eight mesenteries. Fire corals are not true corals, being in the order Anthomedusa of the class Hydrozoa, Corals are sessile animals in the class Anthozoa and differ from most other cnidarians in not having a medusa stage in their life cycle. The body unit of the animal is a polyp, most corals are colonial, the initial polyp budding to produce another and the colony gradually developing from this small start
4.
Detritus
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In biology, detritus is dead particulate organic material. It typically includes the bodies or fragments of organisms as well as fecal material. Detritus is typically colonized by communities of microorganisms which act to decompose the material, in terrestrial ecosystems, it is encountered as leaf litter and other organic matter intermixed with soil, which is referred to as humus. Detritus of aquatic ecosystems is organic material suspended in water and piles up on seabed floors which is referred to as marine snow. Dead plants or animals, material derived from animal tissues gradually lose their form, decomposition, the process through which organic matter is decomposed, takes place in many stages. Materials like proteins, lipids and sugars with low weight are rapidly consumed and absorbed by micro-organisms and organisms that feed on dead matter. Other compounds, such as complex carbohydrates are broken down more slowly, the various micro-organisms involved in the decomposition break down the organic materials in order to gain the resources they require for their own survival and proliferation. Accordingly, at the time that the materials of plants and animals are being broken down. In ecosystems on land, detritus is deposited on the surface of the ground, in aquatic ecosystems, most detritus is suspended in water, and gradually settles. In particular, many different types of material are collected together by currents, much detritus is used as a source of nutrition for animals. In particular, many bottom feeding animals living in mud flats feed in this way, however, there are many micro-organisms which multiply in natural environments. A characteristic type of food chain called the cycle takes place involving detritus feeders, detritus. For example, mud flats are inhabited by many univalves which are detritus feeders, what is left behind by the detritivores is then further broken down and recycled by decomposers, such as bacteria and fungi. In ecosystems on land, far more material is broken down as dead material passing through the detritus chain than is broken down by being eaten by animals in a living state. In both land and aquatic ecosystems, the role played by detritus is too large to ignore, in contrast to land ecosystems, dead materials and excreta in aquatic ecosystems do not settle immediately, and the finer the particles involved are, the longer they tend to take. Detritus occurs in a variety of habitats including forest, chaparral. In forests the detritus is typically dominated by leaf, twig and this plant litter provides important cover for seedling protection as well as cover for a variety of arthropods, reptiles and amphibians. Some insect larvae feed on the detritus, there is an extremely large number of detritus feeders in water
5.
Coral reef
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Coral reefs are diverse underwater ecosystems held together by calcium carbonate structures secreted by corals. Coral reefs are built by colonies of tiny animals found in waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups, the polyps belong to a group of animals known as Cnidaria, which also includes sea anemones and jellyfish. Unlike sea anemones, corals secrete hard carbonate exoskeletons which support, most reefs grow best in warm, shallow, clear, sunny and agitated waters. Often called rainforests of the sea, shallow coral reefs form some of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth, paradoxically, coral reefs flourish even though they are surrounded by ocean waters that provide few nutrients. They are most commonly found at depths in tropical waters. Coral reefs deliver ecosystem services to tourism, fisheries and shoreline protection, the annual global economic value of coral reefs is estimated between US$29. 8-375 billion. However, coral reefs are fragile ecosystems, partly because they are sensitive to water temperature. Most of the coral reefs we can see today were formed after the last glacial period when melting ice caused the sea level to rise and this means that most modern coral reefs are less than 10,000 years old. As communities established themselves on the shelves, the reefs grew upwards, Reefs that rose too slowly could become drowned reefs. They are covered by so much water there was insufficient light. Coral reefs are found in the sea away from continental shelves, around oceanic islands. The vast majority of islands are volcanic in origin. The few exceptions have tectonic origins where plate movements have lifted the deep ocean floor on the surface. In 1842 in his first monograph, The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, Charles Darwin set out his theory of the formation of atoll reefs and he theorized uplift and subsidence of the Earths crust under the oceans formed the atolls. Darwin’s theory sets out a sequence of three stages in atoll formation and it starts with a fringing reef forming around an extinct volcanic island as the island and ocean floor subsides. As the subsidence continues, the reef becomes a barrier reef. Darwin predicted that underneath each lagoon would be a bed rock base, where the level of the underlying earth allows, the corals grow around the coast to form what he called fringing reefs, and can eventually grow out from the shore to become a barrier reef
6.
Limestone
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Limestone is a sedimentary rock, composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, forams and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate, about 10% of sedimentary rocks are limestones. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes, most cave systems are through limestone bedrock. The first geologist to distinguish limestone from dolomite was Belsazar Hacquet in 1778, like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other carbonate grains comprising limestones are ooids, peloids, intraclasts and these organisms secrete shells made of aragonite or calcite, and leave these shells behind when they die. Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or siliceous skeletal fragment, some limestones do not consist of grains at all, and are formed completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite or aragonite, i. e. travertine. Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters and this produces speleothems, such as stalagmites and stalactites. Another form taken by calcite is oolitic limestone, which can be recognized by its granular appearance, the primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Some of these organisms can construct mounds of rock known as reefs, below about 3,000 meters, water pressure and temperature conditions cause the dissolution of calcite to increase nonlinearly, so limestone typically does not form in deeper waters. Limestones may also form in lacustrine and evaporite depositional environments, calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits a characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. Impurities will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces, Limestone may be crystalline, clastic, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation. Crystals of calcite, quartz, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock, when conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures. Travertine is a banded, compact variety of limestone formed along streams, particularly there are waterfalls. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the leaves a solution supersaturated with the chemical constituents of calcite. Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls, coquina is a poorly consolidated limestone composed of pieces of coral or shells. During regional metamorphism that occurs during the building process, limestone recrystallizes into marble
7.
Biodiversity
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Biodiversity, a contraction of biological diversity, generally refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth. One of the most widely used definitions defines it in terms of the variability within species and it is a measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems. This can refer to genetic variation, ecosystem variation, or species variation within an area, biome, terrestrial biodiversity tends to be greater near the equator, which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity. Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth, and is richest in the tropics and these tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10 per cent of earths surface, and contain about 90 percent of the worlds species. Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, there are latitudinal gradients in species diversity. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time, the number and variety of plants, animals and other organisms that exist is known as biodiversity. It is a component of nature and it ensures the survival of human species by providing food, fuel, shelter, medicines. The richness of biodiversity depends on the conditions and area of the region. All species of plants taken together are known as flora and about 300,000 species of plants are known to date, all species of animals taken together are known as fauna which includes birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, insects, crustaceans, molluscs, etc. Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions, more than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct. Estimates on the number of Earths current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described. More recently, in May 2016, scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described, the total amount of related DNA base pairs on Earth is estimated at 5.0 x 1037 and weighs 50 billion tonnes. In comparison, the mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as 4 TtC. In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the Last Universal Common Ancestor of all living on Earth. The age of the Earth is about 4.54 billion years old, there are microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia. Other early physical evidence of a substance is graphite in 3.7 billion-year-old meta-sedimentary rocks discovered in Western Greenland. More recently, in 2015, remains of life were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. According to one of the researchers, If life arose relatively quickly on Earth, then it could be common in the universe
8.
Calcareous
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Calcareous is an adjective meaning mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate, in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a variety of scientific disciplines. The term also applies to the calcium carbonate tests of often more or less microscopic Foraminifera, note that not all tests are calcareous, diatoms and radiolaria have siliceous tests. The molluscs are calcareous, as are calcareous sponges, that have spicules which are made of calcium carbonate, calcareous grassland is a form of grassland characteristic of soils containing much calcium carbonate from underlying chalk or limestone rock. Species of algae such as the green-segmented genus Halimeda are calcareous, the term is used in pathology, for example in calcareous conjunctivitis, and when referring to calcareous metastasis or calcareous deposits, which may both be removed surgically. The term calcareous can be applied to a sediment, sedimentary rock, or soil type which is formed from, or contains a proportion of. Calcareous sediments are deposited in shallow water near land, since the carbonate is precipitated by marine organisms that need land-derived nutrients. Generally speaking, the farther from land sediments fall, the less calcareous they are, some areas can have interbedded calcareous sediments due to storms, or changes in ocean currents. Calcareous ooze is a form of calcium derived from planktonic organisms that accumulates on the sea floor. This can only occur if the ocean is shallower than the carbonate compensation depth, below this depth, calcium carbonate begins to dissolve in the ocean, and only non-calcareous sediments are stable, such as siliceous ooze or pelagic red clay. Calcareous soils are alkaline, in other words they have a high pH. This is because of the very weak acidity of carbonic acid, note that this is not the only reason for a high soil pH
9.
Hotspot (geology)
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In geology, the places known as hotspots or hot spots are volcanic regions thought to be fed by underlying mantle that is anomalously hot compared with the surrounding mantle. They may be on, near to, or far from plate boundaries. Currently, there are two hypotheses that attempt to explain their origins, one suggests that hotspots are due to mantle plumes that rise as thermal diapirs from the core–mantle boundary. The other hypothesis is that lithospheric extension permits the passive rising of melt from shallow depths and this hypothesis considers the term hotspot to be a misnomer, asserting that the mantle source beneath them is, in fact, not anomalously hot at all. Well known examples include Hawaii, Iceland and Yellowstone and it was later postulated that hotspots are fed by narrow streams of hot mantle rising from the Earths core–mantle boundary in a structure called a mantle plume. Whether or not such mantle plumes exist is currently the subject of a controversy in Earth science. Estimates for the number of hotspots postulated to be fed by mantle plumes has ranged from about 20 to several thousands, over the years, Hawaii, Réunion, Yellowstone, Galápagos, and Iceland are some of the currently most active volcanic regions to which the hypothesis is applied. As a result, they are less explosive than subduction zone volcanoes, where hotspots occur in continental regions, basaltic magma rises through the continental crust, which melts to form rhyolites. These rhyolites can form violent eruptions, for example, the Yellowstone Caldera was formed by some of the most powerful volcanic explosions in geologic history. However, when the rhyolite is completely erupted, it may be followed by eruptions of basaltic magma rising through the same lithospheric fissures, the hotspot hypothesis is now closely linked to the mantle plume hypothesis. Hotspot volcanoes are considered to have a different origin from island arc volcanoes. The latter form over subduction zones, at converging plate boundaries, when one oceanic plate meets another, the denser plate is forced downward into a deep ocean trench. This plate, as it is subducted, releases water into the base of the plate. It is this that fuels a chain of volcanoes, such as the Aleutian Islands, the joint mantle plume/hotspot hypothesis envisages the feeder structures to be fixed relative to one another, with the continents and seafloor drifting overhead. The hypothesis thus predicts that time-progressive chains of volcanoes are developed on the surface, examples are Yellowstone, which lies at the end of a chain of extinct calderas, which become progressively older to the west. Another example is the Hawaiian archipelago, where islands become progressively older, boschi, L. Becker, T. W. Steinberger, B. Mantle plumes, Dynamic models and seismic images, break-up spots, Could the Pacific open as a consequence of plate kinematics. Towards A Better Understanding Of Hot Spot Volcanism, formation of Hotspots Raising Hot Spots Large Igneous Provinces Maria Antretter, PhD Thesis, Moving hotspots – Evidence from paleomagnetism and modeling Do Plumes Exist
10.
Fringing reef
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A fringing reef is one of the three main types of coral reefs recognized by most coral reef scientists. It is distinguished from the two main types in that it has either an entirely shallow backreef zone or none at all. If a fringing reef grows directly from the shoreline the reef flat extends right to the beach, in other cases, fringing reefs may grow hundreds of yards from shore and contain extensive backreef areas with numerous seagrass meadows and patch reefs. This type of reef is the most common type of reef found in the Caribbean. Darwin believed that fringing reefs are the first kind of reefs to form around a landmass in a long-term reef growth process, sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between fringing reefs and another type of reef called a barrier reef. One of the ways that two types of reefs are separated is based on the depth of the lagoon in the back reef which is the area near to shore. Barrier reefs have at least some deep portions, fringing reefs do not, another major difference is that barrier reefs tend to be much farther away from shore than fringing reefs. There are two components that make up a fringing reef, the reef flat and the reef slope. The reef flat is the shoreward, flat, broadest area of the reef, the reef flat is found in fairly shallow water, and can be uncovered during low tide. This area of the reef is only slightly sloped towards the open ocean, since the reef flat is adjacent or nearly adjacent to land, it sustains the most damage from runoff and sediments. Typically, few of the corals are alive. Seagrasses, seaweeds, and soft corals are found there. The reef slope is found at the edge of the fringing reef. This area of the reef is quite steep and descends either to a relatively shallow sand bottom or to depths too great to allow coral growth. Coral grows much more abundantly on this slope, both in numbers and in species diversity and this is mostly because runoff and sediments are less concentrated here. Greater wave action disperses pollutants and carries nutrients to this area, the upper portion of this slope is called the reef crest. The crest has the best balance between sunlight and waves, so coral grows fastest here, the base of the slope receives the least sunlight and has the least growth out of the whole slope. Fringing reefs are located near shore in the tropics in many areas and are the most common reef type, coral reefs are found in the tropics in which the water is between 18 and 30 °C
11.
Plate tectonics
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The theoretical model builds on the concept of continental drift developed during the first few decades of the 20th century. The geoscientific community accepted plate-tectonic theory after seafloor spreading was validated in the late 1950s, the lithosphere, which is the rigid outermost shell of a planet, is broken up into tectonic plates. The Earths lithosphere is composed of seven or eight major plates, where the plates meet, their relative motion determines the type of boundary, convergent, divergent, or transform. Earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation occur along plate boundaries. The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 100 mm annually, tectonic plates are composed of oceanic lithosphere and thicker continental lithosphere, each topped by its own kind of crust. Along convergent boundaries, subduction carries plates into the mantle, the material lost is balanced by the formation of new crust along divergent margins by seafloor spreading. In this way, the surface of the lithosphere remains the same. This prediction of plate tectonics is also referred to as the conveyor belt principle, earlier theories, since disproven, proposed gradual shrinking or gradual expansion of the globe. Tectonic plates are able to move because the Earths lithosphere has greater strength than the underlying asthenosphere. Lateral density variations in the result in convection. Plate movement is thought to be driven by a combination of the motion of the seafloor away from the ridge and drag, with downward suction. Another explanation lies in the different forces generated by forces of the Sun. The relative importance of each of these factors and their relationship to other is unclear. The outer layers of the Earth are divided into the lithosphere and asthenosphere and this is based on differences in mechanical properties and in the method for the transfer of heat. Mechanically, the lithosphere is cooler and more rigid, while the asthenosphere is hotter, in terms of heat transfer, the lithosphere loses heat by conduction, whereas the asthenosphere also transfers heat by convection and has a nearly adiabatic temperature gradient. The key principle of plate tectonics is that the lithosphere exists as separate and distinct tectonic plates, Plate motions range up to a typical 10–40 mm/year, to about 160 mm/year. The driving mechanism behind this movement is described below, tectonic lithosphere plates consist of lithospheric mantle overlain by either or both of two types of crustal material, oceanic crust and continental crust. Average oceanic lithosphere is typically 100 km thick, its thickness is a function of its age, as passes, it conductively cools
12.
Erosion
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In earth science, erosion is the action of surface processes that remove soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earths crust, then transport it away to another location. Eroded sediment or solutes may be transported just a few millimetres, the rates at which such processes act control how fast a surface is eroded. Feedbacks are also possible between rates of erosion and the amount of eroded material that is carried by, for example. Processes of erosion that produce sediment or solutes from a place contrast with those of deposition, while erosion is a natural process, human activities have increased by 10-40 times the rate at which erosion is occurring globally. At well-known agriculture sites such as the Appalachian Mountains, intensive farming practices have caused erosion up to 100x the speed of the rate of erosion in the region. Excessive erosion causes both on-site and off-site problems, on-site impacts include decreases in agricultural productivity and ecological collapse, both because of loss of the nutrient-rich upper soil layers. In some cases, the end result is desertification. Off-site effects include sedimentation of waterways and eutrophication of bodies, as well as sediment-related damage to roads. Intensive agriculture, deforestation, roads, anthropogenic climate change and urban sprawl are amongst the most significant human activities in regard to their effect on stimulating erosion, however, there are many prevention and remediation practices that can curtail or limit erosion of vulnerable soils. Rainfall, and the surface runoff which may result from rainfall, produces four types of soil erosion, splash erosion, sheet erosion, rill erosion. Splash erosion is generally seen as the first and least severe stage in the erosion process. In splash erosion, the impact of a falling raindrop creates a crater in the soil. The distance these soil particles travel can be as much as 0.6 m vertically and 1.5 m horizontally on level ground. If the soil is saturated, or if the rate is greater than the rate at which water can infiltrate into the soil. If the runoff has sufficient flow energy, it will transport loosened soil particles down the slope, sheet erosion is the transport of loosened soil particles by overland flow. Rill erosion refers to the development of small, ephemeral concentrated flow paths which function as both sediment source and sediment delivery systems for erosion on hillslopes, generally, where water erosion rates on disturbed upland areas are greatest, rills are active. Flow depths in rills are typically of the order of a few centimetres or less and this means that rills exhibit hydraulic physics very different from water flowing through the deeper, wider channels of streams and rivers. Gully erosion occurs when water accumulates and rapidly flows in narrow channels during or immediately after heavy rains or melting snow
13.
Subsidence
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Subsidence is the motion of a surface as it shifts downward relative to a datum such as sea level. The opposite of subsidence is uplift, which results in an increase in elevation, ground subsidence is of concern to geologists, geotechnical engineers and surveyors. Subsidence frequently causes problems in karst terrains, where dissolution of limestone by fluid flow in the subsurface causes the creation of voids. If the roof of these voids becomes too weak, it can collapse and this type of subsidence can result in sinkholes which can be many hundreds of meters deep. Several types of mining, and specifically methods which intentionally cause the extracted void to collapse will result in surface subsidence. Mining-induced subsidence is relatively predictable in its magnitude, manifestation and extent, mining-induced subsidence is nearly always very localized to the surface above the mined area, plus a margin around the outside. Where mining activity is planned, mining-induced subsidence can be successfully managed if there is co-operation from all of the stakeholders and this is accomplished through a combination of careful mine planning, the taking of preventive measures, and the carrying out of repairs post-mining. If natural gas is extracted from a gas field the initial pressure in the field will drop over the years. The gas pressure also supports the soil layers above the field, if the pressure drops, the soil pressure increases and this leads to subsidence at the ground level. Since exploitation of the Slochteren gas field started in the late 1960s the ground level over a 250 km² area has dropped by a current maximum of 30 cm, the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan reported immediate subsidence caused by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. In Northern Japan, subsidence of 0.50 m was observed on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Miyako, Tōhoku, while Rikuzentakata, in the south at Sōma, Fukushima,0.29 m was observed. The maximum amount of subsidence was 1.2 m, coupled with horizontal diastrophism of up to 5.3 m on the Oshika Peninsula in Miyagi Prefecture, the habitation of lowlands, such as coastal or delta plains, requires drainage. The resulting aeration of the leads to the oxidation of its organic components, such as peat. This applies especially when water levels are periodically adapted to subsidence, in order to maintain desired unsaturated zone depths. In addition to this, drained soils consolidate as a result of increased effective stress, in this way, land subsidence has the potential of becoming self-perpetuating, having rates up to 5 cm/yr. Water management used to be tuned primarily to such as crop optimisation but, to varying extents. When differential stresses exist in the Earth, these can be accommodated either by geological faulting in the brittle crust, or by flow in the hotter. Where faults occur, absolute subsidence may occur in the wall of normal faults
14.
Atoll
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An atoll, sometimes called a coral atoll, is a ring-shaped coral reef including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands/cays on the rim, the coral of the atoll often sits atop the rim of an extinct seamount or volcano which has eroded or subsided partially beneath the water. The lagoon forms over the crater or caldera while the higher rim remains above water or at shallow depths that permit the coral to grow. For the atoll to persist, continued erosion or subsidence must be at a slow enough to permit reef growth upwards and outwards to replace the lost height. The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu, meaning an administrative subdivision, the distribution of atolls around the globe is instructive, most of the worlds atolls are in the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean has no large groups of atolls, other than eight atolls east of Nicaragua that belong to the Colombian department of San Andres and Providencia in the Caribbean. Reef-building corals will thrive only in tropical and subtropical waters of oceans and seas. The northernmost atoll of the world is Kure Atoll at 28°24 N, the southernmost atolls of the world are Elizabeth Reef at 29°58 S, and nearby Middleton Reef at 29°29 S, in the Tasman Sea, both of which are part of the Coral Sea Islands Territory. The next southerly atoll is Ducie Island in the Pitcairn Islands Group, at this latitude coral reefs would not develop without the warming waters of the Gulf Stream. However, Bermuda is termed a pseudo-atoll because its general form, while there is no atoll directly on the equator, the closest atoll to the Equator is Aranuka of Kiribati, with its southern tip just 12 km north of the equator. In most cases, the area of an atoll is very small in comparison to the total area. Atoll islands are low lying, with their elevations less than 5 meters, measured by total area, Lifou is the largest raised coral atoll of the world, followed by Rennell Island. More sources however list as the largest atoll in the world in terms of land area Kiritimati, the remains of an ancient atoll as a hill in a limestone area is called a reef knoll. The second largest atoll by dry land area is Aldabra with 155 km², the largest atoll in terms of island numbers is Huvadhu Atoll in the south of the Maldives with 255 islands. In 1842, Charles Darwin explained the creation of coral atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean based upon observations made during a voyage aboard the HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836. In time, subsidence carries the old volcano below the ocean surface, at this point, the island has become an atoll. Atolls are the product of the growth of marine organisms. Volcanic islands located beyond the water temperature requirements of hermatypic organisms become seamounts as they subside and are eroded away at the surface
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Lagoon
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A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by barrier islands or reefs. Lagoons are commonly divided into coastal lagoons and atoll lagoons and they have also been identified as occurring on mixed-sand and gravel coastlines. There is an overlap between bodies of water classified as coastal lagoons and bodies of water classified as estuaries, lagoons are common coastal features around many parts of the world. Lagoons can also be man-made and used for treatment, as is the case for e. g. aerated lagoons. Lagoons are shallow, often elongated bodies of water separated from a body of water by a shallow or exposed shoal, coral reef. Some authorities include fresh water bodies in the definition of lagoon, the distinction between lagoon and estuary also varies between authorities. Richard A. Davis Jr. restricts lagoon to bodies of water with little or no fresh water inflow, and little or no tidal flow, Davis does state that the terms lagoon and estuary are often loosely applied, even in scientific literature. Timothy M. Kusky characterizes lagoons as normally being elongated parallel to the coast, while estuaries are usually drowned river valleys, coastal lagoons are classified as inland bodies of water. Many lagoons do not include lagoon in their common names, in England, The Fleet at Chesil Beach has also been described as a lagoon. In Latin America, the term laguna in Spanish, which translates to. However, sometimes it is used to describe a full-sized lake, such as Laguna Catemaco in Mexico. The brackish water lagoon may be explicitly identified as a coastal lagoon. In Portuguese the same usage is found, lagoa may be a body of sea water. Lagoon is derived from the Italian laguna, which refers to the waters around Venice, Laguna is attested in English by at least 1612, and had been Anglicized to lagune by 1673. In 1697 William Dampier referred to a Lagune or Lake of Salt water on the coast of Mexico, captain James Cook described an island of Oval form with a Lagoon in the middle in 1769. Atoll lagoons form as coral reefs grow upwards while the islands that the reefs surround subside, unlike the lagoons that form shoreward of fringing reefs, atoll lagoons often contain some deep portions. Coastal lagoons form along gently sloping coasts where barrier islands or reefs can develop off-shore, coastal lagoons do not form along steep or rocky coasts, or if the range of tides is more than 4 metres. Due to the slope of the coast, coastal lagoons are shallow
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Accretion (geology)
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Accretion is a process by which material is added to a tectonic plate or a landmass. This material may be sediment, volcanic arcs, seamounts or other igneous features, accretion involves the addition of material to a tectonic plate. When two tectonic plates collide, one of the plates may slide under the other, a known as subduction. The plate which is being subducted, is floating on the asthenosphere and is pushed against the other, sediment on the ocean floor will often be scraped from the subducting plate. This causes the sediment to accumulate as a mass of material called an accretionary wedge, volcanic island arcs or seamounts may collide with the continent, and as they are of relatively light material they will often not be subducted, but are added to the side of the continent. Continental plates are formed of rocks that are noticeably different from the rocks that form the ocean floor. The ocean floor is composed of basaltic rocks which have a higher density than continental plates. In places where plate accretion has occurred, land masses may contain the dense and this process occurs wherever plates collide. Many examples occur around the Pacific Rim, including the western coast of North America, the Nankai accretionary complex of Japan, the Barbados Ridge in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean Ridge and the Franciscan Assemblage of California are examples. New York, Lee & Shepard,1995
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Carbonate
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In chemistry, a carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid, characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, a polyatomic ion with the formula of CO2−3. The name may mean an ester of carbonic acid, an organic compound containing the carbonate group C2. In geology and mineralogy, the term carbonate can refer both to carbonate minerals and carbonate rock, and both are dominated by the ion, CO2−3. Carbonate minerals are extremely varied and ubiquitous in chemically precipitated sedimentary rock, sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate have been used since antiquity for cleaning and preservation, as well as for the manufacture of glass. Carbonates are widely used in industry, e. g. in iron smelting, as a raw material for Portland cement and lime manufacture, in the composition of ceramic glazes, the carbonate ion is the simplest oxocarbon anion. It consists of one carbon atom surrounded by three oxygen atoms, in a planar arrangement, with D3h molecular symmetry. It has a mass of 60.01 g/mol and carries a total formal charge of −2. It is the base of the hydrogen carbonate ion, HCO−3. The Lewis structure of the ion has two single bonds to negative oxygen atoms, and one short double bond to a neutral oxygen. This structure is incompatible with the symmetry of the ion. This process is called calcination, after calx, the Latin name of quicklime or calcium oxide, CaO, exceptions include lithium, sodium, potassium and ammonium carbonates, as well as many uranium carbonates. In aqueous solution, carbonate, bicarbonate, carbon dioxide, in strongly basic conditions, the carbonate ion predominates, while in weakly basic conditions, the bicarbonate ion is prevalent. In more acid conditions, aqueous carbon dioxide, CO2, is the main form, thus sodium carbonate is basic, sodium bicarbonate is weakly basic, while carbon dioxide itself is a weak acid. Carbonated water is formed by dissolving CO2 in water under pressure, in living systems an enzyme, carbonic anhydrase, speeds the interconversion of CO2 and carbonic acid. Although the carbonate salts of most metals are insoluble in water, in solution this equilibrium between carbonate, bicarbonate, carbon dioxide and carbonic acid changes consonant to changing temperature and pressure conditions. In the case of ions with insoluble carbonates, e. g. CaCO3. This is an explanation for the buildup of scale inside pipes caused by hard water, in organic chemistry a carbonate can also refer to a functional group within a larger molecule that contains a carbon atom bound to three oxygen atoms, one of which is double bonded. These compounds are known as organocarbonates or carbonate esters, and have the general formula ROCOOR′
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Human impact on the environment
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Human impact on the environment or anthropogenic impact on the environment includes impacts on biophysical environments, biodiversity, and other resources. The term anthropogenic designates an effect or object resulting from human activity, the atmospheric scientist Paul Crutzen introduced the term Anthropocene in the mid-1970s. The term is used in the context of pollution emissions that are produced as a result of human activities but applies broadly to all major human impacts on the environment. Environmental impacts caused by the application of technology are often perceived as unavoidable for several reasons, third, according to the second law of thermodynamics, order can be increased within a system only by increasing disorder or entropy outside the system. Thus, technologies can create “order” in the economy only at the expense of increasing “disorder” in the environment. According to a number of studies, increased entropy is likely to be correlated to environmental impacts. The environmental impact of agriculture based on the wide variety of agricultural practices employed around the world. Ultimately, the impact depends on the production practices of the system used by farmers. The connection between emissions into the environment and the system is indirect, as it also depends on other climate variables such as rainfall. An example of a means-based indicator would be the quality of groundwater, an indicator reflecting the loss of nitrate to groundwater would be effect-based. The environmental impact of agriculture involves a variety of factors from the soil, to water, the air, animal and soil diversity, plants, and the food itself. Some of the issues that are related to agriculture are climate change, deforestation, genetic engineering, irrigation problems, pollutants, soil degradation. These conservation issues are part of conservation, and are addressed in fisheries science programs. There is a gap between how many fish are available to be caught and humanity’s desire to catch them, a problem that gets worse as the world population grows. The journal Science published a study in November 2006, which predicted that, at prevailing trends. Many countries, such as Tonga, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, the impacts stem from the changed hydrological conditions owing to the installation and operation of the scheme. An irrigation scheme draws water from the river and distributes it over the irrigated area. These may be called direct effects, effects on soil and water quality are indirect and complex, and subsequent impacts on natural, ecological and socio-economic conditions are intricate
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Zooxanthellae
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Zooxanthellae are single-celled dinoflagellates that are able to live in symbiosis with marine invertebrates such as corals, jellyfish, and sea anemones. Most known zooxanthellae are in the genus Symbiodinium but some are known from the genus Amphidinium, in freshwater habitats, similar endosymbionts are known as zoochlorellae. Zooxanthellae are photosynthetic organisms, which contain chlorophyll a and chlorophyll c and these provide the yellowish and brownish colours typical of many of the host species. During the day, they provide their host with the organic products of photosynthesis, sometimes providing up to 90% of their hosts energy needs for metabolism, growth. In return, they receive nutrients, carbon dioxide, and a position with access to sunshine. Dinoflagellates are microscopic single-celled planktonic organisms that used to be classified as algae but are now considered to be in a large and they can be free-living or can be present in large number in the tissues of a host. Many different species of zooxanthellae are present in host organisms, each species with its own adaptive capabilities, a juvenile organism or newly established colony can acquire its zooxanthellae via sexual reproduction or directly from the environment. Alternatively, the new individual may acquire the zooxanthellae direct from sea water in which the dinoflagellates freely live at some stages of their life cycle, some stony corals use chemotaxis, with infection occurring as a result of the emission by the coral of a chemical attractant. Infection may also occur after ingestion of infected faecal matter by the host, such indirect acquisition can result in the new host being infected by a species of zooxanthella different from that present in its parent. Coral bleaching occurs when corals expel their zooxanthellae in reaction to environmental stress and this process is believed to be a defense mechanism to reduce the short-term metabolic burden on the coral. A coral that has expelled its zooxanthellae may be recolonised by another species that is adapted to the stressors present in the environment. However there is a risk that the coral will die before that can occur
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Coral bleaching
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Coral bleaching is the loss of endosymbiotic algae from the coral, either through expulsion or loss of algal pigmentation. Above-average sea water caused by global warming have been identified as a leading cause for coral bleaching worldwide. But as the algae provide the coral with 90% of its energy, between 2014 and 2016, the longest global bleaching events ever were recorded. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, these events killed coral on an unprecedented scale. In 2016, bleaching hit 90 percent of coral on the Great Barrier Reef, in 2017, the bleaching further expanded to areas of the park that were previously spared, such as the central one. Bleaching occurs when the necessary to sustain the corals zooxanthellae cannot be maintained. Zooxanthellae give coral its coloration, with the specific color depending on the particular clade, any environmental trigger that affects the corals ability to supply the zooxanthellae with nutrients for photosynthesis will lead to expulsion. This makes the balance required for the coral to continue sustaining its algae more fragile. Bleaching has been attributed to a mechanism in corals, this is called the adaptive bleaching hypothesis, from a 1993 paper by Robert Buddemeier. This stress causes corals to expel their zooxanthellae, which leads to a lighter or completely white appearance, hence the term bleached. As a result of accumulated oxidative stress and the damage to the thylakoid of chloroplasts, there is an increase in degradation of the symbiosis, the coral reefs that are more subject to continued bleaching threats are the ones located in warm and shallow water with low water flow. The colour of a coral depends largely on the species of symbiont, a reduction in concentration of zooxanthellae causes paling, and an increase results in deepening of color. Stony corals have calcium carbonate skeletons and most have transparent tissues, so expulsion of the zooxanthellae causes them to lose their color, the coral protects the algae from the surrounding environment, in return, the algae provides the coral with oxygen and gets rid of waste. Although the coral polyps feed on zooplankton and other food particles and this means that without them, they are liable to starve. Coral growth and reproduction are reduced and the coral becomes increasingly susceptible to disease, If stress factors reduce and the zooxanthellae return, the coral can recover, but prolonged bleaching causes death of the coral. Ejection increases the chance of surviving short-term stress. It can regain symbionts, possibly of a different species, at a later time, If the stressful conditions persist, the polyp eventually dies. Most evidence indicates that elevated temperature is the cause of mass bleaching events, sixty major episodes of coral bleaching have occurred between 1979 and 1990, with the associated coral mortality affecting reefs in every part of the world
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Combustion
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Combustion in a fire produces a flame, and the heat produced can make combustion self-sustaining. Combustion is often a sequence of elementary radical reactions. Solid fuels, such as wood, first undergo endothermic pyrolysis to produce gaseous fuels whose combustion then supplies the required to produce more of them. Combustion is often hot enough that light in the form of either glowing or a flame is produced, a simple example can be seen in the combustion of hydrogen and oxygen into water vapor, a reaction commonly used to fuel rocket engines. The bond energies in the play only a minor role, since they are similar to those in the combustion products. The heat of combustion is approximately -418 kJ per mole of O2 used up in the combustion reaction, uncatalyzed combustion in air requires fairly high temperatures. Complete combustion is stoichiometric with respect to the fuel, where there is no remaining fuel, thermodynamically, the chemical equilibrium of combustion in air is overwhelmingly on the side of the products. Thus, the smoke is usually toxic and contains unburned or partially oxidized products. Since combustion is rarely clean, flue gas cleaning or catalytic converters may be required by law, fires occur naturally, ignited by lightning strikes or by volcanic products. Combustion was the first controlled chemical reaction discovered by humans, in the form of campfires and bonfires, usually, the fuel is carbon, hydrocarbons or more complicated mixtures such as wood that contains partially oxidized hydrocarbons. Combustion is also currently the only used to power rockets. Combustion is also used to destroy waste, both nonhazardous and hazardous, oxidants for combustion have high oxidation potential and include atmospheric or pure oxygen, chlorine, fluorine, chlorine trifluoride, nitrous oxide and nitric acid. For instance, hydrogen burns in chlorine to form hydrogen chloride with the liberation of heat, although usually not catalyzed, combustion can be catalyzed by platinum or vanadium, as in the contact process. In complete combustion, the reactant burns in oxygen, producing a number of products. When a hydrocarbon burns in oxygen, the reaction will yield carbon dioxide. When elements are burned, the products are primarily the most common oxides, carbon will yield carbon dioxide, sulfur will yield sulfur dioxide, and iron will yield iron oxide. Nitrogen is not considered to be a combustible substance when oxygen is the oxidant, Combustion is not necessarily favorable to the maximum degree of oxidation, and it can be temperature-dependent. For example, sulfur trioxide is not produced quantitatively by the combustion of sulfur, NOx species appear in significant amounts above about 2,800 °F, and more is produced at higher temperatures
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Precipitation
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In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, graupel, Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor, so that the water condenses and precipitates. Thus, fog and mist are not precipitation but suspensions, because the vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate. Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated, Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Short, intense periods of rain in scattered locations are called showers, moisture that is lifted or otherwise forced to rise over a layer of sub-freezing air at the surface may be condensed into clouds and rain. This process is active when freezing rain is occurring. A stationary front is often present near the area of freezing rain, provided necessary and sufficient atmospheric moisture content, the moisture within the rising air will condense into clouds, namely stratus and cumulonimbus. Eventually, the droplets will grow large enough to form raindrops. Lake-effect snowfall can be locally heavy, thundersnow is possible within a cyclones comma head and within lake effect precipitation bands. In mountainous areas, heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation, on the leeward side of mountains, desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by compressional heating. The movement of the trough, or intertropical convergence zone. Precipitation is a component of the water cycle, and is responsible for depositing the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000 cubic kilometres of water falls as precipitation each year,398,000 cubic kilometres of it over the oceans and 107,000 cubic kilometres over land. Given the Earths surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres, Climate classification systems such as the Köppen climate classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes. Precipitation may occur on celestial bodies, e. g. when it gets cold, Mars has precipitation which most likely takes the form of frost. Precipitation is a component of the water cycle, and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000 km3 of water falls as precipitation each year,398,000 km3 of it over the oceans, given the Earths surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres. Mechanisms of producing precipitation include convective, stratiform, and orographic rainfall, Precipitation can be divided into three categories, based on whether it falls as liquid water, liquid water that freezes on contact with the surface, or ice
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Carbonic acid
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Not to be confused with Carbolic acid, an antiquated name for phenol. Carbonic acid is a compound with the chemical formula H2CO3. It is also a name given to solutions of carbon dioxide in water. In physiology, carbonic acid is described as acid or respiratory acid. It plays an important role in the buffer system to maintain acid–base homeostasis. Carbonic acid, which is an acid, forms two kinds of salts, the carbonates and the bicarbonates. In geology, carbonic acid causes limestone to dissolve producing calcium bicarbonate which leads to many features such as stalactites and stalagmites. It was long believed that carbonic acid could not exist as a pure compound, however, in 1991 it was reported that NASA scientists had succeeded in making solid H2CO3 samples. 7×10−3 in pure water and ≈1. 2×10−3 in seawater. Hence, the majority of the dioxide is not converted into carbonic acid. In the absence of a catalyst, the equilibrium is reached quite slowly, the rate constants are 0.039 s−1 for the forward reaction and 23 s−1 for the reverse reaction. The addition of two molecules of water to CO2 would give orthocarbonic acid, C4, which only in minute amounts in aqueous solution. Addition of base to an excess of acid gives bicarbonate. With excess base, carbonic acid reacts to give carbonate salts, bicarbonate is an intermediate in the transport of CO2 out of the body via respiratory gas exchange. This catalysed reaction is reversed in the lungs, where it converts the bicarbonate back into CO2 and this equilibration plays an important role as a buffer in mammalian blood. A2016 theoretical report suggests that carbonic acid may play a role in protonating various nitrogen bases in blood serum. The oceans of the world have absorbed almost half of the CO2 emitted by humans from the burning of fossil fuels and it has been theorized that the extra dissolved carbon dioxide has caused the oceans average surface pH to shift by about −0.1 unit from pre-industrial levels. This theory is known as acidification, even though the ocean remains basic. Carbonic acid is a polyprotic acid — specifically it is diprotic meaning it has two protons which may dissociate from the parent molecule
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Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
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United States Minor Outlying Islands
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Among them, Palmyra Atoll is the only incorporated territory. As of 2017, none of the islands have any permanent residents, the only human population consists of temporarily stationed scientific and military personnel. The 2000 census counted 315 people on Johnston Atoll and 94 people on Wake Island, there has been no modern indigenous population, except at the 1940 census. In 1936 a colonization program began to settle Americans on Baker, Howland, and Jarvis, the islands are grouped together as a statistical convenience. They are not administered collectively, nor do they share a cultural or political history beyond being uninhabited islands under the sovereignty of the United States. They are collectively represented by the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code UM, the individual islands have ISO 3166-2 numerical codes, see ISO 3166-2, UM. The Internet country code top-level domain. um has historically been assigned to the islands, however, ISO introduced the term United States Minor Outlying Islands in 1986. From 1974 until 1986, five of the islands were grouped under the term United States Miscellaneous Pacific Islands, the code of Midway Atoll was MI, the code of Johnston Atoll was JT, and the code of Wake Island was WK. The Pacific islands are surrounded by large Exclusive Economic Zones, see also Organized incorporated territories, Unincorporated territories and List of territorial disputes in North America. The following is a list of airports with ICAO codes, PJON, Johnston Atoll Airport, Johnston Atoll PMDY, Henderson Field, Sand Island. Kingman Reef and Navassa Island have offshore anchorage only. S, Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges CIA World Factbook, United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
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Jarvis Island
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Jarvis Island is an uninhabited 1 3⁄4-square-mile coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean at 0°22′S 160°01′W, about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands. Unlike most coral atolls, the lagoon on Jarvis is wholly dry, Jarvis is one of the Line Islands and for statistical purposes is also grouped as one of the United States Minor Outlying Islands. While a few offshore anchorage spots are marked on maps, Jarvis island has no ports or harbors, there is a boat landing area in the middle of the western shoreline near a crumbling day beacon, and another near the southwest corner of the island. The center of Jarvis island is a lagoon where deep guano deposits accumulated. The island has a desert climate, with high daytime temperatures, constant wind. The ground is mostly sandy and reaches 23 feet at its highest point, because of the islands distance from other large landmasses, the Jarvis Island high point is the 36th most isolated peak in the world. The low-lying coral island has long noted as hard to sight from small ships and is surrounded by a narrow fringing reef. Located only 25 miles south of the equator, Jarvis has no natural freshwater lens. This creates a bleak, flat landscape without any plants larger than shrubs. There is no evidence that the island has supported a self-sustaining human population. Its sparse bunch grass, prostrate vines and low-growing shrubs are primarily a nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds, and marine wildlife. The islands first known sighting by Europeans was on August 21,1821 by the British ship Eliza Francis owned by Edward, Thomas and William Jarvis and commanded by Captain Brown. In March 1857 the island was claimed for the United States under the Guano Islands Act and formally annexed on February 27,1858. The American Guano Company, which was incorporated in 1857, established claims in respect of Baker Island, beginning in 1858, several support structures were built on Jarvis Island, along with a two-story, eight-room superintendents house featuring an observation cupola and wide verandahs. Tram tracks were laid down for bringing mined guano to the western shore, one of the first loads was taken by Samuel Gardner Wilder. Squire Flockton was left alone on the island as caretaker for several months and committed suicide there in 1883 and his wooden grave marker was a carved plank which could be seen in the islands tiny four-grave cemetery for decades. John T. Arundel & Co. resumed mining guano from 1886 to 1899, the United Kingdom annexed the island on June 3,1889. Phosphate and copra entrepreneur John T. Arundel visited the island in 1909 on maiden voyage of the S. S
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Baker Island
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Baker Island /ˈbeɪkər/ is an uninhabited atoll located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean about 3,090 km southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia, the island covers 2.1 km2, with 4.8 km of coastline. The climate is equatorial, with rainfall, constant wind. The terrain is low-lying and sandy, an island surrounded by a narrow fringing reef with a depressed central area devoid of a lagoon with its highest point being 8 m above sea level. The island now forms the Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge and is an unincorporated and unorganized territory of the U. S. which vouches for its defense and it is visited annually by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For statistical purposes, Baker is grouped with the United States Minor Outlying Islands, Baker Island is also the last piece of land that experiences the New Year. A cemetery and rubble from earlier settlements are located near the middle of the west coast, there are no ports or harbors, with anchorage available only offshore. The narrow fringing reef surrounding the island can be a maritime hazard, bakers abandoned World War II runway,5,463 ft long, is completely covered with vegetation and is unserviceable. The United States claims an Exclusive Economic Zone of 200 nautical miles, during a 1935–1942 colonization attempt, the island was most likely on Hawaii time, which was then 10.5 hours behind UTC. Since it is uninhabited the islands time zone is unspecified, Baker was discovered in 1818 by Captain Elisha Folger of the Nantucket whaling ship Equator, who called the island New Nantucket. In August 1825 Baker was sighted by Captain Obed Starbuck of the Loper, the island is named for Michael Baker, who visited the island in 1834. Other references state that he visited in 1832, and again on August 14,1839, in the whaler Gideon Howland, Captain Baker claimed the island in 1855, then he sold his interest to a group who later formed the American Guano Company. The United States took possession of the island in 1857, claiming it under the Guano Islands Act of 1856 and its guano deposits were mined by the American Guano Company from 1859 to 1878. On 7 December 1886, it all its rights to the British firm John T. Arundel and Company. Arundel applied in 1897 to the British Colonial Office for a licence to work the island on the presumption that the USA had abandoned their claim, the United Kingdom then considered Baker Island as a British territory, while never formally annexing it. This short-lived attempt at colonization begun when American colonists arrived aboard the USCGC Itasca and they built a lighthouse and substantial dwellings, and they attempted to grow various plants. The settlement was named Meyerton, after Captain H. A, meyer of the United States Army, who helped establish the camps in 1935. One sad-looking clump of coconut palms was jokingly called King-Doyle Park after two well-known citizens of Hawaii who visited on the Taney in 1938, King-Doyle Park was later adopted as a geographic name by the USGS
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Howland Island
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Howland Island /ˈhaʊlənd/ is an uninhabited coral island located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean, about 1,700 nautical miles southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia and is an unincorporated, unorganized territory of the United States, geographically, together with Baker Island it forms part of the Phoenix Islands. For statistical purposes, Howland is grouped as one of the United States Minor Outlying Islands, Howland is located at 0°48′24″N 176°36′59″W. It covers 1,112 acres, with 4 miles of coastline, the island has an elongated plantain-shape on a north-south axis. Howland Island National Wildlife Refuge consists of the island and the surrounding 32,074 acres of submerged land. The island is managed by the U. S. Fish, the atoll has no economic activity. It is perhaps best known as the island Amelia Earhart was searching for but never reached when her airplane disappeared on July 2,1937, airstrips constructed to accommodate her planned stopover were subsequently damaged, were not maintained and gradually disappeared. There are no harbors or docks, the fringing reefs may pose a maritime hazard. There is a landing area along the middle of the sandy beach on the west coast. The island is visited every two years by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the climate is equatorial, with little rainfall and intense sunshine. Temperatures are moderated somewhat by a constant wind from the east, the terrain is low-lying and sandy, a coral island surrounded by a narrow fringing reef with a slightly raised central area. The highest point is about six meters above sea level, there are no natural fresh water resources. The landscape features scattered grasses along with prostrate vines and low-growing pisonia trees, a 1942 eyewitness description spoke of a low grove of dead and decaying kou trees on a very shallow hill at the islands center. Howland is primarily a nesting, roosting and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds, the U. S. claims an Exclusive Economic Zone of 200 nautical miles and a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles around the island. Since Howland Island is uninhabited, no time zone is specified and it lies within a nautical time zone which is 12 hours behind UTC. Sparse remnants of trails and other artifacts indicate a sporadic early Polynesian presence, a canoe, a blue bead, pieces of bamboo, and other relics of early settlers have been found. Emery, an ethnologist for Honolulus Bernice P, Worth of the Nantucket whaler Oeno sighted Howland around 1822 and called it Worth Island. Daniel MacKenzie of the American whaler Minerva Smith was unaware of Worths sighting when he charted the island in 1828, Howland Island was at last named on September 9,1842 after a lookout who sighted it from the whaleship Isabella under Captain Geo
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Lakshadweep
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Lakshadweep, formerly known as the Laccadive, Minicoy, and Aminidivi Islands, is a group of islands in the Laccadive Sea,200 to 440 km off the south western coast of India. The archipelago is a Union Territory and is governed by the Union Government of India and they were also known as Laccadive Islands, although geographically this is only the name of the central subgroup of the group. Lakshadweep comes from Lakshadweepa, which one hundred thousand islands in Sanskrit. The islands form the smallest Union Territory of India, their surface area is just 32 km2. The lagoon area covers about 4,200 km2, the territorial waters area 20,000 km2, the region forms a single Indian district with 10 subdivisions. Kavaratti serves as the capital of the Union Territory and the region comes under the jurisdiction of Kerala High Court, the islands are the northernmost of the Lakshadweep-Maldives-Chagos group of islands, which are the tops of a vast undersea mountain range, the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge. As the islands do not have any aboriginal groups, different views have been postulated by the scholars about the history of habitation on these islands, archaeological evidence supports the existence of human settlement in the region around 1500 BC. The islands have long known to sailors, as indicated by an anonymous reference from the first century AD to the region in Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The islands were referenced also in the Buddhist Jataka stories of the sixth century BC, the arrival of Muslim missionaries around the seventh century led to the advent of Islam in the region. During the medieval period, the region was ruled by the Chola dynasty, the Portuguese arrived around 1498 and were upstaged by 1545. The region was ruled by the Muslim house of Arakkal. On his death in 1799, most of the region passed on to the British and with their departure, Ten of the islands are inhabited. At the 2011 Indian census, the population of the Union Territory was 64,473, the majority of the indigenous population is Muslim and most of them belong to the Shafi school of the Sunni sect. The islanders are ethnically similar to the Malayali people of the nearest Indian state of Kerala, most of the population speaks Malayalam with Mahi being the most spoken language in Minicoy island. The islands are served by an airport on the Agatti island, the main occupation of the people is fishing and coconut cultivation, with tuna being the main item of export. A mention of the region in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, There are references to the control of the islands by the Cheras in the Sangam Patiṟṟuppattu. Local traditions and legends attribute the first settlement on these islands to the period of Cheraman Perumal, the oldest inhabited islands in the group are Amini, Kalpeni Andrott, Kavaratti, and Agatti. Archaeological evidence suggests that Buddhism prevailed in the region during the fifth and sixth centuries CE, according to popular tradition, Islam was brought to Lakshadweep by an Arab named Ubaidulla in 661 CE
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India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
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Islet
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An islet is a very small island. As suggested by its origin as islette, an Old French diminutive of isle, use of the term implies small size, but little attention is given to drawing an upper limit on its applicability. Cay or Key – an islet formed by the accumulation of sand deposits atop a reef Motu – A reef islet formed by broken coral and sand. River island – A small islet within the current of a river, rock – A rock, in the sense of a type of islet, is an uninhabited landform composed of rock, lying offshore, and having at most minimal vegetation. Sandbar – An exposed sandbar is another type of islet, Sea stack – A thin, vertical landform jutting out of a body of water. Skerry – A small rocky island, usually defined to be too small for habitation, subsidiary islets – A more technical application is to small land features, isolated by water, lying off the shore of a larger island. Likewise, any emergent land in an atoll is called an islet. Tidal island – Often small islands lie off the mainland of an area, being connected to it in low tide. In the Caribbean and West Atlantic, islets are often called cays or keys, rum Cay in the Bahamas and the Florida Keys off Florida are examples of islets. In the Channel Islands, they are identified by the suffix -hou from the Norse -holm. In Scotland and Ireland, they are often called inches, from the Gaelic innis, which originally meant island, in Ireland they are often termed skerries. In and around Polynesia, islets are widely known by the term motu, in and around the River Thames in England, small islands are known as aits or eyots. One long-term dispute over the status of such an islet was that of Snake Island, there are thousands of islets on Earth, approximately 24,000 islands and islets in the Stockholm archipelago alone. The following is a list of example islets from around the world, Islands or Rocks, Is that the Real Question. The Treatment of Islands in the Delimitation of Maritime Boundaries, in Myron H. Nordquist, John Norton Moore, Alfred H. A. The Law of the Sea Convention, US Accession and Globalization
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Ocean bank
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An ocean bank, sometimes referred to as a fishing bank or simply bank, is a part of the sea which is shallow compared to its surrounding area, such as a shoal or the top of an underwater hill. Somewhat like continental slopes, ocean banks slopes can upwell as tidal and other flows intercept them, because of this, some large banks, such as Dogger Bank and the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, are among the richest fishing grounds in the world. There are some banks that were reported in the 19th century by navigators, such as Wachusett Reef, ocean banks may be of volcanic nature. Banks may be carbonate or terrigenous, in tropical areas some banks are submerged atolls. As they are not associated with any landmass, banks have no source of sediments. Carbonate banks are typically platforms, rising from the ocean depths, Seamounts, by contrast, are mountains, of volcanic origin, rising from the deep sea, and are steeper, and higher in comparison to the surrounding seabed. Examples of these are Pioneer and Guide Seamounts, west of the Farallon Islands, the Pioneer Seamount has a depth of 1,000 meters, In other cases, parts of a bank may reach above the water surface, thereby forming islands
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Kiribati
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Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation in the central Pacific Ocean. The permanent population is just over 100,000, more than half of live on Tarawa Atoll. The nation comprises 33 atolls and reef islands and one raised coral island and they have a total land area of 800 square kilometres and are dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometers. Their spread straddles the equator and the 180th meridian, although the International Date Line is indented to bring the Line Islands in the day as the Kiribati Islands. The International Date Line circumscribes Kiribati by swinging far to the east, almost reaching the 150°W meridian, Kiribatis easternmost islands, the southern Line Islands south of Hawaii, have the most advanced time on Earth, UTC+14 hours. Kiribati became independent from the United Kingdom in 1979, the capital and now most populated area, South Tarawa, consists of a number of islets, connected by a series of causeways. These comprise about half the area of Tarawa Atoll, Kiribati is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the IMF and the World Bank, and became a full member of the United Nations in 1999. The name Kiribati was adopted at independence and it is local enunciation of Gilberts. This name derives from the archipelago that forms the nation. It was named the Gilbert Islands after the British explorer Thomas Gilbert and he sighted many of the islands in 1788 while mapping out the Outer Passage route from Port Jackson to Canton. The Kiribati archipelago was named Îles Gilbert, in about 1820, by Russian admiral Adam von Krusenstern, both their maps, published in 1820, were written in French. The archipelagos name was incorporated in the entire Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony from 1916, the spelling of Gilberts in the Gilbertese language as Kiribati may be found in books in Gilbertese prepared by missionaries and others. It is often suggested that the name for the Gilbert Islands proper is Tungaru. The pronunciation differs, Kiribas is the pronunciation as ti in Kiribatese makes an s sound. The area now called Kiribati has been inhabited by Micronesians speaking the same Oceanic language since sometime between 3000 BC and AD1300, the area was not isolated, invaders from Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji, later introduced Polynesian and Melanesian cultural aspects, respectively. Intermarriage tended to blur cultural differences and resulted in a significant degree of cultural homogenisation, chance visits by European ships occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries, as these ships attempted circumnavigations of the world or sought sailing routes from the south to north Pacific Ocean. The passing trade gave rise to European, Chinese, Samoan and other residents from the 1830s, they included beachcombers, castaways, traders and missionaries. In 1892 local authorities on each of the Gilbert Islands agreed to Captain Davis RN declaring them part of a British protectorate with the nearby Ellice Islands
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Maldives
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The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, is a South Asian island country, located in the Indian Ocean, situated in the Arabian Sea. It lies southwest of India and Sri Lanka, the chain of twenty-six atolls stretches from Ihavandhippolhu Atoll in the north to the Addu City in the south. Malé is the capital and most populated city, traditionally called the Kings Island for its central location. With an average elevation of 1.5 metres above sea level, it is the worlds lowest country, with even its highest natural point being the lowest in the world. Due to the subsequent risks posed by rising sea-levels, the government pledged in 2009 to make the Maldives a carbon-neutral country by 2019, the Maldives have been historically and culturally linked to the Indian subcontinent since the fourth century BCE. The Maldivian archipelago was Islamised in the 12th century and consolidated as a sultanate, developing commercial and cultural ties with Asia. From the mid 16th-century, the region came under the influence of European colonial powers. Independence from the United Kingdom was achieved in 1965 and a republic was established in 1968 with an elected Peoples Majlis. The ensuing decades have been characterised by political instability, efforts at democratic reform, the Maldives is a founding member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. It is also a member of the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the World Bank classifies the Maldives as having an upper middle income economy. Fishing has historically been the dominant economic activity, and remains the largest sector by far, along with Sri Lanka, it is one of only two South Asian countries rated high on the Human Development Index, with its per capita income the highest among SAARC nations. The name Maldives may derive from the Malayalam words maala and dweepu or the Tamil maalai and theevu, the Maldivian people are called Dhivehin. The word theevu means island, and Dhives means islanders, the ancient Sri Lankan chronicle Mahawamsa refers to an island called Mahiladiva in Pali, which is probably a mistranslation of the same Sanskrit word meaning garland. Jan S Hogendorn, Grossman Professor of Economics, theorises that the name Maldives derives from the Sanskrit mālādvīpa, in Tamil, Garland of Islands can be translated as Malai Theevu. In Malayalam, Garland of Islands can be translated as Maladweepu, in Kannada, Garland of Islands can be translated as Maaledweepa. This is the name inscribed on the scroll in the Maldive state emblem. The classical Persian/Arabic name for Maldives is Dibajat, the Dutch referred to the islands as the Maldivische Eilanden, while the British anglicised the local name for the islands first to the Maldive Islands and later to Maldives. One such community are the Giraavaru people and they are mentioned in ancient legends and local folklore about the establishment of the capital and kingly rule in Malé
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St. Martin's Island
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St. Martins Island is a small island in the northeastern part of the Bay of Bengal, about 9 km south of the tip of the Coxs Bazar-Teknaf peninsula, and forming the southernmost part of Bangladesh. There is a small adjoining island that is separated at high tide and it is about 8 kilometres west of the northwest coast of Myanmar, at the mouth of the Naf River. The first settlement started 250 years ago by Arabian sailors who named the island Jazeera, during British occupation the island was named St. Martin Island. During the First Anglo-Burmese War between the British and Burmese empires in 1824–1826, rival claims to the island were a major factor, the local names of the island are Narikel jinjira which means Coconut Island in Bengali, and Daruchini Dwip. It is the coral island in Bangladesh. Most of the islands approximately 3,700 inhabitants live primarily from fishing, the other staple crops are rice and coconut. Being very common on the island, algae are collected, dried, between October and April, the fishermen from neighboring areas bring their caught fishes to the islands temporary wholesale market. However, imports of chicken, meat and other foods come in from the mainland Bangladesh, as the centre and the south are mainly farmland and makeshift huts, most of the permanent structures are around the far north. During the rainy season, because of the conditions on the Bay of Bengal. There is a hospital on the island, but in the past there has often been no doctor, the only way to reach St. Martins Island is by water transportation, boats and ships from Teknaf. Only internal transport for island is non motorarized van, roads are made of concrete and the condition is pretty good. All the hotels run generators till 11 pm. then have to relly on solar power, solar power is very popular throughout the island and everyone using that. There is no electricity supply from the grid since a hurricane in 1999. The island is all about sun, sea and palm trees, during the day, it comes alive with water and beach sports, with beach parties and bonfires lighting up the evening skies. From 1989 to 2004, non-residential Bangladeshis and foreigners were the only permitted on the island, however. St. Martins Island has become a popular tourist spot, five shipping liners run daily trips to the island, including Shahid Sher Niabat, L C T Kutubdia, Eagle, Keari Cruise & Dine, and Keari-Sindbad. Tourists can book their trip either from Chittagong or from Coxs Bazar, the surrounding coral reef has an extension named Chera Dwip. A small bush is there, which is the green part
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Bangladesh
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Bangladesh, officially the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It shares land borders with India and Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and China are located near Bangladesh but do not share a border with it. The countrys maritime territory in the Bay of Bengal is roughly equal to the size of its land area, Bangladesh is the worlds eighth most populous country. Dhaka is its capital and largest city, followed by Chittagong which has the countrys largest port, Bangladesh forms the largest and eastern part of the Bengal region. Bangladeshis include people of different ethnic groups and religions, Bengalis, who speak the official Bengali, make up 98% of the population. The politically dominant Bengali Muslims make the nation the worlds third largest Muslim-majority country, most of Bangladesh is covered by the Bengal delta, the largest delta on Earth. The country has 700 rivers and 8,046 km of inland waterways, highlands with evergreen forests are found in the northeastern and southeastern regions of the country. Bangladesh has many islands and a coral reef and it is home to the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world. The countrys biodiversity includes a vast array of plant and wildlife, including critically endangered Bengal tigers, the Greeks and Romans identified the region as Gangaridai, a powerful kingdom of the historical subcontinent, in the 3rd century BCE. Archaeological research has unearthed several ancient cities in Bangladesh, which had trade links for millennia. The Bengal Sultanate and Mughal Bengal transformed the region into a cosmopolitan Islamic imperial power between the 14th and 18th centuries, the region was home to many principalities which had inland naval prowess. It was also a center of the worldwide muslin and silk trade. As part of British India, the region was influenced by the Bengali renaissance, the Partition of British India made East Bengal a part of the Dominion of Pakistan, and was renamed as East Pakistan. The region witnessed the Bengali Language Movement in 1952 and the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, after independence, a parliamentary republic was established. A presidential government was in place between 1975 and 1990, followed by a return to parliamentary democracy, the country has also been affected by poverty, natural disasters, hunger, dominant party systems and military coups. Bangladesh is a power and a major developing nation. Listed as one of the Next Eleven, it has the 46th largest economy and it is one of the largest textile exporters in the world. Its major trading partners are the European Union, the United States, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, with its strategically vital location between Southern, Eastern and Southeast Asia, Bangladesh is an important promoter of regional connectivity and cooperation
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Pattaya
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Pattaya is a resort city in Thailand. It is on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand, about 100 kilometres south-east of Bangkok, within, the Pattaya City is a self-governing municipal area which covers the whole tambon Nong Prue and Na Klua and parts of Huai Yai and Nong Pla Lai. The city is in the industrial Eastern Seaboard zone, along with Si Racha, Laem Chabang, Pattayas census population figure is 107,406, yet this only accounts for residents who have formally registered in the city. Pattaya is the center of the Pattaya-Chonburi Metropolitan Area—the conurbation in Chonburi Province—with a total population exceeding 1,000,000. The name Pattaya evolved from the march of Phraya Tak and his army from Ayutthaya to Chanthaburi, when his army arrived in the vicinity of what is now Pattaya, Phraya Tak encountered the troops of a local leader named Nai Klom, who tried to intercept him. When the two met face to face, Nai Klom was impressed by Phraya Taks dignified manner and his armys strict discipline and he surrendered without a fight and joined his forces. The place the armies confronted each other was known as Thap Phraya. This later became Pattaya, the name of the wind blowing from the south-west to the north-east at the beginning of the rainy season, Pattaya was a fishing village until the 1960s. Then, during the Vietnam War, American servicemen stationed at nearby U-Tapao or other US bases in Thailand began visiting Pattaya and they rented several houses at the south end of the beach from a prominent Thai, Lord Sunthorn. Despite their short stay, the soldiers had a great time, the word spread among other American soldiers stationed in the region and Pattaya quickly became a hot alternative to Bangkok. Pattaya has a wet and dry climate, which is divided into the following seasons, hot and dry, hot and humid. The city had 104,318 registered inhabitants in 2007, including non-registered residents, the population numbers for Pattaya were estimated by Thai sources at around 300,000 at any given time. Other estimates put the figure as high as 500,000, Pattaya additionally has massive population inflow from tourism, with its 2000 hotels and 136,000 rooms available as of 2015. Due to the tourist industry, many people from the north-east have come to work in Pattaya, there is a fast-growing community of foreign retirees living in Pattaya. Thailand immigration has a special category for foreigners over age 50 who wish to retire in Thailand. Pattaya is attractive to retirees from other countries not only because of its climate and exotic, easy lifestyle. Pattaya, on the Gulf of Thailand, is approximately 160 kilometres south of the city of Bangkok in the Bang Lamung District. The city of Pattaya is a municipal area which covers the whole tambon Nong Prue and Na Kluea and parts of Huai Yai
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Ko Samui
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Ko Samui is an island off the east coast of the Kra Isthmus, Thailand. Geographically in the Chumphon Archipelago, it is part of Surat Thani Province, though as of 2012, Ko Samui was granted Municipality status and thus is now locally self-governing. Ko Samui is Thailands second-largest island after Phuket, with an area of 228.7 km2, a population of over 63,000, abundant tourist resources, sandy beaches, coral reefs, and coconut trees are present on the island. The island was probably first inhabited about 15 centuries ago, settled by fishermen from the Malay Peninsula and it appears on Chinese maps dating back to 1687, under the name Pulo Cornam. The name samui is mysterious in itself, perhaps it is an extension of the name of one of the native trees, mui. Some people believe that the word derives from the Malay word saboey, or safe haven. Ko is the Thai word for island, until the late-20th century, Ko Samui was an isolated self-sufficient community, having little connection with the mainland of Thailand. The island was without roads until the early 1970s, and the 15 km journey from one side of the island to the other could involve a whole-day trek through the mountainous central jungles. Ko Samuis economy now is based primarily on a successful tourist industry, as well as exports of coconut, economic growth has brought not only prosperity, but also major changes to the islands environment and culture. Ko Samui is in the Gulf of Thailand, about 35 km northeast of Surat Thani town and it is the most significant island in the Chumphon Archipelago. The island measures some 25 km at its widest point, to the north are the populated resort islands of Ko Phangan, Ko Tao, and Ko Nang Yuan. Close to Bangrak in NE Samui is the uninhabited island of Ko Som. In the southern direction are Ko Taen, Ko Matsum each of which have very small tourist facilities, to the far west are 44 other islands which together compose the Mu Ko Ang Thong National Park which is accessible by a day-trip boat tour from Ko Samui. The central part of Ko Samui is the mostly unspoiled, natural tropical jungle, including the largest mountain named Khao Pom, peaking at 635 meters. The various lowland and coastal areas are connected by Route 4169, many other concrete roads branch off from 4169 to service other areas. On the west coast of the island is the capital, Nathon. Nathon is the home of the public hospital, being the location of the main port and the closest inhabited area to the mainland provided the impetus for Nathon becoming the commercial centre for Samui locals. Ko Samui features a tropical savanna climate under Köppen’s climate classification, the island has only has one true dry season month, with the average monthly precipitation in February falling below 60 mm, the threshold for a tropical dry season month
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Thailand
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Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand, formerly known as Siam, is a country at the centre of the Indochinese peninsula in Southeast Asia. With a total area of approximately 513,000 km2, Thailand is the worlds 51st-largest country and it is the 20th-most-populous country in the world, with around 66 million people. The capital and largest city is Bangkok, Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and has switched between parliamentary democracy and military junta for decades, the latest coup being in May 2014 by the National Council for Peace and Order. Its capital and most populous city is Bangkok and its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. The Thai economy is the worlds 20th largest by GDP at PPP and it became a newly industrialised country and a major exporter in the 1990s. Manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism are leading sectors of the economy and it is considered a middle power in the region and around the world. The country has always been called Mueang Thai by its citizens, by outsiders prior to 1949, it was usually known by the exonym Siam. The word Siam has been identified with the Sanskrit Śyāma, the names Shan and A-hom seem to be variants of the same word. The word Śyâma is possibly not its origin, but a learned, another theory is the name derives from Chinese, Ayutthaya emerged as a dominant centre in the late fourteenth century. The Chinese called this region Xian, which the Portuguese converted into Siam, the signature of King Mongkut reads SPPM Mongkut King of the Siamese, giving the name Siam official status until 24 June 1939 when it was changed to Thailand. Thailand was renamed Siam from 1945 to 11 May 1949, after which it reverted to Thailand. According to George Cœdès, the word Thai means free man in the Thai language, ratcha Anachak Thai means kingdom of Thailand or kingdom of Thai. Etymologically, its components are, ratcha, -ana- -chak, the Thai National Anthem, written by Luang Saranupraphan during the extremely patriotic 1930s, refers to the Thai nation as, prathet Thai. The first line of the anthem is, prathet thai ruam lueat nuea chat chuea thai, Thailand is the unity of Thai flesh. There is evidence of habitation in Thailand that has been dated at 40,000 years before the present. Similar to other regions in Southeast Asia, Thailand was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India, Thailand in its earliest days was under the rule of the Khmer Empire, which had strong Hindu roots, and the influence among Thais remains even today. Voretzsch believes that Buddhism must have been flowing into Siam from India in the time of the Indian Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire, later Thailand was influenced by the south Indian Pallava dynasty and north Indian Gupta Empire. The Menam Basin was originally populated by the Mons, and the location of Dvaravati in the 7th century, the History of the Yuan mentions an embassy from the kingdom of Sukhothai in 1282
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Sea level rise
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Sea level rise refers to an increase in the volume of water in the world’s oceans, resulting in an increase in global mean sea level. Sea level rise is attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets. Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly, Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average. Local factors might include tectonic effects, subsidence of the land, tides, currents, storms, Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries. IPCC Summary for Policymakers, AR5,2014, indicated that the mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century, very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010. A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 –2.5 m possible during the 21st century, Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems. On the timescale of centuries to millennia, the melting of ice sheets could result in even higher sea level rise, partial deglaciation of the Greenland ice sheet, and possibly the West Antarctic ice sheet, could contribute 4 to 6 m or more to sea level rise. Various factors affect the volume or mass of the ocean, leading to changes in eustatic sea level. The two primary influences are temperature, and the mass of water locked up on land and sea as water in rivers, lakes, glaciers. Over much longer timescales, changes in the shape of oceanic basins. Since the Last Glacial Maximum about 20,000 years ago, sea level has risen by more than 125 m, with rates varying from tenths of a mm/yr to 10+mm/year, as a result of melting of major ice sheets. During the rest of the early Holocene, the rate of sea level rise varied from a low of about 6.0 -9.9 mm/yr to as high as 30 -60 mm/yr during brief periods of accelerated sea level rise. In sharp contrast, the period between 14,300 and 11,100 calendar years ago, which includes the Younger Dryas interval, was an interval of reduced sea level rise at about 6.0 -9.9 mm/yr. Meltwater pulse 1C was centered at 8,000 calendar years, such rapid rates of sea level rising during meltwater events clearly implicate major ice-loss events related to ice sheet collapse. The primary source may have been meltwater from the Antarctic ice sheet, other studies suggest a Northern Hemisphere source for the meltwater in the Laurentide ice sheet. For example, this research included studies of Roman wells in Caesarea and these methods in combination suggest a mean eustatic component of 0.07 mm/yr for the last 2000 years. Since 1880, as the Industrial Revolution took center stage, the ocean began to rise briskly, climbing a total of 210 mm through 2009 causing extensive erosion worldwide, Sea level rose by 6 cm during the 19th century and 19 cm in the 20th century. Evidence for this includes geological observations, the longest instrumental records, for example, geological observations indicate that during the last 2,000 years, sea level change was small, with an average rate of only 0. 0–0.2 mm per year
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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International Standard Serial Number
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An International Standard Serial Number is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title, ISSN are used in ordering, cataloging, interlibrary loans, and other practices in connection with serial literature. The ISSN system was first drafted as an International Organization for Standardization international standard in 1971, ISO subcommittee TC 46/SC9 is responsible for maintaining the standard. When a serial with the content is published in more than one media type. For example, many serials are published both in print and electronic media, the ISSN system refers to these types as print ISSN and electronic ISSN, respectively. The format of the ISSN is an eight digit code, divided by a hyphen into two four-digit numbers, as an integer number, it can be represented by the first seven digits. The last code digit, which may be 0-9 or an X, is a check digit. Formally, the form of the ISSN code can be expressed as follows, NNNN-NNNC where N is in the set, a digit character. The ISSN of the journal Hearing Research, for example, is 0378-5955, where the final 5 is the check digit, for calculations, an upper case X in the check digit position indicates a check digit of 10. To confirm the check digit, calculate the sum of all eight digits of the ISSN multiplied by its position in the number, the modulus 11 of the sum must be 0. There is an online ISSN checker that can validate an ISSN, ISSN codes are assigned by a network of ISSN National Centres, usually located at national libraries and coordinated by the ISSN International Centre based in Paris. The International Centre is an organization created in 1974 through an agreement between UNESCO and the French government. The International Centre maintains a database of all ISSNs assigned worldwide, at the end of 2016, the ISSN Register contained records for 1,943,572 items. ISSN and ISBN codes are similar in concept, where ISBNs are assigned to individual books, an ISBN might be assigned for particular issues of a serial, in addition to the ISSN code for the serial as a whole. An ISSN, unlike the ISBN code, is an identifier associated with a serial title. For this reason a new ISSN is assigned to a serial each time it undergoes a major title change, separate ISSNs are needed for serials in different media. Thus, the print and electronic versions of a serial need separate ISSNs. Also, a CD-ROM version and a web version of a serial require different ISSNs since two different media are involved, however, the same ISSN can be used for different file formats of the same online serial
