1.
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
2.
Chile
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Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a South American country occupying a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, Chilean territory includes the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, and Easter Island in Oceania. Chile also claims about 1,250,000 square kilometres of Antarctica, the arid Atacama Desert in northern Chile contains great mineral wealth, principally copper. Southern Chile is rich in forests and grazing lands, and features a string of volcanoes and lakes, the southern coast is a labyrinth of fjords, inlets, canals, twisting peninsulas, and islands. Spain conquered and colonized Chile in the century, replacing Inca rule in northern and central Chile. After declaring its independence from Spain in 1818, Chile emerged in the 1830s as a relatively stable authoritarian republic, in the 1960s and 1970s the country experienced severe left-right political polarization and turmoil. The regime, headed by Augusto Pinochet, ended in 1990 after it lost a referendum in 1988 and was succeeded by a coalition which ruled through four presidencies until 2010. Chile is today one of South Americas most stable and prosperous nations and it leads Latin American nations in rankings of human development, competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, state of peace, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption. It also ranks high regionally in sustainability of the state, Chile is a founding member of the United Nations, the Union of South American Nations and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. There are various theories about the origin of the word Chile, another theory points to the similarity of the valley of the Aconcagua with that of the Casma Valley in Peru, where there was a town and valley named Chili. Another origin attributed to chilli is the onomatopoeic cheele-cheele—the Mapuche imitation of the warble of a locally known as trile. The Spanish conquistadors heard about this name from the Incas, ultimately, Almagro is credited with the universalization of the name Chile, after naming the Mapocho valley as such. The older spelling Chili was in use in English until at least 1900 before switching over to Chile, stone tool evidence indicates humans sporadically frequented the Monte Verde valley area as long as 18,500 years ago. About 10,000 years ago, migrating Native Americans settled in fertile valleys, settlement sites from very early human habitation include Monte Verde, Cueva del Milodon and the Pali Aike Craters lava tube. They fought against the Sapa Inca Tupac Yupanqui and his army, the result of the bloody three-day confrontation known as the Battle of the Maule was that the Inca conquest of the territories of Chile ended at the Maule river. The next Europeans to reach Chile were Diego de Almagro and his band of Spanish conquistadors, the Spanish encountered various cultures that supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by Pedro de Valdivia, one of Francisco Pizarros lieutenants, who founded the city of Santiago on 12 February 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chiles central valley
3.
Regions of Chile
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Chile is divided into 15 regions, which are the countrys first-level administrative division. Each region is headed by an intendant, appointed by the President, regions are divided into provinces, each headed by a governor, appointed by the President. There are 54 provinces, in total, Provinces are further divided into communes, which are governed by municipalities. Each region is given a Roman numeral, followed by a name, when the regional structure was created, Roman numerals were assigned in ascending order from north to south, with the northernmost region designated as I and the southernmost region as XII. With the creation of regions XIV in the south and XV in the north in 2007, the administrative divisions of Chile were created in 1974 and limited to 13 regions. Previously, Chile was divided into 25 provinces, which were divided into departments. The new territorial organization was implemented in phases with some initial pilot regions beginning to operate in 1974, the Santiago Metropolitan Region began to operate in April 1980. Both regions became operative in October 2007, communes of Chile ISO 3166-2, CL Provinces of Chile
4.
Provinces of Chile
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A province is the second largest administrative division in Chile with 54 in total. The largest administrative division in Chile is that of a region with 15 in total, each provincial government is headed by a governor appointed by the president. The governor exercises their powers in accordance with instructions from the regional intendant, the governor is advised by the Provincial Economic and Social Council. The only exception is the Santiago Province, which makes no provision for provincial government in its regulations, the countrys provinces are further divided into 346 communes which are administered by an alcalde and municipal council. Communes of Chile Regions of Chile Decreto Ley 2.868 Provinces of Chile
5.
Easter Island
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Easter Island is a Chilean island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle. Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, in 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park. However, human activity, the introduction of the Polynesian rat, by the time of European arrival in 1722, the islands population had dropped to 2, 000–3,000 from an estimated high of approximately 15,000 just a century earlier. European diseases and Peruvian slave raiding in the 1860s further reduced the Rapa Nui population, Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. Easter Island is a territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888. Administratively, it belongs to the Valparaíso Region, and, more specifically, according to the 2012 Chilean census, the island has about 5,800 residents, of whom some 60 percent are descendants of the aboriginal Rapa Nui. Easter Island is considered part of Insular Chile, the islands official Spanish name, Isla de Pascua, also means Easter Island. However, Norwegian ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl argued that Rapa was the name of Easter Island. William Churchill inquired about the phrase and was told there were three te pito o te henua, these being the three capes of the island. The phrase appears to have used in the same sense as the designation of Lands End at the tip of Cornwall. He was unable to elicit a Polynesian name for the island itself, according to Barthel, oral tradition has it that the island was first named Te pito o te kainga a Hau Maka The little piece of land of Hau Maka. However, there are two words pronounced pito in Rapa Nui, one meaning end and one navel, and the phrase can also mean the Navel of the World. This was apparently its actual meaning, French ethnologist Alphonse Pinart gave it the actual translation the Navel of the World, another name, Mata ki te rangi, means Eyes looking to the sky. Islanders are referred to in Spanish as pascuense, however it is common to refer to members of the community as Rapa Nui. Estimated dates of initial settlement of Easter Island have ranged from 300 to 1200, rectifications in radiocarbon dating have changed almost all of the previously posited early settlement dates in Polynesia. Rapa Nui is now considered to have settled in the narrower range of 700 to 1100 CE. Significant ecological impacts and major cultural investments in monumental architecture and statuary thus began soon after initial settlement, according to oral tradition, the first settlement was at Anakena. The island was most likely populated by Polynesians who navigated in canoes or catamarans from the Gambier Islands or the Marquesas Islands,3,200 km away
6.
Polynesian Triangle
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The Polynesian Triangle is a region of the Pacific Ocean with three island groups at its corners, Hawaiʻi, Easter Island and New Zealand. It is often used as a way to define Polynesia. The largest Polynesian peoples are the Māori, Native Hawaiians, Tongans, Samoans, the native languages of this vast triangle are Polynesian languages, which are classified by linguists as part of the Oceanic subgroup of Malayo-Polynesian. They ultimately derive from the language spoken in Southeast Asia 5,000 years ago. There are also numerous Polynesian Outlier islands outside the triangle in neighboring Melanesia and Micronesia, polynesians also share similar cultural traditions, arts, religion, and sciences. Anthropologists believe that all modern Polynesian cultures descend from a single protoculture established in the South Pacific by migrant Malayo-Polynesian people, there is also some evidence of Polynesian visits to some of the subantarctic islands to the south of New Zealand, which are outside Polynesia proper. Ancient Hawaiʻi Polynesian Leaders Group Polynesian Cultural Center Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum
7.
Marine protected area
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Marine protected areas are protected areas of seas, oceans, estuaries or large lakes. MPAs restrict human activity for a purpose, typically to protect natural or cultural resources. Such marine resources are protected by local, state, territorial, native, regional, national, or international authorities and differ substantially among and between nations. This variation includes different limitations on development, fishing practices, fishing seasons and catch limits, moorings and bans on removing or disrupting marine life. In some situations, MPAs also provide revenue for countries, potentially equal to the income that they would have if they were to grant companies permissions to fish.55 million km2 in the Ross Sea. MPA is a term for protected areas that includes some area of marine landscape and/or biodiversity. Several types of compliant MPA can be distinguished, A totally marine area with no significant terrestrial parts, an area containing both marine and terrestrial components, which can vary between two extremes, those that are predominantly maritime with little land, or that is mostly terrestrial. Marine ecosystems that contain land and intertidal components only, for example, a mangrove forest would contain no open sea or ocean marine environment, but its river-like marine ecosystem nevertheless complies with the definition. IUCN offered seven categories of protected area, based on management objectives, related protected area categories include the following, World Heritage Site – an area exhibiting extensive natural or cultural history. Maritime areas are represented, however, with only 46 out of over 800 sites. Man and the Biosphere – UNESCO program that promotes a relationship between humans and the biosphere. Under article 4, biosphere reserves must encompass a mosaic of ecological systems, in structure they are similar to Multiple-use MPAs, with a core area ringed by different degrees of protection. Ramsar site – must meet criteria for the definition of Wetland to become part of a global system. These sites do not necessarily receive protection, but are indexed by importance for later recommendation to an agency that could designate it a protected area. While area refers to a single location, terms such as network, system. At the 2004 Convention on Biological Diversity, the agreed to use network on a global level. The network is a mechanism to establish regional and local systems, no take zones, are areas designated in a number of the worlds MPAs, where all forms of exploitation are prohibited and severely limits human activities. These no take zones can cover an entire MPA, or specific portions, for example, the 1,150,000 square kilometres Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, the worlds largest MPA, is a 100% no take zone
8.
Desventuradas Islands
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The Desventuradas Islands is a group of four small islands located 850 kilometres off the coast of Chile, northwest of Santiago in the Pacific Ocean. They are considered part of Insular Chile, the vegetation is a miniature mosaic of matorral, barren rock, various size trees, and shrubs mixed with ferns and perennial herbs. There are no permanent sources of water on the islands. Vertebrates inhabiting both islands are limited to birds, ten species of marine birds and one land bird species, some of them endangered, make their nests on or visit the islands. The islands were first sighted by Juan Fernández on 6 November 1574 while voyaging from Callao to Valparaíso, pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa wrote in 1579 that they are now called after St. Felix and St. Ambor. However, the name of the martyr Ambor became confused with that of the famous bishop Saint Ambrose. It is, probably, one of islands that Captain John Davis struck one night in 1686. He was able to continue his voyage but, erroneously reported the position of the incident, san Felix played a part in the Falklands War
9.
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
10.
Hectare
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The hectare is an SI accepted metric system unit of area equal to 100 ares and primarily used in the measurement of land as a metric replacement for the imperial acre. An acre is about 0.405 hectare and one hectare contains about 2.47 acres, in 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1⁄100 km2. When the metric system was further rationalised in 1960, resulting in the International System of Units, the are was not included as a recognised unit. The hectare, however, remains as a non-SI unit accepted for use with the SI units, the metric system of measurement was first given a legal basis in 1795 by the French Revolutionary government. At the first meeting of the CGPM in 1889 when a new standard metre, manufactured by Johnson Matthey & Co of London was adopted, in 1960, when the metric system was updated as the International System of Units, the are did not receive international recognition. The units that were catalogued replicated the recommendations of the CGPM, many farmers, especially older ones, still use the acre for everyday calculations, and convert to hectares only for official paperwork. Farm fields can have long histories which are resistant to change, with names such as the six acre field stretching back hundreds of years. The names centiare, deciare, decare and hectare are derived by adding the standard metric prefixes to the base unit of area. The centiare is a synonym for one square metre, the deciare is ten square metres. The are is a unit of area, equal to 100 square metres and it was defined by older forms of the metric system, but is now outside of the modern International System of Units. It is commonly used to measure real estate, in particular in Indonesia, India, and in French-, Portuguese-, Slovakian-, Serbian-, Czech-, Polish-, Dutch-, in Russia and other former Soviet Union states, the are is called sotka. It is used to describe the size of suburban dacha or allotment garden plots or small city parks where the hectare would be too large, the decare is derived from deka, the prefix for 10 and are, and is equal to 10 ares or 1000 square metres. It is used in Norway and in the former Ottoman areas of the Middle East, the hectare, although not strictly a unit of SI, is the only named unit of area that is accepted for use within the SI. The United Kingdom, United States, Burma, and to some extent Canada instead use the acre, others, such as South Africa, published conversion factors which were to be used particularly when preparing consolidation diagrams by compilation. In many countries, metrication redefined or clarified existing measures in terms of metric units, non-SI units accepted for use with the International System of Units
11.
Cliff
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In geography and geology, a cliff is a vertical, or nearly vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms by the processes of weathering, Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually formed by rock that is resistant to weathering, sedimentary rocks most likely to form cliffs include sandstone, limestone, chalk, and dolomite. Igneous rocks such as granite and basalt also often form cliffs, an escarpment is a type of cliff, formed by the movement of a geologic fault or a landslide. Most cliffs have some form of slope at their base. In arid areas or under high cliffs, they are generally exposed jumbles of fallen rock, in areas of higher moisture, a soil slope may obscure the talus. Many cliffs also feature tributary waterfalls or rock shelters, sometimes a cliff peters out at the end of a ridge, with tea tables or other types of rock columns remaining. Coastal erosion may lead to the formation of sea cliffs along a receding coastline, the Ordnance Survey distinguishes between cliffs and outcrops. Cliff is a Romance loanword that has its origins in the Latin forms clivus / clevus. Given that a cliff need not be vertical, there can be ambiguity about whether a given slope is a cliff or not. For example, given a vertical rock wall above a very steep slope. Listings of cliffs are thus inherently uncertain, some of the largest cliffs on Earth are found underwater. For example, an 8,000 m drop over a 4,250 m span can be found at a ridge sitting inside the Kermadec Trench. One candidate for highest cliff in the world is Nanga Parbats Rupal Face, according to other sources, the highest cliff in the world, about 1,340 m high, is the east face of Great Trango in the Karakoram mountains of northern Pakistan. The location of the worlds highest sea cliffs depends also on the definition of cliff that is used, guinness World Records states it is Kalaupapa, Hawaii, at 1,010 m high. Another contender is the face of Mitre Peak, which drops 1,683 m to Milford Sound. These are subject to a less stringent definition, as the slope of these cliffs at Kaulapapa is about 1.7, corresponding to an angle of 60 degrees. A more vertical drop into the sea can be found at Maujit Qaqarssuasia which is situated in the Torssukátak fjord area at the tip of South Greenland
12.
Seawater
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Seawater, or salt water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the oceans has a salinity of about 3. 5% This means that every kilogram of seawater has approximately 35 grams of dissolved salts. Average density at the surface is 1.025 kg/l, seawater is denser than both fresh water and pure water because the dissolved salts increase the mass by a larger proportion than the volume. The freezing point of seawater decreases as salt concentration increases, at typical salinity, it freezes at about −2 °C. The coldest seawater ever recorded was in 2010, in a stream under an Antarctic glacier, seawater pH is typically limited to a range between 7.5 and 8.4. However, there is no universally accepted reference pH-scale for seawater, although the vast majority of seawater has a salinity of between 31 g/kg and 38 g/kg, seawater is not uniformly saline throughout the world. Where mixing occurs with fresh water runoff from river mouths, near melting glaciers or vast amounts precipitation, the most saline open sea is the Red Sea, where high rates of evaporation, low precipitation and low river run-off, and confined circulation result in unusually salty water. The salinity in isolated bodies of water can be considerably greater still, historically, several salinity scales were used to approximate the absolute salinity of seawater. A popular scale was the Practical Salinity Scale where salinity was measured in practical salinity units, the current standard for salinity is the Reference Salinity scale with the salinity expressed in units of g/kg. The density of surface seawater ranges from about 1020 to 1029 kg/m3, depending on the temperature, at a temperature of 25 °C, salinity of 35 g/kg and 1 atm pressure, the density of seawater is 1023.6 kg/m3. Deep in the ocean, under pressure, seawater can reach a density of 1050 kg/m3 or higher. The density of seawater also changes with salinity, brines generated by seawater desalination plants can have salinities up to 120 g/kg. The density of typical seawater brine of 120 g/kg salinity at 25 °C, seawater pH is limited to the range 7.5 to 8.4. The speed of sound in seawater is about 1,500 m/s, and varies with temperature, salinity. The thermal conductivity of seawater is 0.6 W/mK at 25 °C, the thermal conductivity decreases with increasing salinity and increases with increasing temperature. Seawater contains more dissolved ions than all types of freshwater, however, the ratios of solutes differ dramatically. Bicarbonate ions also constitute 48% of river water solutes but only 0. 14% of all seawater ions, differences like these are due to the varying residence times of seawater solutes, sodium and chlorine have very long residence times, while calcium tends to precipitate much more quickly. The most abundant dissolved ions in seawater are sodium, chloride, magnesium, sulfate and its osmolarity is about 1000 mOsm/l
13.
Tide pool
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Tide pools, or rock pools, are rocky pools on the sea shore which are filled with seawater. Many of these pools exist as separate pools only at low tide, Tidal pools exist in the intertidal zones. These zones are submerged by the sea at high tides and during storms, at other times the rocks may undergo other extreme conditions, baking in the sun or exposed to cold winds. Few organisms can survive harsh conditions. Lichens and barnacles live in this region, in this zone, different barnacle species live at very tightly constrained elevations. Tidal conditions precisely determine the height of an assemblage relative to sea level. The intertidal zone is exposed to sun and wind, which desiccate barnacles. Their calcite shells are impermeable, and they possess two plates which they slide across their mouth opening when not feeding and these plates also protect against predation. The high tide zone is flooded during high tide. Organisms must survive wave action, currents, and exposure to the sun and this zone is predominantly inhabited by seaweed and invertebrates, such as sea anemones, starfish, chitons, crabs, green algae, and mussels. Marine algae provide shelter for nudibranches and hermit crabs, the same waves and currents that make life in the high tide zone difficult bring food to filter feeders and other intertidal organisms. Also called the Lower Littoral Zone and this area is usually under water - it is only exposed when the tide is unusually low. This sub region is mostly submerged, but it is exposed only during low tide, often it teems with life and has much more marine vegetation, especially seaweeds. Organisms in this zone do not have to be as well adapted to drying out, low tide zone organisms include abalone, anemones, brown seaweed, chitons, crabs, green algae, hydroids, isopods, limpets, mussels, and sometimes even small vertebrates such as fish. This area is relatively protected from large predators because of the wave action. Tide pools provide a home for hardy organisms such as starfish, mussels, inhabitants must be able to deal with a frequently changing environment — fluctuations in water temperature, salinity, and oxygen content. Hazards include waves, strong currents, exposure to midday sun, waves can dislodge mussels and draw them out to sea. Gulls pick up and drop sea urchins to break them open, starfish prey on mussels and are eaten by gulls themselves
14.
Fresh water
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Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water although it does include mineral-rich waters such as chalybeate springs, the term sweet water has been used to describe fresh water in contrast to salt water. The term fresh water does not have the meaning as potable water. Much of the fresh water and ground water is unsuitable for drinking without some form of purification because of the presence of chemical or biological contaminants. It may also be in contact with the underlying underground water. The majority of water on Earth is in ice caps. The source of almost all water is precipitation from the atmosphere, in the form of mist, rain. Fresh water falling as mist, rain or snow contains materials dissolved from the atmosphere and material from the sea, in some cases this acid rain results in pollution of lakes and rivers. In coastal areas fresh water may contain significant concentrations of salts derived from the sea if windy conditions have lifted drops of seawater into the rain-bearing clouds. This can give rise to elevated concentrations of sodium, chloride, magnesium, significant quantities of iron may be transported in this way including the well-documented transfer of iron-rich rainfall falling in Brazil derived from sand-storms in the Sahara in north Africa. Water is an issue for the survival of all living organisms. Some can use water but many organisms including the great majority of higher plants. Out of all the water on Earth, saline water in oceans, seas and saline groundwater make up about 97% of it. Freshwater lakes contain about 87% of this surface water, including 29% in the African Great Lakes, 20% in Lake Baikal in Russia, 21% in the North American Great Lakes. Swamps have most of the balance only a small amount in rivers. In areas with no water on the ground surface, fresh water derived from precipitation may, because of its lower density. Most of the fresh water is frozen in ice sheets. Many areas suffer from lack of distribution of water, such as deserts
15.
Sand
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Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles. It is defined by size, being finer than gravel and coarser than silt, Sand can also refer to a textural class of soil or soil type, i. e. a soil containing more than 85% sand-sized particles by mass. The second most common type of sand is calcium carbonate, for example aragonite, for example, it is the primary form of sand apparent in areas where reefs have dominated the ecosystem for millions of years like the Caribbean. Sand is a non renewable resource over human timescales, and sand suitable for making concrete is in high demand, in terms of particle size as used by geologists, sand particles range in diameter from 0.0625 mm to 2 mm. An individual particle in this size is termed a sand grain. Sand grains are between gravel and silt, a 1953 engineering standard published by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials set the minimum sand size at 0.074 mm. A1938 specification of the United States Department of Agriculture was 0.05 mm. Sand feels gritty when rubbed between the fingers. ISO14688 grades sands as fine, medium and coarse with ranges 0.063 mm to 0.2 mm to 0.63 mm to 2.0 mm. In the United States, sand is commonly divided into five sub-categories based on size, very fine sand, fine sand, medium sand, coarse sand, and very coarse sand. These sizes are based on the Krumbein phi scale, where size in Φ = -log2D, on this scale, for sand the value of Φ varies from −1 to +4, with the divisions between sub-categories at whole numbers. The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources. The gypsum sand dunes of the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico are famous for their bright, arkose is a sand or sandstone with considerable feldspar content, derived from weathering and erosion of a granitic rock outcrop. Some sands contain magnetite, chlorite, glauconite or gypsum, Sands rich in magnetite are dark to black in color, as are sands derived from volcanic basalts and obsidian. Chlorite-glauconite bearing sands are typically green in color, as are sands derived from basaltic with a high olivine content, many sands, especially those found extensively in Southern Europe, have iron impurities within the quartz crystals of the sand, giving a deep yellow color. Sand deposits in some areas contain garnets and other resistant minerals, the study of individual grains can reveal much historical information as to the origin and kind of transport of the grain. Quartz sand that is weathered from granite or gneiss quartz crystals will be angular. It is called grus in geology or sharp sand in the trade where it is preferred for concrete. Sand that is transported long distances by water or wind will be rounded, people who collect sand as a hobby are known as arenophiles
16.
Helicopter
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A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and these attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing aircraft and many forms of VTOL aircraft cannot perform. English language nicknames for helicopter include chopper, copter, helo, heli, Helicopters were developed and built during the first half-century of flight, with the Focke-Wulf Fw 61 being the first operational helicopter in 1936. Some helicopters reached limited production, but it was not until 1942 that a helicopter designed by Igor Sikorsky reached full-scale production, with 131 aircraft built. Though most earlier designs used more than one rotor, it is the single main rotor with anti-torque tail rotor configuration that has become the most common helicopter configuration. Tandem rotor helicopters are also in use due to their greater payload capacity. Coaxial helicopters, tiltrotor aircraft, and compound helicopters are all flying today, quadcopter helicopters pioneered as early as 1907 in France, and other types of multicopter have been developed for specialized applications such as unmanned drones. The earliest references for vertical flight came from China, since around 400 BC, Chinese children have played with bamboo flying toys. This bamboo-copter is spun by rolling a stick attached to a rotor, the spinning creates lift, and the toy flies when released. The 4th-century AD Daoist book Baopuzi by Ge Hong reportedly describes some of the ideas inherent to rotary wing aircraft, designs similar to the Chinese helicopter toy appeared in Renaissance paintings and other works. In the 18th and early 19th centuries Western scientists developed flying machines based on the Chinese toy. It was not until the early 1480s, when Leonardo da Vinci created a design for a machine that could be described as an aerial screw, that any recorded advancement was made towards vertical flight. His notes suggested that he built flying models, but there were no indications for any provision to stop the rotor from making the craft rotate. As scientific knowledge increased and became accepted, people continued to pursue the idea of vertical flight. In July 1754, Russian Mikhail Lomonosov had developed a small coaxial modeled after the Chinese top but powered by a spring device. It was powered by a spring, and was suggested as a method to lift meteorological instruments. Sir George Cayley, influenced by a fascination with the Chinese flying top, developed a model of feathers, similar to that of Launoy and Bienvenu. By the end of the century, he had progressed to using sheets of tin for rotor blades and his writings on his experiments and models would become influential on future aviation pioneers
17.
Chilean Navy
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The Chilean Navy is the naval force of Chile. This led to the development of the Chilean Navy, and the first legal resolutions outlining the organization of the institution were created. Chiles First National Fleet and the Academy for Young Midshipmen which was the predecessor of the current Naval Academy were founded, as well as the Marine Corps, the first commander of the Chilean Navy was Manuel Blanco Encalada. However the famous British naval commander Lord Cochrane who formerly had been a Captain in the Royal navy, was hired by Chileans to organize, Cochrane recruited an almost all-anglophone complement of officers and midshipmen and crews of British, Irish and American seamen. He became a key figure in the war against loyalist forces in Peru and was instrumental in taking control of the fortresses of Valdivia even though he failed in his attempt to conquer Chiloé Island. In March 1824, the Chilean Navy and Army undertook an expedition to expel the Spanish from Chiloé Archipelago, an expedition was dispatched to Chiloé Island however ended in failure when the Chilean Army led by Jorge Beauchef was defeated at the Battle of Mocopulli. It was only after Ramón Freires Chiloé expedition in 1826 did the royalist forces at Chiloé under the command of Antonio de Quintanilla, surrender, after the wars of independence, a series of conflicts demonstrated the importance of the Navy to the nation. First of these conflicts were the War of the Confederation, the Chincha Islands War, to deal with this new area of activity the navy founded in 1874 the Hydrographic Office whose first director was Francisco Vidal Gormaz. The anniversary of this battle is celebrated every year as a holiday called Día de las Glorias Navales. 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. To secure this advantage and not letting new Argentine acquisitions challenge Chilean Naval power the Chilean government decided to modernize its navy, the modernization plan included the ordering of two cruisers, two torpedo boat destroyers and the modernization of two armoured ships in English docks. A new pre-dreadnought battleship, Capitán Prat, was ordered under the new program in 1889. Tarapacá was by that time Chiles richest region in terms of resources and was without the fleet practically out of reach for the Chilean Army. From here the navy organized an army made of nitrate miners which they armed and trained to face the 40, on the elections of October 1891 Jorge Montt was elected president. Not all navy officers sided with the congress, some like Juan Williams Rebolledo, Juan José Latorre and Policarpo Toro remained on the presidential side and Francisco Vidal Gormaz declared his neutrality. After the war officers were removed from their offices. After incidents with Chile in 1872,1877 and 1878 Argentina had decided that a navy, even if modern, was not enough to back up its ambitions in Patagonia. Over the 1880s and 1890s Chile and Argentina engaged in an arms race fueled by nationalistic rhetoric, both countries signed a treaty in 1902 to end the arms race
18.
Beacon
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A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. When used in fashion, beacons can be considered a form of optical telegraphy. Beacons help guide navigators to their destinations, types of navigational beacons include radar reflectors, radio beacons, sonic and visual signals. Visual beacons range from small, single-pile structures to large lighthouses or light stations, lighted beacons are called lights, unlighted beacons are called daybeacons. As signals, beacons are an ancient form of telegraph and were part of a relay league. Systems of this kind have existed for centuries over much of the world, the ancient Romans used beacons and beacons figure on several occasions on the column of Trajan. It was devised by Leo the Mathematician for Emperor Theophilos, but either abolished or radically curtailed by Theophilos son and successor, Michael III. Beacons were later used in Greece as well, while the parts of the beacon system in Anatolia seem to have been reactivated in the 12th century by Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. In Scandinavia many hill forts were part of networks to warn against invading pillagers. In Finland, these beacons were called vainovalkeat, persecution fires, or vartiotulet, guard fires, in Wales, the Brecon Beacons were named for beacons used to warn of approaching English raiders. In England, the most famous examples are the used in Elizabethan England to warn of the approaching Spanish Armada. Many hills in England were named Beacon Hill after such beacons, in the Scottish borders country, a system of beacon fires was at one time established to warn of incursions by the English. Hume and Eggerstone castles and Soltra Edge were part of this network, the Great Wall of China is also a beacon network. In Spain, the border of Granada in the territory of the Crown of Castile had a beacon network to warn against Moorish raiders. Vehicular beacons are rotating or flashing lights affixed to the top of a vehicle to attract the attention of surrounding vehicles, emergency vehicles such as fire engines, ambulances, police cars, tow trucks, construction vehicles, and snow-removal vehicles carry beacon lights. Beacons may be constructed with halogen bulbs similar to those used in vehicle headlamps, xenon flashtubes, incandescent and xenon light sources require the vehicle’s engine to continue running to ensure that the battery is not depleted when the lights are used for a prolonged period. The low power consumption of LEDs allows the engine to remain turned off while the lights operate nodes. Beacons and bonfires are used to mark occasions and celebrate events
19.
Tsunami warning system
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A tsunami warning system is used to detect tsunamis in advance and issue warnings to prevent loss of life and damage. It is made up of two important components, a network of sensors to detect tsunamis and a communications infrastructure to issue timely alarms to permit evacuation of the coastal areas. There are two types of tsunami warning systems, international and regional. When operating, seismic alerts are used to instigate the watches and warnings, then, the first rudimentary system to alert communities of an impending tsunami was attempted in Hawaii in the 1920s. More advanced systems were developed in the wake of the April 1,1946 and May 23,1960 tsunamis which caused devastation in Hilo. While tsunamis travel at between 500 and 1,000 km/h in open water, earthquakes can be detected almost at once as seismic waves travel with a speed of 4 km/s source needed. This gives time for a possible tsunami forecast to be made and warnings to be issued to threatened areas, unfortunately, until a reliable model is able to predict which earthquakes will produce significant tsunamis, this approach will produce many more false alarms than verified warningssource needed. Tsunami warnings for most of the Pacific Ocean are issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, operated by the United States NOAA in Ewa Beach, Hawaii. NOAAs National Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska issues warnings for the west coast of North America, including Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon and California. The PTWC was established in 1949, following the 1946 Aleutian Island earthquake and this then resulted in a system of warnings in Indonesia and other affected areas.14, took place in Rome on 21 and 22 November 2005. The meeting, hosted by the Government of Italy, was attended by more than 150 participants from 24 countries,13 organizations and numerous observers. A Caribbean-wide tsunami warning system was planned to be instituted by the year 2010, panamas last major tsunami killed 4,500 people in 1882. Barbados has said it will review or test its tsunami protocol in February 2010 as a regional pilot, regional warning system centres use seismic data about nearby recent earthquakes to determine if there is a possible local threat of a tsunami. Such systems are capable of issuing warnings to the public in less than 15 minutes. Real tsunamis would affect more than just a small portion, Japan has a nationwide tsunami warning system. The system usually issues the warning minutes after an Earthquake Early Warning is issued, an improved system was unveiled on March 7,2013 following the 2011 disaster to better access the waves. Detection and prediction of tsunamis is only half the work of the system, of equal importance is the ability to warn the populations of the areas that will be affected. A devastating tsunami occurred off the coast of Hokkaidō in Japan as a result of an earthquake on July 12,1993, as a result,202 people on the small island of Okushiri, Hokkaido lost their lives, and hundreds more were missing or injured
20.
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
21.
Ajmer
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Ajmer is one of the major cities in the Indian state of Rajasthan and is the centre of the eponymous Ajmer District. According to the 2011 census, Ajmer has a population of around 551,360 in its urban agglomeration and 542,580 in the city, the city is located at a distance of 135 km from the state capital Jaipur and 391 km from the national capital New Delhi. The city was established by a Shakambhari Chahamana ruler, either Ajayaraja I or Ajayaraja II, after the defeat of Prithviraja lll in 1192 CE, the city came under Muslim rule. Ajmer is surrounded by the Aravalli Mountains and it is a pilgrimage centre for the shrine of the Sufi Saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti and is also the base for visiting Pushkar, an ancient Hindu pilgrimage city, famous for the temple of Brahma. Ajmer has been selected as one of the cities for the HRIDAY - Heritage City Development. Ajmer was originally known as Ajayameru, the 12th century text Prithviraja Vijaya states that the Shakambhari Chahamana king Ajayaraja II established the city of Ajayameru. Historian Dasharatha Sharma notes that the earliest mention of the name occurs in Palhas Pattavali. This suggests that Ajmer was founded sometime before 1113 CE, a prashasti, issued by Vigraharaja IV and found at Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra, states Ajayadeva moved his residence to Ajmer. The later text Prabandha-Kosha states that it was the 8th century king Ajayaraja I who commissioned the Ajayameru fort, Singh, this claim appears to be true, as inscriptions dated to the 8th century CE have been found at Ajmer. Singh theorizes that Ajayaraja II later enlarged the town, constructed palaces, Ajmer has a hot, semi-arid climate with over 55 centimetres of rain every year, but most of the rain occurs in the monsoon months, between June and September. Temperatures remain relatively high throughout the year, with the months of April to early July having an average daily temperature of about 30 °C. During the monsoon there is frequent heavy rain and thunderstorms, the winter months of November to February are mild and temperate with average temperatures ranging from 15–18 °C with little or no humidity. There are, however, occasional cold fronts that cause temperatures to fall to near freezing levels. Ajmer is well connected to the cities of India by land. Work on the Kishangarh Airport near Ajmer was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in September 2013, at present the nearest airport is the Jaipur International Airport, about 132 km away, with daily flights to major cities in India. Akbar and his queen used to come here by foot every year on pilgrimage from Agra in observance of a vow when he prayed for a son. The large pillars called Kose Minars, erected at intervals of two miles along the way between Agra and Ajmer mark the places where the royal pilgrims halted every day. It has been estimated that around 125,000 pilgrims visit the site every day, official Website Of Dargah, http, //www. ajmergharibnawaz. com Dargah Website for Deg Booking, offering flower, ittar at Sufi Shrine Khwaja Gharib Nawaz, Ajmer Sharif Dargah, India
22.
Rapa Nui language
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Rapa Nui or Rapanui also known as Pascuan /ˈpæskjuːən/, or Pascuense, is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken on the island of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island. The island is home to a population of just under 4,000 and is a territory of Chile. According to census data, there are about 3,700 people on the island, Census data do not exist on the primary known and spoken languages among these people and there are recent claims that the number of fluent speakers is as low as 800. Rapa Nui is a minority language and many of its speakers also speak Spanish, most Rapa Nui children now grow up speaking Spanish. Rapa Nui has ten consonants and five vowels, all vowels can be either long or short and are always long when they are stressed in the final position of a word. Most vowel sequences are present, with the exception of *uo, repetition sequences do not occur except in eee. Written Rapa Nui uses the Latin script, the glottal plosive /ʔ/ is typically written with an ʻ, or frequently with an apostrophe. A special letter, ⟨ġ⟩, is used to distinguish the Spanish /ɡ/, occurring in introduced terms. Syllables in Rapa Nui are CV or V, There are no consonant clusters or word-final consonants. The reduplication of whole nouns or syllable parts performs a variety of different functions within Rapa Nui, to describe colours for which there is not a predefined word, the noun for an object of a like colour is duplicated to form an adjective. For example, ‘ehu → ‘ehu ‘ehu = dark grey tea → tea tea = white Besides forming adjectives from nouns, for example, hatu → hatuhatu kume → kumekume ruku → rukuruku There are some apparent duplicate forms for which the original form has been lost. For example, rohirohi The reduplication of the syllable in verbs can indicate plurality of subject or object. Historically, the practice was to transliterate unfamiliar consonants, insert vowels between clustered consonants and append word-final vowels where necessary, britain → Peretane More recently, loanwords – which come primarily from Spanish – retain their consonant clusters. Rapa Nui is a VSO language, except where verbs of sensing are used, the object of a verb is marked by the relational particle i. e. g. He hakahu koe i te rama You light the torch Where a verb of sensing is used, the first person dual and plural can mark for exclusive and inclusive. The pronouns are always ahead of the person singular a and relational particle i or dative ki, however, in some examples, they dont have PRS, RLT and DAT. There is only one paradigm of pronouns for Rapa Nui and they function the same in both subject and object cases. Here is the table for the forms in Rapa Nui e. g
23.
Marquesas Islands
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The Marquesas Islands are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are located at 9°00 S, 139°30 W, the highest point is the peak of Mount Oave on Ua Pu island at 1,230 m above sea level. Based on 2010 studies, new research suggests that the islands were colonized rapidly in two waves by indigenous colonists from West Polynesia, beginning c. 1025–1120 AD, leading to development of a remarkably uniform culture, human biology and language. The Marquesas Islands form one of the five divisions of French Polynesia. The capital of the Marquesas Islands administrative subdivision is the settlement of Taiohae on the island of Nuku Hiva, the population of the Marquesas Islands was 9,264 inhabitants at the August 2012 census. D. ∼1025–1120, four centuries later than previously assumed, then after 70–265 years and this rapid colonization is believed to account for the remarkable uniformity of East Polynesia culture, biology and language. The new information will require major reworking of scholarship about the development of linguistics, ethnological and linguistic evidence suggests that they likely migrated from the Western regions of Polynesia. The rich environment of the islands supported a large population and they lived by fishing, eating both fish and shellfish. They used breadfruit and raised other foods, the islands were given their name by Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña, who reached them seventy years later on 21 July 1595. He named them after his patron, García Hurtado de Mendoza, 5th Marquis of Cañete, Mendaña visited first Fatu Hiva and then Tahuata before continuing on to the Solomon Islands. His expedition charted the four southernmost Marquesas as Magdalena, Dominica, San Pedro, in the late 16th century, European explorers estimated the population to have been more than 100,000. Europeans and Americans were impressed with how easy life appeared to be in the islands, in 1791 the American maritime fur trader Joseph Ingraham first visited the northern Marquesas while commanding the brig Hope. He named them as the Washington Islands, in 1813, Commodore David Porter claimed Nuku Hiva for the United States, but the United States Congress never ratified that claim. In 1842, France conducted a military operation on behalf of native chief Iotete. The government laid claim to the group and established a settlement on Nuku Hiva. That settlement was abandoned in 1857, but France reestablished control over the group in 1870 and it later incorporated the Marquesas into French Polynesia. Of all major groups in the Pacific, the Marquesas suffered the greatest population decline in Polynesia from endemic diseases carried by Western explorers. The indigenous people suffered high rates of mortality, as they had no immunity to the new diseases, such infectious diseases as smallpox, measles and others reduced the eighteenth-century population of over 78,000 inhabitants to about 20,000 by the middle of the nineteenth century
24.
South America
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South America is a continent located in the western hemisphere, mostly in the southern hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the northern hemisphere. It may also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas, which is the used in nations that speak Romance languages. The reference to South America instead of other regions has increased in the last decades due to changing geopolitical dynamics. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean, North America and it includes twelve sovereign states, a part of France, and a non-sovereign area. In addition to this, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers. Its population as of 2005 has been estimated at more than 371,090,000, South America ranks fourth in area and fifth in population. Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with more than half of the population, followed by Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela. In recent decades Brazil has also concentrated half of the regions GDP and has become a first regional power, most of the population lives near the continents western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, the continents cultural and ethnic outlook has its origin with the interaction of indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves. Given a long history of colonialism, the majority of South Americans speak Portuguese or Spanish. South America occupies the portion of the Americas. The continent is delimited on the northwest by the Darién watershed along the Colombia–Panama border. Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate, South Americas major mineral resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and petroleum. These resources found in South America have brought high income to its countries especially in times of war or of rapid growth by industrialized countries elsewhere. However, the concentration in producing one major export commodity often has hindered the development of diversified economies and this is leading to efforts to diversify production to drive away from staying as economies dedicated to one major export. South America is one of the most biodiverse continents on earth, South America is home to many interesting and unique species of animals including the llama, anaconda, piranha, jaguar, vicuña, and tapir. The Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, containing a proportion of the Earths species. Brazil is the largest country in South America, encompassing around half of the land area
25.
Thor Heyerdahl
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Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany, and geography. He became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km across the Pacific Ocean in a raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. The expedition was designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages and this was linked to a diffusionist model of cultural development. He was appointed a government scholar in 1984, in May 2011, the Thor Heyerdahl Archives were added to UNESCOs Memory of the World Register. At the time, this list included 238 collections from all over the world, the Heyerdahl Archives are administered by the Kon-Tiki Museum and the National Library of Norway in Oslo. Heyerdahl was born in Larvik, Norway, the son of master brewer Thor Heyerdahl and his wife, as a young child, Heyerdahl showed a strong interest in zoology. He created a museum in his childhood home, with a common adder as the main attraction. He studied zoology and geography at the faculty of science at the University of Oslo. After seven terms and consultations with experts in Berlin, a project was developed and sponsored by Heyerdahls zoology professors, Kristine Bonnevie and he was to visit some isolated Pacific island groups and study how the local animals had found their way there. The couple had two sons, Thor Jr and Bjørn, after the Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, he served with the Free Norwegian Forces from 1944, in the far north province of Finnmark. In 1949, Heyerdahl married Yvonne Dedekam-Simonsen and they had three daughters, Annette, Marian and Helene Elisabeth. Heyerdahl blamed their separation on his being away from home and differences in their ideas for bringing up children, in his autobiography, he concluded that he should take the entire blame for their separation. In 1991, Heyerdahl married Jacqueline Beer as his third wife and they lived in Tenerife, Canary Islands and were very actively involved with archaeological projects, especially in Túcume, Peru, and Azov until his death in 2002. He still had been hoping to undertake a project in Samoa before he died. Heyerdahl died on April 18,2002, in Colla Micheri, Liguria, Italy, the Norwegian government gave him a state funeral in Oslo Cathedral on April 26,2002. He is buried in the garden of the home in Colla Micheri. Many years later, having achieved notability with other adventures and books on other subjects, the story of his time on Fatu Hiva and his side trip to Hivaoa and Mohotani is also related in Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day. The Kon-Tiki smashed into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands on August 7,1947, after a 101-day,4,300 nautical mile journey across the Pacific Ocean
26.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
27.
Makemake (deity)
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Makemake in the Rapa Nui mythology of Easter Island, is the creator of humanity, the god of fertility and the chief god of the Tangata manu or bird-man cult. He is a frequent subject of the Rapa Nuis petroglyphs, the dwarf planets code name was Easterbunny. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 160, katherine Routledge The Mystery of Easter Island 1919 ISBN 0-932813-48-8 VAN TILBURG, Jo Anne. Easter Island, Archaeology, Ecology and Culture
28.
Spaniards
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Within Spain there are a number of nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the countrys complex history and diverse culture. There are several commonly spoken languages, most notably Basque. There are many populations outside Spain with ancestors who emigrated from Spain, the Roman Republic conquered Iberia during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. As a result of Roman colonization, the majority of languages, with the exception of Basque. The Germanic Vandals and Suebi, with part of the Iranian Alans under King Respendial conquered the peninsula in 409 AD. The Iberian Peninsula was conquered and brought under the rule of the Arab Umayyads in 711 and by the Berber North African dynasties the Almohads, in the early 16th century the Kingdom of Navarre was also conquered. In parallel, a wave of emigration began to the Americas began with over 16 million people emigrating to the Americas during the colonial period. In the post-colonial period, a further 3.5 million Spanish left for the Americas, particularly Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, as a result, Spanish-descendants in Latin America number in the hundreds of millions. Spain is home to one of the largest communities of Romani people, the Spanish Roma, which belong to the Iberian Kale subgroup, are a formerly-nomadic community, which spread across Western Asia, North Africa, and Europe, first reaching Spain in the 15th century. The population of Spain is became increasingly diverse due to recent immigration, the earliest modern humans inhabiting Spain are believed to have been Neolithic peoples who may have arrived in the Iberian Peninsula as early as 35, 000–40,000 years ago. In more recent times the Iberians are believed to have arrived or developed in the region between the 4th millennium BC and the 3rd millennium BC, initially settling along the Mediterranean coast, celts settled in Spain during the Iron Age. Some of those tribes in North-central Spain, which had contact with the Iberians, are called Celtiberians. In addition, a known as the Tartessians and later Turdetanians inhabited southwestern Spain. The seafaring Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians successively founded trading colonies along the Mediterranean coast over a period of several centuries, the Second Punic War between the Carthaginians and Romans was fought mainly in what is now Spain and Portugal. The Roman Republic conquered Iberia during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC transformed most of the region into a series of Latin-speaking provinces, hispania emerged as an important part of the Roman Empire and produced notable historical figures such as Trajan, Hadrian, Seneca and Quintilian. The Germanic Vandals and Suebi, with part of the Iranian Alans under King Respendial, the Suebi became the first Germanic kingdom to convert officially to Roman Catholicism in 447 AD. under king Rechiar. After two centuries of domination by the Visigothic Kingdom, the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by a Muslim force under Tariq Bin Ziyad in 711 and this army consisted mainly ethnic Berbers from the Ghomara tribe, which were reinforced by Arabs from Syria once the conquest was complete. Muslim Iberia became part of the Umayyad Caliphate and would be known as Al-Andalus, the Berbers of Al Andalus revolted as early as 740 AD, halting Arab expansion across the Pyrenees into France
29.
Department (country subdivision)
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Department is the name given to the administrative and political subdivisions of many countries. Departments are the subdivisions of eleven countries, nine in the Americas. An additional ten countries use departments as second-level subdivisions, eight in Africa, one in the Americas and this attempt to de-emphasize local political identity contrasts strongly with countries which are divided into states. The earliest known suggestion of it is from 1764 in the writings of dArgenson, today, departments may exist either with or without a representative assembly and executive head depending upon the countries constitutional and administrative structure. The United States used this designation for the Department of Alaska during the period of U. S. rule in Alaska
30.
World Wide Fund for Nature
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It was formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States. It is the worlds largest conservation organization with five million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries, supporting around 1,300 conservation. WWF is a foundation, with 55% of funding from individuals and bequests, 19% from government sources, the groups mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. Currently, much of its work concentrates on the conservation of three biomes that contain most of the biodiversity, oceans and coasts, forests. Among other issues, it is concerned with endangered species, sustainable production of commodities. The Conservation Foundation, a precursor to WWF, was founded in 1947 by Fairfield Osborn in New York City in support of capitalism-friendly ecological practices. The advisory council included leading scientists such as Charles Sutherland Elton, G Evelyn Hutchinson, Aldo Leopold, Carl Sauer, and Paul Sears. It supported much of the work cited by Rachel Carsons Silent Spring, including that of John L. George, Roger Hale, Robert Rudd. In 1990, the Conservation Foundation was merged into WWF, after becoming an affiliate of WWF in 1985, the organization now known as the Conservation Foundation in the United States is the former Forest Foundation of DuPage County. The idea for a fund on behalf of endangered animals was initially proposed by Victor Stolan to Sir Julian Huxley in response to articles he published in the British newspaper The Observer, nicholson thought up the name of the organization. WWF was conceived on 29 April 1961, under the name of World Wildlife Fund, godfrey A. Rockefeller also played an important role in its creation, assembling the first staff. For sending experts to danger spots and training, making it all possible that their needs are met before it is too late. WWF has set up offices and operations around the world, the organization also began to run its own conservation projects and campaigns, and by the 1980s started to take a more strategic approach to its conservation activities. In 1986, the changed its name to World Wide Fund for Nature. However, it continued at that time to operate under the name in the United States. We shant save all we should like to, but we shall save a great deal more than if we had never tried, – Sir Peter Scott In 1996, the organization obtained general consultative status from UNESCO. WWFs giant panda logo originated from a panda named Chi Chi that had transferred from Beijing Zoo to London Zoo in 1958. The logo was founded by Young in 1966, the organization also needed an animal that would have an impact in black and white printing
31.
Oceana (non-profit group)
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Oceana is the largest international ocean conservation and advocacy organization. Oceana works to protect and restore the world’s oceans through targeted policy campaigns, campaigns are designed to produce clear, identifiable policy changes within a 3–5 year timeframe. Oceana is headquartered in Washington, D. C. and has North American offices in New York City, Juneau, Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska, Portland, Oregon, Monterey, California, Boston, and Los Angeles. In Europe, Oceana has offices in Brussels, Belgium and Madrid, the South American office is in Santiago, Chile and the Central American office is in Belmopan, Belize. Oceana was established in 2001, by a group of leading foundations—The Pew Charitable Trusts, Oak Foundation, Marisla Foundation, thus Oceana was created to identify practical solutions to the problems facing the oceans and to make those solutions happen. The organization was not started from scratch, as the Ocean Law Project—also initiated by The Pew Charitable Trusts—was absorbed into Oceana in 2001, as the Oceana’s legal arm. In 2002, Oceana merged with American Oceans Campaign, founded by actor/environmentalist Ted Danson, Danson remains a committed and active member of Oceana’s Board of Directors. The Ocean Pollution campaign is working to stop major sources of pollution including oil, mercury, aquaculture. The Sharks campaign works to protect sharks through policy, science, Oceana is pushing for true shark finning bans, species-specific shark management and reduced shark bycatch. The Sea Turtles campaign works to protect sea turtles from extinction by reducing sea turtle bycatch, protecting habitat, the Climate and Energy campaign works to stop ocean acidification, promote clean alternative energy such as offshore wind, and end offshore drilling. Every year since 2005, the organization has led an expedition in the Mediterranean to document vulnerable marine habitats. In 2010, Oceana spent two months on the water in the Gulf of Mexico investigating the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Freezing the Footprint in the Arctic, In 2008, the National Marine Fisheries Service closed nearly 115 million acres of the Bering Sea to destructive bottom trawling, the closure adopted Oceana’s approach of freezing the current “footprint” already trawled and prevents future expansion of this damaging fishing technique. Worldwide, Oceana has protected more than 640 million acres of seafloor from bottom trawling, as a part of this campaign, Oceana also targeted outdated chlorine manufacturing plants that the organization believes to be polluting the environment with mercury. Oceana is also known for their involvement in campaigning Royal Caribbean to engage in environmentally friendly waste management, after a year of campaigning by Oceana, Royal Caribbean agreed to install advanced wastewater treatment facilities on all of its ships. Spain is one of the largest shark catching and exporting countries in the world, in July 2013, the entire EU enacted a ban on shark finning. This ruling will spare 25,000 juvenile bluefin tuna annually, the law could prevent as much as 20,000,000 tons of polluting substances from getting into the ocean every year. Oceana created the Ocean Heroes Award in 2009 to recognize the efforts of individuals who have demonstrated dedication to ocean conservation
32.
National Geographic Society
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The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D. C. United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational institutions in the world and its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical conservation, and the study of world culture and history. In partnership with 21st Century Fox, the Society operates the magazine, TV channels, a website that features extra content and worldwide events, the National Geographic Society was founded in 1888 to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge. The Society believes in the power of science, exploration and storytelling to change the world, National Geographic is governed by a board of trustees, whose 21 members include distinguished educators, business executives, former government officials and conservationists. The organization sponsors and funds research and exploration. National Geographic maintains a museum for the public in its Washington and its Education Foundation gives grants to education organizations and individuals to improve geography education. Its Committee for Research and Exploration has awarded more than 11,000 grants for scientific research, National Geographic has retail stores in Washington, D. C. The locations outside of the United States are operated by Worldwide Retail Store S. L and it also publishes other magazines, books, school products, maps, and Web and film products in numerous languages and countries. National Geographics various media properties reach more than 280 million people monthly, the National Geographic Society began as a club for an elite group of academics and wealthy patrons interested in travel. After preparing a constitution and a plan of organization, the National Geographic Society was incorporated two weeks later on January 27, Gardiner Greene Hubbard became its first president and his son-in-law, Alexander Graham Bell, succeeded him in 1897. Bell and Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor devised the successful marketing notion of Society membership, the current National Geographic Society president and CEO is Gary E. Knell. The chairman of the board of trustees is John Fahey, the editor-in-chief of National Geographic magazine is Susan Goldberg. Gilbert Melville Grosvenor, a chairman of the Society board of trustees received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005 for his leadership in geography education. In 2004, the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D. C. was one of the first buildings to receive a Green certification from Global Green USA. The National Geographic received the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities in October 2006 in Oviedo, in 2013 the society was investigated for possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act relating to their close association with an Egyptian government official responsible for antiquities. This new, for-profit corporation, will own National Geographic and other magazines, as reported by The Guardian, a spokesman for National Geographic in a November 2,2015 e-mail statement, briefly discussed the rationale for the staff reductions as part of the. Process of reorganizing in order to move forward following the closing the National Geographic Partners deal. Additional specifics were provided to Photo District News by M. J. Jacobsen, National Geographic’s SVP of communications, similar to the contents of a formal announcement by the two companies
33.
Exclusive economic zone
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It stretches from the baseline out to 200 nautical miles from its coast. In colloquial usage, the term may include the continental shelf, the term does not include either the territorial sea or the continental shelf beyond the 200 nmi limit. The surface waters, as can be seen in the map, are international waters, generally, a states exclusive economic zone is an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea, extending seaward to a distance of no more than 200 nautical miles out from its coastal baseline. The exception to this occurs when exclusive economic zones would overlap. When an overlap occurs, it is up to the states to delineate the actual maritime boundary, generally, any point within an overlapping area defaults to the nearest state. A states exclusive economic zone starts at the edge of its territorial sea. The exclusive economic zone stretches much further into sea than the territorial waters, thus, the exclusive economic zones includes the contiguous zone. The idea of allotting nations EEZs to give more control of maritime affairs outside territorial limits gained acceptance in the late 20th century. Initially, a countrys sovereign territorial waters extended 3 nautical miles or 6 km beyond the shore, in modern times, a countrys sovereign territorial waters extend to 12 nautical miles beyond the shore. One of the first assertions of exclusive jurisdiction beyond the territorial seas was made by the United States in the Truman Proclamation of September 28,1945. The exact extent of economic zones is a common source of conflicts between states over marine waters. One well-known example of such dispute was the Cod Wars between the United Kingdom and Iceland, Norway and Russia dispute both territorial sea and EEZ with regard to the Svalbard archipelago as it affects Russias EEZ due to its unique treaty status. A treaty was agreed in principle in April 2010 between the two states and subsequently ratified, resolving this demarcation dispute, the agreement was signed in Murmansk on September 15,2010. The South China Sea is the site of a dispute between several neighboring nations. Croatias ZERP in the Adriatic Sea caused friction with Italy and Slovenia, a wedge-shaped section of the Beaufort Sea is disputed between Canada and the United States, as the area reportedly contains substantial oil reserves. France claims a portion of Canadas EEZ for Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon based on a new definition of the continental shelf, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon is entirely surrounded by Canadas EEZ. Mauritius claims EEZ for Tromelin from France and EEZ for British Indian Ocean Territory from the UK, Northern Cyprus claims a portion of Cyprus EEZ overlaps with that of Northern Cyprus in the south/southeastern part of the Cyprus island. Turkey claims a portion of Cypruss EEZ overlaps with its own EEZ, Lebanon claims that the agreement between Cyprus and Israel overlapped its own EEZ
34.
Volcano
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A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. Earths volcanoes occur because its crust is broken into 17 major, therefore, on Earth, volcanoes are generally found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging. This type of volcanism falls under the umbrella of plate hypothesis volcanism, Volcanism away from plate boundaries has also been explained as mantle plumes. These so-called hotspots, for example Hawaii, are postulated to arise from upwelling diapirs with magma from the boundary,3,000 km deep in the Earth. Volcanoes are usually not created where two plates slide past one another. Erupting volcanoes can pose hazards, not only in the immediate vicinity of the eruption. Historically, so-called volcanic winters have caused catastrophic famines, the word volcano is derived from the name of Vulcano, a volcanic island in the Aeolian Islands of Italy whose name in turn comes from Vulcan, the god of fire in Roman mythology. The study of volcanoes is called volcanology, sometimes spelled vulcanology, at the mid-oceanic ridges, two tectonic plates diverge from one another as new oceanic crust is formed by the cooling and solidifying of hot molten rock. Most divergent plate boundaries are at the bottom of the oceans, therefore, most volcanic activity is submarine, black smokers are evidence of this kind of volcanic activity. Where the mid-oceanic ridge is above sea-level, volcanic islands are formed, for example, subduction zones are places where two plates, usually an oceanic plate and a continental plate, collide. In this case, the plate subducts, or submerges under the continental plate forming a deep ocean trench just offshore. In a process called flux melting, water released from the subducting plate lowers the temperature of the overlying mantle wedge. This magma tends to be very viscous due to its high content, so it often does not reach the surface. When it does reach the surface, a volcano is formed, typical examples of this kind of volcano are Mount Etna and the volcanoes in the Pacific Ring of Fire. Because tectonic plates move across them, each volcano becomes dormant and is eventually re-formed as the plate advances over the postulated plume and this theory is currently under criticism, however. The most common perception of a volcano is of a mountain, spewing lava and poisonous gases from a crater at its summit, however. The features of volcanoes are more complicated and their structure. Some volcanoes have rugged peaks formed by lava domes rather than a summit crater while others have features such as massive plateaus
35.
High island
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In geology, a high island or volcanic island is an island of volcanic origin. The term can be used to such islands from low islands. Volcanic islands normally arise above a so-called hotspot and this hampers or hinders human settlement on many low islands. Atoll Low island Volcanic arc Micronesian culture, High island and low island cultures at Britannica. com
36.
Scott and Seringapatam Reefs
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Scott and Seringapatam Reefs is a group of atoll-like reefs in the Timor Sea more than 300 kilometres northwest of Cape Leveque, Western Australia, on the edge of the continental shelf. There are three or four separate structures, depending on whether Scott Reef Central is counted separately. The group is just one of a number of reef formations off the northwest coast of Australia, further to the northeast are Ashmore and Cartier Islands, and to the southwest are the Rowley Shoals. Each of the three reefs rises steeply from the seabed 400–500 metres below, much of the reaf area dries at low tide, but besides Sandy Islet of Scott Reef South, there are only a few rocks and sandbanks above the high water mark. Scott Reef South is a large crescent-shaped formation that has a rare and its lagoon, has depths of over 24 m throughout the greater portion. The reef with its covers a area of 144 km². Scott Reef Central, because of its proximity occasionally subsumed within Scott Reef South, lies off West Hook and this reef falls dry to the extent of 0.8 to 1.6 km from the islet. There is a tower on the islet and also a boulder with a height 2.4 m near its northern end. A detached reef, which dries 0.6 m, lies 2.4 km northeast of Sandy Islet, the passage between Scott Reef South and Scott Reef Central is only 33 m deep, much less than the passages between the other reefs. Scott Reef North consists of a large, approximately circular-shaped, reef lying 23 km southwest of Seringapatam Reef, the reef with its lagoon covers an area of 106 km². Seringapatam Reef is located at 13°40′S 122°05′E,23 km north of Scott Reef North and this reef is named after the Battle of Seringapatam, the historical last and decisive battle fought between Tipu Sultan and the British Raj forces in Southern India. It is a reef, with a total area of approximately 50 km². Its narrow reef rim encloses a deep lagoon. Much of the reef exposed at low tide. There are large boulders around its edges, with a few sandbanks, Seringapatam Reef covers an area of 55 km². Browse LNG is a major LNG project currently in development by Woodside Petroleum, oceandots at the Wayback Machine Sailing Directions, Vol.175 Arrecifes e islas australianas en el Mar de Timor Berry, P. F. Faunal surveys of the Rowley Shoals, Scott Reef, and Seringapatam Reef, North-western Australia Perth, Western Australian Museum, Records of the Western Australian Museum
37.
Western Australia
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Western Australia is a state occupying the entire western third of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Southern Ocean to the south, the state has about 2.6 million inhabitants, around 11% of the national total. 92% of the lives in the south-west corner of the state. The first European visitor to Western Australia was the Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog, the first European settlement of Western Australia occurred following the landing by Major Edmund Lockyer on 26 December 1826 of an expedition on behalf of the New South Wales colonial government. This was followed by the establishment of the Swan River Colony in 1829, including the site of the present-day capital, york was the first inland settlement in Western Australia. Situated 97 kilometres east of Perth, it was settled on 16 September 1831, Western Australia achieved responsible government in 1890, and federated with the other British colonies in Australia in 1901. Today its economy relies on mining, agriculture and tourism. The state produces 46% of Australias exports, Western Australia is the second-largest iron ore producer in the world. The International Hydrographic Organization designates the body of water south of the continent as part of the Indian Ocean, the total length of the states eastern border is 1,862 km. There are 20,781 km of coastline, including 7,892 km of island coastline, the total land area occupied by the state is 2.5 million km2. Most of the state is a low plateau with an elevation of about 400 metres, very low relief. This descends relatively sharply to the plains, in some cases forming a sharp escarpment. The extreme age of the landscape has meant that the soils are remarkably infertile, even soils derived from granitic bedrock contain an order of magnitude less available phosphorus and only half as much nitrogen as soils in comparable climates in other continents. Soils derived from extensive sandplains or ironstone are even less fertile, nearly devoid of soluble phosphate and also deficient in zinc, copper, molybdenum, the infertility of most of the soils has required heavy application by farmers of chemical fertilisers, particularly superphosphate, insecticides and herbicides. These have resulted in damage to invertebrate and bacterial populations, the grazing and use of hoofed mammals and, later, heavy machinery through the years have resulted in compaction of soils and great damage to the fragile soils. Large-scale land clearing for agriculture has damaged habitats for native flora, large areas of the states wheatbelt region have problems with dryland salinity and the loss of fresh water. The southwest coastal area has a Mediterranean climate and it was originally heavily forested, including large stands of karri, one of the tallest trees in the world. This agricultural region is one of the nine most bio-diverse terrestrial habitats, thanks to the offshore Leeuwin Current, the area is one of the top six regions for marine biodiversity and contains the most southerly coral reefs in the world
38.
Sea level
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Mean sea level is an average level of the surface of one or more of Earths oceans from which heights such as elevations may be measured. A common and relatively straightforward mean sea-level standard is the midpoint between a low and mean high tide at a particular location. Sea levels can be affected by factors and are known to have varied greatly over geological time scales. The careful measurement of variations in MSL can offer insights into ongoing climate change, the term above sea level generally refers to above mean sea level. Precise determination of a sea level is a difficult problem because of the many factors that affect sea level. Sea level varies quite a lot on several scales of time and this is because the sea is in constant motion, affected by the tides, wind, atmospheric pressure, local gravitational differences, temperature, salinity and so forth. The easiest way this may be calculated is by selecting a location and calculating the mean sea level at that point, for example, a period of 19 years of hourly level observations may be averaged and used to determine the mean sea level at some measurement point. One measures the values of MSL in respect to the land, hence a change in MSL can result from a real change in sea level, or from a change in the height of the land on which the tide gauge operates. In the UK, the Ordnance Datum is the sea level measured at Newlyn in Cornwall between 1915 and 1921. Prior to 1921, the datum was MSL at the Victoria Dock, in Hong Kong, mPD is a surveying term meaning metres above Principal Datum and refers to height of 1. 230m below the average sea level. In France, the Marégraphe in Marseilles measures continuously the sea level since 1883 and it is used for a part of continental Europe and main part of Africa as official sea level. Elsewhere in Europe vertical elevation references are made to the Amsterdam Peil elevation, satellite altimeters have been making precise measurements of sea level since the launch of TOPEX/Poseidon in 1992. A joint mission of NASA and CNES, TOPEX/Poseidon was followed by Jason-1 in 2001, height above mean sea level is the elevation or altitude of an object, relative to the average sea level datum. It is also used in aviation, where some heights are recorded and reported with respect to sea level, and in the atmospheric sciences. An alternative is to base height measurements on an ellipsoid of the entire Earth, in aviation, the ellipsoid known as World Geodetic System 84 is increasingly used to define heights, however, differences up to 100 metres exist between this ellipsoid height and mean tidal height. The alternative is to use a vertical datum such as NAVD88. When referring to geographic features such as mountains on a topographic map, the elevation of a mountain denotes the highest point or summit and is typically illustrated as a small circle on a topographic map with the AMSL height shown in metres, feet or both. In the rare case that a location is below sea level, for one such case, see Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
39.
Seamount
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A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the waters surface, and thus is not an island. Seamounts are typically formed from volcanoes that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from the seafloor to 1. They are defined by oceanographers as independent features that rise to at least 1,000 m above the seafloor, the peaks are often found hundreds to thousands of meters below the surface, and are therefore considered to be within the deep sea. During their evolution over time, the largest seamounts may reach the sea surface where wave action erodes the summit to form a flat surface. Seamounts and guyots are most abundant in the North Pacific Ocean, in recent years, several active seamounts have been observed, for example Loihi in the Hawaiian Islands. Because of their abundance, seamounts are one of the most common marine ecosystems in the world, interactions between seamounts and underwater currents, as well as their elevated position in the water, attract plankton, corals, fish, and marine mammals alike. Their aggregational effect has been noted by the fishing industry. There are ongoing concerns on the impact of fishing on seamount ecosystems. 95% of ecological damage is done by bottom trawling, which scrapes whole ecosystems off seamounts, because of their large numbers, many seamounts remain to be properly studied, and even mapped. Bathymetry and satellite altimetry are two technologies working to close the gap, there have been instances where naval vessels have collided with uncharted seamounts, for example, Muirfield Seamount is named after the ship that struck it in 1973. Seamounts can be found in every ocean basin in the world, a seamount is technically defined as an isolated rise in elevation of 1,000 m or more from the surrounding seafloor, and with a limited summit area, of conical form. If small knolls, ridges and hills less than 1,000 m in height are included there are over 100,000 seamounts in the world ocean. Most seamounts are volcanic in origin, and thus tend to be found on oceanic crust near mid-ocean ridges, mantle plumes, and island arcs. Overall, seamount and guyot coverage is greatest as a proportion of area in the North Pacific Ocean. The Arctic Ocean has only 16 seamounts and no guyots, the 9,951 seamounts mapped cover an area of 8,088,550 km2. The largest seamount has an area of 15,500 km2, guyots cover a total area of 707,600 km2 and have an average area of 2,500 km2, more than twice the average size of seamounts. Nearly 50% of guyot area and 42% of the number of guyots occur in the North Pacific Ocean, the largest three guyots are all in the North Pacific, the Kuko Guyot, Suiko Guyot and the Pallada Guyot. Seamount chain redirects here, for a broader coverage related to this topic, Seamounts are often found in groupings or submerged archipelagos, a classic example being the Emperor Seamounts, an extension of the Hawaiian Islands
40.
Nazca Plate
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The Nazca Plate, named after the Nazca region of southern Peru, is an oceanic tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west coast of South America. The ongoing subduction, along the Peru–Chile Trench, of the Nazca Plate under the South American Plate is largely responsible for the Andean orogeny. The Nazca Plate is bounded on the west by the Pacific Plate and to the south by the Antarctic Plate through the East Pacific Rise and the Chile Rise respectively. The movement of the Nazca Plate over several hotspots has created some volcanic islands as well as east-west running seamount chains that subduct under South America, the oldest rocks of the plate are about 50 million years old. A triple junction, the Chile Triple Junction, occurs on the seafloor of the Pacific Ocean off Taitao, here three tectonic plates meet, the Nazca Plate, the South American Plate, and the Antarctic Plate. The eastern margin is a convergent boundary subduction zone under the South American Plate, the southern side is a divergent boundary with the Antarctic Plate, the Chile Rise, where seafloor spreading permits magma to rise. The western side is a divergent boundary with the Pacific Plate, the northern side is a divergent boundary with the Cocos Plate, the Galapagos Rise. The subduction of the Nazca plate under southern Chile has a history of producing massive earthquakes, including the largest ever recorded on earth, the moment magnitude 9.51960 Valdivia earthquake. A second triple junction occurs at the northwest corner of the plate where the Nazca, Cocos, yet another triple junction occurs at the southwest corner at the intersection of the Nazca, Pacific, and Antarctic Plates off the coast of southern Chile. At each of these triple junctions an anomalous microplate exists, the Galapagos Microplate at the northern junction, the Easter Island Microplate is a third microplate that is located just north of the Juan Fernandez Microplate and lies just west of Easter Island. The Carnegie Ridge is a 1, 350-km-long and up to 300-km-wide feature on the floor of the northern Nazca Plate that includes the Galápagos archipelago at its western end. It is being subducted under South America with the rest of the Nazca Plate, Darwin Gap is the area between the Nazca Plate and the coast of Chile, where Charles Darwin experienced the earthquake of 1835. It is expected that this area will be the epicenter of a quake in the near future. The absolute motion of the Nazca Plate has been calibrated at 3.7 cm/yr east motion, the subducting Nazca Plate, which exhibits unusual flat-slab subduction, is tearing as well as deforming as it is subducted. The subduction has formed, and continues to form, the volcanic Andes Mountain Range, deformation of the Nazca Plate even affects the geography of Bolivia, far to the east. Aside from the Juan Fernández Islands, this area has few other islands that are affected by the earthquakes that are a result of complicated movements at these junctions. The precursor of both the Nazca Plate and the Cocos Plate was the Farallon Plate, which split in late Oligocene, about 22.8 Mya, a date arrived at by interpreting magnetic anomalies. Subduction under the South American continent began about 140 Mya, although the formation of the parts of the Central Andes
41.
Easter hotspot
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The Easter hotspot is a volcanic hotspot located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. The hotspot created the Sala y Gómez Ridge which includes Easter Island, the hotspot may also be responsible for the formation of the Tuamotu Archipelago, Line Islands, and the chain of seamounts lying in between. Easter Island § Geology Moai Pukao Sala y Gómez Haase, Karsten M. Peter Stoffers, the Petrogenetic Evolution of Lavas from Easter Island and Neighbouring Seamounts, Near-ridge Hotspot Volcanoes in the SE Pacific
42.
Moai (seamount)
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The Moai Seamount is a submarine volcano, the second most westerly in the Easter Seamount Chain or Sala y Gómez ridge. It is east of Pukao seamount and west of Easter Island and it rises over 2,500 metres from the ocean floor to within a few hundred metres of the sea surface. The Moai seamount is fairly young, having developed in the last few hundred years as the Nazca Plate floats over the Easter hotspot. The Moai seamount was named after the statues of neighbouring Easter Island
43.
Ecoregion
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An ecoregion is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than an ecozone. All three of these are less or greater than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, the biodiversity of flora, fauna and ecosystems that characterise an ecoregion tends to be distinct from that of other ecoregions. Three caveats are appropriate for all bio-geographic mapping approaches, firstly, no single bio-geographic framework is optimal for all taxa. Ecoregions reflect the best compromise for as many taxa as possible, secondly, ecoregion boundaries rarely form abrupt edges, rather, ecotones and mosaic habitats bound them. Thirdly, most ecoregions contain habitats that differ from their assigned biome, biogeographic provinces may originate due to various barriers. Some physical, some climatic and some ocean chemical related, the history of the term is somewhat vague as it was used in many contexts, forest classifications, biome classifications, biogeographic classifications, etc. The concept of ecoregion of Bailey gives more importance to ecological criteria, while the WWF concept gives more importance to biogeography, there is significant, but not absolute, spatial correlation among these characteristics, making the delineation of ecoregions an imperfect science. Such transition zones are called ecotones, Ecoregions can be categorized using an algorithmic approach or a holistic, “weight-of-evidence” approach where the importance of various factors may vary. An example of the approach is Robert Bailey’s work for the U. S. The intended purpose of ecoregion delineation may affect the method used, according to WWF, the boundaries of an ecoregion approximate the original extent of the natural communities prior to any major recent disruptions or changes. WWF has identified 867 terrestrial ecoregions, and approximately 450 freshwater ecoregions across the Earth, the use of the term ecoregion is an outgrowth of a surge of interest in ecosystems and their functioning. In particular, there is awareness of issues relating to spatial scale in the study and it is widely recognized that interlinked ecosystems combine to form a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by WWF as priorities for conservation, Terrestrial ecoregions are land ecoregions, as distinct from freshwater and marine ecoregions. In this context, terrestrial is used to mean of land, WWF ecologists currently divide the land surface of the Earth into 8 major ecozones containing 867 smaller terrestrial ecoregions. The WWF effort is a synthesis of previous efforts to define. Many consider this classification to be decisive, and some propose these as stable borders for bioregional democracy initiatives. The eight terrestrial ecozones follow the major floral and faunal boundaries, identified by botanists and zoologists, ecozone boundaries generally follow continental boundaries, or major barriers to plant and animal distribution, like the Himalayas and the Sahara
Valparaíso
Isla de Pascua
Media related to Category:Sala y Gómez at Wikimedia Commons