Biblioteca Nacional de España
The Biblioteca Nacional de España is a major public library, the largest in Spain, one of the largest in the world. It is located on the Paseo de Recoletos; the library was founded by King Philip V in 1712 as the Palace Public Library. The Royal Letters Patent that he granted, the predecessor of the current legal deposit requirement, made it mandatory for printers to submit a copy of every book printed in Spain to the library. In 1836, the library's status as Crown property was revoked and ownership was transferred to the Ministry of Governance. At the same time, it was renamed the Biblioteca Nacional. During the 19th century, confiscations and donations enabled the Biblioteca Nacional to acquire the majority of the antique and valuable books that it holds. In 1892 the building was used to host the Historical American Exposition. On March 16, 1896, the Biblioteca Nacional opened to the public in the same building in which it is housed and included a vast Reading Room on the main floor designed to hold 320 readers.
In 1931 the Reading Room was reorganised, providing it with a major collection of reference works, the General Reading Room was created to cater for students and general readers. During the Spanish Civil War close to 500,000 volumes were collected by the Confiscation Committee and stored in the Biblioteca Nacional to safeguard works of art and books held until in religious establishments and private houses. During the 20th century numerous modifications were made to the building to adapt its rooms and repositories to its expanding collections, to the growing volume of material received following the modification to the Legal Deposit requirement in 1958, to the numerous works purchased by the library. Among this building work, some of the most noteworthy changes were the alterations made in 1955 to triple the capacity of the library's repositories, those started in 1986 and completed in 2000, which led to the creation of the new building in Alcalá de Henares and complete remodelling of the building on Paseo de Recoletos, Madrid.
In 1986, when Spain's main bibliographic institutions - the National Newspaper Library, the Spanish Bibliographic Institute and the Centre for Documentary and Bibliographic Treasures - were incorporated into the Biblioteca Nacional, the library was established as the State Repository of Spain's Cultural Memory, making all of Spain's bibliographic output on any media available to the Spanish Library System and national and international researchers and cultural and educational institutions. In 1990 it was made an Autonomous Entity attached to the Ministry of Culture; the Madrid premises are shared with the National Archaeological Museum. The Biblioteca Nacional is Spain's highest library institution and is head of the Spanish Library System; as the country's national library, it is the centre responsible for identifying, preserving and disseminating information about Spain's documentary heritage, it aspires to be an essential point of reference for research into Spanish culture. In accordance with its Articles of Association, passed by Royal Decree 1581/1991 of October 31, 1991, its principal functions are to: Compile and conserve bibliographic archives produced in any language of the Spanish state, or any other language, for the purposes of research and information.
Promote research through the study and reproduction of its bibliographic archive. Disseminate information on Spain's bibliographic output based on the entries received through the legal deposit requirement; the library's collection consists of more than 26,000,000 items, including 15,000,000 books and other printed materials, 4,500,000 graphic materials, 600,000 sound recordings, 510,000 music scores, more than 500,000 microforms, 500,000 maps, 143,000 newspapers and serials, 90,000 audiovisuals, 90,000 electronic documents, 30,000 manuscripts. The current director of the Biblioteca Nacional is Ana Santos Aramburo, appointed in 2013. Former directors include her predecessors Glòria Pérez-Salmerón and Milagros del Corral as well as historian Juan Pablo Fusi and author Rosa Regàs. Given its role as the legal deposit for the whole of Spain, since 1991 it has kept most of the overflowing collection at a secondary site in Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid; the Biblioteca Nacional provides access to its collections through the following library services: Guidance and general information on the institution and other libraries.
Bibliographic information about its collection and those held by other libraries or library systems. Access to its automated catalogue, which contains close to 3,000,000 bibliographic records encompassing all of its collections. Archive consultation in the library's reading rooms. Interlibrary loans. Archive reproduction. Biblioteca Digital Hispánica, digital library launched in 2008 by the Biblioteca Nacional de España List of libraries in Spain Media related to Biblioteca Nacional de España at Wikimedia Commons Official site Official web catalog
Deiphon
Deiphon is a distinctive genus of Silurian phacopid trilobites of the family Cheiruridae found in Western and Central Europe, in Central and Eastern United States. The type species, D. forbesi, from England and Sweden, was discovered and described by the French paleontologist, Joachim Barrande in 1850. The glabella was inflated, globular-shaped, covered in small wart-like bumps. If it was filled with fat, or oil, the glabellum would have helped to have made the creature positively buoyant. On the other hand, trilobites with large glabellae are suspected of being predatory, as the volume of glabella would be filled with digestive organs, or used to store captured/swallowed prey; the free cheeks of the cephalon formed a pair of long, curved spines, the segments of the pleural lobes were separated and elongated to form rib-like struts. These modifications, along with the "V" shaped pygidium give these trilobites a cartoon "fish-skeleton" appearance; the defensive value of these elongate spines is apparent, as they would have stuck in the throats of vertebrate predators, such as the Silurian acanthodian Nostolepis.
Each species differed from each other in the sizes of their glabella, as well as the size and curves of the pygidium and free cheek spines. Cheirurids had the ability to enroll to protect their softer ventral area, the spines would have thrust upward and outward. In all adult specimens of the genus, the body has up to nine segments, not including the cephalon or pygidium; because some of the other derived cheirurid trilobites, such as the Devonian Crotalocephalus and Cybelloides of the Ordovician, have been interpreted as being swimmers or plankters, the species of Deiphon have been popularly thought of as being planktonic, as well. It is due to the idea that its globular glabellum was filled with fat or oil, serving as a balloon to keep it in the water column, its elongated pleural lobes serving to keep it from sinking. If it were a nektonic or planktonic trilobite, the spherical glabellum, coupled with its rib cage-like pleural lobes and spine-like cephalon cheeks would have presented serious impediments to its hydrodynamic ability, would have been either a drifter, or a leisurely swimmer, feeding on phytoplankton, or slow-moving zooplankton.
On the other hand, because of Deiphon's questionable hydrodynamics, tiny eyes, some think of it as being a benthic predator that scurried on top of the substrate in search of prey, only swimming when necessary. It may have used its enormous glabellum to store subdued prey for digestion. Burns, Jasper. Trilobites: Common Trilobites of North America. Wilmington: Jasper Burns and Miller's Fossils, Inc. 1999. ISBN 0-9669157-0-4 Fenton, Carroll L. et al. The Fossil Book New York: Dover, 1996. ISBN 0-486-29371-8 Reconstruction of D. forbesi in comparison to Eurypterus remipedes
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and gaseous matter that constitutes the Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists study geology, although backgrounds in physics, chemistry and other sciences are useful. Field work is an important component of geology, although many subdisciplines incorporate laboratory work. Geologists work in the energy and mining sectors searching for natural resources such as petroleum, natural gas and base metals, they are in the forefront of preventing and mitigating damage from natural hazards and disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides. Their studies are used to warn the general public of the occurrence of these events. Geologists are important contributors to climate change discussions. James Hutton is viewed as the first modern geologist. In 1785 he presented a paper entitled Theory of the Earth to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In his paper, he explained his theory that the Earth must be much older than had been supposed to allow enough time for mountains to be eroded and for sediments to form new rocks at the bottom of the sea, which in turn were raised up to become dry land.
Hutton published a two-volume version of his ideas in 1795. Followers of Hutton were known as Plutonists because they believed that some rocks were formed by vulcanism, the deposition of lava from volcanoes, as opposed to the Neptunists, led by Abraham Werner, who believed that all rocks had settled out of a large ocean whose level dropped over time; the first geological map of the United States was produced in 1809 by William Maclure. In 1807, Maclure commenced the self-imposed task of making a geological survey of the United States; every state in the Union was traversed and mapped by him. The results of his unaided labors were submitted to the American Philosophical Society in a memoir entitled Observations on the Geology of the United States explanatory of a Geological Map, published in the Society's Transactions, together with the nation's first geological map; this antedates William Smith's geological map of England by six years, although it was constructed using a different classification of rocks.
Sir Charles Lyell first published his famous book, Principles of Geology, in 1830. This book, which influenced the thought of Charles Darwin promoted the doctrine of uniformitarianism; this theory states that slow geological processes have occurred throughout the Earth's history and are still occurring today. In contrast, catastrophism is the theory that Earth's features formed in single, catastrophic events and remained unchanged thereafter. Though Hutton believed in uniformitarianism, the idea was not accepted at the time. For an aspiring geologist, training includes significant coursework in physics and chemistry, in addition to classes offered through the geology department. Most geologists need skills in GIS and other mapping techniques. Geology students spend portions of the year the summer though sometimes during a January term and working under field conditions with faculty members. Many non-geologists take geology courses or have expertise in geology that they find valuable to their fields.
Geologists may concentrate their studies or research in one or more of the following disciplines: Economic geology: the study of ore genesis, the mechanisms of ore creation, geostatistics. Engineering geology: application of the geologic sciences to engineering practice for the purpose of assuring that the geologic factors affecting the location, construction and maintenance of engineering works are recognized and adequately provided for. Geochemistry: the applied branch deals with the study of the chemical makeup and behaviour of rocks, the study of the behaviour of their minerals. Geochronology: the study of isotope geology toward determining the date within the past of rock formation, metamorphism and geological events. Geomorphology: the study of landforms and the processes that create them Hydrogeology: the study of the origin and movement of groundwater water in a subsurface geological system. Igneous petrology: the study of igneous processes such as igneous differentiation, fractional crystallization and volcanological phenomena.
Isotope geology: the case of the isotopic composition of rocks to determine the processes of rock and planetary formation. Metamorphic petrology: the study of the effects of metamorphism on minerals and rocks. Marine geology: the study of the seafloor. Marine geology has strong ties to physical plate tectonics. Palaeoclimatology: the application of geological science to determine the climatic conditions present in the Earth's atmosphere within the Earth's history. Palaeontology: the classification and taxonomy of fossils within the geological record and the construction of a palaeontological history of the Earth. Pe
Trilobite
Trilobites are a group of extinct marine arachnomorph arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods; the first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the Atdabanian stage of the Early Cambrian period, they flourished throughout the lower Paleozoic era before beginning a drawn-out decline to extinction when, during the Devonian, all trilobite orders except the Proetids died out. Trilobites disappeared in the mass extinction at the end of the Permian about 252 million years ago; the trilobites were among the most successful of all early animals, existing in oceans for over 300 million years. By the time trilobites first appeared in the fossil record, they were highly diversified and geographically dispersed; because trilobites had wide diversity and an fossilized exoskeleton, they left an extensive fossil record, with some 50,000 known species spanning Paleozoic time. The study of these fossils has facilitated important contributions to biostratigraphy, evolutionary biology, plate tectonics.
Trilobites are placed within the arthropod subphylum Schizoramia within the superclass Arachnomorpha, although several alternative taxonomies are found in the literature. Trilobites had many lifestyles. Most lifestyles expected of modern marine arthropods are seen in trilobites, with the possible exception of parasitism; some trilobites are thought to have evolved a symbiotic relationship with sulfur-eating bacteria from which they derived food. The earliest trilobites known from the fossil record are redlichiids and ptychopariid bigotinids dated to some 540 to 520 million years ago. Contenders for the earliest trilobites include Fritzaspis spp.. Hupetina antiqua and Serrania gordaensis. All trilobites are thought to have originated in present-day Siberia, with subsequent distribution and radiation from this location. All Olenellina lack facial sutures, this is thought to represent the original state; the earliest sutured trilobite found so far, occurs at the same time as the earliest Olenellina, suggesting the trilobites origin lies before the start of the Atdabanian, but without leaving fossils.
Other groups show secondary lost facial sutures, such as all some Phacopina. Another common feature of the Olenellina suggests this suborder to be the ancestral trilobite stock: early protaspid stages have not been found because these were not calcified, this is supposed to represent the original state. Earlier trilobites could shed more light on the origin of trilobites. Three specimens of a trilobite from Morocco, Megistaspis hammondi, dated 478 million years old contain fossilized soft parts. Early trilobites show all the features of the trilobite group as a whole. Morphological similarities between trilobites and early arthropod-like creatures such as Spriggina and other "trilobitomorphs" of the Ediacaran period of the Precambrian are ambiguous enough to make a detailed analysis of their ancestry complex. Morphological similarities between early trilobites and other Cambrian arthropods make analysis of ancestral relationships difficult as well; that trilobites share a common ancestor with other arthropods before the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary is still reasonable to assume.
Evidence suggests that significant diversification had occurred before trilobites were preserved in the fossil record, allowing for the "sudden" appearance of diverse trilobite groups with complex derived characteristics. For such a long-lasting group of animals, it is no surprise that trilobite evolutionary history is marked by a number of extinction events where some groups perished and surviving groups diversified to fill ecological niches with comparable or unique adaptations. Trilobites maintained high diversity levels throughout the Cambrian and Ordovician periods before entering a drawn-out decline in the Devonian, culminating in the final extinction of the last few survivors at the end of the Permian period. Principal evolutionary trends from primitive morphologies, such as exemplified by Eoredlichia, include the origin of new types of eyes, improvement of enrollment and articulation mechanisms, increased size of pygidium, development of extreme spinosity in certain groups. Changes included narrowing of the thorax and increasing or decreasing numbers of thoracic segments.
Specific changes to the cephalon are noted. Several morphologies appeared independently within different major taxa. Effacement, the loss of surface detail in the cephalon, pygidium, or the thoracic furrows, is a common evolutionary trend. Notable examples of this were the orders Agnostida and Asaphida, the suborder Illaenina of the Corynexochida. Effacement is believed to be an indication of either a pelagic one. Effacement poses a problem for taxonomists since the loss of details can make the determination of phylogenetic relationships difficult. Phylogenetic biogeographic analysis of Early Cambrian Olenellidae and Redlichiidae
Geology
Geology is an earth science concerned with the solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, the processes by which they change over time. Geology can include the study of the solid features of any terrestrial planet or natural satellite such as Mars or the Moon. Modern geology overlaps all other earth sciences, including hydrology and the atmospheric sciences, so is treated as one major aspect of integrated earth system science and planetary science. Geology describes the structure of the Earth on and beneath its surface, the processes that have shaped that structure, it provides tools to determine the relative and absolute ages of rocks found in a given location, to describe the histories of those rocks. By combining these tools, geologists are able to chronicle the geological history of the Earth as a whole, to demonstrate the age of the Earth. Geology provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, the Earth's past climates. Geologists use a wide variety of methods to understand the Earth's structure and evolution, including field work, rock description, geophysical techniques, chemical analysis, physical experiments, numerical modelling.
In practical terms, geology is important for mineral and hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation, evaluating water resources, understanding of natural hazards, the remediation of environmental problems, providing insights into past climate change. Geology is a major academic discipline, it plays an important role in geotechnical engineering; the majority of geological data comes from research on solid Earth materials. These fall into one of two categories: rock and unlithified material; the majority of research in geology is associated with the study of rock, as rock provides the primary record of the majority of the geologic history of the Earth. There are three major types of rock: igneous and metamorphic; the rock cycle illustrates the relationships among them. When a rock solidifies or crystallizes from melt, it is an igneous rock; this rock can be weathered and eroded redeposited and lithified into a sedimentary rock. It can be turned into a metamorphic rock by heat and pressure that change its mineral content, resulting in a characteristic fabric.
All three types may melt again, when this happens, new magma is formed, from which an igneous rock may once more solidify. To study all three types of rock, geologists evaluate the minerals; each mineral has distinct physical properties, there are many tests to determine each of them. The specimens can be tested for: Luster: Measurement of the amount of light reflected from the surface. Luster is broken into nonmetallic. Color: Minerals are grouped by their color. Diagnostic but impurities can change a mineral’s color. Streak: Performed by scratching the sample on a porcelain plate; the color of the streak can help name the mineral. Hardness: The resistance of a mineral to scratch. Breakage pattern: A mineral can either show fracture or cleavage, the former being breakage of uneven surfaces and the latter a breakage along spaced parallel planes. Specific gravity: the weight of a specific volume of a mineral. Effervescence: Involves dripping hydrochloric acid on the mineral to test for fizzing. Magnetism: Involves using a magnet to test for magnetism.
Taste: Minerals can have a distinctive taste, like halite. Smell: Minerals can have a distinctive odor. For example, sulfur smells like rotten eggs. Geologists study unlithified materials, which come from more recent deposits; these materials are superficial deposits. This study is known as Quaternary geology, after the Quaternary period of geologic history. However, unlithified material does not only include sediments. Magmas and lavas are the original unlithified source of all igneous rocks; the active flow of molten rock is studied in volcanology, igneous petrology aims to determine the history of igneous rocks from their final crystallization to their original molten source. In the 1960s, it was discovered that the Earth's lithosphere, which includes the crust and rigid uppermost portion of the upper mantle, is separated into tectonic plates that move across the plastically deforming, upper mantle, called the asthenosphere; this theory is supported by several types of observations, including seafloor spreading and the global distribution of mountain terrain and seismicity.
There is an intimate coupling between the movement of the plates on the surface and the convection of the mantle. Thus, oceanic plates and the adjoining mantle convection currents always move in the same direction – because the oceanic lithosphere is the rigid upper thermal boundary layer of the convecting mantle; this coupling between rigid plates moving on the surface of the Earth and the convecting mantle is called plate tectonics. The development of plate tectonics has provided a physical basis for many observations of the solid Earth. Long linear regions of geologic features are explained as plate boundaries. For example: Mid-ocean ridges, high regions on the seafloor where hydrothermal vents and volcanoes exist, are seen as divergent boundaries, where two plates move apart. Arcs of volcanoes and earthquakes are theorized as convergent boundaries, where one plate subducts, or moves, under another. Transform boundaries, such as the San Andreas Fault system, resulted in widespread powerful earthquakes.
Plate tectonics has provided a mechan
Saugues
Saugues is a commune in the Haute-Loire department in south-central France. The town lies 45 km west of Le Puy-en-Velay. A former stronghold of the Gévaudan, Saugues grew in the 12th century under the authority of the Bishops of Mende and the Lords of Mercœur. A fire in 1788 destroyed most of the town's historical centre, it is in the mountains around and near Saugues that the famous beast of Gévaudan is said to have originated. Saugues is situated on the Via Podiensis, a variant route of the Way of St. James pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Pilgrims arrive in the town from Monistrol-d'Allier, continue to the next communes of Chanaleilles, La Dômerie du Sauvage and La Chapelle Saint-Roch. Saugues was the traditional meeting point for pilgrims coming from Auvergne, as the path coming from Brioude made them able to avoid Le Puy-en-Velay and instead wind though the Allier River valley through Langeac and Pourcheresse forest, connecting them to the secondary tracks that took pilgrims from Cantal and Puy-de-Dôme.
The Confrérie des Pénitents, or the Confraternity of Penitents, was founded in Saugues on 14 May 1652, with the permission of the Monseigneur of Marcillac and under the leadership of five of the town's nobles. The confraternity was recognised by a bull from the Archconfraternity of the Gonfalone in Rome. Famous for its woodturning of "esclops", Saugues is rich in old houses and dominated by La Tour des Anglais, a square keep dating back to the 13th century; the tower takes its name from an episode of the Hundred Years War, when a troupe of English Routiers besieged the town. Communes of the Haute-Loire department
Paris
Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an area of 105 square kilometres and an official estimated population of 2,140,526 residents as of 1 January 2019. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, commerce, fashion and the arts; the City of Paris is the centre and seat of government of the Île-de-France, or Paris Region, which has an estimated official 2019 population of 12,213,364, or about 18 percent of the population of France. The Paris Region had a GDP of €681 billion in 2016, accounting for 31 percent of the GDP of France, was the 5th largest region by GDP in the world. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey in 2018, Paris was the second most expensive city in the world, after Singapore, ahead of Zurich, Hong Kong and Geneva. Another source ranked Paris as most expensive, on a par with Singapore and Hong-Kong, in 2018; the city is a major rail and air-transport hub served by two international airports: Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly.
Opened in 1900, the city's subway system, the Paris Métro, serves 5.23 million passengers daily, is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro. Gare du Nord is the 24th busiest railway station in the world, the first located outside Japan, with 262 million passengers in 2015. Paris is known for its museums and architectural landmarks: the Louvre was the most visited art museum in the world in 2018, with 10.2 million visitors. The Musée d'Orsay and Musée de l'Orangerie are noted for their collections of French Impressionist art, the Pompidou Centre Musée National d'Art Moderne has the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe; the historical district along the Seine in the city centre is classified as a UNESCO Heritage Site. Popular landmarks in the centre of the city include the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris and the Gothic royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, both on the Île de la Cité. Paris received 23 million visitors in 2017, measured by hotel stays, with the largest numbers of foreign visitors coming from the United States, the UK, Germany and China.
It was ranked as the third most visited travel destination in the world in 2017, after Bangkok and London. The football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris; the 80,000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros. Paris will host the 2024 Summer Olympics; the 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups, the 2007 Rugby World Cup, the 1960, 1984, 2016 UEFA European Championships were held in the city and, every July, the Tour de France bicycle race finishes there. The name "Paris" is derived from the Celtic Parisii tribe; the city's name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. Paris is referred to as the City of Light, both because of its leading role during the Age of Enlightenment and more because Paris was one of the first large European cities to use gas street lighting on a grand scale on its boulevards and monuments.
Gas lights were installed on the Place du Carousel, Rue de Rivoli and Place Vendome in 1829. By 1857, the Grand boulevards were lit. By the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps. Since the late 19th century, Paris has been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in French as Parisiens, they are pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the area's major north–south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité; the Parisii minted their own coins for that purpose. The Romans began their settlement on Paris' Left Bank; the Roman town was called Lutetia. It became a prosperous city with a forum, temples, an amphitheatre. By the end of the Western Roman Empire, the town was known as Parisius, a Latin name that would become Paris in French. Christianity was introduced in the middle of the 3rd century AD by Saint Denis, the first Bishop of Paris: according to legend, when he refused to renounce his faith before the Roman occupiers, he was beheaded on the hill which became known as Mons Martyrum "Montmartre", from where he walked headless to the north of the city.
Clovis the Frank, the first king of the Merovingian dynasty, made the city his capital from 508. As the Frankish domination of Gaul began, there was a gradual immigration by the Franks to Paris and the Parisian Francien dialects were born. Fortification of the Île-de-la-Citie failed to avert sacking by Vikings in 845, but Paris' strategic importance—with its bridges prevent
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). 
