1.
Uluru
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It lies 335 km south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs,450 km by road. Uluru is sacred to the Pitjantjatjara Anangu, the Aboriginal people of the area, the area around the formation is home to an abundance of springs, waterholes, rock caves and ancient paintings. Uluru is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Uluru and Kata Tjuta, also known as the Olgas, are the two major features of the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. The local Anangu, the Pitjantjatjara people, call the landmark Uluṟu and this word is a proper noun, with no further particular meaning in the Pitjantjatjara dialect, although it is used as a local family name by the senior Traditional Owners of Uluru. On 19 July 1873, the surveyor William Gosse sighted the landmark and named it Ayers Rock in honour of the then Chief Secretary of South Australia, since then, both names have been used. In 1993, a dual naming policy was adopted that allowed official names that consist of both the traditional Aboriginal name and the English name, on 15 December 1993, it was renamed Ayers Rock / Uluru and became the first official dual-named feature in the Northern Territory. The order of the names was officially reversed to Uluru / Ayers Rock on 6 November 2002 following a request from the Regional Tourism Association in Alice Springs. Uluru is one of Australias most recognisable natural landmarks, the sandstone formation stands 348 m high, rising 863 m above sea level with most of its bulk lying underground, and has a total circumference of 9.4 km. Uluru is notable for appearing to change colour at different times of the day and year, most notably when it glows red at dawn, Kata Tjuta, also called Mount Olga or the Olgas, lies 25 km west of Uluru. Special viewing areas with access and parking have been constructed to give tourists the best views of both sites at dawn and dusk. Uluru is an inselberg, literally island mountain, an inselberg is a prominent isolated residual knob or hill that rises abruptly from and is surrounded by extensive and relatively flat erosion lowlands in a hot, dry region. Uluru is also referred to as a monolith, although this is a somewhat ambiguous term that is generally avoided by geologists. The remarkable feature of Uluru is its homogeneity and lack of jointing and parting at bedding surfaces, leading to the lack of development of scree slopes and these characteristics led to its survival, while the surrounding rocks were eroded. Uluru is dominantly composed of coarse-grained arkose and some conglomerate, the grains are typically 2–4 millimetres in diameter, and are angular to subangular, the finer sandstone is well sorted, with sorting decreasing with increasing grain size. The rock fragments include subrounded basalt, invariably replaced to various degrees by chlorite and epidote, the minerals present suggest derivation from a predominantly granite source, similar to the Musgrave Block exposed to the south. When relatively fresh, the rock has a colour. The strata at Uluru are nearly vertical, dipping to the south west at 85°, the strata dip below the surrounding plain and no doubt extend well beyond Uluru in the subsurface, but the extent is not known. The similar mineral composition of the Mutitjulu Arkose and the ranges to the south is now explained
2.
Northern Territory
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The Northern Territory is a federal Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. It shares borders with Western Australia to the west, South Australia to the south, to the north, the territory is bordered by the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria. Despite its large area—over 1,349,129 square kilometres, the Northern Territorys population of 244,000 makes it the least populous of Australias eight major states and territories, having fewer than half as many people as Tasmania. The archaeological history of the Northern Territory begins over 40,000 years ago when Indigenous Australians settled the region, makassan traders began trading with the indigenous people of the Northern Territory for trepang from at least the 18th century onwards. The coast of the territory was first seen by Europeans in the 17th century, the British were the first Europeans to attempt to settle the coastal regions. After three failed attempts to establish a settlement, success was achieved in 1869 with the establishment of a settlement at Port Darwin. Today the economy is based on tourism, especially Kakadu National Park in the Top End and the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in central Australia, the capital and largest city is Darwin. The population is not concentrated in regions but rather along the Stuart Highway. The other major settlements are Palmerston, Alice Springs, Katherine, Nhulunbuy, residents of the Northern Territory are often known simply as Territorians and fully as Northern Territorians, or more informally as Top Enders and Centralians. With the coming of the British, there were four attempts to settle the harsh environment of the northern coast. The Northern Territory was part of colonial New South Wales from 1825 to 1863, except for a time from February to December 1846. It was part of South Australia from 1863 to 1911, under the administration of colonial South Australia, the overland telegraph was constructed between 1870 and 1872. A railway was built between Palmerston and Pine Creek between 1883 and 1889. The economic pattern of raising and mining was established so that by 1911 there were 513,000 cattle. Victoria River Downs was at one time the largest cattle station in the world, gold was found at Grove Hill in 1872 and at Pine Creek, Brocks Creek, Burrundi, and copper was found at Daly River. On 1 January 1911, a decade after federation, the Northern Territory was separated from South Australia, alfred Deakin opined at this time To me the question has been not so much commercial as national, first, second, third and last. Either we must accomplish the peopling of the territory or submit to its transfer to some other nation. In late 1912 there was growing sentiment that the name Northern Territory was unsatisfactory, the names Kingsland, Centralia and Territoria were proposed with Kingsland becoming the preferred choice in 1913
3.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
4.
Stratum
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In geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers. The stratum is the unit in a stratigraphic column and forms the basis of the study of stratigraphy. Each layer is one of a number of parallel layers that lie one upon another. They may extend over hundreds of thousands of kilometers of the Earths surface. Strata are typically seen as bands of different colored or differently structured material exposed in cliffs, road cuts, quarries, individual bands may vary in thickness from a few millimeters to a kilometer or more. Each band represents a mode of deposition, river silt, beach sand, coal swamp, sand dune, lava bed. Geologists study rock strata and categorize them by the material of beds, each distinct layer is typically assigned to the name of sheet, usually based on a town, river, mountain, or region where the formation is exposed and available for study. For example, the Burgess Shale is an exposure of dark, occasionally fossiliferous. Slight distinctions in material in a formation may be described as members, formations are collected into groups while groups may be collected into supergroups. Archaeological horizon Geologic formation Geologic map Geologic unit Law of superposition Bed GeoWhen Database
5.
Monolithos, Greece
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Monolithos is a Greek village on the island of Rhodes, South Aegean region, belonging to the municipal unit of Attavyros. It is located 10 km south-east of Apolakkia and 30 km from Prasonisi, outside the village is the medieval Castle, built on top of a 100m rock. This castle was built in 1480 by the Knights of Saint John to protect the island from attacks, in fact, this castle was never conquered. The Castle of Monolithos is widely ruined today but it offers views of the sea. Inside the Castle, there is a working chapel dedicated to Agios Panteleimon. Access to the castle is by a cut into the rock. The steps, whilst not particularly steep, are quite slippery due to the numbers of visitors wearing them away. On the climb up to the top, you are likely to see hundreds, if not thousands and these piles are left there by the visitors as a form of a memento. Media related to Monolithos at Wikimedia Commons Rhodes Monolithos, Information and pictures of Monolithos Castle on Rhodes Rhodes Island at Greeka. com Images of Monolithos at Flickr
6.
Rhodes
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Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of land area and also the island groups historical capital. Administratively the island forms a municipality within the Rhodes regional unit. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Rhodes, the city of Rhodes had 50,636 inhabitants in 2011. It is located northeast of Crete, southeast of Athens and just off the Anatolian coast of Turkey, Rhodes nickname is The island of the Knights, named after the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, who once conquered the land. Historically, Rhodes was famous worldwide for the Colossus of Rhodes, the Medieval Old Town of the City of Rhodes has been declared a World Heritage Site. Today, it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe, the island has been known as Ρόδος in Greek throughout its history. In addition, the island has been called Rodi in Italian, Rodos in Turkish, and Rodi or Rodes in Ladino. The island of Rhodes is shaped like a spearhead,79.7 km long and 38 km wide, with an area of approximately 1,400 square kilometres. The city of Rhodes is located at the tip of the island, as well as the site of the ancient. The main air gateway is located 14 km to the southwest of the city in Paradisi, the road network radiates from the city along the east and west coasts. There are mineral-rich spring water used to give medicinal baths and the spa resorts offer various health treatments, Rhodes is situated 363 km east-south-east from the Greek mainland, and 18 km from the southern shore of Turkey. The interior of the island is mountainous, sparsely inhabited and covered with forests of pine, while the shores are rocky, the island has arable strips of land where citrus fruit, wine grapes, vegetables, olives and other crops are grown. The Rhodian population of deer was found to be genetically distinct in 2005. In Petaloudes Valley, large numbers of tiger moths gather during the summer months, mount Attavyros, at 1,216 metres, is the islands highest point of elevation. Earthquakes include the 226 BC earthquake that destroyed the Colossus of Rhodes, one on 3 May 1481 which destroyed much of the city of Rhodes, and one on 26 June 1926. On 15 July 2008, Rhodes was struck by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake causing minor damage to a few old buildings, Rhodes has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate. The island was inhabited in the Neolithic period, although remains of this culture. In the 16th century BC, the Minoans came to Rhodes, later Greek mythology recalled a Rhodian race called the Telchines and associated the island of Rhodes with Danaus, it was sometimes nicknamed Telchinis
7.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
8.
Landsat 7
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Landsat 7 is the seventh satellite of the Landsat program. Launched on April 15,1999, Landsat 7s primary goal is to refresh the global archive of photos, providing up-to-date. The Landsat Program is managed and operated by the USGS, the NASA World Wind project allows 3D images from Landsat 7 and other sources to be freely navigated and viewed from any angle. The satellites companion, Earth Observing-1, trails by one minute, Landsat 7 was built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. Landsat 7 was designed to last for five years, and has the capacity to collect and it is in a polar, sun-synchronous orbit, meaning it scans across the entire earths surface. With an altitude of 705 kilometers +/-5 kilometers, it takes 232 orbits, or 16 days, the satellite weighs 1973 kg, is 4.04 m long, and 2.74 m in diameter. Unlike its predecessors, Landsat 7 has a solid state memory of 378 gigabits, the main instrument on board Landsat 7 is the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus. The SLC consists of a pair of mirrors that rotate about an axis in tandem with the motion of the main ETM+ scan mirror. The purpose of the SLC is to compensate for the motion of the spacecraft so that the resulting scans are aligned parallel to each other. Without the effects of the SLC, the instrument images the Earth in a fashion, resulting in some areas that are imaged twice. The net effect is that approximately 22% of the data in a Landsat 7 scene is missing when acquired without a functional SLC, following the SLC failure, an Anomaly Response Team was assembled, consisting of representatives from the USGS, NASA, and Hughes Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The team assembled a list of possible scenarios, most of which pointed at a mechanical problem with the SLC itself. Since there is no backup SLC, a failure would indicate that the problem was permanent. However, the team was unable to rule out the possibility of an electrical failure, though such a possibility was deemed remote. This operation was successful, and on September 5,2003 and it was immediately apparent that the migration to the Side-B electrical harness had not fixed the problem with the SLC. Following this, the instrument was reconfigured again to use its primary electrical harness, the subsequent conclusion of the ART was that the SLC problem was mechanical and permanent in nature. Landsat 7 continues to acquire data in this mode, Data products are available with the missing data optionally filled in using other Landsat 7 data selected by the user. In 2013, Landsat 7 was joined by Landsat 8, the contract was part of the NASA Scientific Data Purchase which was administrated through NASAs John C. Stennis Space Center
9.
Brandberg Mountain
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The Brandberg, is Namibias highest mountain. Brandberg Mountain is located in former Damaraland, now Erongo, in the northwestern Namib Desert, near the coast, and covers an area of approximately 650 km². With its highest point, the Königstein, standing at 2,573 m above sea level and located on the flat Namib gravel plains, on a clear day The Brandberg can be seen from a great distance. There are various routes to the summit, the easiest being up the Gaaseb river valley, the nearest settlement is Uis, roughly 30 km from the mountain. The name Brandberg is Afrikaans, Dutch and German for Fire Mountain, the Damara name for the mountain is Dâures, which means burning mountain, while the Herero name, Omukuruvaro means mountain of the Gods. The Brandberg Massif or Brandberg Intrusion is an intrusion, which forms a dome-shaped massif. It originated during Early Cretaceous rifting that led to the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean, argon–argon dating yielded intrusive ages of 132 to 130 Ma. The dominant plutonic rock is a medium grained biotite-hornblende granite. In the western interior of the massif, a 2 km in diameter body of pyroxene-bearing monzonite is exposed, the youngest intrusive rocks based on cross-cutting relations are arfvedsonite granite dikes and sills in the southwestern periphery of the Brandberg massif which crop out in the Amis valley. The arfvedsonite granites contain minerals rich in rare earth element minerals such as pyrochlore, remnants of Cretaceous volcanic rocks are preserved in a collar along the western and southern margins of the massif. Their angle of dip increases towards the contact where clasts of country-rock occur within the forming a magmatic breccia. Erosion subsequently removed the overburden rock, apatite fission track dating indicates approximately 5 km denudation between 80 and 60 Ma. An associated feature is the Doros Complex, the Brandberg is a spiritual site of great significance to the San tribes. The main tourist attraction is The White Lady rock painting, located on a face with other art work, under a small rock overhang. The ravine contains more than 1000 rock shelters, as well as more than 45000 rock paintings, to reach The White Lady it is necessary to hike for about 40 minutes over rough terrain, along the ancient watercourses threading through the mountain. The higher elevations of the mountain contain hundreds of rock paintings, most of which have been painstakingly documented by Harald Pager. Pagers work was published by the Heinrich Bart Institute, in the six volume series Rock Paintings of the Upper Brandberg edited by Tilman Lenssen-Erz. The Brandberg is also home to some interesting desert flora, Damaraland is well known for its grotesque aloes and euphorbias and the region around the mountain is no exception
