1.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
2.
Peru
–
Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the west by the Pacific Ocean. Peruvian territory was home to ancient cultures spanning from the Norte Chico civilization in Caral, one of the oldest in the world, to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a Viceroyalty with its capital in Lima, ideas of political autonomy later spread throughout Spanish America and Peru gained its independence, which was formally proclaimed in 1821. After the battle of Ayacucho, three years after proclamation, Peru ensured its independence, subsequently, the country has undergone changes in government from oligarchic to democratic systems. Peru has gone through periods of political unrest and internal conflict as well as periods of stability, Peru is a representative democratic republic divided into 25 regions. It is a country with a high Human Development Index score. Its main economic activities include mining, manufacturing, agriculture and fishing, the Peruvian population, estimated at 31.2 million in 2015, is multiethnic, including Amerindians, Europeans, Africans and Asians. The main spoken language is Spanish, although a significant number of Peruvians speak Quechua or other native languages and this mixture of cultural traditions has resulted in a wide diversity of expressions in fields such as art, cuisine, literature, and music. The name of the country may be derived from Birú, the name of a ruler who lived near the Bay of San Miguel, Panama. When his possessions were visited by Spanish explorers in 1522, they were the southernmost part of the New World yet known to Europeans, thus, when Francisco Pizarro explored the regions farther south, they came to be designated Birú or Perú. An alternative history is provided by the contemporary writer Inca Garcilasco de la Vega, son of an Inca princess, the Spanish Crown gave the name legal status with the 1529 Capitulación de Toledo, which designated the newly encountered Inca Empire as the province of Peru. Under Spanish rule, the country adopted the denomination Viceroyalty of Peru, the earliest evidences of human presence in Peruvian territory have been dated to approximately 9,000 BC. Andean societies were based on agriculture, using such as irrigation and terracing, camelid husbandry. Organization relied on reciprocity and redistribution because these societies had no notion of market or money, the oldest known complex society in Peru, the Norte Chico civilization, flourished along the coast of the Pacific Ocean between 3,000 and 1,800 BC. These early developments were followed by archaeological cultures that developed mostly around the coastal, the Cupisnique culture which flourished from around 1000 to 200 BC along what is now Perus Pacific Coast was an example of early pre-Incan culture. The Chavín culture that developed from 1500 to 300 BC was probably more of a religious than a political phenomenon, on the coast, these included the civilizations of the Paracas, Nazca, Wari, and the more outstanding Chimu and Mochica. Their capital was at Chan Chan outside of modern-day Trujillo, in the 15th century, the Incas emerged as a powerful state which, in the span of a century, formed the largest empire in pre-Columbian America with their capital in Cusco
Peru
–
Sculpted
Chavin head embedded in one of the walls of the temple of
Chavín de Huantar
Peru
Peru
–
A
Moche ceramic vessel from the 5th century depicting a man's head
Peru
–
The citadel of
Machu Picchu, an iconic symbol of pre-Columbian Peru
3.
Piura Region
–
Piura is a coastal region in northwestern Peru. The regions capital is Piura and its largest port cities, Paita, the area is known for its tropical and dry beaches. The countrys latest decentralization program is in hiatus after the proposal to merge departments was defeated in the referendum in October 2005. The Piura Region is bordered to the north by the Tumbes Region and Ecuador, to the east by Cajamarca Region, to the south by the Lambayeque Region, punta Pariñas in Piura is South Americas most western point. The territory of the Piura Region has many variations due to its geographical location. It is just 4 degrees south of the equator, yet receives two ocean currents at the time, the cold Humboldt Current and the warm El Niño Current. There are also valleys of tropical climate, where rice and coconut fields are common, especially around the Piura. There is a high Amazon climate as one away from the coast onto the sierra, Páramo climates. Topography is smooth in the coast and rough in the Sierra, there are many arid plains in the southern region. The Sechura Desert, located south of the Piura River, is Perus largest desert and one of the few examples of a tropical desert. The Bayóvar Depression, which is the lowest point in Peru, the morphological forms most common in the coast are the dry ravine that suddenly become copious when there are heavy rains, forming tropical dry forests all over. Other features are half-moon shaped dunes, the marine terraces such as those of Máncora, Talara, valleys have been formed by fluvial terraces of the Chira River and Piura River. To the east, valleys are more or less deep and have been eroded by rivers forming equatorial tropical-dry-forests, the major peak surpasses 3000 m. The Paso de Porculla, in the southwest of the territory is only 2,138 meters high and is the lowest pass of the Peruvian Andes, the rivers crossing its territory belong both to the Pacific watershed and to the Amazon Basin. The Chira River is the most important and flows into the Pacific Ocean, the Piura River also flows into the Pacific Ocean although the flow varies greatly with the changing seasons and during severe droughts will dry up. The climate is subtropical and tropical savanna in the center and north coast, Piura has a tropical dry or tropical savanna climate monsoon weather that averages 26 °C throughout the whole year. Pleasant warm winters that average between 25 °C and 28 °C during the daytime and lows around 16 °C during the night, the Páramo climate is found in the higher regions of the Sierra. El Niño occurs when ocean waters reach 27 °C, when ocean water temperatures elevate 1 or 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than 26 °C, the consequence could be catastrophic rains
Piura Region
–
Illescas Peninsula
Piura Region
–
Afternoon in
Santo Domingo (
Morropón).
Piura Region
–
Plaza de Armas of
Piura.
Piura Region
–
Clarito served in a bowl known as "poto".
Catacaos,
Peru.
4.
UTC
–
Coordinated Universal Time, abbreviated to UTC, is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about 1 second of mean time at 0° longitude. It is one of closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. For most purposes, UTC is considered interchangeable with GMT, the first Coordinated Universal Time was informally adopted on 1 January 1960. This change also adopted leap seconds to simplify future adjustments, a number of proposals have been made to replace UTC with a new system that would eliminate leap seconds, but no consensus has yet been reached. Leap seconds are inserted as necessary to keep UTC within 0.9 seconds of universal time, see the Current number of leap seconds section for the number of leap seconds inserted to date. The official abbreviation for Coordinated Universal Time is UTC and this abbreviation arose from a desire by the International Telecommunication Union and the International Astronomical Union to use the same abbreviation in all languages. English speakers originally proposed CUT, while French speakers proposed TUC, the compromise that emerged was UTC, which conforms to the pattern for the abbreviations of the variants of Universal Time. Time zones around the world are expressed using positive or negative offsets from UTC, the westernmost time zone uses UTC−12, being twelve hours behind UTC, the easternmost time zone, theoretically, uses UTC+12, being twelve hours ahead of UTC. In 1995, the nation of Kiribati moved those of its atolls in the Line Islands from UTC-10 to UTC+14 so that the country would all be on the same day. UTC is used in internet and World Wide Web standards. The Network Time Protocol, designed to synchronise the clocks of computers over the internet, computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC as it is more specific than GMT. If only limited precision is needed, clients can obtain the current UTC from a number of official internet UTC servers, for sub-microsecond precision, clients can obtain the time from satellite signals. UTC is also the standard used in aviation, e. g. for flight plans. Weather forecasts and maps all use UTC to avoid confusion about time zones, the International Space Station also uses UTC as a time standard. Amateur radio operators often schedule their radio contacts in UTC, because transmissions on some frequencies can be picked up by many time zones, UTC is also used in digital tachographs used on large goods vehicles under EU and AETR rules. UTC divides time into days, hours, minutes and seconds, days are conventionally identified using the Gregorian calendar, but Julian day numbers can also be used. Each day contains 24 hours and each hour contains 60 minutes, the number of seconds in a minute is usually 60, but with an occasional leap second, it may be 61 or 59 instead
UTC
UTC
5.
GMT
–
Greenwich Mean Time is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. GMT was formerly used as the civil time standard, now superseded in that function by Coordinated Universal Time. Today GMT is considered equivalent to UTC for UK civil purposes and for navigation is considered equivalent to UT1, consequently, the term GMT should not be used for precise purposes. Due to Earths uneven speed in its orbit and its axial tilt, noon GMT is rarely the exact moment the sun crosses the Greenwich meridian. This event may occur up to 16 minutes before or after noon GMT, noon GMT is the annual average moment of this event, which accounts for the word mean in Greenwich Mean Time. Originally, astronomers considered a GMT day to start at noon while for almost everyone else it started at midnight, to avoid confusion, the name Universal Time was introduced to denote GMT as counted from midnight. Astronomers preferred the old convention to simplify their observational data, so each night was logged under a single calendar date. Today Universal Time usually refers to UTC or UT1, in some countries Greenwich Mean Time is the legal time in the winter and the population uses the term. For an explanation of why this is, see GMT in legislation below, synchronisation of the chronometer on GMT did not affect shipboard time, which was still solar time. Most time zones were based upon GMT, as an offset of a number of hours ahead of GMT or behind GMT and it was gradually adopted for other purposes, but a legal case in 1858 held local mean time to be the official time. On 14 May 1880, a signed by Clerk to Justices appeared in The Times, stating that Greenwich time is now kept almost throughout England. For example, our polling booths were opened, say, at 813 and closed at 413 PM. This was changed later in 1880, GMT was adopted on the Isle of Man in 1883, Jersey in 1898 and Guernsey in 1913. Ireland adopted GMT in 1916, supplanting Dublin Mean Time, hourly time signals from Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast on 5 February 1924, rendering the time ball at the observatory redundant in the process. The daily rotation of the Earth is irregular and constantly slows, on 1 January 1972, GMT was superseded as the international civil time standard by Coordinated Universal Time, maintained by an ensemble of atomic clocks around the world. Indeed, even the Greenwich meridian itself is not quite what it used to be—defined by the centre of the instrument at the Observatory at Greenwich. Nevertheless, the line in the old observatorys courtyard today differs no more than a few metres from that line which is now the prime meridian of the world. Historically GMT has been used two different conventions for numbering hours. The long-standing astronomical convention dating from the work of Ptolemy, was to refer to noon as zero hours and this contrasted with the civil convention of referring to midnight as zero hours dating from the Romans
GMT
–
Greenwich clock with standard measurements
GMT
–
light blue
GMT
–
This arch that stretches over a
highway indicates the
prime meridian in
Spain.
6.
Francisco Pizarro
–
Francisco Pizarro González was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that conquered the Inca Empire. He captured and killed Incan emperor Atahualpa and claimed the lands for Spain, Francisco Pizarro was born in Trujillo, Spain in modern-day Extremadura, Spain. He was the son of infantry colonel Gonzalo Pizarro and Francisca González. His date of birth is uncertain, but it is believed to be sometime in the 1470s, little attention was paid to his education and he grew up illiterate. His father was a colonel of infantry who served in Navarre and his mother married late in life and had a son Francisco Martín de Alcántara, who was at the conquest of Peru with his half-brother from its inception. Through his father, Francisco was a cousin, once removed. On 10 November 1509, Pizarro sailed from Spain to the New World with Alonso de Ojeda on an expedition to Gulf of Urabá in Tierra Firme, Pizarro became a participant in Ojedas failed colony, commanding the remnants until he abandoned it with the survivors. He sailed to Cartagena and joined the fleet of Martín Fernández de Enciso in 1513, in 1513, Pizarro accompanied Vasco Núñez de Balboa in his crossing of the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific coast. The following year, Pedrarias Dávila became the appointed governor of Castilla de Oro. During the next five years, Pizarro became an associate of Dávila. When Dávila decided to get rid of Balboa out of distrust, he instructed Pizarro to personally arrest him, Balboa was beheaded in January 1519. For his loyalty to Dávila, Pizarro was rewarded with the positions of mayor, on 10 November 1509, Pizarro sailed from Spain to the New World with Alonso de Ojeda on an expedition to Urabá. He sailed to Cartagena and joined the fleet of Martín Fernández de Enciso and, in 1513, reports of Perus riches and Cortéss success in Mexico tantalized Pizarro. He undertook two expeditions to conquer the Incan Empire in 1524 and in 1526, both failed as a result of native hostilities, bad weather and lack of provisions. Pedro de los Ríos, the Governor of Panama, made an effort to recall Pizarro, in April 1528, he reached northern Peru and found the natives rich with precious metals. This discovery gave Pizarro the motivation to plan an expedition to conquer the area. He returned to Panama to make arrangements, but the Governor refused to grant permission for the project, Pizarro returned to Spain to appeal directly to King Charles I. His plea was successful and he received not only a license for the proposed expedition and he was joined by family and friends and the expedition left Panama in 1530
Francisco Pizarro
–
Spanish colonization of the Americas
Francisco Pizarro
–
Marquess Francisco Pizarro
Francisco Pizarro
–
Francisco Pizarro's route of exploration during the conquest of Peru (1531–1533)
Francisco Pizarro
–
Pizarro and his followers in
Lima in 1535
7.
Muchik
–
Mochica is a Chimuan language formerly spoken along the northwest coast of Peru and in an inland village. First documented in 1607, the language was spoken in the area during the 17th. By the end of the 19th century the language was dying out and it died out as a spoken language around 1920, but certain words and phrases continued to be used until the 1960s. It is a best known as the language of the Moche culture. Mochica is typologically different from the main languages on the west coast of South America, namely the Quechuan languages, Aymara. Mochica appears to be a language isolate with no links to any other American Indian language. The reconstruction or recovery of the sounds is problematic. Different scholars who worked with the language used different notations, in fact their interpretations differ markedly, casting doubt on some sounds. Lehman made a comparison of existing sources, enriched with observations of 1929. The long-awaited field notes of Brüning from 1904-05 have been kept in the Museum of Ethnology, Hamburg, though still unpublished. The language probably had six simple vowels and six more elongated vowels, /i, iː, ä, äː, e, eː, ø, øː, o, oː, u, uː/. The Gestión de Cultura of Morrope in Peru has launched a program to learn this language and this program has been well received by people and adopted by many schools, and also have launched other activities such as the development of ceramics, mates, etc. Abstract of Mochica from the Languages of the World series
Muchik
–
Approximate extent of Mochica before replacement by Spanish.
8.
Tupac Inca Yupanqui
–
Topa Inca Yupanqui or Túpac Inca Yupanqui, translated as noble Inca accountant, was the second Sapa Inca of the Inca Empire, fifth of the Hanan dynasty, and tenth of the Inca civilization. His father was Pachacuti, and his son was Huayna Capac, topa Inca belonged to the Qhapaq panaca. His father appointed him to head the Inca army in 1463 and he extended the realm northward along the Andes through modern Ecuador, and developed a special fondness for the city of Quito, which he rebuilt with architects from Cuzco. He became Inca in his turn upon his fathers death in 1471 and he conquered Chimor, which occupied the northern coast of what is now Peru, the largest remaining rival to the Incas. He conquered the province of Antis and subdued the Collas and he imposed rules and taxes, creating two Governor Generals, Suyuyoc Apu, one in Xauxa and the other in Tiahuanacu. Tupac Inca Yupanqui created the fortress Saksaywaman on the plateau above Cuzco. Tupac Inca died in 1493, leaving two sons, and 90 illegitimate sons and daughters. He had nominated as his successor Ccapac Huari, son of his concubine Chuqui Ocllo and this left the path clear for his legitimate son, Titu Cusi Hualpa, to succeed him as the emperor Huayna Capac. Topa Inca Yupanqui is also credited with leading a roughly 10-month-long voyage of exploration into the Pacific around 1480, reportedly visiting islands he called Nina Chumpi, the voyage is mentioned in the History of the Incas by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa in 1572. Pedro Sarmiento described the expedition as follows, …there arrived at Tumbez some merchants who had come by sea from the west and they gave information of the land whence they came, which consisted of some islands called Avachumbi and Ninachumbi, where there were many people and much gold. Tupac Inca was a man of lofty and ambitious ideas, and was not satisfied with the regions he had already conquered. So he determined to challenge a happy fortune, and see if it would favour him by sea. … The Inca, having this certainty and he caused an immense number of balsas to be constructed, in which he embarked more than 20,000 chosen men. These trophies were preserved in the fortress of Cuzco until the Spaniards came, the duration of this expedition undertaken by Tupac Inca was nine months, others say a year, and, as he was so long absent, every one believed he was dead. Many historians are skeptical that the voyage took place. Supporters have usually identified the islands with the Galápagos Islands and it has also been suggested that one of the islands was Easter Island, where oral traditions have claimed that a group of long-eared hanau eepe came to the island from an unknown land
Tupac Inca Yupanqui
–
Drawing by
Guaman Poma in 1615
9.
Mestizo
–
The term was used as an ethnic/racial category in the casta system that was in use during the Spanish Empires control of their New World colonies. Mestizos are usually considered to be mixed Spaniards by the crown of Spain, the term mestizaje - taking as its root mestizo or mixed - is the Spanish word for miscegenation, the general process of mixing ancestries. To avoid confusion with the usage of the term mestizo. In colonial Venezuela, pardo was more commonly used instead of mestizo, pardo means being mixed without specifying which mixture, it was used to describe anyone born in the Americas whose ancestry was a mixture of European, Amerindian, and Black African. In colonial Brazil most of the population was mestiço in the original Iberian definition of the word. In the Philippines, which was a colony of Spain, the term came to refer to a Filipino with any foreign ancestry especially whites. In Canada, the Métis people is a community composed of those who possess combined European, in Saint Barthélemy, the term mestizo refers to people of mixed European and East Asian ancestry. The Spanish word mestizo is from Latin mixticius, meaning mixed and its usage has been documented as early as 1275, to refer to the offspring of an Egyptian and a Jew. This term was first documented in English in 1582 and it is related to the particular racial identity of historical non-white Amerindian-descended Hispanic and Latino American communities in an American context. In English-speaking Canada, Canadian Métis, as a loanword from French, refers to persons of mixed French, in the United States, Métis Americans and Mestizo Americans are two distinct racial and ethno-racial identities, as reflected in the use of French and Spanish loanwords, respectively. The latter was listed as a mestizo de sangley in birth records of the 19th century, with sangley as a reference to the Hokkiense word for business. Mestizo, mestiço, métis, mestís, Mischling, meticcio, mestiezen, mestee, in the Spanish colonial period, the Spanish developed an extremely vast complex system of racial hierarchy, which was used for social control and which also determined a persons standing in society. There were three categories of race during the initial period of colonization of the Americas by the Spanish, White Spaniard, Amerindian. During the Spanish colonial era, a myriad of terms were created to differentiate these racial mixtures, by the end of the colonial period in 1821, over one hundred sub-categories of possible variations of mixture existed, but official church and civil records were maintained with few categories. Church baptismal and marriage registers and civil records used the terms español, castizo, mestizo, mulato, and indio. As time went on, a system of hierarchy, the sistema de castas or the sociedad de castas developed where society was divided based on race, wealth. Mestizo – a person of mixed White European and Amerindian ancestry, in theory, and as depicted in eighteenth-century Mexican casta paintings, español status could also be attained by people of mixed origin who consistently had intermarried with Europeans. Such cases might include the offspring of a parent and one Peninsular or criollo parent
Mestizo
–
A painting of a Spanish man and a Peruvian indigenous woman with Mestizo child, 1770.
Mestizo
–
Las castas. 18th century, Museo Nacional del Virreinato,
Tepotzotlán, Mexico.
Mestizo
–
A representation of a Mestizo, in a Pintura de Castas from
New Spain during the late colonial period. The painting's caption states "Spanish and Indian produce Mestizo", 1780.
Mestizo
–
A statue of
Gonzalo Guerrero, who adopted the Maya way of life and fathered the first mestizo children of
Mexico, but not of the
Americas, since the first mestizos were born in the Caribbean, by Spanish men and indigenous Caribbean women.
10.
Extremadura
–
Extremadura is an autonomous community of western Spain whose capital city is Mérida. Its component provinces are Cáceres and Badajoz and it is bordered by Portugal to the west. To the north it borders Castile and León, to the south, it borders Andalusia and it is an important area for wildlife, particularly with the major reserve at Monfragüe, which was designated a National Park in 2007, and the International Tagus River Natural Park. The government of Extremadura is called Gobierno de Extremadura, Extremadura is contained between 37° 57′ and 40° 85′ N latitude, and 4° 39′ and 7° 33′ W longitude. The area of Extremadura is 41,633 km2, making it the fifth largest of the Spanish autonomous communities and it is located in the Southern Plateau. In the north is the Sistema Central with the highest point in Extremadura,2,401 m high Calvitero, the main subranges of the Sistema Central in Extremadura are the Sierra de Gata and Sierra de Béjar. In the centre is the Sierra de las Villuercas which reaches an altitude of 1,603 m on the Pico de las Villuercas, other notable ranges are Sierra de Montánchez and the Sierra de San Pedro, which form part of the greater Montes de Toledo system. To the south rises the Sierra Morena which separates Extremadura from Andalusia with Sierra de Tentudía where the highest altitude of mountains in Extremadura is Pico Tentudía at 1,104 m. There are four different hydrographic basins, The basin of the Tagus, with two tributaries, on the right, the Tiétar and the Alagón, and on the left, the Almonte, Ibor, Salor. The tributaries on the right edge carry a quantity of water, which feed the gorges of the Sistema Central where the rainfall is abundant. The basin of the Guadiana, which has tributaries, to the right, Guadarranque and Ruecas to the left, Zújar River which is its plentiful tributary. The basin of the Guadalquivir with only 1,411 km2 in Extremadura, the basin of the Douro with only 35 km2 in Extremadura. The climate of Extremadura is Mediterranean, except to the north, where it is continental, and to the west, the yearly temperature fluctuates between an average minimum of 4 °C and an average maximum of 33 °C. In the north of Extremadura, the temperatures are lower than those in the south, with temperatures gradually rising south towards the Sierra Morena. During the summer, the temperature in July is greater than 26 °C. The winters are mild with the lowest temperatures being registered in the mountainous regions, the average snowfall is 40 cm, mainly occurring in January and February. As of January 1,2012, the population of Extremadura is 1,109,367 inhabitants, the population density is very low—25/km2 —compared to Spain as a whole. The most populous province is that of Badajoz, with a population of 691,715, with an area of 21,766 km2, it is the largest province in Spain
Extremadura
–
The Old city of
Cáceres
Extremadura
Extremadura
–
The city of
Guadalupe
Extremadura
–
Archaeological Roman Ensemble in Mérida, capital of the ancient Lusitania
11.
Andalucia
–
Andalusia is an autonomous community in southern Spain. It is the most populated and the second largest in area of the communities in the country. The Andalusian autonomous community is recognised as historical nationality. The territory is divided into eight provinces, Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and its capital is the city of Seville. Andalusia is the only European region with both Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines, the small British overseas territory of Gibraltar shares a three-quarter-mile land border with the Andalusian province of Cádiz at the eastern end of the Strait of Gibraltar. The main mountain ranges of Andalusia are the Sierra Morena and the Baetic System, consisting of the Subbaetic and Penibaetic Mountains, in the north, the Sierra Morena separates Andalusia from the plains of Extremadura and Castile–La Mancha on Spains Meseta Central. To the south the geographic subregion of Upper Andalusia lies mostly within the Baetic System, the name Andalusia is derived from the Arabic word Al-Andalus. Including an intense relationship with Naples, Italy, Andalusia has been a traditionally agricultural region, compared to the rest of Spain and the rest of Europe. However, the growth of the community especially in the sectors of industry and services was above average in Spain, the region has, however, a rich culture and a strong cultural identity. Many cultural phenomena that are seen internationally as distinctively Spanish are largely or entirely Andalusian in origin and these include flamenco and, to a lesser extent, bullfighting and Hispano-Moorish architectural styles. Andalusias hinterland is the hottest area of Europe, with cities like Córdoba, Late evening temperatures can sometimes stay around 35 °C until close to midnight, with daytime highs of over 40 °C common. Seville also has the highest average temperature in mainland Spain and mainland Europe. Its present form is derived from the Arabic name for Muslim Iberia. However, the etymology of the name Al-Andalus is disputed, the Spanish place name Andalucía was introduced into the Spanish languages in the 13th century under the form el Andalucía. This was a Castilianization of Al-Andalusiya, the form of the Arabic language al-Andalus. The etymology of al-Andalus is itself somewhat debated, but in fact it entered the Arabic language before this came under Muslim rule. Like the Arabic term al-Andalus, in historical contexts the Spanish term Andalucía or the English term Andalusia do not necessarily refer to the territory designated by these terms today. To designate the territories the Christians had regained by that time in the Guadalquivir valley and in the Kingdoms of Granada, in a document from 1253, Alfonso X styled himself Rey de Castilla, León y de toda Andalucía
Andalucia
–
Map of the
Iberian peninsula dated 1770. The Kingdoms of
Jaén,
Córdoba and
Seville are collectively referred to under the name Andalucía, while the
Kingdom of Granada appears under its individual name.
Andalucia
–
Flag
Andalucia
–
Portrait of
Blas Infante, executed in
azulejos, located on the avenue in
Jerez de la Frontera named in his honor.
Andalucia
–
Andalusian firs,
Sierra de las Nieves
12.
Malagasy people
–
The Malagasy are the ethnic group that forms nearly the entire population of Madagascar. This division has its roots in historical patterns of settlement, sometime later, a large number of settlers arrived from East Africa and established kingdoms along the relatively unpopulated coastlines. The difference in ethnic origins remains somewhat evident between the highland and coastal regions, in addition to the ethnic distinction between highland and coastal Malagasy, one may speak of a political distinction as well. Merina monarchs in the late 18th and early 19th century, the people united the Merina principalities. They later extended Merina control over the majority of the areas as well. The military resistance and eventual defeat of most of the coastal communities assured their subordinate position vis-à-vis the Merina-Betsileo alliance, the number of such ethnic groups in Madagascar has been debated. The practices that distinguished many of groups are less prevalent in the 21st century than they were in the past. But, many Malagasy are proud to proclaim their association with one or several of these groups as part of their own cultural identity, three Malagasy populations, Temoro, Vezo, and Mikea, have approx. 70% African ancestry and 30% Asian ancestry, in a 2010 study, the Polynesian motif frequency occurs varied among three ethnic groups, 50% in Merina,22 % in Vezo, and 13% in Mikea. There are two additional mutations found in all Polynesian motif carriers of Madagascar, hence named the Malagasy motif, most likely scenario is that Madagascar was settled approximately 1200 years ago by a very small group, which consist of approx. 30 women, where 28 of them have Island Southeast Asian descent and 2 of them have African descent, the closest Asian parental population of the Malagasy are the Banjarese and other South Kalimantan Dayak people of south east Borneo. Some Malagasy were among peoples taken captive and sold as slaves in the Atlantic slave trade of the 18th and 19th centuries, the best-known community of descendants are in Morropón, a city in northern Peru, the Afro-Peruvians of Malagasy descent number about 7,000. They call themselves Mangaches or Malgaches and this section of Piura is called la Mangachería. Malagasy slaves were transported during slavery times to Brazil and the US, but their number. It is likely most of these descendants are not aware of their Malagasy ancestry, robert Reed Church, an African-American businessman in Memphis, Tennessee in the 19th century, was said to be of Malagasy descent through his enslaved mother. Memories of Madagascar and Slavery in the Black Atlantic by Wendy Wilson-Fall,2015, Ohio University Press—Malagasy diaspora Sandra Evers, Gwyn Campbell, contest for Land in Madagascar, Environment, Ancestors and Development
Malagasy people
–
Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo
Malagasy people
–
Distribution of Malagasy ethnic groups.
Malagasy people
–
Eusèbe Jaojoby
Malagasy people
–
Ranavalona I
13.
Chinese people
–
A number of ethnic groups within China, as well as people elsewhere with ancestry in the region, may be referred to as Chinese people. Han, the largest ethnic group in China, are referred to as Chinese or ethnic Chinese in English. The Han also form a majority or large minority in other countries, other ethnic groups in China include the Zhuang, Hui, Manchu, and Uyghurs, among many others. The Peoples Republic of China officially recognizes 56 distinct ethnic groups, the Republic of China officially recognizes 14 tribes of Taiwanese aborigines, who together with unrecognized tribes comprise about 2% of the countrys population. The list of groups in China includes the major ethnic groups of China. During the Qing dynasty the term Chinese people was used by the Qing government to refer to all subjects of the empire, including Han, Manchu, and Mongols. Zhonghua minzu, the Chinese nation, is a concept which includes all 56 ethnic groups living in China that are officially recognized by the government of the Peoples Republic of China. It includes established ethnic groups who have lived within the borders of China since at least the Qing Dynasty, the term zhonghua minzu was used during the Republic of China from 1911–1949 to refer to a subset of five ethnic groups in China. The term zhongguo renmin, Chinese people, was the preferred term during the life of Mao Zedong. The Nationality law of the Peoples Republic of China regulates nationality within the PRC, a person obtains nationality either by birth when at least one parent is of Chinese nationality or by naturalization. All persons holding nationality of the Peoples Republic of China are citizens of the Republic, the Resident Identity Card is the official form of identification for residents of the Peoples Republic of China. The Nationality law of the Republic of China regulates nationality within the Republic of China, a person obtains nationality either by birth or by naturalization. A person with at least one parent who is a national of the Republic of China, the relationship between Taiwanese nationality and Chinese nationality is disputed. The National Identification Card is an identity document issued to people who have household registration in Taiwan, the Resident Certificate is an identification card issued to residents of the Republic of China who do not hold a National Identification Card. Overseas Chinese refers to people of Chinese ethnicity or national heritage who live outside of the Peoples Republic of China or Taiwan as the result of the continuing diaspora, people with one or more Chinese ancestors may consider themselves overseas Chinese. Such people vary widely in terms of cultural assimilation, in some areas throughout the world ethnic enclaves known as Chinatowns are home to populations of Chinese ancestry. In Southeast Asia, Chinese people call themselves 華人, which is distinguished from or the citizens of the Peoples Republic of China or the Republic of China and this is especially so in the Chinese communities of Southeast Asia
Chinese people
–
Portion of a mural in
Beijing depicting the 56 recognized ethnic groups of
China.
14.
Coolies
–
Coolie, during the 19th and early 20th century, was a term for an indentured servant indentured to a company, mainly from the South Asia or China. The origins of the word are uncertain but it is thought to have originated from the Tamil word for a payment for work, an alternative etymological explanation is that the word came from Hindustani word qulī, which itself could be from the Turkish word for slave, kul. The word was used in this sense for labourers from India, in 1727, Dr. Engelbert Kämpfer described coolies as dock labourers who would unload Dutch merchant ships at Nagasaki in Japan. The Chinese word 苦 力 means bitterly hard and is translated as bitter labour. Social and political pressure led to the abolition of the trade throughout the British Empire in 1807. Labour-intensive industries, such as cotton and sugar plantations, mines and railway construction, as a consequence, a large-scale slavery-like trade in Asian indentured labourers began in the 1820s to fill this vacuum. British companies were the first to experiment with this new form of cheap labour in 1807. The coolie trade was often compared to the slave trade. Although there are reports of ships for Asian coolies carrying women and children, the Chinese government also made efforts to secure the well-being of their nations workers, with representations being made to relevant governments around the world. The first shipment of Chinese labourers was to the British colony of Trinidad in 1806, the trade soon spread to other ports in Guangdong and demand became particularly strong in Peru for workers in the silver mines and the guano collecting industry. Australia began importing workers in 1848 and the United States began using them in 1865 on the First Transcontinental Railroad construction, the trade flourished from 1847 to 1854 without incident, until reports began to surface of the mistreatment of the workers in Cuba and Peru. As the British government had political and legal responsibility for many of the ports involved, including Amoy, however, the trade simply shifted to the more accommodating port in the Portuguese enclave of Macau. Many coolies were first deceived or kidnapped and then kept in barracoons or loading vessels in the ports of departure, in 1875, British commissioners estimated that approximately eighty percent of the workers had been abducted. Their voyages, which are called the Pacific Passage, were as inhumane. They were sold and were taken to work in plantations or mines with very bad living and working conditions, the duration of a contract was typically five to eight years, but many coolies did not live out their term of service because of the hard labour and mistreatment. Those who did live were often forced to remain in servitude beyond the contracted period, the coolies who worked on the sugar plantations in Cuba and in the guano beds of the Chincha Islands of Peru were treated brutally. Seventy-five percent of the Chinese coolies in Cuba died before fulfilling their contracts, more than two-thirds of the Chinese coolies who arrived in Peru between 1849 and 1874 died within the contract period. In 1860 it was calculated that of the 4000 coolies brought to the Chinchas since the trade began, because of these unbearable conditions, Chinese coolies often revolted against their Ko-Hung bosses and foreign company bosses at ports of departure, on ships, and in foreign lands
Coolies
–
Coolie labourer in
Zhenjiang, China, with bamboo pole to hoist and carry heavy loads.C. 1900
Coolies
–
Illustration of the
port of Amoy, where many Chinese labourers were shipped to foreign lands, by Edwin Joshua Dukes.
Coolies
–
Chinese immigrant workers building the
Transcontinental Railroad.
Coolies
–
Royal Decree of Graces of 1815, a legal order approved by the
Spanish Crown to encourage foreign settlement of the colonies of
Cuba and
Puerto Rico.
15.
Guangdong
–
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the Peoples Republic of China. The provincial capital Guangzhou and economic hub Shenzhen are among the most populous, the population increase since the census has been modest, the province at 2014 end had 107,240,000 people. Since 1989, Guangdong has topped the total GDP rankings among all divisions, with Jiangsu and Shandong second. According to state statistics, Guangdongs GDP in 2014 reached RMB6,779 billion, or US$1.104 trillion, since 2011, Guangdong has the highest GDP among all provinces of Mainland China. The province contributes approximately 12% of the PRCs national economic output, Guangdong also hosts the largest import and export fair in China called the Canton Fair in Guangdongs capital city Guangzhou. Guǎng means expanse or vast, and has associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD226. Guangdong and neighbouring Guangxi literally mean expanse east and expanse west, together, Guangdong and Guangxi are called Loeng gwong. During the Song dynasty, the Two Guangs were formally separated as Guǎngnán Dōnglù and Guǎngnán Xīlù, one should note that Canton, though etymologically derived from Cantão, refers only to the provincial capital instead of the whole province, as documented by authoritative English dictionaries. The local people of the city of Guangzhou and their language are commonly referred to as Cantonese in English. Because of the prestige of Canton and its accent, Cantonese sensu lato can also be used for the phylogenetically related residents, Chinese administration and reliable historical records in the region began with the Qin dynasty. After establishing the first unified Chinese empire, the Qin expanded southwards and set up Nanhai Commandery at Panyu, the region was independent as Nanyue between the fall of Qin and the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. Under the Wu Kingdom of the Three Kingdoms period, Guangdong was made its own province, for example, internal strife in northern China following the rebellion of An Lushan resulted in a 75% increase in the population of Guangzhou prefecture between 740s–750s and 800s–810s. As more migrants arrived, the population was gradually assimilated to Han Chinese culture or displaced. Multiple women originating from the Persian Gulf lived in Guangzhous foreign quarter, together with Guangxi, Guangdong was made part of Lingnan Circuit, or Mountain-South Circuit, in 627 during the Tang dynasty. The Guangdong part of Lingnan Circuit was renamed Guangnan East Circuit guǎng nán dōng lù in 971 during the Song dynasty, Guangnan East is the source of Guangdong. As Mongols from the north engaged in their conquest of China in the 13th century, the Battle of Yamen 1279 in Guangdong marked the end of the Southern Song Dynasty. During the Mongol Yuan dynasty, large parts of current Guangdong belonged to Jiangxi and its present name, Guangdong Province was given in early Ming dynasty. Since the 16th century, Guangdong has had extensive links with the rest of the world
Guangdong
–
Kwangtung Provincial Government of the
Republic of China
Guangdong
–
Map showing the location of Guangdong Province
Guangdong
–
Pearl River and
Humen Bridge
Guangdong
–
Shops in one of the streets of Guangzhou specialize in selling various electronic components, supplying the needs of local consumer electronics manufacturers. The shop in front is in the
LED business.
16.
Roma Gypsies
–
The Romani are widely known among English-speaking people by the exonym Gypsies, which some people consider pejorative due to its connotations of illegality and irregularity. Romani are dispersed, with their populations in Europe – especially Central, Eastern and Southern Europe including Turkey, Spain. Since the 19th century, some Romani have also migrated to the Americas, there are an estimated one million Roma in the United States, and 800,000 in Brazil, most of whose ancestors emigrated in the nineteenth century from eastern Europe. Brazil also includes some Romani descended from people deported by the government of Portugal during the Inquisition in the colonial era, in migrations since the late nineteenth century, Romani have also moved to other countries in South America and to Canada. In February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora, the Romani language is divided into several dialects, which add up to an estimated number of speakers larger than two million. The total number of Romani people is at least twice as large, many Romani are native speakers of the language current in their country of residence, or of mixed languages combining the two, those varieties are sometimes called Para-Romani. French bohème, bohémien, from the Kingdom of Bohemia, whence they came, Rom means man or husband in the Romani, it has the variants dom and lom, related with the Sanskrit words dam-pati, dama, lom, lomaka loman, roman. Another possible origin is from Sanskrit डोम doma, Sanskrit सिनधु is a river or stream of water in general. In particular, it denotes the river Indus and the country around it, in the Romani language, Rom is a masculine noun, meaning man of the Roma ethnic group or man, husband, with the plural Roma. The feminine of Rom in the Romani language is Romni, however, in most cases, in other languages Rom is now used for people of all genders. Romani is the adjective, while Romano is the masculine adjective. Some Romanies use Rom or Roma as a name, while others do not use this term as a self-ascription for the entire ethnic group. Sometimes, rom and romani are spelled with a r, i. e. rrom. In this case rr is used to represent the phoneme /ʀ/, the rr spelling is common in certain institutions, or used in certain countries, e. g. Romania, to distinguish from the endonym/homonym for Romanians. In the English language, Rom is a noun and an adjective, while Romani is also a noun, both Rom and Romani have been in use in English since the 19th century as an alternative for Gypsy. Romani was initially spelled Rommany, then Romany, while today the Romani spelling is the most popular spelling, occasionally, the double r spelling mentioned above is also encountered in English texts. The term Roma is increasingly encountered during recent decades, as a term for the Romani people
Roma Gypsies
–
Romani wagon pictured in 2009 in
Grandborough (Grandborough Fields Road is a popular spot for travelling people)
Roma Gypsies
–
Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted by the 1971
World Romani Congress
Roma Gypsies
–
Romani Wagon in
Germany in 1935
Roma Gypsies
–
Debret, Jean-Baptiste (c. 1820), Interior of a gipsy's house in
Brazil.
17.
Pearls
–
A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as a conulariid. Just like the shell of a clam, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate. in minute crystalline form, the ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes, known as baroque pearls, can occur. The finest quality natural pearls have been valued as gemstones. Because of this, pearl has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, the most valuable pearls occur spontaneously in the wild, but are extremely rare. These wild pearls are referred to as natural pearls, cultured or farmed pearls from pearl oysters and freshwater mussels make up the majority of those currently sold. Imitation pearls are widely sold in inexpensive jewelry, but the quality of their iridescence is usually very poor and is easily distinguished from that of genuine pearls. Pearls have been harvested and cultivated primarily for use in jewelry and they have also been crushed and used in cosmetics, medicines and paint formulations. Whether wild or cultured, gem-quality pearls are almost always nacreous and iridescent, however, almost all species of shelled mollusks are capable of producing pearls of lesser shine or less spherical shape. The English word pearl comes from the French perle, originally from the Latin perna meaning leg, nacreous pearls, the best-known and most commercially significant, are primarily produced by two groups of molluskan bivalves or clams. A nacreous pearl is made from layers of nacre, by the same living process as is used in the secretion of the mother of pearl which lines the shell, natural pearls, formed without human intervention, are very rare. Cultured pearls are formed in pearl farms, using human intervention as well as natural processes, saltwater pearls can grow in several species of marine pearl oysters in the family Pteriidae. Freshwater pearls grow within certain species of mussels in the order Unionida. The unique luster of pearls depends upon the reflection, refraction, the thinner and more numerous the layers in the pearl, the finer the luster. The iridescence that pearls display is caused by the overlapping of successive layers, in addition, pearls can be dyed yellow, green, blue, brown, pink, purple, or black. The very best pearls have a metallic mirror-like luster, because pearls are made primarily of calcium carbonate, they can be dissolved in vinegar. Calcium carbonate is susceptible to even a weak acid solution because the crystals of calcium carbonate react with the acid in the vinegar to form calcium acetate. Freshwater and saltwater pearls may sometimes look quite similar, but they come from different sources, Freshwater pearls form in various species of freshwater mussels, family Unionidae, which live in lakes, rivers, ponds and other bodies of fresh water. These freshwater pearl mussels occur not only in hotter climates, most freshwater cultured pearls sold today come from China
Pearls
–
Various pearls
Pearls
–
A pearl being extracted from an akoya pearl oyster.
Pearls
–
A black pearl and a shell of the black-lipped pearl oyster. The
iridescent colors originate from
nacre layers.
Pearls
–
Electron microscopy image of a fractured surface of nacre
18.
Desert climate
–
An area that features this climate usually experiences from 25 to 200 mm per year of precipitation and in some years may experience no precipitation at all. Averages may be even less such as in Arica, Chile, there are usually two or three variations of a desert climate, a hot desert climate, a cold desert climate and, sometimes, a mild desert climate. To determine whether a location has a climate, the precipitation threshold is determined. If the areas precipitation is less than half the threshold. Hot desert climates are found under the subtropical ridge where there is largely unbroken sunshine for the whole year due to the stable descending air. These areas are located between 30 degrees south and 30 degrees north latitude, under the subtropical latitudes called the horse latitudes, hot desert climates are generally hot, sunny and dry year-round. Hot desert climates also reach similar latitudes in the Middle East, North Africa, hot desert climates usually feature hot, sometimes exceptionally hot, periods of the year. In many locations featuring a hot climate, maximum temperatures of over 40 °C are not uncommon in summer. The world absolute heat records, over 50 °C, are generally in the hot deserts, some desert locations consistently experience very high temperatures all year long, even during wintertime. These locations feature some of the highest annual average temperatures recorded on Earth and this last feature is seen in some parts of deserts of Africa and Arabia. During colder periods of the year, night-time temperatures can drop to freezing or below due to the radiation loss under the clear skies. However, very rarely do temperatures drop far below freezing, only one region in Europe has a hot desert climate, Province of Almeria, Province of Alicante and Province of Murcia in South Eastern Spain. Cold desert climates usually feature warm and dry summers, though summers typically are not quite as hot as summers in hot desert climates, unlike hot desert climates, cold desert climates tend to feature cold winters with rare snow. Cold desert climates are found at higher altitudes than hot desert climates. A cold desert climate is found in temperate zones, usually in the rain shadow of high mountains. A classic example of this is the Patagonian Desert in Argentina bounded by the Andes to its west, in the case of Central Asia, mountains restrict precipitation from the monsoon. The Gobi desert in Mongolia is an example of this. Though hot in summer, it shares the cold winters of the rest of Central Asia
Desert climate
–
Namib Desert, Namibia
Desert climate
–
A dusting of snow in the Atacama Desert.
Desert climate
–
Cold deserts do get the occasional blanket of snow, such as
Snake Valley, Utah and Nevada
19.
Semi-desert climate
–
A semi-arid climate or steppe climate is the climate of a region that receives precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not extremely. There are different kinds of climates, depending on such variables as temperature. Semi-arid climates tend to short or scrubby vegetation, with semi-arid areas usually dominated by either grasses or shrubs. To determine if a location has a climate, the precipitation threshold must first be determined. If the areas precipitation is less than the threshold but more than half the threshold. Hot semi-arid climates tend to be located in the tropics and subtropics and these climates tend to have hot, sometimes extremely hot, summers and warm to cool winters, with some to minimal precipitation. Hot semi-arid climates are most commonly found around the fringes of subtropical deserts, hot semi-arid climates are most commonly found in Africa, Australia and South Asia. In Australia, a portion of the Outback surrounding the central desert regions lies within the hot semi-arid climate regime. Hot semi-arid climates can also be found in North America, primarily in Mexico, areas of Texas near Mexico, cold semi-arid climates tend to be located in temperate zones or elevated portions in subtropical zones. They are typically found in continental interiors some distance from bodies of water. Cold semi-arid climates usually feature warm and dry summers, though their summers are not quite as hot as those of hot semi-arid climates. Unlike hot semi-arid climates, areas with cold semi-arid climates tend to have cold winters and these areas usually see some snowfall during the winter, though snowfall is much lower than at locations at similar latitudes with more humid climates. These large diurnal temperature variations are seen in hot semi-arid climates. Cold semi-arid climates are most commonly found in Asia and North America, however, they can also be found in Northern Africa, South Africa, Europe, sections of South America and sections of interior southern Australia and New Zealand. As a result of this, some areas can have climates that are classified as hot or cold depending on the isotherm used. One such location is San Diego, California, which has cool summers for the due to prevailing winds off the ocean. Arid Forest Research Institute Continental climate Dust Bowl Goyders Line Pallisers Triangle Köppen climate classification Wave height Ustic
Semi-desert climate
–
The semi-arid terrain of
Machakos
Semi-desert climate
–
BSh
Semi-desert climate
–
Northeast Caatinga - semiárido brasileño
Semi-desert climate
–
Extreme weather at
Atacama Large Millimeter Array.
20.
Subtropical climate
–
The subtropics are geographic and climate zones located roughly between the tropic circle of latitude at 23.5 latitude and temperate latitudes. Subtropical climates are characterized by warm to hot summers and cool to mild winters with infrequent frost. Subtropical climates can occur at elevations within the tropics, such as in the southern end of the Mexican Plateau and in Vietnam. Six climate classifications use the term to define the various temperature. A great portion of the deserts are located within the subtropics. Within savanna regimes in the subtropics, a wet season is seen annually during the summer, within Mediterranean climate regimes, the wet season occurs during the winter. Areas bordering warm oceans are prone to heavy rainfall from tropical cyclones. Plants such as palms, citrus, mango, lychee, the tropics have been historically defined as lying between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, located at 23. 45° north and south latitude respectively. The poleward fringe of the subtropics is located at approximately 40° north and south latitude respectively, northern fringes of the type can go further north due to moderating effects of ocean streams, like in parts of Southern Europe due to heat transported by the Gulf Stream. Several methods have used to define the subtropical climate. In the Trewartha climate classification, a subtropical region should have at least eight months with a temperature greater than 10 °C. According to the Troll-Paffen climate classification, there exists one large subtropical zone named the warm-temperate subtropical zone. According to the E. Neef climate classification, the zone is divided into two parts, Rainy winters of the west sides and Eastern subtropical climate. According to the Wilhelm Lauer & Peter Frankenberg climate classification, the zone is divided into three parts, high-continental, continental, and maritime. According to the Siegmund/Frankenberg climate classification, subtropical is one of six zones in the world. Heating of the earth near the equator leads to large amounts of upward motion and convection along the trough or Intertropical convergence zone. The upper-level divergence over the near-equatorial trough leads to air rising and moving away from the equator aloft, as the air moves towards the Mid-Latitudes, it cools and sinks, which leads to subsidence near the 30th parallel of both hemispheres. This circulation is known as the Hadley cell and leads to the formation of the subtropical ridge, many of the worlds deserts are caused by these climatological high-pressure areas, located within the subtropics
Subtropical climate
–
Tadrart Acacus desert, part of the Sahara, in western
Libya.
Subtropical climate
–
The subtropics and tropics
Subtropical climate
–
Hadley cells located on the Earth's atmospheric circulation.
Subtropical climate
–
Curitiba,
Brazil: Live oak with
araucarias.
21.
Precipitation
–
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, graupel, Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor, so that the water condenses and precipitates. Thus, fog and mist are not precipitation but suspensions, because the vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate. Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated, Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Short, intense periods of rain in scattered locations are called showers, moisture that is lifted or otherwise forced to rise over a layer of sub-freezing air at the surface may be condensed into clouds and rain. This process is active when freezing rain is occurring. A stationary front is often present near the area of freezing rain, provided necessary and sufficient atmospheric moisture content, the moisture within the rising air will condense into clouds, namely stratus and cumulonimbus. Eventually, the droplets will grow large enough to form raindrops. Lake-effect snowfall can be locally heavy, thundersnow is possible within a cyclones comma head and within lake effect precipitation bands. In mountainous areas, heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation, on the leeward side of mountains, desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by compressional heating. The movement of the trough, or intertropical convergence zone. Precipitation is a component of the water cycle, and is responsible for depositing the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000 cubic kilometres of water falls as precipitation each year,398,000 cubic kilometres of it over the oceans and 107,000 cubic kilometres over land. Given the Earths surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres, Climate classification systems such as the Köppen climate classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes. Precipitation may occur on celestial bodies, e. g. when it gets cold, Mars has precipitation which most likely takes the form of frost. Precipitation is a component of the water cycle, and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000 km3 of water falls as precipitation each year,398,000 km3 of it over the oceans, given the Earths surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres. Mechanisms of producing precipitation include convective, stratiform, and orographic rainfall, Precipitation can be divided into three categories, based on whether it falls as liquid water, liquid water that freezes on contact with the surface, or ice
Precipitation
–
A thunderstorm with heavy precipitation
Precipitation
–
Long-term mean precipitation by month
Precipitation
–
Late-summer
rainstorm in
Denmark
Precipitation
–
Lenticular cloud forming due to mountains over Wyoming
22.
Relative humidity
–
Relative humidity is the ratio of the partial pressure of water vapor to the equilibrium vapor pressure of water at a given temperature. Relative humidity depends on temperature and the pressure of the system of interest and it requires less water vapor to attain high relative humidity at low temperatures, more water vapour is required to attain high relative humidity in warm or hot air. Humans are sensitive to high humidity because the body uses evaporative cooling, enabled by perspiration. Perspiration evaporates from the more slowly under humid conditions than under arid. For example, if the air temperature is 24 °C and the humidity is zero percent. If the relative humidity is 100 percent at the air temperature. In other words, if the air is 24 °C and contains saturated water vapor, then the human body cools itself at the rate as it would if it were 27 °C. The heat index and the humidex are indices that reflect the effect of temperature. In cold climates, the temperature causes lower capacity for water vapour to flow about. Dry cracked skin can result from dry air, low humidity causes tissue lining nasal passages to dry, crack and become more susceptible to penetration of Rhinovirus cold viruses. Low humidity is a cause of nosebleeds. The use of a humidifier in homes, especially bedrooms, can help with these symptoms, indoor relative humidities should be kept above 30% to reduce the likelihood of the occupants nasal passages drying out. Humans can be comfortable within a range of humidities depending on the temperature—from thirty to seventy percent—but ideally between 50% and 60%. Very low humidity can create discomfort, respiratory problems, and aggravate allergies in some individuals, in the winter, it is advisable to maintain relative humidity at 30 percent or above. Extremely low relative humidities may also cause eye irritation, wooden furniture can shrink, causing the paint that covers these surfaces to fracture. When the temperature is low and the humidity is high. When relative humidity approaches 100 percent, condensation can occur on surfaces, leading to problems with mold, corrosion, decay, condensation can pose a safety risk as it can promote the growth of mold and wood rot as well as possibly freezing emergency exits shut. The basic principles for buildings, above, also apply to vehicles, in addition, there may be safety considerations
Relative humidity
–
Humidity and hygrometry
23.
Deutscher Wetterdienst
–
It is attached to the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure. The DWDs principal tasks include warning against weather-related dangers and monitoring and rating climate changes affecting Germany, the organization runs atmospheric models on their supercomputer for precise weather forecasting. The DWD also manages the national archive and one of the largest specialized libraries on weather. The DWD was formed in 1952 when the services of the western occupation zones were merged. In 1954, the Federal Republic of Germany joined the World Meteorological Organization, in 1975 the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts was formed for numerical weather prediction up to ten days in advance. In 1990, following the reunification, the services of the German Democratic Republic were incorporated in the DWD. Since the 1990s, the DWD has continuously reduced the number of manned weather stations, the DWD does not expect a reduction in forecast quality, given techniques like weather radar or satellites, which have significantly improved weather data collection. The German Meteorological Office runs a global model of its own. They developed the High Resolution Regional Model in 1999, which is run within the operational and research meteorological communities. The German non-hydrostatic Lokal-Modell for Europe has been run since 2002, since March 2009, the DWD operates a NEC SX-9 with a peak performance of 109 teraFLOPS to help in the weather forecasting process. Since 2005, the DWD has been publishing regional warnings against heat with the aim to reduce heat related fatalities and this decision was made because of the hot summer in 2003, when estimated 7000 people died from direct or indirect effects of the heat. Additionally it sends out sea weather reports as radioteletype and faxes, since 2006, the pollen warnings can be subscribed to for free on the DWD web site. Within its duty of primary meteorological information, the DWD offers a daily weather report for Germany which can be subscribed to by email on their official website. DWD offers free access to its climate data and its work is based on the German Meteorological Office Act. Currently, the DWD consists of roughly 2600 occupants, besides the DWD central in Offenbach, there are regional centers in Hamburg, Potsdam, Leipzig, Essen, Stuttgart and Munich
Deutscher Wetterdienst
–
Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach, Germany
Deutscher Wetterdienst
–
Wetterpark Offenbach, Germany
24.
Pacific Ocean
–
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
Pacific Ocean
–
Maris Pacifici by
Ortelius (1589). One of the first printed maps to show the Pacific Ocean; see also
Waldseemüller map (1507).
Pacific Ocean
–
The Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
–
USS
Lexington under air attack on 8 May 1942 during the
Battle of the Coral Sea
Pacific Ocean
–
Map of the Pacific Ocean during European Exploration, circa 1702–1707.
25.
Sechura
–
Sechura is a town in northwestern Peru,50 km south of Piura. It is the capital of Sechura Province in the Piura Region, the town gives its name to the Sechura Desert, which extends south along most of coastal Peru. Crescent dunes lie south of the city, between the sea and the highway, the town has a main square with the Catédral de Sechura, built in the 17th-century in the Spanish colonial style. Because of the surrounding the town, the church has sometimes been called the Catédral de Arena. Blog Provincia de Sechura Facebook Provincia de Sechura
Sechura
–
Coat of arms
26.
Humboldt current
–
The Humboldt Current is a cold, low-salinity ocean current that flows north along the west coast of South America from the southern tip of Chile to northern Peru. Also called the Peru Current, it is an eastern boundary current flowing in the direction of the equator and it is the most productive marine ecosystem in the world, as well as the largest upwelling system. The Humboldt’s high rates of primary and secondary productivity support the world’s largest fisheries, approximately 18-20% of the world’s fish catch comes from the Humboldt Current LME. The species are pelagic, sardines, anchovies and jack mackerel. The LME’s high productivity supports other important fishery resources as well as marine mammals, the cold, nutrient-rich water brought to the surface by upwelling drives the system’s extraordinary productivity. Periodically, the upwelling that drives the system’s productivity is disrupted by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation event, when this occurs, fish abundance and distribution are significantly affected, often leading to stock crashes and cascading social and economic impacts. These events have led to changes, where sardines and anchovies have replaced each other periodically as the dominant species in the ecosystem. These species changes can have consequences for the fishing industry. The Humboldt has a cooling influence on the climate of Chile, Peru. It is also responsible for the aridity of Atacama Desert in northern Chile and coastal areas of Peru. Marine air is cooled by the current and thus is not conducive to generating precipitation
Humboldt current
–
Humboldt Current
Humboldt current
–
La Silla is in the Southern outskirts of the
Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth, it may come as a surprise to see cloud formations result of the Peruvian Humboldt Current.
Humboldt current
–
Fisheries science
Humboldt current
–
Management
27.
Humidity
–
Humidity is the amount of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor is the state of water and is invisible. Humidity indicates the likelihood of precipitation, dew, or fog, higher humidity reduces the effectiveness of sweating in cooling the body by reducing the rate of evaporation of moisture from the skin. This effect is calculated in an index table or humidex. The amount of vapor that is needed to achieve saturation increases as the temperature increases. As the temperature of a parcel of water becomes lower it will not reach the point of saturation without adding or losing water mass. The differences in the amount of vapor in a parcel of air can be quite large. For example, a parcel of air that is near saturation may contain 28 grams of water per cubic meter of air at 30 °C, there are three main measurements of humidity, absolute, relative and specific. Absolute humidity is the content of air expressed in gram per cubic meter. Relative humidity, expressed as a percent, measures the current absolute humidity relative to the maximum for that temperature, specific humidity is the ratio of the mass of water vapor to the total mass of the moist air parcel. Absolute humidity is the mass of water vapor present in a given volume of air. It does not take temperature into consideration, absolute humidity in the atmosphere ranges from near zero to roughly 30 grams per cubic meter when the air is saturated at 30 °C. Absolute humidity is the mass of the vapor, divided by the volume of the air and water vapor mixture. The absolute humidity changes as air temperature or pressure changes and this makes it unsuitable for chemical engineering calculations, e. g. for clothes dryers, where temperature can vary considerably. Mass of water per unit volume as in the equation above is defined as volumetric humidity. Because of the confusion, British Standard BS1339 suggests avoiding the term absolute humidity. Units should always be carefully checked, many humidity charts are given in g/kg or kg/kg, but any mass units may be used. The field concerned with the study of physical and thermodynamic properties of mixtures is named psychrometrics
Humidity
–
Humidity and hygrometry
Humidity
–
Paranal Observatory on
Cerro Paranal in the
Atacama Desert is one of the driest places on earth.
Humidity
–
A
hygrometer
28.
Atmospheric pressure
–
Atmospheric pressure, sometimes also called barometric pressure, is the pressure exerted by the weight of air in the atmosphere of Earth. In most circumstances atmospheric pressure is approximated by the hydrostatic pressure caused by the weight of air above the measurement point. As elevation increases, there is less overlying atmospheric mass, so that atmospheric pressure decreases with increasing elevation. On average, a column of air one square centimetre in cross-section, measured from sea level to the top of the atmosphere, has a mass of about 1.03 kilograms and that force is a pressure of 10.1 N/cm2 or 101 kN/m2. A column 1 square inch in cross-section would have a weight of about 14.7 lb or about 65.4 N and it is modified by the planetary rotation and local effects such as wind velocity, density variations due to temperature and variations in composition. The standard atmosphere is a unit of pressure defined as 101325 Pa, the mean sea level pressure is the average atmospheric pressure at sea level. This is the pressure normally given in weather reports on radio, television. When barometers in the home are set to match the weather reports, they measure pressure adjusted to sea level. The altimeter setting in aviation, is an atmospheric pressure adjustment, average sea-level pressure is 1013.25 mbar. In aviation weather reports, QNH is transmitted around the world in millibars or hectopascals, except in the United States, Canada, however, in Canadas public weather reports, sea level pressure is instead reported in kilopascals. The highest sea-level pressure on Earth occurs in Siberia, where the Siberian High often attains a sea-level pressure above 1050 mbar, the lowest measurable sea-level pressure is found at the centers of tropical cyclones and tornadoes, with a record low of 870 mbar. Pressure varies smoothly from the Earths surface to the top of the mesosphere, although the pressure changes with the weather, NASA has averaged the conditions for all parts of the earth year-round. As altitude increases, atmospheric pressure decreases, one can calculate the atmospheric pressure at a given altitude. Temperature and humidity affect the atmospheric pressure, and it is necessary to know these to compute an accurate figure. The graph at right was developed for a temperature of 15 °C, at low altitudes above the sea level, the pressure decreases by about 1.2 kPa for every 100 meters. See pressure system for the effects of air pressure variations on weather, Atmospheric pressure shows a diurnal or semidiurnal cycle caused by global atmospheric tides. This effect is strongest in tropical zones, with an amplitude of a few millibars and these variations have two superimposed cycles, a circadian cycle and semi-circadian cycle. The highest adjusted-to-sea level barometric pressure recorded on Earth was 1085.7 hPa measured in Tosontsengel
Atmospheric pressure
–
Kollsman-type barometric aircraft
altimeter (as used in North America) displaying an
altitude of 80 ft (24 m).
Atmospheric pressure
–
15 year average mean sea level pressure for June, July, and August (top) and December, January, and February (bottom).
ERA-15 re-analysis.
Atmospheric pressure
–
A very local storm above Snæfellsjökull, showing clouds formed on the mountain by
orographic lift
Atmospheric pressure
–
Hurricane Wilma on 19 October 2005–882 hPa (12.79 psi) in eye
.jpg)
Bahía Blanca, Argentina.
Trujillo, Spain.
Empalme, Mexico.
Salt Lake City, United States.
Loja, Ecuador.
Piura travel guide from Wikivoyage
"Piura". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
".svg){kind=small}
