1.
Geographic coordinate system
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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
2.
Saudi Arabia
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Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba and it is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast and most of its terrain consists of arid desert and mountains. The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of four regions, Hejaz, Najd and parts of Eastern Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Ibn Saud and he united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. Saudi Arabia has since been a monarchy, effectively a hereditary dictatorship governed along Islamic lines. The ultraconservative Wahhabi religious movement within Sunni Islam has been called the predominant feature of Saudi culture, with its global spread largely financed by the oil and gas trade. Saudi Arabia is sometimes called the Land of the Two Holy Mosques in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the state has a total population of 28.7 million, of which 20 million are Saudi nationals and 8 million are foreigners. The states official language is Arabic, petroleum was discovered on 3 March 1938 and followed up by several other finds in the Eastern Province. Saudi Arabia has since become the worlds largest oil producer and exporter, controlling the second largest oil reserves. The kingdom is categorized as a World Bank high-income economy with a high Human Development Index and is the only Arab country to be part of the G-20 major economies. However, the economy of Saudi Arabia is the least diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the state has attracted criticism for its treatment of women and use of capital punishment. Saudi Arabia is an autocracy, has the fourth highest military expenditure in the world. Saudi Arabia is considered a regional and middle power, in addition to the GCC, it is an active member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and OPEC. Following the unification of the Hejaz and Nejd kingdoms, the new state was named al-Mamlakah al-ʻArabīyah as-Suʻūdīyah by royal decree on 23 September 1932 by its founder, Abdulaziz Al Saud. Although this is translated as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in English it literally means the Saudi Arab kingdom. Its inclusion expresses the view that the country is the possession of the royal family. Al Saud is an Arabic name formed by adding the word Al, meaning family of or House of, in the case of the Al Saud, this is the father of the dynastys 18th century founder, Muhammad bin Saud. There is evidence that human habitation in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to about 125,000 years ago
3.
Oman
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Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is an Arab country on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the southeast, the Madha and Musandam exclaves are surrounded by the UAE on their land borders, with the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman forming Musandams coastal boundaries. From the late 17th century, the Omani Sultanate was an empire, vying with Portugal and Britain for influence in the Persian Gulf. At its peak in the 19th century, Omani influence or control extended across the Strait of Hormuz to modern-day Iran and Pakistan, as its power declined in the 20th century, the sultanate came under the influence of the United Kingdom. Historically, Muscat was the trading port of the Persian Gulf region. Muscat was also among the most important trading ports of the Indian Ocean, the Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said has been the hereditary leader of the country since 1970. Sultan Qaboos is the current ruler in the Middle East. Oman has modest oil reserves, ranking 25th globally, nevertheless, in 2010 the UNDP ranked Oman as the most improved nation in the world in terms of development during the preceding 40 years. A significant portion of its economy is tourism and trade of fish, dates and this sets it apart from its neighbors solely oil-dependent economies. Oman is categorized as an economy and ranks as the 74th most peaceful country in the world according to the Global Peace Index. Two optically stimulated luminescence age estimates place the Arabian Nubian Complex at 106,000 years old and this supports the proposition that early human populations moved from Africa into Arabia during the Late Pleistocene. Dereaze, located in the city of Ibri, is the oldest known settlement in the area. Archaeological remains have been discovered here from the Stone Age and the Bronze Age, findings have included stone implements, animal bones, shells and fire hearths, with the latter dating back to 7615 BC as the oldest signs of human settlement in the area. Other discoveries include hand-molded pottery bearing distinguishing pre-Bronze Age marks, heavy flint implements, pointed tools, sumerian tablets refer to a country called Magan or Makan, a name believed to refer to Omans ancient copper mines. Mazoon, another used for the region, is derived from the word muzn. The present-day name of the country, Oman, is believed to originate from the Arab tribes who migrated to its territory from the Uman region of Yemen. Many such tribes settled in Oman, making a living by fishing, herding or stock breeding, from the 6th century BC to the arrival of Islam in the 7th century AD, Oman was controlled and/or influenced by three Persian dynasties, the Achaemenids, Parthians and Sassanids. A few scholars believe that in the 6th century BC, the Achaemenids exerted a strong degree of control over the Omani peninsula, Central Oman has its own indigenous so-called Late Iron Age cultural assemblage, the Samad al-Shan
4.
United Arab Emirates
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In 2013, the UAEs population was 9.2 million, of which 1.4 million are Emirati citizens and 7.8 million are expatriates. The country is a federation of seven emirates, and was established on 2 December 1971, the constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain. Each emirate is governed by a monarch, together, they jointly form the Federal Supreme Council. One of the monarchs is selected as the President of the United Arab Emirates, Islam is the official religion of the UAE and Arabic is the official language. The UAEs oil reserves are the seventh-largest in the world while its natural gas reserves are the worlds seventeenth-largest, Sheikh Zayed, ruler of Abu Dhabi and the first President of the UAE, oversaw the development of the Emirates and steered oil revenues into healthcare, education and infrastructure. The UAEs economy is the most diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, while its most populous city of Dubai is an important global city, nevertheless, the country remains principally reliant on its export of petroleum and natural gas. The UAE is criticised for its rights record, including the specific interpretations of Sharia used in its legal system. The UAEs rising international profile has led analysts to identify it as a regional. It appears the land of the Emirates has been occupied for thousands of years, there is no proof of contact with the outside world at that stage, although in time it developed with civilisations in Mesopotamia and Iran. This contact persisted and became wide-ranging, probably motivated by trade in copper from the Hajar Mountains, in ancient times, Al Hasa was part of Al Bahreyn and adjoined Greater Oman. Sassanid groups were present on the Batinah coast, in 637, Julfar was an important port that was used as a staging post for the Islamic invasion of the Sassanian Empire. The area of the Al Ain/Buraimi Oasis was known as Tuam and was an important trading post for camel routes between the coast and the Arabian interior. The earliest Christian site in the UAE was first discovered in the 1990s, a monastic complex on what is now known as Sir Bani Yas Island. Thought to be Nestorian and built in 600 AD, the church appears to have been abandoned peacefully in 750 AD and it forms a rare physical link to a legacy of Christianity which is thought to have spread across the peninsula from 50 to 350 AD following trade routes. Certainly, by the 5th century, Oman had a bishop named John – the last bishop of Oman being Etienne, in 676 AD. This led to a group of travelling to Medina, converting to Islam and subsequently driving a successful uprising against the unpopular Sassanids. Following the death of Prophet Muhammad, the new Islamic communities south of the Persian Gulf threatened to disintegrate, with insurrections against the Muslim leaders. The Caliph Abu Bakr sent an army from the capital Medina which completed its reconquest of the territory with the battle of Dibba in which 10,000 lives are thought to have been lost
5.
Yemen
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Yemen, officially known as the Republic of Yemen, is an Arab country in Western Asia, occupying South Arabia, the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. Yemen is the second-largest country in the peninsula, occupying 527,970 km2, the coastline stretches for about 2,000 km. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea to the south, although Yemens constitutionally stated capital is the city of Sanaa, the city has been under rebel control since February 2015. Because of this, Yemens capital has been relocated to the port city of Aden. Yemens territory includes more than 200 islands, the largest of these is Socotra, Yemen was the home of the Sabaeans, a trading state that flourished for over a thousand years and probably also included parts of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea. In 275 AD, the region came under the rule of the later Jewish-influenced Himyarite Kingdom, Christianity arrived in the fourth century, whereas Judaism and local paganism were already established. Islam spread quickly in the century and Yemenite troops were crucial in the expansion of the early Islamic conquests. Administration of Yemen has long been notoriously difficult, several dynasties emerged from the ninth to 16th centuries, the Rasulid dynasty being the strongest and most prosperous. The country was divided between the Ottoman and British empires in the twentieth century. The Zaydi Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen was established after World War I in North Yemen before the creation of the Yemen Arab Republic in 1962, South Yemen remained a British protectorate known as the Aden Protectorate until 1967 when it became an independent state and later, a Marxist state. The two Yemeni states united to form the modern republic of Yemen in 1990, Yemen is a developing country, and the poorest country in the Middle East. Under the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen was described as a kleptocracy, according to the 2009 international corruption Perception Index by Transparency International, Yemen ranked 164 out of 182 countries surveyed. President Saleh stepped down and the powers of the presidency were transferred to Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, the transitional process was disrupted by conflicts between the Houthis and al-Islah, as well as the al-Qaeda insurgency. In September 2014, the Houthis took over Sanaa, later declaring themselves in control of the government in a coup détat, since then, a Saudi-led intervention has taken place, however, it could not stop the civil war. Instead, the Saudis and the others have destroyed some hospitals, schools and homes, Yemen was mentioned in Old South Arabian inscriptions as Yamnat. In Arabic literature, the term includes much greater territory than that of the republic of Yemen. It stretches from the northern Asir Region in southwestern Saudi Arabia to Dhofar Governorate in southern Oman, one etymology derives Yemen from yumn, meaning felicity, as much of the country is fertile. The Romans called it Arabia Felix, as opposed to Arabia Deserta, al-Yaman significantly plays on the notion of the land to the right, when in Mecca facing the dawn, complementary to Al-Sham, the Land to the Left, referring to the Levant
6.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
7.
Desert
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A desert is a barren area of land where little precipitation occurs and consequently living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to the processes of denudation, about one third of the land surface of the world is arid or semi-arid. This includes much of the regions where little precipitation occurs. Deserts can be classified by the amount of precipitation falls, by the temperature that prevails. Deserts are formed by weathering processes as large variations in temperature between day and night put strains on the rocks which consequently break in pieces, although rain seldom occurs in deserts, there are occasional downpours that can result in flash floods. Rain falling on hot rocks can cause them to shatter and the resulting fragments and this picks up particles of sand and dust and wafts them aloft in sand or dust storms. Wind-blown sand grains striking any solid object in their path can abrade the surface, rocks are smoothed down, and the wind sorts sand into uniform deposits. The grains end up as level sheets of sand or are piled high in billowing sand dunes, other deserts are flat, stony plains where all the fine material has been blown away and the surface consists of a mosaic of smooth stones. These areas are known as desert pavements and little further erosion takes place, other desert features include rock outcrops, exposed bedrock and clays once deposited by flowing water. Temporary lakes may form and salt pans may be left when waters evaporate, there may be underground sources of water in the form of springs and seepages from aquifers. Where these are found, oases can occur, plants and animals living in the desert need special adaptations to survive in the harsh environment. Plants tend to be tough and wiry with small or no leaves, water-resistant cuticles, some annual plants germinate, bloom and die in the course of a few weeks after rainfall while other long-lived plants survive for years and have deep root systems able to tap underground moisture. Animals need to cool and find enough food and water to survive. Many are nocturnal and stay in the shade or underground during the heat of the day and they tend to be efficient at conserving water, extracting most of their needs from their food and concentrating their urine. Some animals remain in a state of dormancy for long periods and they then reproduce rapidly while conditions are favorable before returning to dormancy. People have struggled to live in deserts and the surrounding lands for millennia. Nomads have moved their flocks and herds to wherever grazing is available, the cultivation of semi-arid regions encourages erosion of soil and is one of the causes of increased desertification. Many trade routes have been forged across deserts, especially across the Sahara Desert, large numbers of slaves were also taken northwards across the Sahara
8.
Erg (landform)
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An erg is a broad, flat area of desert covered with wind-swept sand with little or no vegetative cover. The term takes its name from the Arabic word ʿarq, meaning dune field, strictly speaking, an erg is defined as a desert area that contains more than 125 km2 of aeolian or wind-blown sand and where sand covers more than 20% of the surface. Smaller areas are known as dune fields, the largest hot desert in the world, the Sahara, covers 9 million square kilometres and contains several ergs, such as the Chech Erg and the Issaouane Erg in Algeria. Approximately 85% of all the Earths mobile sand is found in ergs that are greater than 32,000 km2, ergs are also found on other celestial bodies, such as Venus, Mars, and Saturns moon Titan. Ergs are concentrated in two belts between 20° to 40°N and 20° to 40°S latitudes, which include regions crossed by the dry. Active ergs are limited to regions that receive, on average, the largest are in northern and southern Africa, central and western Asia, and Central Australia. In South America, ergs are limited by the Andes Mountains and they are also found in several parts of the northeast coast of Brazil. An erg that has been fixed by vegetation forms the Nebraska Sandhills, sand seas and dune fields generally occur in regions downwind of copious sources of dry, loose sand, such as dry riverbeds and deltas, floodplains, glacial outwash plains, dry lakes, and beaches. Almost all major ergs are located downwind from river beds in areas that are too dry to support extensive vegetative cover and are subject to long-continued wind erosion. Sand from these abundant sources migrates downwind and builds up into very large dunes where its movement is halted or slowed by topographic barriers to windflow or by convergence of windflow. Entire ergs and dune fields tend to migrate downwind as far as hundreds of kilometers from their sources of sand, such accumulation requires long periods of time. At least one million years are required to build ergs with very large dunes, such as those on the Arabian Peninsula, in North Africa, within sand seas in a given area, the dunes tend to be of a single type. For example, there are ergs or fields of linear dunes, of crescentic dunes, of star dunes, and of parabolic dunes, by nature, ergs are very active. Smaller dunes form and migrate along the flanks of the larger dunes, occasional precipitation fills basins formed by the dunes, as the water evaporates, salt deposits are left behind. Individual dunes in ergs typically have widths, lengths, or both dimensions greater than 500 m, both the regional extent of their sand cover and the complexity and great size of their dunes distinguish ergs from dune fields. This is far shallower than ergs in prehistoric times were, evidence in the geological record indicates that some Mesozoic and Paleozoic ergs reached a mean depth of several hundred meters. Today at least three bodies, apart from Earth, are known in the system to feature ergs on their surface, Venus, Mars. At least two ergs have been recognized by the Magellan probe on Venus, the Aglaonice dune field, which covers approximately 1,290 km2, and these seem to be mostly transverse dune fields
9.
Arabian Peninsula
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The Arabian Peninsula, simplified Arabia is a peninsula of Western Asia situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian plate. From a geological perspective, it is considered a subcontinent of Asia and it is the largest peninsula in the world, at 3,237,500 km2. The Arabian Peninsula consists of the countries Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Arabian Peninsula plays a critical geopolitical role in the Middle East and the Arab world due to its vast reserves of oil and natural gas. Before the modern era, it was divided into four regions, Hejaz, Najd, Southern Arabia. Hejaz and Najd make up most of Saudi Arabia, Southern Arabia consists of Yemen and some parts of Saudi Arabia and Oman. Eastern Arabia consists of the coastal strip of the Persian Gulf. The most prominent feature of the peninsula is desert, but in the southwest there are mountain ranges, harrat ash Shaam is a large volcanic field that extends from the northwestern Arabian Peninsula into Jordan and southern Syria. The peninsulas constituent countries are Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the island nation of Bahrain lies off the east coast of the peninsula. Six countries form the Gulf Cooperation Council, however, this is a disputed term. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia covers the part of the peninsula. The majority of the population of the live in Saudi Arabia. The peninsula contains the worlds largest reserves of oil, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are economically the wealthiest in the region. Qatar, a peninsula in the Persian Gulf on the larger peninsula, is home of the Arabic-language television station Al Jazeera. Kuwait, on the border with Iraq, is an important country strategically, though historically lightly populated, political Arabia is noted for a high population growth rate - as the result of both very strong inflows of migrant labor as well as sustained high birth rates. The population tends to be young and heavily skewed gender ratio dominated by males. In many states, the number of South Asians exceeds that of the local citizenry, the four smallest states, which have their entire coastlines on the Persian Gulf, exhibit the worlds most extreme population growth, roughly tripling every 20 years. In 2014, the population of the Arabian Peninsula was 77,983,936. Listed here are the human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups in Arabia Haplogroup J is the most abundant component in the Arabian peninsula and its two main subclades, show opposite latitudinal gradients in the Middle East
10.
Latitude
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In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the north–south position of a point on the Earths surface. Latitude is an angle which ranges from 0° at the Equator to 90° at the poles, lines of constant latitude, or parallels, run east–west as circles parallel to the equator. Latitude is used together with longitude to specify the location of features on the surface of the Earth. Without qualification the term latitude should be taken to be the latitude as defined in the following sections. Also defined are six auxiliary latitudes which are used in special applications, there is a separate article on the History of latitude measurements. Two levels of abstraction are employed in the definition of latitude and longitude, in the first step the physical surface is modelled by the geoid, a surface which approximates the mean sea level over the oceans and its continuation under the land masses. The second step is to approximate the geoid by a mathematically simpler reference surface, the simplest choice for the reference surface is a sphere, but the geoid is more accurately modelled by an ellipsoid. The definitions of latitude and longitude on such surfaces are detailed in the following sections. Lines of constant latitude and longitude together constitute a graticule on the reference surface, latitude and longitude together with some specification of height constitute a geographic coordinate system as defined in the specification of the ISO19111 standard. This is of importance in accurate applications, such as a Global Positioning System, but in common usage, where high accuracy is not required. In English texts the latitude angle, defined below, is denoted by the Greek lower-case letter phi. It is measured in degrees, minutes and seconds or decimal degrees, the precise measurement of latitude requires an understanding of the gravitational field of the Earth, either to set up theodolites or to determine GPS satellite orbits. The study of the figure of the Earth together with its field is the science of geodesy. These topics are not discussed in this article and this article relates to coordinate systems for the Earth, it may be extended to cover the Moon, planets and other celestial objects by a simple change of nomenclature. The primary reference points are the poles where the axis of rotation of the Earth intersects the reference surface, the plane through the centre of the Earth and perpendicular to the rotation axis intersects the surface at a great circle called the Equator. Planes parallel to the plane intersect the surface in circles of constant latitude. The Equator has a latitude of 0°, the North Pole has a latitude of 90° North, the latitude of an arbitrary point is the angle between the equatorial plane and the radius to that point. The latitude, as defined in this way for the sphere, is termed the spherical latitude
11.
Arabian Desert
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The Arabian Desert is located in Western Asia. It is a vast desert wilderness stretching from Yemen to the Persian Gulf and Oman to Jordan and it occupies most of the Arabian Peninsula, with an area of 2,330,000 square kilometers. At its center is the Rubal-Khali, one of the largest continuous bodies of sand in the world. Gazelles, oryx, sand cats, and spiny-tailed lizards are just some of the species that survive in this extreme environment. The climate is dry, and temperatures oscillate between very high heat and seasonal night time freezes. It is part of the Deserts and xeric shrublands biome and the Palearctic ecozone and this ecoregion holds little biodiversity, although a few endemic plants grow here. Many species, such as the hyena, jackal and honey badger have become extinct in this area due to hunting, human encroachment. Other species have been successfully re-introduced, such as the sand gazelle, overgrazing by livestock, off-road driving, and human destruction of habitat are the main threats to this desert ecoregion. Detailed geological features, A corridor of sandy terrain known as the Ad-Dahna desert connects the large An-Nafud desert in the north of Saudi Arabia to the Rub Al-Khali in the south-east, the Tuwaiq escarpment is a region of 800 km arc of limestone cliffs, plateaux, and canyons. At an altitude of 1,000 metres, the rock landscapes yield the place to the Rub al Khali, vast wide of sand of the Arabian desert, the sand overlies gravel or gypsum plains and the dunes reach maximum heights of up to 250 m. The sands are predominantly silicates, composed of 80 to 90% of quartz and the feldspar, whose iron oxide-coated grains color the sands in orange, purple. Some of natural resources available in the Arabian Desert are oil, natural gas, phosphates, the Rubal-Khali has very limited floristic diversity. There are only 37 species,20 recorded in the body of the sands and 17 around the outer margins. Among these 37 species, only one or two are endemic, vegetation is very diffuse but fairly evenly distributed, with some interruptions of near sterile dunes. Some typical plants are, Calligonum crinitum on dune slopes Cornulaca arabica Cyperus conglomeratus, other widespread species are, Dipterygium glaucum Limeum arabicum Zygophyllum mandavillei. Very little trees may be found except at the outer margin, in fact, the Arabian Desert is an extension of the Sahara Desert over the Arabian peninsula. The climate is hot and dry with plenty of sunshine throughout the year. The rainfall amount is generally around 100 mm, and the driest areas can receive between 30 and 40 mm of annual rain, such dryness remains very rare throughout the desert, however
12.
Sand
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Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles. It is defined by size, being finer than gravel and coarser than silt, Sand can also refer to a textural class of soil or soil type, i. e. a soil containing more than 85% sand-sized particles by mass. The second most common type of sand is calcium carbonate, for example aragonite, for example, it is the primary form of sand apparent in areas where reefs have dominated the ecosystem for millions of years like the Caribbean. Sand is a non renewable resource over human timescales, and sand suitable for making concrete is in high demand, in terms of particle size as used by geologists, sand particles range in diameter from 0.0625 mm to 2 mm. An individual particle in this size is termed a sand grain. Sand grains are between gravel and silt, a 1953 engineering standard published by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials set the minimum sand size at 0.074 mm. A1938 specification of the United States Department of Agriculture was 0.05 mm. Sand feels gritty when rubbed between the fingers. ISO14688 grades sands as fine, medium and coarse with ranges 0.063 mm to 0.2 mm to 0.63 mm to 2.0 mm. In the United States, sand is commonly divided into five sub-categories based on size, very fine sand, fine sand, medium sand, coarse sand, and very coarse sand. These sizes are based on the Krumbein phi scale, where size in Φ = -log2D, on this scale, for sand the value of Φ varies from −1 to +4, with the divisions between sub-categories at whole numbers. The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources. The gypsum sand dunes of the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico are famous for their bright, arkose is a sand or sandstone with considerable feldspar content, derived from weathering and erosion of a granitic rock outcrop. Some sands contain magnetite, chlorite, glauconite or gypsum, Sands rich in magnetite are dark to black in color, as are sands derived from volcanic basalts and obsidian. Chlorite-glauconite bearing sands are typically green in color, as are sands derived from basaltic with a high olivine content, many sands, especially those found extensively in Southern Europe, have iron impurities within the quartz crystals of the sand, giving a deep yellow color. Sand deposits in some areas contain garnets and other resistant minerals, the study of individual grains can reveal much historical information as to the origin and kind of transport of the grain. Quartz sand that is weathered from granite or gneiss quartz crystals will be angular. It is called grus in geology or sharp sand in the trade where it is preferred for concrete. Sand that is transported long distances by water or wind will be rounded, people who collect sand as a hobby are known as arenophiles
13.
Dune
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In physical geography, a dune is a hill of loose sand built by wind or the flow of water. Dunes occur in different shapes and sizes, formed by interaction with the flow of air or water, most kinds of dunes are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the dune and have a shorter slip face in the lee of the wind. The valley or trough between dunes is called a slack, a dune field is an area covered by extensive sand dunes. Dunes occur, for example, in deserts and along some coasts. Some coastal areas have one or more sets of dunes running parallel to the shoreline directly inland from the beach, in most cases, the dunes are important in protecting the land against potential ravages by storm waves from the sea. Although the most widely distributed dunes are those associated with coastal regions, Dunes can form under the action of water flow, and on sand or gravel beds of rivers, estuaries and the sea-bed. The modern word dune came into English from French c,1790, which in turn came from Middle Dutch dūne. Crescent-shaped mounds are generally wider than they are long, the slipfaces are on the concave sides of the dunes. These dunes form under winds that blow consistently from one direction, some types of crescentic dunes move more quickly over desert surfaces than any other type of dune. A group of dunes moved more than 100 metres per year between 1954 and 1959 in Chinas Ningxia Province, and similar speeds have been recorded in the Western Desert of Egypt. The largest crescentic dunes on Earth, with mean crest-to-crest widths of more than three kilometres, are in Chinas Taklamakan Desert. They may be composed of clay, silt, sand, or gypsum, eroded from the floor or shore, transported up the concave side of the dune. Examples in Australia are up to 6.5 km long,1 km wide and they also occur in southern and West Africa, and in parts of the western United States, especially Texas. Straight or slightly sinuous sand ridges typically much longer than they are wide are known as linear dunes and they may be more than 160 kilometres long. Some linear dunes merge to form Y-shaped compound dunes, many form in bidirectional wind regimes. The long axes of these dunes extend in the resultant direction of sand movement, linear loess hills known as pahas are superficially similar. These hills appear to have formed during the last ice age under permafrost conditions dominated by sparse tundra vegetation. Radially symmetrical, star dunes are pyramidal sand mounds with slipfaces on three or more arms that radiate from the center of the mound
14.
Gypsum
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Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer, and as the constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard chalk. Mohs scale of hardness, based on scratch Hardness comparison. It forms as a mineral and as a hydration product of anhydrite. The word gypsum is derived from the Greek word γύψος, plaster, because the quarries of the Montmartre district of Paris have long furnished burnt gypsum used for various purposes, this dehydrated gypsum became known as plaster of Paris. Upon addition of water, after a few tens of minutes plaster of Paris becomes regular gypsum again, causing the material to harden or set in ways that are useful for casting, Gypsum was known in Old English as spærstān, spear stone, referring to its crystalline projections. Gypsum may act as a source of sulfur for plant growth, which was discovered by J. M. Mayer, american farmers were so anxious to acquire it that a lively smuggling trade with Nova Scotia evolved, resulting in the so-called Plaster War of 1820. In the 19th century, it was known as lime sulfate or sulfate of lime. Gypsum is moderately water-soluble and, in contrast to most other salts, it exhibits retrograde solubility, when gypsum is heated in air it loses water and converts first to calcium sulfate hemihydrate, and, if heated further, to anhydrous calcium sulfate. As for anhydrite, its solubility in saline solutions and in brines is also dependent on NaCl concentration. Gypsum crystals are found to contain water and hydrogen bonding. Gypsum occurs in nature as flattened and often twinned crystals, and transparent, selenite contains no significant selenium, rather, both substances were named for the ancient Greek word for the Moon. Selenite may also occur in a silky, fibrous form, in case it is commonly called satin spar. Finally, it may also be granular or quite compact, in hand-sized samples, it can be anywhere from transparent to opaque. A very fine-grained white or lightly tinted variety of gypsum, called alabaster, is prized for ornamental work of various sorts, in arid areas, gypsum can occur in a flower-like form, typically opaque, with embedded sand grains called desert rose. It also forms some of the largest crystals found in nature, up to 12 m long, Gypsum is a common mineral, with thick and extensive evaporite beds in association with sedimentary rocks. Deposits are known to occur in strata from as far back as the Archaean eon, Gypsum is deposited from lake and sea water, as well as in hot springs, from volcanic vapors, and sulfate solutions in veins. Hydrothermal anhydrite in veins is commonly hydrated to gypsum by groundwater in near-surface exposures and it is often associated with the minerals halite and sulfur
15.
Feldspar
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Feldspars are a group of rock-forming tectosilicate minerals that make up about 40% of the Earths continental crust. Feldspars crystallize from magma as veins in both intrusive and extrusive rocks and are also present in many types of metamorphic rock. Rock formed almost entirely of plagioclase feldspar is known as anorthosite. Feldspars are also found in types of sedimentary rocks. The name feldspar derives from the German Feldspat, a compound of the words Feld, field, and Spat, the change from Spat to -spar was influenced by the English word spar, a synonym for mineral. Feldspathic refers to materials that contain feldspar, the alternate spelling, felspar, has largely fallen out of use. This group of minerals consists of tectosilicates, solid solutions between albite and anorthite are called plagioclase, or more properly plagioclase feldspar. Only limited solid solution occurs between K-feldspar and anorthite, and in the two solid solutions, immiscibility occurs at temperatures common in the crust of the earth. Albite is considered both a plagioclase and alkali feldspar, the alkali feldspars are as follows, orthoclase —KAlSi3O8 sanidine —AlSi3O8 microcline —KAlSi3O8 anorthoclase —AlSi3O8 Sanidine is stable at the highest temperatures, and microcline at the lowest. Perthite is a texture in alkali feldspar, due to exsolution of contrasting alkali feldspar compositions during cooling of an intermediate composition. The perthitic textures in the alkali feldspars of many granites can be seen with the naked eye, microperthitic textures in crystals are visible using a light microscope, whereas cryptoperthitic textures can be seen only with an electron microscope. Barium feldspars are also considered alkali feldspars, barium feldspars form as the result of the substitution of barium for potassium in the mineral structure. The barium feldspars are monoclinic and include the following, celsian—BaAl2Si2O8 hyalophane—4O8 The plagioclase feldspars are triclinic, the immiscibility gaps in the plagioclase solid solutions are complex compared to the gap in the alkali feldspars. The play of colours visible in some feldspar of labradorite composition is due to very fine-grained exsolution lamellae, chemical weathering of feldspars results in the formation of clay minerals. About 20 million tonnes of feldspar were produced in 2010, mostly by three countries, Italy, Turkey, and China, Feldspar is a common raw material used in glassmaking, ceramics, and to some extent as a filler and extender in paint, plastics, and rubber. In glassmaking, alumina from feldspar improves product hardness, durability, in ceramics, the alkalis in feldspar act as a flux, lowering the melting temperature of a mixture. Fluxes melt at a stage in the firing process, forming a glassy matrix that bonds the other components of the system together. In the US, about 66% of feldspar is consumed in glassmaking, including glass containers, ceramics and other uses, such as fillers, accounted for the remainder
16.
Calcium carbonate
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Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the formula CaCO3. It is a substance found in rocks as the minerals calcite and aragonite and is the main component of pearls and the shells of marine organisms, snails. Calcium carbonate is the ingredient in agricultural lime and is created when calcium ions in hard water react with carbonate ions to create limescale. It is medicinally used as a supplement or as an antacid. Calcium carbonate shares the properties of other carbonates. CaCO3 + CO2 + H2O → Ca2 This reaction is important in the erosion of rock, forming caverns. An unusual form of calcium carbonate is the hexahydrate, ikaite, ikaite is stable only below 6 °C. The vast majority of calcium used in industry is extracted by mining or quarrying. Pure calcium carbonate, can be produced from a quarried source. Alternatively, calcium carbonate is prepared from calcium oxide, other forms can be prepared, the denser, orthorhombic λ-CaCO3 and μ-CaCO3, occurring as the mineral vaterite. The aragonite form can be prepared by precipitation at temperatures above 85 °C, calcite contains calcium atoms coordinated by 6 oxygen atoms, in aragonite they are coordinated by 9 oxygen atoms. The vaterite structure is not fully understood, magnesium carbonate MgCO3 has the calcite structure, whereas strontium and barium carbonate adopt the aragonite structure, reflecting their larger ionic radii. Calcite, aragonite and vaterite are pure calcium carbonate minerals, industrially important source rocks which are predominantly calcium carbonate include limestone, chalk, marble and travertine. Eggshells, snail shells and most seashells are predominantly calcium carbonate, oyster shells have enjoyed recent recognition as a source of dietary calcium, but are also a practical industrial source. While not practical as a source, dark green vegetables such as broccoli. Beyond Earth, strong evidence suggests the presence of Calcium carbonate on Mars, signs of Calcium Carbonate have been detected at more than one location. This provides some evidence for the past presence of liquid water, Carbonate is found frequently in geologic settings and constitute an enormous carbon reservoir. Calcium carbonate occurs as aragonite, calcite and dolomite, the carbonate minerals form the rock types, limestone, chalk, marble, travertine, tufa, and others
17.
Marl
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Marl or marlstone is a calcium carbonate or lime-rich mud or mudstone which contains variable amounts of clays and silt. The dominant carbonate mineral in most marls is calcite, but other carbonate minerals such as aragonite, dolomite and it also describes a habit of coralline red alga. The term is often used to describe indurated marine deposits. Marlstone is a rock of about the same composition as marl. It has a blocky subconchoidal fracture, and is less fissile than shale, the term marl is widely used in English-language geology, while the terms Mergel and Seekreide are used in European references. The lower stratigraphic units of the cliffs of Dover consist of a sequence of glauconitic marls followed by rhythmically banded limestone. Upper Cretaceous cyclic sequences in Germany and marl–opal-rich Tortonian-Messinian strata in the Sorbas basin related to multiple sea drawdown have been correlated with Milankovitch orbital forcing, marl as lacustrine sediment is common in post glacial lake-bed sediments, often found underlying peat bogs. It has been used as a conditioner and acid soil neutralizing agent. Marl was extensively mined in Central New Jersey as a soil conditioner in the 1800s, in 1863, the most common marl was blue marl. Marl was in demand for farms. Agricultural lime Keuper marl Schurrenberger, D. Russell, J. classification of lacustrine sediments based on sedimentary components
18.
Monsoon
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Usually, the term monsoon is used to refer to the rainy phase of a seasonally changing pattern, although technically there is also a dry phase. The term is sometimes used for locally heavy but short-term rains. The major monsoon systems of the world consist of the West African and Asia-Australian monsoons, the inclusion of the North and South American monsoons with incomplete wind reversal has been debated. The south-west monsoon winds are called Nairutya Maarut in India, the English monsoon came from Portuguese monção, ultimately from Arabic mawsim and/or Hindi mausam, perhaps partly via early modern Dutch monsun. Strengthening of the Asian monsoon has been linked to the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau after the collision of the Indian sub-continent and Asia around 50 million years ago. Because of studies of records from the Arabian Sea and that of the wind-blown dust in the Loess Plateau of China, testing of this hypothesis awaits deep ocean sampling by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. The monsoon has varied significantly in strength since this time, largely linked to climate change. A study of marine plankton suggested that the Indian Monsoon strengthened around 5 million years ago, then, during ice periods, the sea level fell and the Indonesian Seaway closed. When this happened, cold waters in the Pacific were impeded from flowing into the Indian Ocean and it is believed that the resulting increase in sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean increased the intensity of monsoons. Five episodes during the Quaternary at 2.22 Ma,1.83 Ma,0.68 Ma,0.45 Ma and 0.04 Ma were identified which showed a weakening of Leeuwin Current. The weakening of the LC would have an effect on the sea surface temperature field in the Indian Ocean, thus these five intervals could probably be those of considerable lowering of SST in the Indian Ocean and would have influenced Indian monsoon intensity. The impact of monsoon on the weather is different from place to place. In some places there is just a likelihood of having a more or less rain. In other places, quasi semi-deserts are turned into green grasslands where all sorts of plants. The Indian Monsoon turns large parts of India from a kind of semi-desert into green lands, see photos only taken 3 months apart in the Western Ghats. In places like this it is crucial for farmers to have the right timing for putting the seeds on the fields, Monsoons are large-scale sea breezes which occur when the temperature on land is significantly warmer or cooler than the temperature of the ocean. These temperature imbalances happen because oceans and land absorb heat in different ways, in contrast, dirt, sand, and rocks have lower heat capacities, and they can only transmit heat into the earth by conduction and not by convection. Therefore, bodies of water stay at an even temperature
19.
Tuwaiq
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It is 600 m high and also has a Middle Jurassic stratigraphic section. The eastern side slopes gradually, while the western side ends in an abrupt manner. The escarpment can be thought of as a plateau, though the locals refer to it as a jebel. Many narrow valleys run along its sides, such as Wadi Hanifa, many settlements have historically existed on either side of it as well, such as those of Sudair and Al-Washm. The Arab-D unit of the Riyadh Group makes up one of the largest petroleum reservoirs in the world and this study was a first step towards building a quantitative 3-D geologic model for use as an analog to the lower Arab-D reservoir. Outcrop analogs like this one are critical to understanding reservoir performance on the flow-unit scale
20.
Fossil
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Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous rock formations and sedimentary layers is known as the fossil record. The study of fossils across geological time, how they were formed, such a preserved specimen is called a fossil if it is older than some minimum age, most often the arbitrary date of 10,000 years. The observation that fossils were associated with certain rock strata led early geologists to recognize a geological timescale in the 19th century. The development of dating techniques in the early 20th century allowed geologists to determine the numerical or absolute age of the various strata. Like extant organisms, fossils vary in size from microscopic, even single bacterial cells one micrometer in diameter, to gigantic, such as dinosaurs, Fossils may also consist of the marks left behind by the organism while it was alive, such as animal tracks or feces. These types of fossil are called trace fossils, as opposed to body fossils, finally, past life leaves some markers that cannot be seen but can be detected in the form of biochemical signals, these are known as chemofossils or biosignatures. The process of fossilization varies according to type and external conditions. Permineralization is a process of fossilization that occurs when an organism is buried, the empty spaces within an organism become filled with mineral-rich groundwater. Minerals precipitate from the groundwater, occupying the empty spaces and this process can occur in very small spaces, such as within the cell wall of a plant cell. Small scale permineralization can produce very detailed fossils, for permineralization to occur, the organism must become covered by sediment soon after death or soon after the initial decay process. The degree to which the remains are decayed when covered determines the later details of the fossil, some fossils consist only of skeletal remains or teeth, other fossils contain traces of skin, feathers or even soft tissues. This is a form of diagenesis, in some cases the original remains of the organism completely dissolve or are otherwise destroyed. The remaining organism-shaped hole in the rock is called an external mold, if this hole is later filled with other minerals, it is a cast. An endocast or internal mold is formed when sediments or minerals fill the cavity of an organism. This is a form of cast and mold formation. If the chemistry is right, the organism can act as a nucleus for the precipitation of minerals such as siderite, if this happens rapidly before significant decay to the organic tissue, very fine three-dimensional morphological detail can be preserved. Nodules from the Carboniferous Mazon Creek fossil beds of Illinois, USA, are among the best documented examples of such mineralization, replacement occurs when the shell, bone or other tissue is replaced with another mineral
21.
Hippopotamus
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The common hippopotamus, or hippo, is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae, the other being the pygmy hippopotamus. The name comes from the ancient Greek for river horse, after the elephant and rhinoceros, the common hippopotamus is the third-largest type of land mammal and the heaviest extant artiodactyl. The common ancestor of whales and hippos split from other even-toed ungulates around 60 million years ago, the earliest known hippopotamus fossils, belonging to the genus Kenyapotamus in Africa, date to around 16 million years ago. Despite its stocky shape and short legs, it is capable of running 30 km/h over short distances, the hippopotamus is a highly aggressive and unpredictable animal and is ranked among the most dangerous animals in Africa. Nevertheless, they are threatened by habitat loss and poaching for their meat. The common hippopotamus is semiaquatic, inhabiting rivers, lakes and mangrove swamps, during the day, they remain cool by staying in the water or mud, reproduction and childbirth both occur in water. They emerge at dusk to graze on grasses, while hippopotamuses rest near each other in the water, grazing is a solitary activity and hippos are not territorial on land. The Latin word hippopotamus is derived from the ancient Greek ἱπποπόταμος, hippopotamos, from ἵππος, hippos, horse, in English, the plural is hippopotamuses, but hippopotami is also used, hippos can be used as a short plural. Hippopotamuses are gregarious, living in groups of up to thirty animals, a group is called a pod, herd, dale, or bloat. The hippopotamus is the genus of the family Hippopotamidae. The pygmy hippopotamus belongs to a different genus in Hippopotamidae, either Choeropsis or Hexaprotodon, Hippopotamidae are sometimes known as hippopotamids. Sometimes, the subfamily Hippopotaminae is used, further, some taxonomists group hippopotamuses and anthracotheres in the superfamily Anthracotheroidea. Hippopotamidae are classified along with other even-toed ungulates in the order Artiodactyla, other artiodactyls include camels, cattle, deer and pigs, although hippopotamuses are not closely related to these groups. Genetic analyses have tested the existence of three of these putative subspecies, a study examining mitochondrial DNA from skin biopsies taken from 13 sampling locations, considered genetic diversity and structure among hippo populations across the continent. The authors found low, but significant, genetic differentiation among H. a. amphibius, H. a. capensis, neither H. a. tschadensis nor H. a. constrictus has been tested. Until 1909, naturalists grouped hippos with pigs, based on molar patterns, the common ancestor of hippos and whales branched off from Ruminantia and the rest of the even-toed ungulates, the cetacean and hippo lineages split soon afterwards. The most recent theory of the origins of Hippopotamidae suggests that hippos and this hypothesized ancestral group likely split into two branches around 54 million years ago. All branches of the anthracotheres, except that which evolved into Hippopotamidae, merycopotamus, Libycosaurus and all hippopotamids can be considered to form a clade, with Libycosaurus being more closely related to hippos
22.
Water buffalo
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The water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo is a large bovid originating in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and China. Today, it is found in Europe, Australia, South America. The wild water buffalo native to Southeast Asia is considered a different species, Water buffalo were traded from the Indus Valley Civilisation to Mesopotamia, in modern Iraq,2500 BC by the Meluhhas. The seal of a scribe employed by an Akkadian king shows the sacrifice of water buffalo, at least 130 million domestic water buffalo exist, and more people depend on them than on any other domestic animal. They are especially suitable for tilling rice fields, and their milk is richer in fat, the large feral population of northern Australia became established in the late 19th century, and smaller feral herds are in New Guinea, Tunisia, and northeastern Argentina. Feral herds are present in New Britain, New Ireland, Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, Brazil. The skin of buffalo is black, but some specimens may have dark. Swamp buffalo have a skin at birth, but become slate blue later. Albinoids are present in some populations, River buffalo have comparatively longer faces, smaller girths, and bigger limbs than swamp buffalo. Their dorsal ridges extend further back and taper off more gradually and their horns grow downward and backward, then curve upward in a spiral. Swamp buffalo are heavy-bodied and stockily built, the body is short, the forehead is flat, the eyes prominent, the face short, and the muzzle wide. The neck is long, and the withers and croup are prominent. A dorsal ridge extends backward and ends abruptly just before the end of the chest and their horns grow outward, and curve in a semicircle, but always remain more or less on the plane of the forehead. The tail is short, reaching only to the hocks, height at withers is 129–133 cm for males, and 120–127 cm for females. They range in weight from 300–550 kg, but weights of over 1,000 kg have also been observed, Tedong bonga is a black pied buffalo featuring a unique black and white colouration that is favoured by the Toraja of Sulawesi. The swamp buffalo has 48 chromosomes, the buffalo has 50 chromosomes. The two types do not readily interbreed, but fertile offspring can occur, buffalo-cattle hybrids have not been observed to occur, but the embryos of such hybrids reach maturity in laboratory experiments, albeit at lower rates than non-hybrids. The rumen of the buffalo has important differences from that of other ruminants
23.
Aurochs
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The aurochs, also urus, ure, is an extinct type of large wild cattle that inhabited Europe, Asia, and North Africa. It is the ancestor of domestic cattle, the species survived in Europe until the last recorded aurochs died in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland in 1627. Other species of wild bovines were also domesticated, namely the water buffalo, gaur. In modern cattle, numerous breeds share characteristics of the aurochs, such as a colour in the bulls with a light eel stripe along the back. The aurochs was variously classified as Bos primigenius, Bos taurus, or, in old sources, the words aurochs, urus, and wisent have all been used synonymously in English. However, the extinct aurochs/urus is a separate species from the still-extant wisent. The two were confused, and some 16th-century illustrations of aurochs and wisents have hybrid features. The word urus is a Latin word, but was borrowed into Latin from Germanic, in German, OHG ūr was compounded with ohso ox, giving ūrohso, which became early modern Aurochs. The word aurochs was borrowed from early modern German, replacing archaic urochs, the word is invariable in number in English, though sometimes back-formed singular auroch and innovated plural aurochses occur. The use in English of the plural form aurochsen is nonstandard and it is directly parallel to the German plural Ochsen and recreates by analogy the same distinction as English ox and oxen. During the Pliocene, the colder climate caused an extension of open grassland, Bos acutifrons is an extinct species of cattle that has been suggested as an ancestor for the aurochs. The oldest aurochs remains have been dated to about 2 million years ago, the Indian subspecies was the first to appear. During the Pleistocene, the species migrated west into the Middle East and they reached Europe about 270,000 years ago. The South Asian domestic cattle, or zebu, descended from Indian aurochs at the edge of the Thar Desert, domestic yak, gayal, and banteng do not descend from aurochs. The first complete mitochondrial genome DNA sequence analysis of Bos primigenius from an archaeologically verified, three wild subspecies of aurochs are recognized. Only the Eurasian subspecies survived until recent times, the Eurasian aurochs once ranged across the steppes and taigas of Europe, Siberia and Central Asia, and East Asia. It is noted as part of the Pleistocene megafauna, and declined in numbers along with other species by the end of Pleistocene. The Eurasian aurochs were domesticated into modern taurine cattle breeds around the sixth millennium BC in the Middle East, Aurochs were still widespread in Europe during the time of the Roman Empire, when they were widely popular as a battle beast in Roman arenas
24.
Ostracod
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Ostracods, or ostracodes, are a class of the Crustacea, sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 70,000 species have been identified, grouped into several orders and they are small crustaceans, typically around 1 mm in size, but varying from 0.2 to 30 mm in the case of Gigantocypris. Their bodies are flattened from side to side and protected by a bivalve-like, the hinge of the two valves is in the upper region of the body. Ostracods are grouped based on gross morphology, but the group may not be monophyletic. Ecologically, marine ostracods can be part of the zooplankton or are part of the benthos, many ostracods, especially the Podocopida, are also found in fresh water, and terrestrial species of Mesocypris are known from humid forest soils of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. They have a range of diets, and the group includes carnivores, herbivores, scavengers. As of 2008, around 2000 species and 200 genera of nonmarine ostracods are found, however, a large portion of diversity is still undescribed, indicated by undocumented diversity hotspots of temporary habitats in Africa and Australia. Of the known specific and generic diversity of nonmarine ostracods, half belongs to one family, many Cyprididae occur in temporary water bodies and have drought-resistant eggs, mixed/parthenogenetic reproduction, and the ability to swim. These biological attributes preadapt them to form successful radiations in these habitats, ostracod comes from the Greek óstrakon meaning shell or tile. The word ostracize comes from the root due to the practice of voting with shells or potsherds. Ostracods are by far the most common arthropods in the record with fossils being found from the early Ordovician to the present. An outline microfaunal zonal scheme based on both Foraminifera and Ostracoda was compiled by M. B, freshwater ostracods have even been found in Baltic amber of Eocene age, having presumably been washed onto trees during floods. This set the Guinness World Record for the oldest penis, males had observable sperm that is the oldest yet seen and, when analysed, showed internal structures and has been assessed as being the largest sperm of any animal recorded. It was assessed that the fossilisation was achieved within several days, the body of an ostracod is encased by two valves, superficially resembling the shell of a clam. A distinction is made between the valve and the body with its appendages, the body consists of a head and thorax, separated by a slight constriction. Unlike many other crustaceans, the body is not clearly divided into segments, the abdomen is regressed or absent, whereas the adult gonads are relatively large. The head is the largest part of the body, and bears most of the appendages, two pairs of well-developed antennae are used to swim through the water. In addition, there is a pair of mandibles and two pairs of maxillae, the thorax typically has two pairs of appendages, but these are reduced to a single pair, or entirely absent, in many species
25.
Freshwater bivalve
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Freshwater bivalves are one kind of freshwater molluscs, along with freshwater snails. They are bivalves which live in freshwater, as opposed to saltwater, the majority of species of bivalve molluscs live in the sea, but in addition, a number of different families live in freshwater. These families belong to two different evolutionary lineages, and the two groups are not closely related, freshwater bivalves live in many types of habitat, ranging from small ditches and ponds, to lakes, canals, rivers, and swamps. Species in the two groups vary greatly in size, some of the pea clams have an adult size of only 3 mm. In contrast, one of the largest species of bivalves is the swan mussel, in the family Unionidae, it can grow to a length of 20 cm. Freshwater pearl mussels are economically important as a source of freshwater pearls, Order Unionoida The Unionoida, of worldwide distribution, are the pearly freshwater mussels. All reproduce by means of a stage that is parasitic on a fish or salamander. Many species are utilized as sources of mother-of-pearl, however, several families occur in fresh and brackish waters. Families, Corbiculidae Sphaeriidae Dreissenidae Order Veneroida ANSP site Info on Unionoida genera at Info on Rhode Island freshwater clams and mussels
26.
Phytolith
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Phytoliths are rigid, microscopic structures made of silica, found in some plant tissues and persisting after the decay of the plant. These plants take up silica from the soil, whereupon it is deposited within different intracellular and extracellular structures of the plant, Phytoliths come in varying shapes and sizes. Although some use phytolith to refer to all mineral secretions by plants, in contrast, mineralized calcium secretions in cacti are composed of calcium oxalates. There is still debate in the community as to why plants form phytoliths. Studies that have plants in silica-free environments have typically found that plants lacking silica in the environment do not grow well. For example, the stems of plants will collapse when grown in soil lacking silica. In many cases, phytoliths appear to lend structure and support to the plant, much like the spicules in sponges, Phytoliths may also provide plants with protection. These rigid silica structures help to make more difficult to consume and digest. Phytoliths also appear to provide physiologic benefits, experimental studies have shown that the silicon dioxide in phytoliths may help to alleviate the damaging effects of toxic heavy metals, such as aluminum. Finally, calcium oxalates serve as a reserve of carbon dioxide, cacti use these as a reserve for photosynthesis during the day when they close their pores to avoid water loss, baobabs use this property to make their trunks more flame-resistant. According to Dolores Piperno, an expert in the field of phytolith analysis, discovery and exploratory stage, The first report on phytoliths was published by a German botanist named Struve in 1835. During this time another German scientist named Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg was one of the leaders in the field of phytolith analysis and he developed the first classification system for phytoliths, and analyzed soil samples that were sent to him from all around the world. Botanical phase of research, Phytolith structures in plants gained wide recognition and attention throughout Europe, Research on production, taxonomy and morphology exploded. Detailed notes and drawings on plant families that produce silica structures, period of ecological research, First applications of phytolith analysis to paleoecological work, mostly in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia. Classification systems for differentiation within plant families became popular, also for the first time, phytolith data from pottery are used to track history of clay procurement and pottery manufacture. Around the same time, phytolith data are used as a means of vegetation reconstruction among paleoecologists. A much larger collection on phytolith morphology within varying plant families is assembled. First, soluble silica, also called acid, is taken up from the soil when plant roots absorb groundwater
27.
Flint
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Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks, inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white or brown in colour, and often has a glassy or waxy appearance. A thin layer on the outside of the nodules is usually different in colour, typically white, from a petrological point of view, flint refers specifically to the form of chert which occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Similarly, common chert occurs in limestone, the exact mode of formation of flint is not yet clear but it is thought that it occurs as a result of chemical changes in compressed sedimentary rock formations, during the process of diagenesis. One hypothesis is that a gelatinous material fills cavities in the sediment, such as bored by crustaceans or molluscs. This hypothesis certainly explains the shapes of flint nodules that are found. The source of dissolved silica in the media could be the spicules of silicious sponges. Certain types of flint, such as that from the south coast of England, pieces of coral and vegetation have been found preserved like amber inside the flint. Thin slices of the stone often reveal this effect, puzzling giant flint formations known as paramoudra and flint circles are found around Europe but especially in Norfolk, England on the beaches at Beeston Bump and West Runton. Flint sometimes occurs in large flint fields in Jurassic or Cretaceous beds, flint was used in the manufacture of tools during the Stone Age as it splits into thin, sharp splinters called flakes or blades when struck by another hard object. This process is referred to as knapping, flint mining is attested since the Palaeolithic, but became more common since the Neolithic. When struck against steel, a flint edge will produce sparks, the hard flint edge shaves off a particle of the steel that exposes iron which reacts with oxygen from the atmosphere and can ignite the proper tinder. Prior to the availability of steel, rocks of pyrite would be used along with the flint. These methods are popular in woodcraft, bushcraft, and among those who wish to use traditional skills, a later, major use of flint and steel was in the flintlock mechanism, used primarily in flintlock firearms, but also used on dedicated fire-starting tools. The sparks ignite the powder and that flame, in turn, ignites the main charge, propelling the ball, bullet. While the military use of the flintlock declined after the adoption of the cap from the 1840s onward, flintlock rifles. Flint and steel used to strike sparks were superseded by ferrocerium and this man-made material, when scraped with any hard, sharp edge, produces sparks that are much hotter than obtained with natural flint and steel, allowing use of a wider range of tinders. Because it can produce sparks when wet and can start fires when used correctly, ferrocerium is used in many cigarette lighters, where it is referred to as flint
28.
Hyper-arid
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A region is arid when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Environments subject to arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic, most arid climates surround the equator, these places include most of Africa and parts of South America, Central America and Australia. The distribution of aridity observed at any one point in time is largely the result of the circulation of the atmosphere. The latter does change significantly over time through climate change, for example, temperature increase across the Nile Basin over the next 30–40 years could change the region from semi-arid to arid, resulting in a significant reduction in agricultural land. In addition, changes in use can result in greater demands on soil water. Durrenberger, R. W. Arid Climates, article in The Encyclopedia of Climatology, p. 92-101, Edited by J. E. Oliver and R. W. Fairbridge, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, ISBN 0-87933-009-0. J Aridity Indexes, article in The Encyclopedia of Climatology, p. 102-107, Edited by J. E. Oliver and R. W. Fairbridge, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, blue Peace for the Nile Report,2009, Strategic Foresight Group
29.
Arachnid
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Arachnids are a class of joint-legged invertebrate animals, in the subphylum Chelicerata. The term is derived from the Greek word ἀράχνη, meaning spider, spiders are the largest order in the class. Almost all extant arachnids are terrestrial, living mainly on land, however, some inhabit freshwater environments and, with the exception of the pelagic zone, marine environments as well. They comprise over 100,000 named species, including spiders, scorpions, harvestmen, ticks, mites, almost all adult arachnids have eight legs, and arachnids may be easily distinguished from insects by this fact, since insects have six legs. However, arachnids also have two pairs of appendages that have become adapted for feeding, defense, and sensory perception. The first pair, the chelicerae, serve in feeding and defense, the next pair of appendages, the pedipalps, have been adapted for feeding, locomotion, and/or reproductive functions. In Solifugae, the palps are quite leg-like, so that animals appear to have ten legs. The larvae of mites and Ricinulei have only six legs, a fourth pair usually appears when they moult into nymphs, however, mites are variable, as well as eight, there are adult mites with six or even four legs. Arachnids are further distinguished from insects by the fact they do not have antennae or wings and their body is organized into two tagmata, called the prosoma, or cephalothorax, and the opisthosoma, or abdomen. The cephalothorax is derived from the fusion of the cephalon and the thorax, the abdomen is segmented in the more primitive forms, but varying degrees of fusion between the segments occur in many groups. It is typically divided into a preabdomen and postabdomen, although this is clearly visible in scorpions, and in some orders, such as the Acari. A telson is present in scorpions, where it has modified to a stinger. Like all arthropods, arachnids have an exoskeleton, and they also have a structure of cartilage-like tissue, called the endosternite. The endosternite is even calcified in some Opiliones, most arachnids lack extensor muscles in the distal joints of their appendages. Spiders and whipscorpions extend their limbs hydraulically using the pressure of their hemolymph, solifuges and some harvestmen extend their knees by the use of highly elastic thickenings in the joint cuticle. Scorpions, pseudoscorpions and some harvestmen have evolved muscles that extend two leg joints at once, the equivalent joints of the pedipalps of scorpions though, are extended by elastic recoil. This type of system has almost certainly evolved from the book lungs. The excretory glands of arachnids include up to four pairs of coxal glands along the side of the prosoma, many arachnids have only one or the other type of excretory gland, although several do have both
30.
Scorpion
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Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. Scorpions range in size from 9 mm /0.3 in. to 23 cm /9 in, the evolutionary history of scorpions goes back to the Silurian era 430 million years ago. They have adapted to a range of environmental conditions and can now be found on all continents except Antarctica. Scorpions number about 1750 described species, with 13 extant families recognised to date, only about 25 of these species are known to have venom capable of killing a human being. The taxonomy has undergone changes and is likely to change further, Scorpion stings are painful but are usually harmless to humans. For stings from species found in North America, no treatment is normally needed for healthy adults, although care should be sought for children. More harmful stings from species found in South America, Africa, Scorpions are found on all major land masses except Antarctica. The greatest diversity of scorpions in the Northern Hemisphere is to be found in the areas lying between latitudes 23° N and 38° N. Above these latitudes, the diversity decreases, with the northernmost natural occurrence of scorpions being the northern scorpion Paruroctonus boreus at Medicine Hat, Alberta, five colonies of scorpions have established themselves in Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey in the United Kingdom. This small population has been resident since the 1860s, having arrived with imported fruit from Africa. This scorpion species is small and completely harmless to humans, at just over 51° N, this marks the northernmost limit where scorpions live in the wild. There are thirteen families and about 1,750 described species and subspecies of scorpions, in addition, there are 111 described taxa of extinct scorpions. This classification is based on that of Soleglad & Fet, which replaced the older, additional taxonomic changes are from papers by Soleglad et al. The following classification covers extant taxa to the rank of family, L. Koch,1837 Family Buthidae C. L. The oldest known scorpions lived around 430 million years ago in the Silurian period and these first scorpions were believed to have had gills instead of the present forms book lungs though this has subsequently been refuted. The oldest Gondwanan scorpiones comprise the earliest known terrestrial animals from Gondwana, currently,111 fossil species of scorpion are known. Unusually for arachnids, there are species of Palaeozoic scorpion than Mesozoic or Cenozoic ones. The eurypterids, marine creatures that lived during the Palaeozoic era, share several traits with scorpions
31.
Rodent
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Rodents are mammals of the order Rodentia, which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all species are rodents, they are found in vast numbers on all continents except Antarctica. They are the most diversified mammalian order and live in a variety of terrestrial habitats, Species can be arboreal, fossorial, or semiaquatic. Well-known rodents include mice, rats, squirrels, prairie dogs, porcupines, beavers, guinea pigs, hamsters, and capybaras. Other animals such as rabbits, hares, and pikas, whose incisors also grow continually, were included with them, but are now considered to be in a separate order. Nonetheless, Rodentia and Lagomorpha are sister groups, sharing a most recent common ancestor, most rodents are small animals with robust bodies, short limbs, and long tails. They use their incisors to gnaw food, excavate burrows. Most eat seeds or other plant material, but some have more varied diets and they tend to be social animals and many species live in societies with complex ways of communicating with each other. Mating among rodents can vary from monogamy, to polygyny, to promiscuity, many have litters of underdeveloped, altricial young, while others are precocial at birth. The rodent fossil record back to the Paleocene on the supercontinent of Laurasia. Rodents greatly diversified in the Eocene, as spread across continents. Rodents reached both South America and Madagascar from Africa, and were the only placental mammals to reach. Rodents have been used as food, for clothing, as pets, some species, in particular the brown rat, the black rat, and the house mouse, are serious pests, eating and spoiling food stored by humans, and spreading diseases. The distinguishing feature of the rodents is their pairs of continuously growing and these incisors have thick layers of enamel on the front and little enamel on the back. Because they do not stop growing, the animal must continue to wear them down so that they do not reach and pierce the skull. As the incisors grind against each other, the softer dentine on the rear of the teeth wears away, most species have up to 22 teeth with no canines or anterior premolars. A gap, or diastema, occurs between the incisors and the teeth in most species. This allows rodents to suck in their cheeks or lips to shield their mouth and throat from wood shavings and other inedible material, chinchillas and guinea pigs have a high-fiber diet, their molars have no roots and grow continuously like their incisors
32.
Ecoregion
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An ecoregion is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than an ecozone. All three of these are less or greater than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, the biodiversity of flora, fauna and ecosystems that characterise an ecoregion tends to be distinct from that of other ecoregions. Three caveats are appropriate for all bio-geographic mapping approaches, firstly, no single bio-geographic framework is optimal for all taxa. Ecoregions reflect the best compromise for as many taxa as possible, secondly, ecoregion boundaries rarely form abrupt edges, rather, ecotones and mosaic habitats bound them. Thirdly, most ecoregions contain habitats that differ from their assigned biome, biogeographic provinces may originate due to various barriers. Some physical, some climatic and some ocean chemical related, the history of the term is somewhat vague as it was used in many contexts, forest classifications, biome classifications, biogeographic classifications, etc. The concept of ecoregion of Bailey gives more importance to ecological criteria, while the WWF concept gives more importance to biogeography, there is significant, but not absolute, spatial correlation among these characteristics, making the delineation of ecoregions an imperfect science. Such transition zones are called ecotones, Ecoregions can be categorized using an algorithmic approach or a holistic, “weight-of-evidence” approach where the importance of various factors may vary. An example of the approach is Robert Bailey’s work for the U. S. The intended purpose of ecoregion delineation may affect the method used, according to WWF, the boundaries of an ecoregion approximate the original extent of the natural communities prior to any major recent disruptions or changes. WWF has identified 867 terrestrial ecoregions, and approximately 450 freshwater ecoregions across the Earth, the use of the term ecoregion is an outgrowth of a surge of interest in ecosystems and their functioning. In particular, there is awareness of issues relating to spatial scale in the study and it is widely recognized that interlinked ecosystems combine to form a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by WWF as priorities for conservation, Terrestrial ecoregions are land ecoregions, as distinct from freshwater and marine ecoregions. In this context, terrestrial is used to mean of land, WWF ecologists currently divide the land surface of the Earth into 8 major ecozones containing 867 smaller terrestrial ecoregions. The WWF effort is a synthesis of previous efforts to define. Many consider this classification to be decisive, and some propose these as stable borders for bioregional democracy initiatives. The eight terrestrial ecozones follow the major floral and faunal boundaries, identified by botanists and zoologists, ecozone boundaries generally follow continental boundaries, or major barriers to plant and animal distribution, like the Himalayas and the Sahara
33.
Asiatic cheetah
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The Asiatic cheetah, also known as Iranian cheetah is a Critically Endangered cheetah subspecies surviving today only in Iran. It once occurred from the Arabian Peninsula to the Kyzylkum Desert, Caspian region, Pakistan and India, the Asiatic cheetah survives in protected areas in the eastern-central arid region of Iran, where the human population density is very low. Between December 2011 and November 2013,84 individuals were sighted in 14 different protected areas, in order to raise international awareness for the conservation of the Asiatic cheetah, an illustration was used on the jerseys of the Iran national football team at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The Asiatic cheetah was proposed as a subspecies by Griffith in 1821 and it separated from African cheetah subspecies between 32,000 and 67,000 years ago. During the British colonial times in India it was called hunting leopard, the cheetah population in Central Asia was known as Trans-Caspian cheetah and was proposed as a subspecies in 1913. Cheetahs were extirpated in Central Asian range countries by the mid 1980s, the Asiatic cheetah has a buff- to light fawn-coloured fur that is paler on the sides, on the front of the muzzle, below the eyes and inner legs. Small black spots are arranged in lines on the head and nape, the tail tip has black stripes. The coat and mane are shorter than of African cheetah subspecies, the head and body of an adult Asiatic cheetah measure about 112–135 cm with a 66–84 cm long tail. Males are slightly larger than the females, the cheetah is the fastest land animal in the world. It was previously thought that the temperature of a cheetah increases during a hunt due to high metabolic activity. In a short period of time during a chase, a cheetah may produce 60 times more heat than at rest, with much of the heat, produced from glycolysis, a 2013 study suggested stress hyperthermia and a slight increase in body temperature after a hunt. The cheetahs nervousness after a hunt may induce stress hyperthermia, which involves high sympathetic nervous activity, after a hunt, the risk of another predator taking its kill is great, and the cheetah is on high alert and stressed. The increased sympathetic activity prepares the body to run when another predator approaches. In the 2013 study, even the cheetah that did not chase the prey experienced an increase in body temperature once the prey was caught, the cheetah thrives in open lands, small plains, semi-desert areas, and other open habitats where prey is available. The Asiatic cheetah mainly inhabits the areas around Dasht-e Kavir in the eastern half of Iran, including parts of the Kerman, Khorasan, Semnan, Yazd, Tehran. Most live in five protected areas, viz Kavir National Park, Touran National Park, Bafq Protected Area, Dar-e Anjir Wildlife Refuge, during the 1970s, the Asiatic cheetah population in Iran was estimated to number about 200 individuals in 11 protected areas. By the end of the 1990s, the population was estimated at 50 to 100 individuals, during camera-trapping surveys conducted across 18 protected areas between 2001 and 2012, a total of 82 individuals in 15–17 families were recorded and identified. Of these, only six individuals were recorded for more than three years, in this period,42 cheetahs died due to poaching, in road accidents and due to natural causes
34.
Petroleum
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Petroleum is a naturally occurring, yellow-to-black liquid found in geological formations beneath the Earths surface, which is commonly refined into various types of fuels. Components of petroleum are separated using a technique called fractional distillation and it consists of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other organic compounds. The name petroleum covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude oil and petroleum products that are made up of refined crude oil. A fossil fuel, petroleum is formed when large quantities of dead organisms, usually zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock, Petroleum has mostly been recovered by oil drilling. Drilling is carried out studies of structural geology, sedimentary basin analysis. Petroleum is used in manufacturing a variety of materials. Concern over the depletion of the earths finite reserves of oil, the burning of fossil fuels plays the major role in the current episode of global warming. The word petroleum comes from Greek, πέτρα for rocks and Greek, the term was found in 10th-century Old English sources. It was used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in 1546 by the German mineralogist Georg Bauer, Petroleum, in one form or another, has been used since ancient times, and is now important across society, including in economy, politics and technology. Great quantities of it were found on the banks of the river Issus, ancient Persian tablets indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their society. By 347 AD, oil was produced from bamboo-drilled wells in China, early British explorers to Myanmar documented a flourishing oil extraction industry based in Yenangyaung that, in 1795, had hundreds of hand-dug wells under production. The mythological origins of the oil fields at Yenangyaung, and its hereditary monopoly control by 24 families, Pechelbronn is said to be the first European site where petroleum has been explored and used. The still active Erdpechquelle, a spring where petroleum appears mixed with water has been used since 1498, Oil sands have been mined since the 18th century. In Wietze in lower Saxony, natural asphalt/bitumen has been explored since the 18th century, both in Pechelbronn as in Wietze, the coal industry dominated the petroleum technologies. In 1848 Young set up a small business refining the crude oil, Young eventually succeeded, by distilling cannel coal at a low heat, in creating a fluid resembling petroleum, which when treated in the same way as the seep oil gave similar products. The production of oils and solid paraffin wax from coal formed the subject of his patent dated 17 October 1850. In 1850 Young & Meldrum and Edward William Binney entered into partnership under the title of E. W. Binney & Co. at Bathgate in West Lothian, the worlds first oil refinery was built in 1856 by Ignacy Łukasiewicz. The demand for petroleum as a fuel for lighting in North America, edwin Drakes 1859 well near Titusville, Pennsylvania, is popularly considered the first modern well
35.
Oil reserves
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Oil reserves denote the amount of oil that can be technically recovered at a cost that is financially feasible at the present price of oil. Hence reserves will change with the price, unlike oil resources, reserves may be for a well, for a reservoir, for a field, for a nation, or for the world. Different classifications of reserves are related to their degree of certainty, the total estimated amount of oil in an oil reservoir, including both producible and non-producible oil, is called oil in place. The ratio of reserves to the amount of oil in a particular reservoir is called the recovery factor. Determining a recovery factor for a given field depends on features of the operation, including method of oil recovery used. Based on data from OPEC at the beginning of 2013 the highest proved oil reserves including non-conventional oil deposits are in Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Iran. Because the geology of the subsurface cannot be examined directly, indirect techniques must be used to estimate the size, while new technologies have increased the accuracy of these techniques, significant uncertainties still remain. In general, most early estimates of the reserves of an oil field are conservative and this phenomenon is called reserves growth. Many oil-producing nations do not reveal their reservoir engineering field data, the numbers disclosed by some national governments are suspected of being manipulated for political reasons. All reserve estimates involve uncertainty, depending on the amount of geologic and engineering data available. The relative degree of uncertainty can be expressed by dividing reserves into two principal classifications—proven and unproven, unproven reserves can further be divided into two subcategories—probable and possible—to indicate the relative degree of uncertainty about their existence. The most commonly accepted definitions of these are based on those approved by the Society of Petroleum Engineers, proven reserves are those reserves claimed to have a reasonable certainty of being recoverable under existing economic and political conditions, with existing technology. Industry specialists refer to this as P90, proven reserves are also known in the industry as 1P. Proven reserves are further subdivided into proven developed and proven undeveloped, PD reserves are reserves that can be produced with existing wells and perforations, or from additional reservoirs where minimal additional investment is required. PUD reserves require additional capital investment to bring the oil to the surface, until December 2009 1P proven reserves were the only type the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission allowed oil companies to report to investors. Companies listed on U. S. stock exchanges must substantiate their claims, unproven reserves may be used internally by oil companies and government agencies for future planning purposes but are not routinely compiled. They are sub-classified as probable and possible, probable reserves are attributed to known accumulations and claim a 50% confidence level of recovery. Industry specialists refer to them as P50, the sum of proven plus probable reserves is also referred to in the industry as 2P
36.
Desertification
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Desertification is a type of land degradation in which relatively dry area of land becomes increasingly arid, typically losing its bodies of water as well as vegetation and wildlife. It is caused by a variety of factors, such as climate change. Desertification is a significant global ecological and environmental problem, considerable controversy exists over the proper definition of the term desertification for which Helmut Geist has identified more than 100 formal definitions. Another major contribution to the controversy comes from the sub-grouping of types of desertification, the worlds most noted deserts have been formed by natural processes interacting over long intervals of time. During most of times, deserts have grown and shrunk independent of human activities. Paleodeserts are large sand seas now inactive because they are stabilized by vegetation, some extending beyond the present margins of deserts, such as the Sahara. Drylands occupy approximately 40–41% of Earth’s land area and are home to more than 2 billion people. As of 1998, the then-current degree of expansion of the Sahara was not well known, due to a lack of recent. Causes of desertification in Sahel, The impact of global warming, in this area, the level of desertification is very high compared to other areas in the world. All areas situated in the part of Africa are characterized by a dry climate, hot temperatures. So, droughts are the rule in the Sahel region, development of the desertification process in Sahel, Some studies have shown that Africa has lost approximately 650000 km² of its productive agricultural land over the past 50 years. The propagation of desertification in this area is considerable, Some statistics have shown that since 1900, the Sahara has expanded by 250 km, covering an additional area of 6000 square kilometers. Impacts of desertification in Sahel, The survey, done by the institute for development, had demonstrated that this dryness is spreading fast in the Sahelian countries. Desertification in the Sahel can affect more than one billion of its inhabitants, 70% of the arid area has deteriorated and water resources have disappeared, leading to soil degradation. The loss of topsoil means that plants take root firmly. The United Nations Convention says that six million Sahelian citizens would have to give up the desertified zones of sub-Saharan Africa for North Africa. As the desertification takes place, the landscape may progress through different stages, on gradually sloped terrain, desertification can create increasingly larger empty spaces over a large strip of land, a phenomenon known as Brousse tigrée. A mathematical model of this phenomenon proposed by C, klausmeier attributes this patterning to dynamics in plant-water interaction
37.
Camel train
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A camel train or caravan is a series of camels carrying passengers and/or goods on a regular or semi-regular service between points. Camel trains were used sparingly elsewhere around the globe but during the 20th century they have been largely replaced by motorized vehicles or air traffic. By far the greatest use of camel trains occurs between North and West Africa by the Tuareg, Shuwa and Hassaniyya, as well as by culturally-affiliated groups like the Toubou, Hausa and these camel trains conduct trade in and around the Sahara Desert and Sahel. Trains travel as far south as central Nigeria and northern Cameroon in the west, in antiquity, the Arabian Peninsula was an important route for the trade with India and Abyssinia. Camel trains have long been used in portions of trans-Asian trade. As late as the twentieth century, camel caravans played an important role connecting the Beijing/Shanxi region of eastern China with Mongolian centers. The routes went across Inner and/or Outer Mongolia, United States The history of camel trains in the United States consists mainly of an experiment by the United States Army. On April 29,1856, thirty-three camels and five drivers arrived at Indianola, while camels were suited to the job of transport in the American Southwest, the experiment failed. Their stubbornness and aggressiveness made them unpopular among soldiers, and they frightened horses, many of the camels were sold to private owners, others escaped into the desert. These feral camels continued to be sighted through the early 20th century, British Columbia, Canada Camels were used from 1862 to 1863 in British Columbia, Canada during the Cariboo Gold Rush. Less important caravan routes served various other areas of northern China, such as most centers in todays Gansu, Ningxia, some of the oldest Hohhot-based caravan firms had a history dating to the early Qing Dynasty. Each of the rank-and-file caravan men, known as the camel-pullers, was in charge of one such file. Two files formed a ba, and the camel-pullers of the two files would help each other when loading cargo on the camels at the beginning of days march or unloading it when halted. To do their job properly camel-pullers had to be experts on camels, as Lattimore comments, because there is no good doctoring known for him when he is sick, they must learn how to keep him well. Put no more on this beast. » A caravan could consist of 150 or so camels, the caravan could carry a number of paying passengers as well, who would alternate between riding on top of a camel load and walking. Camel-pullers salary was low, although they were also fed and provided with tent space at the caravan owners expense. The caravan peoples food was mostly based around oat and millet flour, a sheep would be bought from the Mongols and slaughtered every now and then, and tea was the usual daily drink, as fresh vegetables were scarce, scurvy was a danger. Besides the paid cargo and the food and gear for the men and it was estimated that, when leaving its point of origin, for every 100 loads of merchandise the caravan would carry around 30 loads of fodder
38.
Frankincense
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The English word is derived from Old French franc encens. There are four species of Boswellia that produce true frankincense. Resin from each of the four is available in various grades, the grades depend on the time of harvesting, the resin is hand-sorted for quality. Frankincense is tapped from the scraggy but hardy trees by slashing the bark, which is called striping and these hardened resins are called tears. There are several species and varieties of trees, each producing a slightly different type of resin. Differences in soil and climate create even more diversity of the resin, Boswellia sacra trees are considered unusual for their ability to grow in environments so unforgiving that they sometimes grow out of solid rock. The initial means of attachment to the rock is unknown, but is accomplished by a bulbous swelling of the trunk. This growth prevents it from being ripped from the rock during violent storms and this feature is slight or absent in trees grown in rocky soil or gravel. The trees start producing resin when they are eight to 10 years old. Tapping is done two to three times a year with the final taps producing the best tears due to their higher aromatic terpene, sesquiterpene and diterpene content, generally speaking, the more opaque resins are the best quality. Fine resin is produced in Somalia, from which the Roman Catholic Church purchases most of its stock, recent studies have indicated that frankincense tree populations are declining, partly due to over-exploitation. Heavily tapped trees produce seeds that germinate at only 16% while seeds of trees that had not been tapped germinate at more than 80%, in addition, burning, grazing, and attacks by the longhorn beetle have reduced the tree population. Conversion of frankincense woodlands to agriculture is also a major threat, Frankincense has been traded on the Arabian Peninsula, in North Africa, and Somalia for more than 5000 years. A mural depicting sacks of frankincense traded from the Land of Punt adorns the walls of the temple of ancient Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut, who died circa 1458 BC. Frankincense was one of the consecrated incenses described in the Hebrew Bible and Talmud used in Ketoret ceremonies and it was offered on a specialized incense altar in the time when the Tabernacle was located in the First and Second Temples. It is mentioned in the Book of Exodus 30,34 and it was one of the ingredients in the perfume of the sanctuary, and was used as an accompaniment of the meal-offering. It was also mentioned as a commodity in trade from Sheba, when burnt it emitted a fragrant odor, and the incense was a symbol of the Divine name and an emblem of prayer. It was often associated with myrrh, a specially pure kind, lebhonah zakkah, was presented with the showbread
39.
Iram of the Pillars
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Iram of the Pillars, also called Aram, Irum, Irem, Erum, or the City of the tent poles, is a reference to a lost city, country or area mentioned in the Qur’an. 10, And Pharaoh, owner of the stakes, –11, whom oppressed within the lands 12, And increased therein the corruption. 13, So your Lord poured upon them a scourge of punishment,14, Indeed, your Lord is in observation. There are several explanations for the reference to Iram – who had lofty pillars, some see this as a geographic location, either a city or an area, others as the name of a tribe. Those identifying it as a city have various suggestions as to where or what city it was. As an area it has identified with the biblical Aram, son of Shem. It has also identified as a tribe, possibly the tribe of ʿĀd. According to some Islamic beliefs, King Shaddad defied the warnings of the prophet Hud and God smote the city, driving it into the sands, the ruins of the city lie buried somewhere in the sands of al-Rub al-Khali. Iram became known to Western literature with the translation of The Book of One Thousand, Iram is used in quatrain 5 of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam to describe the brevity of human endeavors. Iram is the lost city where the Muslim hero Thalaba was kept safe in Robert Southeys Thalaba the Destroyer H. P. Lovecraft places it somewhere near The Nameless City in his stories, in The Call of Cthulhu it is the supposed base of the Cthulhu Cult. Wabar appears in Josephine Teys mystery novel The Singing Sands, in which detective Alan Grant seeks to unravel the meaning of a poem found on the body of a young man. Wabar is one subject of the poem. Iram is the theme of Daniel Eastermans novel The Seventh Sanctuary, in Tim Powers supernatural novel Declare, Wabar was a city inhabited by djinni and their half-human progeny, and was destroyed by a meteor strike. James Rollins novel Sandstorm depicts Ubar as a city in a glass bubble with a lake of antimatter at the middle. The city, which was created as the result of a meteorite impact 20,000 years ago, is destroyed and its characteristic pillars are present in great quantity, and it maintains the warmth of its original environment even far from the sun. In the video game Fallout 4, Ubar is mentioned in the journal of Lorenzo Cabot and he describes his journey to what he believes to be Ubar. In the video game 80 Days, the player playing as Phileas Fogg could potentially encounter a Bedouin Expedition in the Rub Al Khali desert, looking for the fabled lost city of Iram. In the New World of Darkness limited game line, Mummy, the Curse, published by White Wolf Game Studios-Onyx Path, Irem is the Stone Age city where the games protagonists, the Arisen, were created
40.
Lost city
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The locations of many lost cities have been forgotten, but some have been rediscovered and studied extensively by scientists. Recently abandoned cities or cities whose location was never in question might be referred to as ruins or ghost towns. The search for such lost cities by European explorers and adventurers in Africa, the Americas, cities may become lost for a variety of reasons including natural disasters, economic or social upheaval, or war. The Incan capital city of Vilcabamba was destroyed and depopulated during the Spanish conquest of Peru in 1572, the Spanish did not rebuild the city, and the location went unrecorded and was forgotten until it was rediscovered through a detailed examination of period letters and documents. Troy was a city located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey and it is best known for being the focus of the Trojan War described in the Greek Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer. Repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt, the city declined and was abandoned in the Byzantine era. Buried by time, the city was consigned to the realm of legend until the location was first excavated in the 1860s, other settlements are lost with few or no clues to their decline. Prolonged drought seems the most likely explanation for their demise and the nature of the island meant few visitors. With the development of archaeology and the application of modern techniques, Machu Picchu is a pre-Columbian Inca site situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru. Often referred to as the Lost City of the Incas, it is perhaps the most familiar icon of the Inca World, Machu Picchu was built around 1450, at the height of the Inca Empire. It was abandoned just over 100 years later, in 1572 and it is possible that most of its inhabitants died from smallpox introduced by travelers before the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the area. In 1911, Melchor Arteaga led the explorer Hiram Bingham to Machu Picchu, Helike was an ancient Greek city that sank at night in the winter of 373 BCE. The city was located in Achaea, Northern Peloponnesos, two kilometres from the Corinthian Gulf, the city was thought to be legend until 2001, when it was rediscovered in the Helike Delta. In 1988, the Greek archaeologist Dora Katsonopoulou launched the Helike Project to locate the site of the lost city. In 1994, in collaboration with the University of Patras, a survey was carried out in the midplain of the delta. In 1995, this target was excavated, and a large Roman building with standing walls was brought to light, the city was rediscovered in 2001, buried in an ancient lagoon. Some cities which are considered lost are places of legend, akhetaten, Egypt – Capital during the reign of 18th Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. Later abandoned and almost totally destroyed, aoudaghost, Mauritania– Wealthy Berber city in medieval Ghana
41.
Al-Hasa
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The oasis is located about 60 km inland from the coast of the Persian Gulf. Historically, Al Ahsa was the city in Al Bahrain province, making up most of its population. Al-Ahsa has been inhabited since prehistoric times, due to its abundance of water in an arid region. Natural fresh-water springs have surfaced at oases in the region for millennia, encouraging human habitation, recently, Al-Ahsa Oasis has been nominated as one of the seven wonders of the world. Its early history is similar to that of Eastern Arabia, in 899 A. D. the region came under the control of the Qarmatian leader, Abu Tahir Al-Jannabi, and was declared independent from the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad. Its capital was at al-Muminiya near modern Hofuf, by circa 1000, Al Hasa became the 9th largest city worldwide supporting 100,000 inhabitants. In 1077, the Qarmatian state of Al-Ahsa was overthrown by the Uyunids, the last Jabrid ruler of Bahrain was Muqrin ibn Zamil. In 1521, the Portuguese Empire conquered the Awal Islands from the Jabrid ruler Migrin ibn Zamil, the Jabrids struggled to maintain their position on the mainland in the face of the Ottomans and their tribal allies, the Muntafiq. In 1550, Al-Ahsa and nearby Qatif came under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire with Sultan Suleiman I, Al-Ahsa was nominally the Eyalet of Lahsa in the Ottoman administrative system, and was usually a vassal of the Porte. Qatif was later lost to the Portuguese, the Ottomans were expelled from Al-Ahsa in 1670, and the region came under the rule of the chiefs of Banu Khalid tribe. Al-Ahsa, along with Qatif, was incorporated into the Wahhabist First Saudi State in 1795, the Banu Khalid were again installed as rulers of the region but, in 1830, the Second Saudi State re-took the region. Direct Ottoman rule was restored in 1871, and Al-Ahsa was placed first under Baghdad Vilayet, in 1913, Ibn Saud, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, annexed Al-Ahsa and Qatif into his domain of Najd. On December 2,1922, Percy Zachariah Cox officially notified Kuwaits Emir Sheikh Ahmad Al Sabah that Kuwaits borders had been modified. Earlier that year, Major John More, the British representative in Kuwait, had met with Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia to settle the issue between Kuwait and Najd. The result of the meeting was the Uqair Protocol of 1922, historically, Al-Hasa was one of the few areas in Arabian Peninsula growing and exporting rice. In 1938, petroleum deposits were discovered near Dammam, resulting in the modernization of the region. By the early 1960s, production levels reached 1 million barrels per day, today, Al-Hasa engulfs the largest conventional oil field in the world, the Ghawar Field. Al-Hasa is famous for its trees and dates
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Banu Yam
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Banu Yam are a large tribe native to Najran Province in Saudi Arabia and the principal tribe of that area. They belong to the Qahtanite branch of Arabian tribes, specifically the group known as Banu Hamdan and their traditional way of life was well suited to life in the Arabian Desert and East Sahero-Arabian xeric shrublands they once lived in. Most have moved into villages and given up their previous nomadic way of life. The tribe of Yam was also the progenitor of two other important tribes, the Al Murrah and the Ujman of eastern Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf coast. The Yam are notable among the tribes of Saudi Arabia for the minority of its members who follow the small Sulaymani Ismaili branch of Shiite Islam, religious leadership is currently in the hands of the al-Makrami clan, who joined Yam through alliance some time in the 17th century. Members of the tribe can be found throughout Saudi Arabia due to migration, particularly the areas around Jeddah, Bani Yas Bani Hareth Banu Thaqif Al Saud Al Maktoum House of Al-Falasi
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