Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Danish Realm between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for more than a millennium. The majority of its residents are Inuit, whose ancestors began migrating from the Canadian mainland in the 13th century, Greenland is the worlds largest island. Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the permanent ice sheet outside Antarctica. With a population of about 56,480, it is the least densely populated country in the world, the Arctic Umiaq Line ferry acts as a lifeline for western Greenland, connecting the various cities and settlements. Greenland has been inhabited off and on for at least the last 4,500 years by Arctic peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada, Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century, and Inuit peoples arrived in the 13th century.
The Norse colonies disappeared in the late 15th century, soon after their demise, beginning in 1499, the Portuguese briefly explored and claimed the island, naming it Terra do Lavrador. In the early 18th century, Scandinavian explorers reached Greenland again, to strengthen trading and power, Denmark-Norway affirmed sovereignty over the island. Greenland was settled by Vikings more than a thousand years ago, Vikings set sail from Greenland and Iceland, discovering North America nearly 500 years before Columbus reached Caribbean islands. Though under continuous influence of Norway and Norwegians, Greenland was not formally under the Norwegian crown until 1262, the Kingdom of Norway was extensive and a military power until the mid-14th century. Thus, the two kingdoms resources were directed at creating Copenhagen, Norway became the weaker part and lost sovereignty over Greenland in 1814 when the union was dissolved. Greenland became a Danish colony in 1814, and was made a part of the Danish Realm in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark, in 1973, Greenland joined the European Economic Community with Denmark.
However, in a referendum in 1982, a majority of the population voted for Greenland to withdraw from the EEC which was effected in 1985, Greenland contains the worlds largest and most northernly national park, Northeast Greenland National Park. Greenland is divided into four municipalities - Sermersooq, Qaasuitsup and it retains control of monetary policy, providing an initial annual subsidy of DKK3.4 billion, which is planned to diminish gradually over time. Greenland expects to grow its economy based on increased income from the extraction of natural resources, the capital, held the 2016 Arctic Winter Games. At 70%, Greenland has one of the highest shares of renewable energy in the world, the early Viking settlers named the island as Greenland. In the Icelandic sagas, the Norwegian-born Icelander Erik the Red was said to be exiled from Iceland for manslaughter, along with his extended family and his thralls, he set out in ships to explore an icy land known to lie to the northwest. After finding an area and settling there, he named it Grœnland
Par force hunting landscape in North Zealand
The Par force hunting landscape in North Zealand is a collection of hunting grounds and forests north of Copenhagen, inscribed on the UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites on 4 July 2015. The landscape comprises three areas, Store Dyrehave, Gribskov and Jægersborg Dyrehave/Jægersborg Hegn. The landscape was submitted for admission on 1 August 2010, the three forests are all located in the North Zealand peninsula to the north of Copenhagen. Jægersborg Dyrehave with the fenced Jægersborg Hegn is closest to the capital on the peninsulas east coast, the square-shaped Store Dyrehave is located further to the north in the centre of the peninsula while Gribskov, further north still, is adjacent to Esrum Sø. In connection with the Danish Reformation, in 1536 King Frederick II confiscated the estates belonging to the Catholic Church, from 1560, the various estates were merged in order to establish an extensive royal hunting park across the North Zealand peninsula. It was however King Christian V who from 1670 put his army to work on creating a par force deer park around Ibstrup Castle, in his youth, the king had experienced par force hunting in Frances forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
He now imported hounds and huntsmen from England, renaming the castle Jægersborg, one of the most important aspects of the par force hunt was that it provided a basis for demonstrating the absolute power of the monarch by developing connecting roads across the landscape. The entire North Zealand peninsula area was patterned with a Cartesian-based road system consisting of stars surrounded by distinct squares, stone posts indicated whether roads led towards or away from the centre of the star. The mathematical approach reinforded the kings image as a representative of reason in line with Baroque ideals, the Danish orthogonal geometry of the road systems was an improvement on the star-shaped grids used in France and Germany as it provided equal access to all parts of the forest. The Jægersborg hunting park contained no star-shaped road networks but was based on the presence of a royal hunting lodge. In 1736, it was rebuilt in Baroque style as Ermitageslottet or the Hermitage Hunting Lodge, the museum is expected to be the site manager and principal coordinator of information and news about the Par Force heritage site.
Danish Museum of Hunting and Forestry Kongernes Nordsjælland UNESCO, The par force hunting landscape in North Zealand, admission, UNESCO, The Parforce Hunting landscape in North Zealand and arguments. Source about the dogs source Source * Historic images
Region Zealand
At the same time, smaller municipalities were merged into larger units, reducing the number of municipalities from 271 before 1 January 2006, when Ærø Municipality was created, to 98. The reform was implemented in Denmark on January 1,2007, Zealand Region consists of the former counties of Roskilde, Storstrøm, and Vestsjælland. The region is named after the island of Zealand, which it shares with the neighbouring Danish Capital Region, Zealand Region includes the adjacent islands of Lolland, and Møn. Media related to Region Sjælland at Wikimedia Commons
Kronborg
Kronborg is a castle and stronghold in the town of Helsingør, Denmark. Immortalized as Elsinore in William Shakespeares play Hamlet, Kronborg is one of the most important Renaissance castles in Northern Europe and has added to UNESCOs World Heritage Sites list. The castle is situated on the northeastern tip of the island of Zealand at the narrowest point of the Øresund. In this part, the sound is only 4 kilometres wide, the castles story dates back to a stronghold, built by King Eric VII in the 1420s. Along with the fortress Kärnan, Helsingborg on the opposite coast of Øresund, from 1574 to 1585 King Frederick II had the medieval fortress radically transformed into a magnificent Renaissance castle. The main architects were the Flemings Hans Hendrik van Paesschen and Anthonis van Obbergen, in 1629 a fire destroyed much of the castle, but King Christian IV subsequently had it rebuilt. The castle has a church within its walls, in 1658 Kronborg was besieged and captured by the Swedes who took many of its valuable art treasures as war booty.
In 1785 the castle ceased to be a residence and was converted into barracks for the army. The army left the castle in 1923, and after a renovation it was opened to the public. The castles story dates back to a fortress, built in the 1420s by the Danish king, Eric of Pomerania. At the time, the Kingdom of Denmark extended across both sides of the Sound, and on the shore the Helsingborg Castle had been in existence since the Middle Ages. With the two castles and guard ships it was possible to all navigation through the Sound. The castle was built on Ørekrog, a tongue of land stretching into the sea from the coast of Zealand towards the coast of Scania. The castle consisted of a curtain wall with a number of stone buildings inside. The stone building in the northeastern corner contained the kings residence, the building in the southwestern corner contained a large arched banquet hall. The building in the southeastern corner possibly served as the chapel, large portions of the walls of Krogen are contained within the present-day Kronborg Castle.
King Christian III had the corners of the curtain wall supplemented with bastions in 1558-59, from 1574 to 1585 Frederick II had the medieval fortress rebuilt into a magnificent Renaissance castle, unique in its appearance and size throughout Europe. After the conclusion of the Northern Seven Years War in 1570, the main architect was the Flemish architect Hans Hendrik van Paesschen and the fortification works were completed in 1577
Chalk
Chalk is a soft, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is a salt called calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the accumulation of minute calcite shells shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores. Flint is very common as bands parallel to the bedding or as embedded in chalk. It is probably derived from sponge spicules or other organisms as water is expelled upwards during compaction. Flint is often deposited around larger fossils such as Echinoidea which may be silicified, Chalk as seen in Cretaceous deposits of Western Europe is unusual among sedimentary limestones in the thickness of the beds. Most cliffs of chalk have very few obvious bedding planes unlike most thick sequences of such as the Carboniferous Limestone or the Jurassic oolitic limestones. This presumably indicates very stable conditions over tens of millions of years, Chalk has greater resistance to weathering and slumping than the clays with which it is usually associated, thus forming tall steep cliffs where chalk ridges meet the sea.
Chalk hills, known as chalk downland, usually form where bands of chalk reach the surface at an angle, because chalk is well jointed it can hold a large volume of ground water, providing a natural reservoir that releases water slowly through dry seasons. Chalk is mined from chalk deposits both above ground and underground, Chalk mining boomed during the Industrial Revolution, due to the need for chalk products such as quicklime and bricks. Abandoned chalk mines remain a popular tourist attraction due to their massive expanse, the Chalk Group is a European stratigraphic unit deposited during the late Cretaceous Period. It forms the famous White Cliffs of Dover in Kent, the Champagne region of France is mostly underlain by chalk deposits, which contain artificial caves used for wine storage. Some of the highest chalk cliffs in the occur at Jasmund National Park in Germany. Ninety million years ago what is now the chalk downland of Northern Europe was ooze accumulating at the bottom of a great sea.
Chalk was one of the earliest rocks made up of particles to be studied under the electron microscope. Their shells were made of calcite extracted from the rich sea-water, as they died, a substantial layer gradually built up over millions of years and, through the weight of overlying sediments, eventually became consolidated into rock. Later earth movements related to the formation of the Alps raised these former sea-floor deposits above sea level, the chemical composition of chalk is calcium carbonate, with minor amounts of silt and clay. It is formed in the sea by plankton, which fall to the sea floor and are consolidated and compressed during diagenesis into chalk rock
Iridium
Iridium is a chemical element with symbol Ir and atomic number 77. A very hard, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group and it is the most corrosion-resistant metal, even at temperatures as high as 2000 °C. Although only certain molten salts and halogens are corrosive to solid iridium, finely divided iridium dust is more reactive. Iridium was discovered in 1803 among insoluble impurities in natural platinum, Smithson Tennant, the primary discoverer, named iridium for the Greek goddess Iris, personification of the rainbow, because of the striking and diverse colors of its salts. Iridium is one of the rarest elements in Earths crust, with production and consumption of only three tonnes. 191Ir and 193Ir are the two naturally occurring isotopes of iridium, as well as the only stable isotopes, the latter is the more abundant of the two. Iridium radioisotopes are used in some radioisotope thermoelectric generators, Iridium is found in meteorites in much higher abundance than in the Earths crust.
Similarly, an anomaly in core samples from the Pacific Ocean suggested the Eltanin impact of about 2.5 million years ago. A member of the platinum metals, iridium is white, resembling platinum. Because of its hardness and very high melting point, solid iridium is difficult to machine, form, or work, thus powder metallurgy is commonly employed and it is the only metal to maintain good mechanical properties in air at temperatures above 1,600 °C. The measured density of iridium is only lower than that of osmium. Iridium is the most corrosion-resistant metal known, it is not attacked by almost any acid, aqua regia, molten metals, or silicates at high temperatures. It can, however, be attacked by some molten salts, such as cyanide and potassium cyanide, as well as oxygen. Iridium forms compounds in oxidation states between −3 and +9, the most common oxidation states are +3 and +4, well-characterized examples of the high +6 oxidation state are rare, but include IrF6 and two mixed oxides Sr 2MgIrO6 and Sr 2CaIrO6.
In addition, it was reported in 2009 that iridium oxide was prepared under matrix isolation conditions by UV irradiation of an iridium-peroxo complex and this species, however, is not expected to be stable as a bulk solid at higher temperatures. The highest oxidation state, which is the highest recorded for any element, is known in one cation, IrO+4. Iridium dioxide, IrO2, a powder, is the only well-characterized oxide of iridium. A sesquioxide, Ir 2O3, has described as a blue-black powder which is oxidized to IrO2 by HNO3
Maastrichtian
The Maastrichtian is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age of the Late Cretaceous epoch or Upper Cretaceous series, the Cretaceous period or system, and of the Mesozoic era or erathem. It spanned the interval from 72.1 to 66 million years ago, the Maastrichtian was preceded by the Campanian and succeeded by the Danian. At the end of period, there was a mass extinction known as the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. At this extinction event, many commonly recognized groups such as dinosaurs and mosasaurs, as well as many other lesser-known groups. The cause of the extinction is most commonly linked to an asteroid about 10 kilometres wide colliding with Earth at the end of the Cretaceous. The Maastrichtian was introduced into scientific literature by Belgian geologist André Hubert Dumont in 1849 and these strata are now classified as the Maastricht Formation - both formation and stage derive their names from the city. The Maastricht Formation is known for its fossils from this age, most notably those of the giant sea reptile Mosasaurus, the base of the Maastrichtian stage is at the first appearance of ammonite species Pachydiscus neubergicus.
At the original type locality near Maastricht, the record was found to be incomplete. A reference profile for the base was appointed in a section along the Ardour river called Grande Carrière, the Maastrichtian is commonly subdivided into two substages and three ammonite biozones. The following are summaries of the characteristics of specific Maastrichtian aged formations, the Bearpaw Formation, called the Bearpaw Shale, is a sedimentary rock formation found in northwestern North America. It is exposed in the U. S. state of Montana, as well as the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, east of the Rocky Mountains. It overlies the older Two Medicine, Judith River and Dinosaur Park Formations, and is in turn overlain by the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in Canada, to the east and south it blends into the Pierre Shale. Other fossils found in this include many types of shellfish, bony fish, rays, birds. The occasional dinosaur remains have discovered, presumably from carcasses washed out to sea.
The Hell Creek Formation is an intensely studied division of Upper Cretaceous to lower Paleocene rocks in North America, named for exposures studied along Hell Creek, near Jordan, Montana. The Hell Creek Formation occurs in badlands of eastern Montana and portions of North Dakota, South Dakota, in Montana, the Hell Creek Formation overlies the Fox Hills Formation and is the uppermost formation of the Cretaceous period. The Horseshoe Canyon Formation is part of the Edmonton Group and is up to 230 m in depth and it is Late Campanian to Early Maastrichtian in age and is composed of mudstone and carbonaceous shales. There are a variety of environments, which have yielded a diversity of fossil material, the Horseshoe Canyon Formation outcrops extensively in the area of Drumheller, Alberta, as well as further north along the Red Deer River near Trochu, and in the city of Edmonton
Bryozoa
Bryozoa, are a phylum of aquatic invertebrate animals. Typically about 0.5 millimetres long, they are filter feeders that sieve food particles out of the using a retractable lophophore. Most marine species live in tropical waters, but a few occur in oceanic trenches, one class lives only in a variety of freshwater environments, and a few members of a mostly marine class prefer brackish water. Over 4,000 living species are known, one genus is solitary and the rest are colonial. The phylum was originally called Polyzoa, but this term was superseded by Bryozoa in 1831, another group of animals discovered subsequently, whose filtering mechanism looked similar, was included in Bryozoa until 1869, when the two groups were noted to be very different internally. The more recently discovered group was given the name Entoprocta, while the original Bryozoa were called Ectoprocta, Bryozoa has remained the more widely used term for the latter group. Individuals in bryozoan colonies are called zooids, since they are not fully independent animals, all colonies contain autozooids, which are responsible for feeding and excretion.
Colonies of some classes have various types of non-feeding specialist zooids, some of which are hatcheries for fertilized eggs, the class Cheilostomata have the largest number of species, possibly because they have the widest range of specialist zooids. A few species can creep very slowly by using spiny defensive zooids as legs, autozooids supply nutrients to non-feeding zooids by channels that vary between classes. Zooids have no special excretory organs, and the polypides of autozooids are scrapped when the polypides become overloaded by waste products, in autozooids the gut is U-shaped, with the mouth inside the crown of tentacles and the anus outside it. Colonies take a variety of forms, including fans, the Cheilostomata produce mineralized exoskeletons and form single-layered sheets which encrust over surfaces. Zooids of all the species are simultaneous hermaphrodites. Although those of marine species function first as males and as females. All species emit sperm into the water, some release ova into the water, while others capture sperm via their tentacles to fertilize their ova internally.
In some species the larvae have large yolks, go to feed, others produce larvae that have little yolk but swim and feed for a few days before settling. After settling, all larvae undergo a metamorphosis that destroys. Freshwater species produce statoblasts that lie dormant until conditions are favorable, predators of marine bryozoans include nudibranchs, sea urchins, crustaceans and starfish. Freshwater bryozoans are preyed on by snails and fish, in Thailand, many populations of one freshwater species have been wiped out by an introduced species of snail
Mudrock
Mudrocks are a class of fine grained siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. The varying types of mudrocks include, claystone, slate, most of the particles of which the stone is composed are less than 0.0625 mm and are too small to study readily in the field. At first sight the rock types look quite similar, there are important differences in composition, there has been a great deal of disagreement involving the classification of mudrocks. Fine sediment is the most abundant product of erosion, and these contribute to the overall omnipresence of mudrocks. With increased pressure over time the platey clay minerals may become aligned and this finely bedded material that splits readily into thin layers is called shale, as distinct from mudstone. The lack of fissility or layering in mudstone may be due either to the texture or to the disruption of layering by burrowing organisms in the sediment prior to lithification. From the beginning of civilization, when pottery and mudbricks were made by hand, to now, literature on this omnipresent rock-type has been increasing in recent years, and technology continues to allow for better analysis.
Mudrocks, by definition, consist of at least fifty percent mud-sized particles, mud is composed of silt-sized particles that are between 1/16 – 1/256 of a millimeter in diameter, and clay-sized particles which are less than 1/256 millimeter. Mudrocks contain mostly clay minerals, and quartz and feldspars and they can contain the following particles at less than 63 micrometres, dolomite, pyrite, heavy minerals, and even organic carbon. There are various synonyms for fine-grained siliciclastic rocks containing fifty percent or more of its constituents less than 1/256 of a millimeter. Mudstones, shales and argillites are common qualifiers, or umbrella-terms, the term mudrock allows for further subdivisions of siltstone, claystone and shale. For example, a siltstone would be made of more than 50-percent grains that equate to 1/16 - 1/256 of a millimeter, Shale denotes fissility, which implies an ability to part easily or break parallel to stratification. Siltstone and claystone implies lithified, or hardened, a claystone is lithified, and non-fissile mudrock.
In order for a rock to be considered a claystone, it must consist of up to fifty percent clay, clay minerals are integral to mudrocks, and represent the first or second most abundant constituent by volume. There are 35 recognized clay mineral species on Earth and they make muds cohesive and plastic, or able to flow. Clay is by far the smallest particles recognized in mudrocks, most materials in nature are clay minerals, but quartz, iron oxides, and carbonates can weather to sizes of a typical clay mineral. For a size comparison, a particle is 1/1000 the size of a sand grain. This means a particle will travel 1000 times further at constant water velocity
Jelling stones
The Jelling stones are massive carved runestones from the 10th century, found at the town of Jelling in Denmark. The older of the two Jelling stones was raised by King Gorm the Old in memory of his wife Thyra. The larger of the two stones was raised by King Gorms son, Harald Bluetooth in memory of his parents, celebrating his conquest of Denmark and Norway, the runic inscriptions on these stones are considered the best known in Denmark. The Jelling stones stand in the churchyard of Jelling church between two large mounds and they are strongly identified with the creation of Denmark as a nation state and both stones feature one of the earliest records of the name Danmark. After having been exposed to all kinds of weather for a thousand years cracks are beginning to show, on 15 November 2008 experts from UNESCO examined the stones to determine their condition. Experts requested that the stones be moved to an exhibition hall, or in some other way protected in situ. As the paint had not fully hardened, experts were able to remove it, Heritage Agency of Denmark decided to keep the stones in their current location and selected a protective casing design from 157 projects submitted through a competition.
The winner of the competition was Nobel Architects, the glass casing creates a climate system that keeps the stones at a fixed temperature and humidity and protects them from weathering. The design features rectangular glass casings strengthened by two solid bronze sides mounted on a steel skeleton. The glass is coated with a material that gives the exhibit a greenish hue. Additionally, the bronze patina gives off a rusty, greenish colour, highlighting the runestones gray and reddish tones and emphasising their monumental character, Christ is depicted as standing in the shape of a cross and entangled in what appear to be branches. One scholar has suggested that this imagery was used to suggest that Christ had replaced the Norse pagan god Odin, in 1955, a plaster cast of this stone was made for a festival in London. It is now located in the grounds of the Danish Church in London,4 St. Katherines Precinct, Regents Park, the copy is painted in bright colors, like the original. Most of the paint has flaked away from the original stone.
Another copy of this stone was placed in 1936 on the Domplein in Utrecht, next to the Cathedral of Utrecht, a facsimile of the image of Christ on Haralds runestone appears on the inside front cover of the Danish passport. The inscription on the older and smaller of the Jelling stones reads, King Gormr made this monument in memory of Thyrvé, his wife, Jelling Stones, Megalithic Portal, editor Andy Burnham Rundata, Joint Nordic database for runic inscriptions. World Heritage Rune stones and church in Jelling
Stevns Cliff travel guide from Wikivoyage
