1.
Florida
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Florida /ˈflɒrᵻdə/ is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U. S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States, the Miami metropolitan area is Floridas most populous urban area. The city of Tallahassee is the state capital, much of the state is at or near sea level and is characterized by sedimentary soil. The climate varies from subtropical in the north to tropical in the south, the American alligator, American crocodile, Florida panther, and manatee can be found in the Everglades National Park. It was a location of the Seminole Wars against the Native Americans. Today, Florida is distinctive for its large Cuban expatriate community and high population growth, the states economy relies mainly on tourism, agriculture, and transportation, which developed in the late 19th century. Florida is also renowned for amusement parks, orange crops, the Kennedy Space Center, Florida has attracted many writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, and continues to attract celebrities and athletes. It is internationally known for golf, tennis, auto racing, by the 16th century, the earliest time for which there is a historical record, major Native American groups included the Apalachee, the Timucua, the Ais, the Tocobaga, the Calusa and the Tequesta. Florida was the first part of the continental United States to be visited and settled by Europeans, the earliest known European explorers came with the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce de León spotted and landed on the peninsula on April 2,1513 and he named the region La Florida. The story that he was searching for the Fountain of Youth is a myth, in May 1539, Conquistador Hernando de Soto skirted the coast of Florida, searching for a deep harbor to land. He described seeing a wall of red mangroves spread mile after mile, some reaching as high as 70 feet. Very soon, many smokes appeared along the whole coast, billowing against the sky, the Spanish introduced Christianity, cattle, horses, sheep, the Spanish language, and more to Florida. Both the Spanish and French established settlements in Florida, with varying degrees of success, in 1559, Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano established a settlement at present-day Pensacola, making it the first attempted settlement in Florida, but it was abandoned by 1561. Spain maintained tenuous control over the region by converting the tribes to Christianity. The area of Spanish Florida diminished with the establishment of English settlements to the north, the English attacked St. Augustine, burning the city and its cathedral to the ground several times. Florida attracted numerous Africans and African-Americans from adjacent British colonies who sought freedom from slavery, in 1738, Governor Manuel de Montiano established Fort Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose near St
2.
The Bahamas
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The Bahamas, known officially as the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is an archipelagic state within the Lucayan Archipelago. The capital is Nassau on the island of New Providence, the designation of the Bahamas can refer either to the country or to the larger island chain that it shares with the Turks and Caicos Islands. As stated in the mandate/manifesto of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, the Bahamas is the site of Columbus first landfall in the New World in 1492. At that time, the islands were inhabited by the Lucayan, although the Spanish never colonised the Bahamas, they shipped the native Lucayans to slavery in Hispaniola. The islands were mostly deserted from 1513 until 1648, when English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera, the Bahamas became a British Crown colony in 1718, when the British clamped down on piracy. After the American War of Independence, the Crown resettled thousands of American Loyalists in the Bahamas, they brought their slaves with them, Africans constituted the majority of the population from this period. Slavery in the Bahamas was abolished in 1834, Today the descendants of slaves and free Africans make up nearly 90% of the population, issues related to the slavery years are part of society. The Bahamas became an independent Commonwealth realm in 1973, retaining Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch, in terms of gross domestic product per capita, the Bahamas is one of the richest countries in the Americas, with an economy based on tourism and finance. The name Bahamas is derived from either the Taino ba ha ma, alternatively, it may originate from Guanahani, a local name of unclear meaning. In English, the Bahamas is one of two countries whose self-standing short name begins with the word the, along with The Gambia. Taino people moved into the uninhabited southern Bahamas from Hispaniola and Cuba around the 11th century and they came to be known as the Lucayan people. An estimated 30,000 Lucayan inhabited the Bahamas at the time of Christopher Columbus arrival in 1492, Columbuss first landfall in the New World was on an island he named San Salvador. Some researchers believe this site to be present-day San Salvador Island, an alternative theory holds that Columbus landed to the southeast on Samana Cay, according to calculations made in 1986 by National Geographic writer and editor Joseph Judge, based on Columbuss log. Evidence in support of this remains inconclusive, on the landfall island, Columbus made first contact with the Lucayan and exchanged goods with them. The Spanish forced much of the Lucayan population to Hispaniola for use as forced labour, the slaves suffered from harsh conditions and most died from contracting diseases to which they had no immunity, half of the Taino died from smallpox alone. The population of the Bahamas was severely diminished, in 1648, the Eleutherian Adventurers, led by William Sayle, migrated from Bermuda. These English Puritans established the first permanent European settlement on an island which they named Eleuthera—the name derives from the Greek word for freedom and they later settled New Providence, naming it Sayles Island after one of their leaders. To survive, the settlers salvaged goods from wrecks, in 1670 King Charles II granted the islands to the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas in North America
3.
Florida Keys
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The Florida Keys are a coral cay archipelago located off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost portion of the continental United States. The islands lie along the Florida Straits, dividing the Atlantic Ocean to the east from the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, at the nearest point, the southern part of Key West is just 90 miles from Cuba. The Florida Keys are between about 23.5 and 25.5 degrees North latitude, the climate of the Keys is defined as tropical savanna according to Köppen climate classification. More than 95 percent of the area lies in Monroe County. The total land area is 137.3 square miles, the US Census population estimate for 2014 is 77,136. The city of Key West is the county seat of Monroe County, the county consists of a section on the mainland which is almost entirely in Everglades National Park, and the Keys islands from Key Largo to the Dry Tortugas. The Keys were originally inhabited by Calusa and Tequesta Native Americans, de León named the islands Los Martires, as they looked like suffering men from a distance. Key is derived from the Spanish word cayo, meaning small island, for many years, Key West was the largest town in Florida, and it grew prosperous on wrecking revenues. The isolated outpost was located for trade with Cuba and the Bahamas. Improved navigation led to shipwrecks, and Key West went into a decline in the late nineteenth century. The Keys were long accessible only by water and this changed with the completion of Henry Flaglers Overseas Railway in the early 1910s. Flagler, a developer of Floridas Atlantic coast, extended his Florida East Coast Railway down to Key West with an ambitious series of over-sea railroad trestles. Three hurricanes disrupted the project in 1906,1909, and 1910, one of the worst hurricanes to strike the U. S. made landfall near Islamorada in the Upper Keys on Labor Day, Monday, September 2. Winds were estimated to have gusted to 200 mph, raising a storm more than 17.5 feet above sea level that washed over the islands. More than 400 people were killed, though some place the number of deaths at more than 600. The Labor Day Hurricane is one of three hurricanes to make landfall at Category 5 strength on the U. S. coast since reliable weather records began. The other storms were Hurricane Camille and Hurricane Andrew, in 1935, new bridges were under construction to connect a highway through the entire Keys. Hundreds of World War I veterans working on the roadway as part of a government relief program were housed in non-reinforced buildings in three camps in the Upper Keys
4.
Cuba
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Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and it is south of both the U. S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica. Havana is the largest city and capital, other cities include Santiago de Cuba. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with an area of 109,884 square kilometres, prior to Spanish colonization in the late 15th century, Cuba was inhabited by Amerindian tribes. It remained a colony of Spain until the Spanish–American War of 1898, as a fragile republic, Cuba attempted to strengthen its democratic system, but mounting political radicalization and social strife culminated in the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1952. Further unrest and instability led to Batistas ousting in January 1959 by the July 26 Movement, since 1965, the state has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba. A point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, a nuclear war broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America, Cuba is a Marxist–Leninist one-party republic, where the role of the vanguard Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Independent observers have accused the Cuban government of human rights abuses. It is one of the worlds last planned economies and its economy is dominated by the exports of sugar, tobacco, coffee, according to the Human Development Index, Cuba is described as a country with high human development and is ranked the eighth highest in North America. It also ranks highly in some metrics of national performance, including health care, the name Cuba comes from the Taíno language. The exact meaning of the name is unclear but it may be translated either as where fertile land is abundant, authors who believe that Christopher Columbus was Portuguese state that Cuba was named by Columbus for the town of Cuba in the district of Beja in Portugal. Before the arrival of the Spanish, Cuba was inhabited by three distinct tribes of indigenous peoples of the Americas, the Taíno, the Guanajatabey, and the Ciboney people. The ancestors of the Ciboney migrated from the mainland of South America, the Taíno arrived from Hispanola sometime in the 3rd century A. D. When Columbus arrived they were the dominant culture in Cuba, having a population of 150,000. The name Cuba comes from the native Taíno language and it is derived from either coabana meaning great place, or from cubao meaning where fertile land is abundant. The Taíno were farmers, while the Ciboney were farmers as well as fishers and hunter-gatherers, Columbus claimed the island for the new Kingdom of Spain and named it Isla Juana after Juan, Prince of Asturias. In 1511, the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa, other towns soon followed, including San Cristobal de la Habana, founded in 1515, which later became the capital
5.
Spanish language
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Spanish —also called Castilian —is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain, with hundreds of millions of native speakers around the world. It is usually considered the worlds second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese and it is one of the few languages to use inverted question and exclamation marks. Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. Beginning in the early 16th century, Spanish was taken to the colonies of the Spanish Empire, most notably to the Americas, as well as territories in Africa, Oceania, around 75% of modern Spanish is derived from Latin. Greek has also contributed substantially to Spanish vocabulary, especially through Latin, Spanish vocabulary has been in contact from an early date with Arabic, having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula. With around 8% of its vocabulary being Arabic in origin, this language is the second most important influence after Latin and it has also been influenced by Basque as well as by neighboring Ibero-Romance languages. It also adopted words from languages such as Gothic language from the Visigoths in which many Spanish names and surnames have a Visigothic origin. Spanish is one of the six languages of the United Nations. It is the language in the world by the number of people who speak it as a mother tongue, after Mandarin Chinese. It is estimated more than 437 million people speak Spanish as a native language. Spanish is the official or national language in Spain, Equatorial Guinea, speakers in the Americas total some 418 million. In the European Union, Spanish is the tongue of 8% of the population. Spanish is the most popular second language learned in the United States, in 2011 it was estimated by the American Community Survey that of the 55 million Hispanic United States residents who are five years of age and over,38 million speak Spanish at home. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the language of the whole Spanish State in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas. Article III reads as follows, El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado, las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas. Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State, the other Spanish languages as well shall be official in their respective Autonomous Communities. The Spanish Royal Academy, on the hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. Two etymologies for español have been suggested, the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary derives the term from the Provençal word espaignol, and that in turn from the Medieval Latin word Hispaniolus, from—or pertaining to—Hispania
6.
Strait
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A strait is a naturally formed, narrow, typically navigable waterway that connects two larger bodies of water. Most commonly it is a channel of water that lies between two land masses, some straits are not navigable, for example because they are too shallow, or because of an unnavigable reef or archipelago. The terms channel, pass or passage, can be synonymous and used interchangeably with strait, in Scotland firth or kyle are also sometimes used as synonyms for strait. Straits can be important shipping routes, and wars have been fought for control of them, numerous artificial channels, called canals, have been constructed to connect two bodies of water over land, such as the Suez Canal. Although rivers and canals often provide passage between two large lakes or a lake and a sea, and these seem to suit the formal definition of strait, the term strait is typically reserved for much larger, wider features of the marine environment. There are exceptions, with straits being called canals, Pearse Canal, Straits are the converse of isthmuses. That is, while a strait lies between two masses and connects two larger bodies of water, an isthmus lies between two bodies of water and connects two larger land masses. Some straits have the potential to generate significant tidal power using tidal stream turbines, tides are more predictable than wave power or wind power. The Pentland Firth may be capable of generating 10 GW, cook Strait in New Zealand may be capable of generating 5. There may be no suspension of innocent passage through such straits, list of straits Media related to Straits at Wikimedia Commons
7.
Gulf of Mexico
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The Gulf of Mexico is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. The U. S. states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas border the Gulf on the north, Atlantic and Pacific coasts, or sometimes the south coast, in juxtaposition to the Great Lakes region being the north coast. One of the seven main areas is the Gulf of Mexico basin. The Gulf of Mexico formed approximately 300 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics, the Gulfs basin is roughly oval and is approximately 810 nautical miles wide and floored by sedimentary rocks and recent sediments. It is connected to part of the Atlantic Ocean through the Florida Straits between the U. S. and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea via the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba, with the narrow connection to the Atlantic, the Gulf experiences very small tidal ranges. The size of the Gulf basin is approximately 1.6 million km2, almost half of the basin is shallow continental shelf waters. The basin contains a volume of roughly 2,500 quadrillion liters, the consensus among geologists who have studied the geology of the Gulf of Mexico, is that prior to the Late Triassic, the Gulf of Mexico did not exist. It was created by the collision of plates that formed Pangea. As interpreted by Roy Van Arsdale and Randel T. Cox, geologists and other Earth scientists agree in general that the present Gulf of Mexico basin originated in Late Triassic time as the result of rifting within Pangea. The rifting was associated with zones of weakness within Pangea, including sutures where the Laurentia, South American, first, there was a Late Triassic-Early Jurassic phase of rifting during which rift valleys formed and filled with continental red beds. Second, as rifting progressed through Early and Middle Jurassic time and it was at this time that tectonics first created a connection to the Pacific Ocean across central Mexico and later eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. This flooded the basin created by rifting and crustal thinning to create the Gulf of Mexico. While the Gulf of Mexico was a basin, the subsiding transitional crust was blanketed by the widespread deposition of Louann Salt. Initially, during the Late Jurassic, continued rifting widened the Gulf of Mexico and progressed to the point that sea-floor spreading, at this point, sufficient circulation with the Atlantic Ocean was established that the deposition of Louann Salt ceased. During the Late Jurassic through Early Cretaceous, the occupied by the Gulf of Mexico experienced a period of cooling. The subsidence was the result of a combination of stretching, cooling. Initially, the combination of stretching and cooling caused about 5–7 km of tectonic subsidence of the central thin transitional
8.
Atlantic Ocean
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The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other
9.
Key West
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Key West is an island city in Florida and the county seat of Monroe County. The city boundaries include the island of Key West and several islands, as well as the section of Stock Island north of U. S. Route 1. Sigsbee Park—originally known as Dredgers Key—and Fleming Key, both located to the north, and Sunset Key located to the west are all included in the city boundaries, both Fleming Key and Sigsbee Park are part of Naval Air Station Key West and are inaccessible to the general public. Key West is the southernmost city in the contiguous United States and the terminus of U. S. Route 1, State Road A1A, the East Coast Greenway and, before 1935. Key West is 129 miles southwest of Miami by air, about 160 miles by car, Cuba, at its closest point, is 94 miles south. Key West is a destination for many passenger cruise ships. The Key West International Airport provides airline service, the central business district is located along Duval Street and includes much of the northwestern corner of the island. The official city motto is One Human Family, in Pre-Colonial times Key West was inhabited by the Calusa people. The first European to visit was Juan Ponce de León in 1521, as Florida became a Spanish territory, a fishing and salvage village with a small garrison was established here. Cayo Hueso is the original Spanish name for the island of Key West, spanish-speaking people today also use the term when referring to Key West. It is said that the island was littered with the remains of native inhabitants. This island was the westernmost Key with a supply of water. In 1763, when Great Britain took control of Florida, the community of Spaniards, Florida returned to Spanish control 20 years later, but there was no official resettlement of the island. Informally the island was used by fishermen from Cuba and from the British, while claimed by Spain, no nation exercised de facto control over the community there for some time. In 1815, the Spanish governor of Cuba in Havana deeded the island of Key West to Juan Pablo Salas, businessman John W. Simonton, during a meeting in a Havana café on January 19,1822, for the equivalent of $2,000 in pesos in 1821. Geddes tried in vain to secure his rights to the property before Simonton who, Simonton had wide-ranging business interests in Mobile, Alabama. He bought the island because a friend, John Whitehead, had drawn his attention to the opportunities presented by the strategic location. John Whitehead had been stranded in Key West after a shipwreck in 1819, on March 25,1822, Lt. Commander, Matthew C
10.
Gulf Stream
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The process of western intensification causes the Gulf Stream to be a northward accelerating current off the east coast of North America. At about 40°0′N 30°0′W, it splits in two, with the stream, the North Atlantic Drift, crossing to Northern Europe and the southern stream. The Gulf Stream influences the climate of the east coast of North America from Florida to Newfoundland, and it is part of the North Atlantic Gyre. Its presence has led to the development of strong cyclones of all types, the Gulf Stream is also a significant potential source of renewable power generation. The Gulf Stream may be slowing down as a result of climate change, the Gulf Stream is typically 100 kilometres wide and 800 metres to 1,200 metres deep. The current velocity is fastest near the surface, with the maximum speed typically about 2.5 metres per second. European discovery of the Gulf Stream dates to the 1512 expedition of Juan Ponce de León and its existence was also known to Peter Martyr dAnghiera. Benjamin Franklin became interested in the North Atlantic Ocean circulation patterns, Franklin asked Timothy Folger, his cousin twice removed, a Nantucket Island whaling captain, for an answer. Franklin worked with Folger and other experienced ship captains, learning enough to chart the Gulf Stream and he offered this information to Anthony Todd, secretary of the British Post Office, but it was ignored by British sea captains. Franklins Gulf Stream chart was published in 1770 in England, where it was mostly ignored, subsequent versions were printed in France in 1778 and the U. S. in 1786. The Gulf Stream proper is a current, driven largely by wind stress. The North Atlantic Drift, in contrast, is largely thermohaline circulation–driven, in 1958 the oceanographer Henry Stommel noted that very little water from the Gulf of Mexico is actually in the Stream. By carrying warm water northeast across the Atlantic, it makes Western, a river of sea water, called the Atlantic North Equatorial Current, flows westward off the coast of Central Africa. When this current interacts with the northeastern coast of South America, one passes into the Caribbean Sea, while a second, the Antilles Current, flows north and east of the West Indies. These two branches north of the Straits of Florida. The trade winds blow westward in the tropics, and the westerlies blow eastward at mid-latitudes and this wind pattern applies a stress to the subtropical ocean surface with negative curl across the north Atlantic Ocean. The resulting Sverdrup transport is equatorward, the conservation of potential vorticity also causes bends along the Gulf Stream, which occasionally break off due to a shift in the Gulf Streams position, forming separate warm and cold eddies. This overall process, known as western intensification, causes currents on the boundary of an ocean basin, such as the Gulf Stream
11.
Gulf Oil
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Gulf Oil was a major global oil company from the 1900s to the 1980s. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979, prior to its merger with Standard Oil of California, Gulf was one of the chief instruments of the Mellon family fortune, both Gulf and Mellon Financial had their headquarters in Pittsburgh. Gulfs former headquarters, originally referred to as the Gulf Building, is an art-deco skyscraper, the tallest building in Pittsburgh until 1970, when it was eclipsed by the U. S. Steel Tower, it is capped by a step pyramid structure several stories high. Until the late 1970s, the top was illuminated, changing color with changes in barometric pressure to provide a weather indicator that could be seen for many miles. Gulf Oil Corporation ceased to exist as an independent company in 1985, Gulf Canada, Gulfs main Canadian subsidiary, was sold the same year with retail outlets to Ultramar and Petro Canada and what became Gulf Canada Resources to Olympia & York. However, the Gulf brand name and a number of the constituent business divisions of GOC survived, Gulf has experienced a significant revival since 1990, emerging as a flexible network of allied business interests based on partnerships, franchises and agencies. Gulf, in its present incarnation, is a new economy business and it employs very few people directly and its assets are mainly in the form of intellectual property, brands, product specifications and scientific expertise. The corporate vehicle at the center of the Gulf network outside the United States, Spain and Portugal is Gulf Oil International, a company owned by the Hinduja Group. The companys focus is primarily in the provision of products and services to a mass market through joint ventures, strategic alliances, licensing agreements. Gulf Oil International has its office in the City of Westminster. The business that became Gulf Oil started in 1901 with the discovery of oil at Spindletop near Beaumont, a group of investors came together to promote the development of a modern refinery at nearby Port Arthur to process the oil. The largest investor was William Larimer Mellon of the Pittsburgh Mellon banking family, other investors included many of Mellons Pennsylvania clients as well as some Texas wildcatters. Mellon Bank and Gulf Oil remained closely associated thereafter, the Gulf Oil Corporation itself was formed in 1907 through the amalgamation of a number of oil businesses, principally the J. M. Guffey Petroleum and Gulf Refining companies of Texas. The name of the company refers to the Gulf of Mexico where Beaumont lies, output from Spindletop peaked at around 100,000 barrels per day just after it was discovered and then started to decline. This was achieved by constructing the 400-mile Glenn Pool pipeline connecting oilfields in Oklahoma with Gulfs refinery at Port Arthur, the pipeline opened in September 1907. Gulf later built a network of pipelines and refineries in the eastern and southern United States, thus, Gulf Oil provided Mellon Bank with a secure vehicle for investing in the oil sector. Gulf promoted the concept of branded product sales by selling gasoline in containers, a customer buying Gulf-branded gasoline could be assured of its quality and consistent standard. Gulf Oil grew steadily in the years, with its activities mainly confined to the United States
12.
Exclusive economic zone
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It stretches from the baseline out to 200 nautical miles from its coast. In colloquial usage, the term may include the continental shelf, the term does not include either the territorial sea or the continental shelf beyond the 200 nmi limit. The surface waters, as can be seen in the map, are international waters, generally, a states exclusive economic zone is an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea, extending seaward to a distance of no more than 200 nautical miles out from its coastal baseline. The exception to this occurs when exclusive economic zones would overlap. When an overlap occurs, it is up to the states to delineate the actual maritime boundary, generally, any point within an overlapping area defaults to the nearest state. A states exclusive economic zone starts at the edge of its territorial sea. The exclusive economic zone stretches much further into sea than the territorial waters, thus, the exclusive economic zones includes the contiguous zone. The idea of allotting nations EEZs to give more control of maritime affairs outside territorial limits gained acceptance in the late 20th century. Initially, a countrys sovereign territorial waters extended 3 nautical miles or 6 km beyond the shore, in modern times, a countrys sovereign territorial waters extend to 12 nautical miles beyond the shore. One of the first assertions of exclusive jurisdiction beyond the territorial seas was made by the United States in the Truman Proclamation of September 28,1945. The exact extent of economic zones is a common source of conflicts between states over marine waters. One well-known example of such dispute was the Cod Wars between the United Kingdom and Iceland, Norway and Russia dispute both territorial sea and EEZ with regard to the Svalbard archipelago as it affects Russias EEZ due to its unique treaty status. A treaty was agreed in principle in April 2010 between the two states and subsequently ratified, resolving this demarcation dispute, the agreement was signed in Murmansk on September 15,2010. The South China Sea is the site of a dispute between several neighboring nations. Croatias ZERP in the Adriatic Sea caused friction with Italy and Slovenia, a wedge-shaped section of the Beaufort Sea is disputed between Canada and the United States, as the area reportedly contains substantial oil reserves. France claims a portion of Canadas EEZ for Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon based on a new definition of the continental shelf, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon is entirely surrounded by Canadas EEZ. Mauritius claims EEZ for Tromelin from France and EEZ for British Indian Ocean Territory from the UK, Northern Cyprus claims a portion of Cyprus EEZ overlaps with that of Northern Cyprus in the south/southeastern part of the Cyprus island. Turkey claims a portion of Cypruss EEZ overlaps with its own EEZ, Lebanon claims that the agreement between Cyprus and Israel overlapped its own EEZ
13.
Offshore drilling
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Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum which lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the term is used to describe drilling activities on the shelf, though the term can also be applied to drilling in lakes, inshore waters. Offshore drilling presents environmental challenges, both from the hydrocarbons and the materials used during the drilling operation. Controversies include the ongoing US offshore drilling debate, there are many different types of facilities from which offshore drilling operations take place. These are capable of operating in depths up to 3,000 metres. Around 1891, the first submerged oil wells were drilled from platforms built on piles in the waters of the Grand Lake St. Marys in Ohio. The wells were developed by local companies such as Bryson, Riley Oil, German-American. Around 1896, the first submerged oil wells in salt water were drilled in the portion of the Summerland field extending under the Santa Barbara Channel in California, the wells were drilled from piers extending from land out into the channel. Other notable early submerged drilling activities occurred on the Canadian side of Lake Erie in the 1900s, shortly thereafter wells were drilled in tidal zones along the Texas and Louisiana gulf coast. The Goose Creek Oil Field near Baytown, Texas is one such example, in the 1920s drilling activities occurred from concrete platforms in Venezuelas Lake Maracaibo. One of the oldest subsea wells is the Bibi Eibat well, the well was located on an artificial island in a shallow portion of the Caspian Sea. In the early 1930s, the Texas Co. later Texaco developed the first mobile steel barges for drilling in the coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico. In 1937, Pure Oil and its partner Superior Oil used a platform to develop a field 1 mile offshore of Calcasieu Parish. In 1938, Humble Oil built a wooden trestle with railway tracks into the sea at McFadden Beach on the Gulf of Mexico. In 1946, Magnolia Petroleum drilled at a site 18 miles off the coast, erecting a platform in 18 feet of water off St. Mary Parish, Louisiana. In early 1947, Superior Oil erected a drilling and production platform in 20 feet of water some 18 miles off Vermilion Parish, in any case, that made Kerr-McGees well the first oil discovery drilled out of sight of land. The first semi-submersible resulted from an observation in 1961
14.
United States Geological Survey
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The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its resources. The organization has four science disciplines, concerning biology, geography, geology. The USGS is a research organization with no regulatory responsibility. The USGS is a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior, the USGS employs approximately 8,670 people and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The USGS also has major offices near Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver Federal Center, the current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is science for a changing world. The agencys previous slogan, adopted on the occasion of its anniversary, was Earth Science in the Public Service. Prompted by a report from the National Academy of Sciences, the USGS was created, by a last-minute amendment and it was charged with the classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain. This task was driven by the need to inventory the vast lands added to the United States by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the legislation also provided that the Hayden, Powell, and Wheeler surveys be discontinued as of June 30,1879. Clarence King, the first director of USGS, assembled the new organization from disparate regional survey agencies, after a short tenure, King was succeeded in the directors chair by John Wesley Powell. Administratively, it is divided into a Headquarters unit and six Regional Units, Other specific programs include, Earthquake Hazards Program monitors earthquake activity worldwide. The National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines detects the location, the USGS also runs or supports several regional monitoring networks in the United States under the umbrella of the Advanced National Seismic System. The USGS informs authorities, emergency responders, the media, and it also maintains long-term archives of earthquake data for scientific and engineering research. It also conducts and supports research on long-term seismic hazards, USGS has released the UCERF California earthquake forecast. The USGS National Geomagnetism Program monitors the magnetic field at magnetic observatories and distributes magnetometer data in real time, the USGS operates the streamgaging network for the United States, with over 7400 streamgages. Real-time streamflow data are available online, since 1962, the Astrogeology Research Program has been involved in global, lunar, and planetary exploration and mapping. USGS operates a number of related programs, notably the National Streamflow Information Program. USGS Water data is available from their National Water Information System database
15.
George Will
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George Frederick Will is a Pulitzer Prize–winning conservative political commentator. In 1986, The Wall Street Journal called him perhaps the most powerful journalist in America, will was born in Champaign, Illinois, the son of Frederick L. His father was a professor of philosophy, specializing in epistemology, will graduated from University Laboratory High School of Urbana, Illinois, and Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He subsequently studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Magdalen College, upon leaving Oxford, Will gave up plans to attend Harvard Law School and continued his studies at Princeton University from which he received MA and PhD degrees in politics. His 1968 PhD dissertation was entitled Beyond the Reach of Majorities, from 1970 to 1972, he served on the staff of Republican Senator Gordon Allott of Colorado. Will then taught philosophy at the James Madison College of Michigan State University. He taught at Harvard University in 1995 and again in 1998, will served as an editor for National Review from 1972 to 1978. He joined the Washington Post Writers Group in 1974, writing a biweekly column. His column is syndicated to 450 newspapers, in 1976 he became a contributing editor for Newsweek, writing a biweekly backpage column until 2011. Will won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for distinguished commentary on a variety of topics in 1977, often combining factual reporting with conservative commentary, Wills columns are known for their erudite vocabulary, allusions to political philosophers, and frequent references to baseball. From 2013 to 2017, Will was a contributor for Fox News, will was a panelist on This Week until his departure from ABC News. Will was also a regular panelist on televisions Agronsky & Company from 1977 through 1984, will once proposed that the United States withdraw all troops from Afghanistan, and defended Barack Obamas response to the uprisings after the 2009 elections in Iran. He also criticized the Bush administration for engaging in warrantless surveillance, on immigration, Will supports tighter border security and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Will argued that the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision caused a truncation of democratic debate about abortion policy, on crime, Will is opposed to the death penalty. He thinks that higher incarceration rates make the populace safer, additionally, Will is generally skeptical of affirmative action programs. Will favors the legalization of drugs, will supports low taxes, as he thinks that they stimulate economic growth and are more morally fair. He was opposed to both George W. Bush and Barack Obamas stimulus plans, will supports abolishing the minimum wage and creating voluntary personal retirement accounts in order to reduce the federal cost of Social Security. While identified with conservative politics, Will has criticized a number individuals and policies associated with the Republican Party and he was among the first to oppose President George W. Bushs nomination of Harriet Miers to the United States Supreme Court
16.
Repsol
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Repsol S. A. is an integrated global energy company based in Madrid, Spain. It carries out upstream and downstream activities throughout the entire world and it has more than 24,000 employees worldwide. Repsol also partners with Honda Racing Corporation to compete in MotoGP under Repsol Honda Team, in 1927 CAMPSA, headed by Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, was created with the objective of administering concessions in handing over the state monopoly of petroleum companies. Originally the company was arranged so that the state would have a minority stake, the Creation of CAMPSA intensified the progress of the Spanish refinery industry. In 1941 the Spanish government under Francisco Franco created the INI, in order to finance, the INI supported CAMPSA in its exploration of Tudanca, Cantabria, a monumental moment in Spanish exploration on the Iberian Peninsula. In 1948, REPESA was incorporated for the installation of a refinery in the Valley of Escombreras, REPESA became the symbol of the increasing industrial consolidation in the refining sector, as it took on the production and marketing of petrol, oils and lubricants under its own brand name. From the beginning, REPSOL was REPESA’s star brand of petroleum, the Spanish government created INH in 1981 as a public organisation to integrate the various oil and gas companies in which the Spanish state had a controlling interest. In 1989, INH partially privatised Repsol, with an IPO of 26% of Repsol capital, Shares of Repsol, S. A. became listed on stock exchanges in Spain and in New York. Privatization was completed in 1997 when the Spanish government sold the remaining 10% of Repsol capital, in late 1968, REPESA started to develop a prototype team for MotoGP racing and a sponsorship deal. These were the first steps in creating what would one day be known as Repsol Honda, then in 1971 motor sport was relaunched in Spain and Angel Nieto won the world championship in the 125 cc category sporting the Repsol logo on his bike, as a REPESA product brand. In 1999 Repsol bought 97. 81% of the Argentine oil, the acquisition better positioned Repsol as a multinational company. Repsol’s acquisition of YPF also increased its capital to 288 million shares worldwide, Repsols presence in Latin America was one of the keys to corporate growth. It was the first full year after the acquisition of YPF, the companys business structure was more balanced and international. Then in December 2001 Repsol completed an exchange agreement with Petrobras. In 2003 Repsol tripled its reserves and production of hydrocarbons in Trinidad, north American expansion in 2008 saw Repsol open a massive regasification plant on the east coast of Canada with enough capacity to supply up to 20% of the gas demand for New York and New England. Following years of opposition from environmentalist groups, Spain finally gave permission in August 2014 for the company and its partners to explore prospects off the Canary Islands. In 2008 Repsol began an exploration campaign in which it focused its efforts on and invested in exploring in new areas. Using cutting edge technology, the company made over 30 hydrocarbon discoveries, in 1971 Repsol logo first appears, as REPESA brand product, during the motorcycle Derby of that year
17.
Brazil
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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. As the worlds fifth-largest country by area and population, it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to wildlife, a variety of ecological systems. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, in 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a state governed under a constitutional monarchy. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, the country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup détat. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, Brazils current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. The federation is composed of the union of the Federal District, the 26 states, Brazils economy is the worlds ninth-largest by nominal GDP and seventh-largest by GDP as of 2015. A member of the BRICS group, Brazil until 2010 had one of the worlds fastest growing economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition. Brazils national development bank plays an important role for the economic growth. Brazil is a member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Unasul, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, CPLP. Brazil is a power in Latin America and a middle power in international affairs. One of the worlds major breadbaskets, Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years and it is likely that the word Brazil comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology red like an ember, formed from Latin brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name, early sailors sometimes also called it the Land of Parrots. In the Guarani language, a language of Paraguay, Brazil is called Pindorama
18.
Petrobras
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Petróleo Brasileiro S. A. — Petrobras, more commonly known as simply Petrobras, is a semi-public Brazilian multinational corporation in the petroleum industry headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The companys name translates to Brazilian Petroleum Corporation — Petrobras, the company was ranked #58 in the most recent Fortune Global 500 list. A. However, Brazil represented 92% of Petrobras worldwide production in 2014 and accounted for 97% of Petrobras worldwide reserves on 31 December 2014. As of 31 December 2014, the company had 8,112.8 million barrels of oil equivalent of proved developed reserves and 4,599.7 million barrels of oil equivalent of proved undeveloped reserves in Brazil. Of these reserves,62. 7% were located in the offshore Campos Basin, the largest growth prospect for the company is the Lula oil field in the Santos Basin. In 2015, the company produced 2.284 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, of which 89% was petroleum, reserves held outside of Brazil accounted for 8. 4% of production in 2014. The majority of reserves are in South America, the company has assets in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Paraguay. Petrobras owns refineries in Texas, Okinawa, Japan, and Bahía Blanca, the company also owns exploration blocks in the Gulf of Mexico and through joint ventures has production in Nigeria, Benin, Gabon, and Namibia. The privately held shares are traded on BM&F Bovespa, where they are part of the Ibovespa index, Petrobras is a major supporter of the arts in Brazil. Petrobras was created in 1953 under the government of Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas with the slogan The Oil is Ours and was given a monopoly in Brazil. In 1953, Brazil only produced 2,700 barrels of oil per day, in 1967, the company established a Petrobras Quimica S. A, subsidiary focused on petrochemicals and the conversion of naphtha into ethene. Petrobras began processing oil shale in 1953, developing Petrosix technology for extracting oil from oil shale, an industrial-size retort began processing shale in the 1990s. In 2006, Petrobras claimed that this industrial retort had a capacity to process 260 tonnes/hour of oil shale. In 1994, Petrobras placed into service Petrobras 36, the worlds largest oil platform, the platform sank after an explosion in 2001 and was a complete loss. In 1997, the government approved Law N.9.478, in 1999, the National Petroleum Agency signed agreements with other companies, officially ending the companys monopoly. In 2000, Petrobras achieved a record for oil exploration in deep waters. In 2002, Petrobras acquired the Argentine company Perez Companc Energía from the Perez Companc family and its foundation and this acquisition included assets in Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. The company had 1.1 billion barrels of oil reserves
19.
Zarubezhneft
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JSC Zarubezhneft is a Russian state-controlled oil company based in Moscow that specializes in exploration, development and operation of oil and gas fields outside Russian territory. Sergey Kudryashov is the companys General Director and Nikolay Tokarev is chairman of the board, the company was founded in 1967 by the Soviet government to operate in friendly states. Zarubezhnefts most notable operations are in Vietnam, where it has joint ventures with the Vietnamese company PetroVietnam. Zarubezhneft received 174.5 million barrels worth oil vouchers from the abused Oil-for-Food Programme, according to the paper The Beneficiaries of Saddams Oil Vouchers, Company website Company website Vietsovpetros website
20.
Falkland Islands
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The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about 300 miles east of South Americas southern Patagonian coast, the archipelago, with an area of 4,700 square miles, comprises East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 smaller islands. As a British overseas territory, the Falklands have internal self-governance, the islands capital is Stanley on East Falkland. Controversy exists over the Falklands discovery and subsequent colonisation by Europeans, at various times, the islands have had French, British, Spanish, and Argentine settlements. Britain reasserted its rule in 1833, although Argentina maintains its claim to the islands, in April 1982, Argentine forces temporarily occupied the islands. British administration was restored two months later at the end of the Falklands War, most Falklanders favour the archipelago remaining a UK overseas territory, but its sovereignty status is part of an ongoing dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom. The population primarily consists of native-born Falkland Islanders, the majority of British descent, other ethnicities include French, Gibraltarian and Scandinavian. Immigration from the United Kingdom, the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, under the British Nationality Act 1983, Falkland Islanders are British citizens. The islands lie on the boundary of the oceanic and tundra climate zones. They are home to bird populations, although many no longer breed on the main islands because of competition from introduced species. Major economic activities include fishing, tourism and sheep farming, with an emphasis on high-quality wool exports, oil exploration, licensed by the Falkland Islands Government, remains controversial as a result of maritime disputes with Argentina. The Falkland Islands take their name from the Falkland Sound, a strait separating the two main islands. The name Falkland was applied to the channel by John Strong, Strong named the strait in honour of Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount of Falkland, the Treasurer of the Navy who sponsored their journey. The name Falklands was not applied to the islands until 1765, the term Falklands is a standard abbreviation used to refer to the islands. The Spanish name for the archipelago, Islas Malvinas, derives from the French Îles Malouines — the name given to the islands by French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville in 1764, Bougainville, who founded the islands first settlement, named the area after the port of Saint-Malo. The port, located in the Brittany region of western France, was in turn named after St. Malo, in Spanish, the territory was designated as Islas Malvinas. The nomenclature used by the United Nations for statistical processing purposes is Falkland Islands, although Fuegians from Patagonia may have visited the Falkland Islands in prehistoric times, the islands were uninhabited at the time of their discovery by Europeans. Claims of discovery date back to the 16th century, but no consensus exists on whether these early explorers discovered the Falklands or other islands in the South Atlantic, whether or not the settlements were aware of each others existence is debated by historians
21.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
22.
Statoil
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Statoil ASA, is a Norwegian multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Stavanger, Norway. It is a fully integrated petroleum company operations in thirty-six countries. By revenue, Statoil is ranked by Forbes Magazine as the eleventh largest oil and gas company. The company has about 23,000 employees, Statoil was formed by the 2007 merger of Statoil with the oil and gas division of Norsk Hydro. As of 2013, the Government of Norway is the largest shareholder in Statoil with 67% of the shares, the ownership interest is managed by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. The company is headquartered and led from Stavanger, while most of their operations are currently led from Fornebu. Statoil is the largest operator on the Norwegian continental shelf, with 60% of the total production, the company also has processing plants at Kolsnes, Kårstø, Mongstad, Tjeldbergodden, and Melkøya. Statoil has offices that are looking for possible ventures in the countries of Mexico, Qatar, the company has processing plants in Belgium, Denmark, France, and Germany. In 2006, Statoil was given approval to implement the worlds largest carbon sequestration project as a means to mitigate carbon emissions to the atmosphere, in September 2007, Statoil and the Brazilian oil company Petrobras signed a deal aimed at expanding exploration, sub-sea, and biofuels cooperation. After the merger with Hydro, Statoil became a partner in Brazils offshore Peregrino oil field, under the agreement Statoil became a partner on six offshore licenses, as well as expanding biofuels production. Petrobras and Statoil announced plans to create dozens of refineries in Brazil, on 4 March 2008, Statoil bought Anadarko Petroleum Corporations 50% share of the Peregrino oil field for 1.8 billion USD. At the time of acquiring the license, the recovery factor was estimated to be 9%. However, with the current reservoir depletion plan of the calling for the use of produced water injection and rock compaction. On 24 May 2010, Statoil sold a 40% stake in the Peregrino field to Sinochem, the Chinese state-controlled oil company, for a sum of $3.07 billion, but retained 60%. On 7 April 2010, Statoil announced finding oil and gas reserves in the Fossekall prospect just north of the Norne oil field in the Norwegian Sea. In May 2010, Noble Energy, Inc. operator of the Deep Blue exploration well on Green Canyon 723 in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico successfully reached a depth of 32,684 feet, Statoil holds a 15.625 per cent interest in the Deep Blue well. In April 2011, Statoil announced a new find at the Skrugard prospect in the northern Norwegian Sea north of the Snøhvit field off Hammerfest. The find was seen as a key find as it could lead to more finds in the region, in September 2011 the company announced a large new find at its Aldous Major South prospect on the Norwegian continental shelf
23.
Turks and Caicos Islands
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They are known primarily for tourism and as an offshore financial centre. The resident population is 31,458 as of 2012 of whom 23,769 live on Providenciales in the Caicos Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands lie southeast of Mayaguana in the Bahamas island chain and north of the island of Hispaniola and the other Antilles archipelago islands. Cockburn Town, the capital since 1766, is situated on Grand Turk Island about 1,042 kilometres east-southeast of Miami, the islands have a total land area of 430 square kilometres. The first recorded European sighting of the now known as the Turks. In the subsequent centuries, the islands were claimed by several European powers with the British Empire eventually gaining control, for many years the islands were governed indirectly through Bermuda, the Bahamas, and Jamaica. When the Bahamas gained independence in 1973, the islands received their own governor, in August 2009, the United Kingdom suspended the Turks and Caicos Islands self-government following allegations of ministerial corruption. Home rule was restored in the islands after the November 2012 elections, the Turks and Caicos Islands are named after the Turks cap cactus, and the Lucayan term caya hico, meaning string of islands. The first inhabitants of the islands were Arawakan-speaking Taíno people, who crossed over from Hispaniola sometime from AD500 to 800, together with Taino who migrated from Cuba to the southern Bahamas around the same time, these people developed as the Lucayan. Around 1200, the Turks and Caicos Islands were resettled by Classical Taínos from Hispaniola, the southern Bahama Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands were completely depopulated by about 1513, and remained so until the 17th century. The first European documented to sight the islands was Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León, during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, the islands passed from Spanish, to French, to British control, but none of the three powers ever established any settlements. Bermudian salt collectors settled the Turks Islands around 1680, for several decades around the turn of the 18th century, the islands became popular pirate hideouts. From 1765–1783, the islands were under French occupation, and again after the French captured the archipelago in 1783, after the American War of Independence, many Loyalists fled to British Caribbean colonies, in 1783, they were the first settlers on the Caicos Islands. They developed cotton as an important cash crop, but it was superseded by the development of the salt industry, in 1799, both the Turks and the Caicos island groups were annexed by Britain as part of the Bahamas. The processing of sea salt was developed as an important export product from the West Indies. Salt continued to be an export product into the nineteenth century. In 1807, Britain prohibited the trade and, in 1833. British ships sometimes intercepted slave traders in the Caribbean, and some ships were wrecked off the coast of these islands, in 1837, the Esperanza, a Portuguese slaver, was wrecked off East Caicos, one of the larger islands. While the crew and 220 captive Africans survived the shipwreck,18 Africans died before the survivors were taken to Nassau, Africans from this ship may have been among the 189 liberated Africans whom the British colonists settled in the Turks and Caicos from 1833 to 1840
24.
Action film
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Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist or protagonists end up in a series of challenges that typically include violence, extended fighting, physical feats, and frantic chases. Advancements in CGI have made it cheaper and easier to create action sequences, while action has long been a recurring component in films, the action film genre began to develop in the 1970s along with the increase of stunts and special effects. The genre is associated with the thriller and adventure film genres. Some historians consider The Great Train Robbery to be the first action film, during the 1920s and 1930s, action-based films were often swashbuckling adventure films in which actors, such as Douglas Fairbanks, wielded swords in period pieces or Westerns. The 1940s and 1950s saw action in a new form through war, the film, along with a war-adventure called The Guns of Navarone, inspired producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to invest in their own spy-adventure, based on the novels of Ian Fleming. The long-running success of the James Bond films or series introduced a staple of the action film. Such larger-than-life characters were a veritable “one-man army”, able to dispatch villainous masterminds after cutting through their disposable henchmen in increasingly creative ways, such heroes are ready with one-liners, puns, and dry quips. The Bond films also used fast cutting, car chases, fist fights, a variety of weapons and gadgets, Dirty Harry essentially lifted its star, Clint Eastwood, out of his cowboy typecasting, and framed him as the archetypal hero of the urban action film. In many countries, restrictions on language, adult content, and violence had loosened up, in the 1970s, martial-arts films from Hong Kong became popular with Western audiences and inspired big budget films such as Bruce Lees Enter the Dragon. Chuck Norris blended martial arts with cops and robbers in films such as Good Guys Wear Black, from Japan, Sonny Chiba starred in his first martial arts movie in 1973 called the Karate Kiba. His breakthrough international hit was The Street Fighter series, which established him as the reigning Japanese martial arts actor in international cinema and he also played the role of Mas Oyama in Champion of Death, Karate Bearfighter, and Karate for Life. Chibas action films were not only bounded by martial arts, but also action thriller, jidaigeki, in the 1980s Hollywood produced many big budget action blockbusters with actors such as Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lorenzo Lamas, Michael Dudikoff, Charles Bronson and Bruce Willis. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas paid their homage to the Bond-inspired style with Raiders of the Lost Ark, in 1982, veteran actor Nick Nolte and rising comedian Eddie Murphy broke box office records with the action-comedy 48 Hrs. credited as the first buddy-cop movie. That same year, Sylvester Stallone starred in First Blood, the first installment in the Rambo film series made the character John Rambo a pop culture icon. 1984 saw the beginning of the Terminator starring Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger and this story provides one of the grittiest roles for a woman in action and Hamilton was required to put in extensive effort to develop a strong physique. The 1988 film, Die Hard, was influential on the development of the action genre. In the film, Bruce Willis plays a New York police detective who becomes embroiled in a terrorist take-over of a Los Angeles office building high-rise. The film set a pattern for a host of imitators, like Under Siege and Sudden Death, by the end of the 1980s, the influence of the successful action film could be felt in almost every genre
25.
Cay Sal Bank
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Cay Sal Bank is the third largest and the westernmost of the Bahama Banks. It is located between 23º27N - 24º10N and 079º25W – 080º35W, in a geographical sense, it is separate from the Bahamas proper as it is much closer to Cuba than to the closest Bahamanian island. It is separated by Santaren Channel from the Great Bahama Bank, the Straits of Florida separate it from the United States mainland and the Florida Keys. Administratively, the bank and its islands are part of Bimini district, the closest point of any other named Bahamian land to the bank is Orange Cay, the southernmost island of the Bimini Chain. The distance between Orange Cay and the nearest dry land of Cay Sal Bank, the Dog Rocks, is 120 km, the westernmost tip of Andros is the second closest point of land, approximately 145 km east of Cay Sal Bank. Cay Sal Bank is an atoll of roughly triangular shape, with a base along the rim of 105 km. With a surface of 5,226.73 square kilometres it is one of the largest atolls of the world, among the atolls with some land area, Cay Sal Bank is second only to Great Chagos Bank. The lagoonal surface has a depth of 9 to 16 metres, the individual islands are 96 in number. Cay Sal Bank has numerous islets along its rim, except along the side facing Nicholas Channel. It has a total of 96 islands, islets and rocks awash, the islands, rocks and reefs along the rim of the atoll are listed clockwise from southwest to southeast. There are also a number of smaller, unnamed cays or rocks, some of the historical Spanish language names of the features of the bank were replaced by English names when the Bahamas became a British Crown colony in the 18th century. It is a reef to the ESE of Cay Sal Island. Cay Sal, the island in the southwest, is 1.6 km,1.22 km2 in area. In its interior is a salt pond commonly replenished by heavy wind-driven seas that broach the islet along its southwest side. It is covered with stunted trees and marked by several dilapidated buildings standing on its west side. This cay gives the name to the bank in the English language. Rompidas Ledge is a coral head 3 km northwest of Cay Sal, about 1 square kilometre in extension. The cargo ship M/V Cork ran aground there in 1983, the compact group formed by Elbow Cays, Crenula Cay, Double Headed Shot Cays, Water Cays and Marion Rock is known in Spanish as Los Roques
26.
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
27.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
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Integrated Authority File
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The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries and increasingly also by archives, the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero license, the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It also comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format
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Virtual International Authority File
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The Virtual International Authority File is an international authority file. It is a joint project of national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center. The project was initiated by the US Library of Congress, the German National Library, the National Library of France joined the project on October 5,2007. The project transitions to a service of the OCLC on April 4,2012, the aim is to link the national authority files to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together, a VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary see and see also records from the original records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are available online and are available for research and data exchange. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting protocol, the file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata. VIAFs clustering algorithm is run every month, as more data are added from participating libraries, clusters of authority records may coalesce or split, leading to some fluctuation in the VIAF identifier of certain authority records
