1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Wadden Sea
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The Wadden Sea is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern continental Europe and the range of Frisian Islands, forming a body of water with tidal flats. It is rich in biological diversity, in 2009, the Dutch and German parts of the Wadden Sea were inscribed on UNESCOs World Heritage List and the Danish part was added in June 2014. The Wadden Sea is one of the worlds seas whose coastline has been most modified by humans, via systems of dikes and causeways on the mainland, within the Netherlands it is bounded from the IJsselmeer by the Afsluitdijk. The islands in the Wadden Sea are called the Wadden Sea Islands or Frisian Islands and these are remnants of the once expansive and now submerged Doggerland. However, on the westernmost Dutch island, Texel, the Frisian language has not been spoken for centuries, the Danish Wadden Sea Islands have never been inhabited by Frisians. The outlying German island of Heligoland, although one of the Frisian Islands, is not situated in the Wadden Sea. The German part of the Wadden Sea was the setting for the 1903 Erskine Childers novel The Riddle of the Sands, the word wad is Dutch for mud flat. The area is typified by extensive mud flats, deeper tidal trenches and the islands that are contained within this. The landscape has been formed for a part by storm tides in the 10th to 14th centuries. The present islands are a remnant of the coastal dunes. The islands are marked by dunes and wide, sandy beaches towards the North Sea, the impact of waves and currents, carrying away sediments, is slowly changing the layout of the islands. For example, the islands of Vlieland and Ameland have moved eastwards through the centuries, having lost land on one side, the Wadden Sea is famous for its rich flora and fauna, especially birds. Hundreds of thousands of waders, ducks, and geese use the area as a stopover or wintering site. Some species that are extinct are still available here. Wadden Sea is an important habitat for two species of seals, harbor and grey seals, North Atlantic right whales and gray whales were once seen in the region, using the shallow, calm waters for either feeding and breeding before they were completely wiped out by shore-based whaling. These two species are now thought to be extinct or remnant populations of which low-tens at best survive. One whale, possibly a right whale, was observed close to beaches on Texel in the West Frisian Islands and off Steenbanken, Schouwen-Duiveland in July 2005
3.
North Frisian Islands
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The North Frisian Islands are a group of islands in the Wadden Sea, a part of the North Sea, off the western coast of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The German islands are in the region of North Frisia and are part of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park. Occasionally Heligoland is also included in this group, sometimes the North Frisian Islands include also the Danish Wadden Sea Islands on the western coast of Jutland, Denmark. Those belong to Tønder municipality and Esbjerg municipality, and are not home to the group of Frisians. After the Frisian and Danish colonisation of the islands in the 8th century, the North Frisians in the Uthlande were ruled directly by the Danish king and were known as Königsfriesen or Kings Frisians. Only later did the Uthlande transfer to the Duchy of Schleswig, part of Rømø was also ruled by the Schleswig duke. After the German-Danish wars, the islands from Nordstrand to Rømø became Prussian in 1866, after the referendum in 1920, the current border between the islands of Sylt and Rømø was fixed. A good and thorough overview of the life, work, languages, costumes, there are four larger islands and ten tiny islets. The names of the islands are Sylt, Föhr, Amrum. In medieval times the present-day peninsula Nordstrand and Pellworm as well as the Halligen were part of the island of Strand. This island was torn to pieces in a storm tide in 1634. Sylt is the largest of the North Frisian Islands, consisting of about 100 km² and it is accessible by a causeway called the Hindenburgdamm, this causeway is only accessible to trains. In the summer months the island is crowded with tourists, including those who have a preference for nudism, sylts image is that of a meeting point for the jet-set. The main town on the island is Westerland, the northern end of Sylt, the Ellenbogen, is Germanys northernmost point. Lager Sylt, the Nazi concentration camp on Alderney was named after the island, compared with Sylt, Föhr is a relatively silent island. Sixteen old hamlets are scattered over the island, some of which existed in the 13th century. The main town is Wyk on the eastern shore. Wyk is a popular German seaside resort, there is no bridge or causeway connecting Föhr and the mainland, so ferries are the only connection
4.
Amrum
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Amrum pronunciation is one of the North Frisian Islands on the German North Sea coast, south of Sylt and west of Föhr. It is part of the Nordfriesland district in the state of Schleswig-Holstein and has appromixately 2,300 inhabitants. The island is made up of a core of geestland and features an extended beach all along its west coast. The east coast instead borders to mud flats and tidal creeks of the Wadden Sea, sand dunes are a characteristical part of Amrums landscape, resulting in a vegetation that is largely made up of heath and shrubs. The islands only forest was planted in 1948, Amrum is a refuge for many species of birds and a number of marine mammals like grey seal or harbour porpoise. Settlements on Amrum have been traced back to the Neolithic when the area was still a part of the mainland of the Jutland peninsula, during the Middle Ages, Frisian settlers arrived at Amrum and engaged in salt making and seafaring. A part of the population still speaks Öömrang, a dialect of the North Frisian language. Amrums area measures 20,4 km2, making it the tenth-largest island of Germany, adding the large Kniepsand beach on the Western shore to the surface area results in a total area of c.30 km2. Amrums surface area has however been subject to constant change due to land loss, during the 19th century, a 20th part of the area recorded in the beginning of the century had been lost, but in 1913, a net gain was again recorded at the Kniepsand. Amrum is one of three isles with a core in Nordfriesland. This sandy core is made up of glacial deposites from the Saalian glacial period, to the east, it borders to the Wadden Sea mud flats of the North Sea. The east side is also where the ancient hamlets are situated, Norddorf, Nebel, Süddorf. On the geestland core one can find extended areas of heath, west of this woodland strip, a region of 838 hectares is covered with dunes that run all along the island for about 12 km. The maximal width of this area amounts to more than a kilometre, Amrums tallest dune near Norddorf is called a Siatler, it reaches 32 m of height. Northward, the area extends into a small peninsula called Odde. In the south of Amrum, the newest settlement, Wittdün, is located, west of the dunes, the entire shore of Amrum is made up of the Kniepsand beach, it counts among northern Europes largest sand beaches. North of Norddorf there is some marshland, another small area can be found between Süddorf and Steenodde. Both of them are protected from the sea by dikes, during low tide it is possible to reach the neighbouring island of Föhr by mudflat hiking
5.
States of Germany
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Germany is a federal republic consisting of sixteen federal states. Since todays Germany was formed from a collection of several states, it has a federal constitution. The remaining 13 states are called Flächenländer, the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 was through the unification of the western states created in the aftermath of World War II. West Berlin, while not part of the Federal Republic, was largely integrated and considered as a de facto state. In 1952, following a referendum, Baden, Württemberg-Baden, in 1957, the Saar Protectorate rejoined the Federal Republic as the Saarland. Federalism is one of the constitutional principles of Germany. After 1945, new states were constituted in all four zones of occupation, in 1949, the states in the three western zones formed the Federal Republic of Germany. This is in contrast to the development in Austria, where the Bund was constituted first. The use of the term Länder dates back to the Weimar Constitution of 1919, before this time, the constituent states of the German Empire were called Staaten. Today, it is common to use the term Bundesland. However, this term is not used officially, neither by the constitution of 1919 nor by the Basic Law of 1949, three Länder call themselves Freistaaten, Bavaria, Saxony, and Thuringia. He summarizes the arguments for boundary reform in Germany. The German system of dual federalism requires strong Länder that have the administrative and fiscal capacity to implement legislation, too many Länder also make coordination among them and with the federation more complicated. But several proposals have failed so far, territorial reform remains a topic in German politics. Federalism has a tradition in German history. The Holy Roman Empire comprised many petty states numbering more than 300 around 1796, the number of territories was greatly reduced during the Napoleonic Wars. After the Congress of Vienna,39 states formed the German Confederation, the new German Empire included 25 states and the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine. The empire was dominated by Prussia, which controlled 65% of the territory, after the territorial losses of the Treaty of Versailles, the remaining states continued as republics of a new German federation
6.
Schleswig-Holstein
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Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig. Its capital city is Kiel, other cities are Lübeck. Also known in more dated English as Sleswick-Holsatia, the Danish name is Slesvig-Holsten, the Low German name is Sleswig-Holsteen, historically, the name can also refer to a larger region, containing both present-day Schleswig-Holstein and the former South Jutland County in Denmark. The term Holstein derives from Old Saxon Holseta Land, originally, it referred to the central of the three Saxon tribes north of the River Elbe, Tedmarsgoi, Holstein and Sturmarii. The area of the tribe of the Holsts was between the Stör River and Hamburg, and after Christianization, their church was in Schenefeld. Saxon Holstein became a part of the Holy Roman Empire after Charlemagnes Saxon campaigns in the eighth century. Since 811, the frontier of Holstein was marked by the River Eider. The term Schleswig comes from the city of Schleswig, around 1100, the Duke of Saxony gave Holstein, as it was his own country, to Count Adolf I of Schauenburg. Schleswig and Holstein have at different times belonged in part or completely to either Denmark or Germany, the exception is that Schleswig had never been part of Germany until the Second Schleswig War in 1864. For many centuries, the King of Denmark was both a Danish Duke of Schleswig and a German Duke of Holstein, essentially, Schleswig was either integrated into Denmark or was a Danish fief, and Holstein was a German fief and once a sovereign state long ago. Both were for centuries ruled by the kings of Denmark. In the church, following the reformation, German was used in the part of Schleswig. This would later prove decisive for shaping national sentiments in the population, the administration of both duchies was conducted in German, despite the fact that they were governed from Copenhagen. The German national awakening that followed the Napoleonic Wars gave rise to a popular movement in Holstein. This development was paralleled by an equally strong Danish national awakening in Denmark and this movement called for the complete reintegration of Schleswig into the Kingdom of Denmark and demanded an end to discrimination against Danes in Schleswig. The ensuing conflict is called the Schleswig-Holstein Question. e. Not only in the Kingdom of Denmark, but also to Danes living in Schleswig, furthermore, they demanded protection for the Danish language in Schleswig. A liberal constitution for Holstein was not seriously considered in Copenhagen and these demands were rejected by the Danish government in 1848, and the Germans of Holstein and southern Schleswig rebelled
7.
Districts of Germany
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A German district is an administrative subdivision known as Landkreis, except in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein where it is known simply as Kreis. Most major cities in Germany are not part of a rural district, in this context, those cities are referred to as Kreisfreie Stadt or Stadtkreis. Rural districts are at a level of administration between the German states and the municipal governments. They correspond to level 3 administrative units of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, previously, the similar title Reichskreis was given to groups of states in the Holy Roman Empire. The related term Landeskommissariat was used for administrative divisions in some German territories until the 19th century. The majority of German districts are rural districts of which there are 295, cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants do not usually belong to a district, but take over district responsibilities themselves, similar to the concept of independent cities. These are known as urban districts —cities which constitute a district in their own there are currently 107 of them. As of 2011, approximately 25 million people live in these 107 urban districts, in North Rhine-Westphalia, there are some cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants which are not urban districts, for example Recklinghausen, Siegen, Paderborn, Bergisch Gladbach, Neuss and Moers. Nevertheless, these cities take over many district responsibilities themselves, although they are part of a larger rural district. Midsize towns can perform particular administrative functions of the district as well, the classification as midsize town is usually based on a towns registered population, but varies from state to state. Aachen, Hanover and Göttingen retain certain rights of an urban district, urban districts have these responsibilities and also those of the municipalities. The district council is the highest institution of a district and is responsible for all fundamental guidelines of regional self-administration. This council is elected every five years, except in Bavaria where it is elected every six years. Usually the administrative seat of a district is located in one of its largest towns. However, district council and administrative seat of rural districts are not situated within the district proper. Most of those districts are named after this central city as well. Moers is the biggest city in Germany that is neither an urban district, in parts of northern Germany, Landrat is also the name of the entire district administration, which in southern Germany is known as Kreisverwaltung or Landratsamt. In urban districts similar administrative functions are performed by a mayor, rural districts in some German states have an additional administrative commission called Kreisausschuss
8.
Nordfriesland (district)
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Nordfriesland is the northernmost district of Germany, part of the state of Schleswig-Holstein. As of 2008, Nordfriesland was the most visited rural district in Germany, the sea has always had a strong influence in the region. In medieval times, storm tides made life in what is now Nordfriesland rather dangerous, only in modern times was the loss of land and lives able to be stopped by building solid dikes. Many villages that existed are now at the bottom of the sea. The best-known example is the seaport of Rungholt, which was destroyed by a storm surge in 1362. The island of Strand vanished in the Burchardi flood, another storm in 1634. Subsequent to this surge, there were many small islets instead of Strand. Nordfriesland is still a district, there are people speaking standard German, Low German, North Frisian. The North Frisian language exists in nine slightly different dialects, yet it is used by older citizens in mainland Nordfriesland. A relatively lively community of Frisian speakers exists though on the islands of Föhr, after becoming German, three districts were established in the region, Südtondern in the north, Husum in the centre, and Eiderstedt in the south. In 1970 these three districts were merged to form the Nordfriesland district, the entire coastal region is part of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park. Nordfriesland includes the section between Dithmarschen and Denmark. In the south is the Eiderstedt peninsula, where the River Eider meets the sea, the North Frisian Islands are also part of the Nordfriesland district and located inside the national park as well. There are five islands and ten smaller islets known as Halligen
9.
Germans
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Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe, who share a common German ancestry, culture and history. German is the mother tongue of a substantial majority of ethnic Germans. The English term Germans has historically referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages, before the collapse of communism and the reunification of Germany in 1990, Germans constituted the largest divided nation in Europe by far. Ever since the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire, of approximately 100 million native speakers of German in the world, roughly 80 million consider themselves Germans. Thus, the number of Germans lies somewhere between 100 and more than 150 million, depending on the criteria applied. Today, people from countries with German-speaking majorities most often subscribe to their own national identities, the German term Deutsche originates from the Old High German word diutisc, referring to the Germanic language of the people. It is not clear how commonly, if at all, the word was used as an ethnonym in Old High German, used as a noun, ein diutscher in the sense of a German emerges in Middle High German, attested from the second half of the 12th century. The Old French term alemans is taken from the name of the Alamanni and it was loaned into Middle English as almains in the early 14th century. The word Dutch is attested in English from the 14th century, denoting continental West Germanic dialects, while in most Romance languages the Germans have been named from the Alamanni, the Old Norse, Finnish and Estonian names for the Germans were taken from that of the Saxons. In Slavic languages, the Germans were given the name of němьci, originally with a meaning foreigner, the English term Germans is only attested from the mid-16th century, based on the classical Latin term Germani used by Julius Caesar and later Tacitus. It gradually replaced Dutch and Almains, the latter becoming mostly obsolete by the early 18th century, the Germans are a Germanic people, who as an ethnicity emerged during the Middle Ages. Originally part of the Holy Roman Empire, around 300 independent German states emerged during its decline after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ending the Thirty Years War and these states eventually formed into modern Germany in the 19th century. The concept of a German ethnicity is linked to Germanic tribes of antiquity in central Europe, the early Germans originated on the North German Plain as well as southern Scandinavia. By the 2nd century BC, the number of Germans was significantly increasing and they began expanding into eastern Europe, during antiquity these Germanic tribes remained separate from each other and did not have writing systems at that time. In the European Iron Age the area that is now Germany was divided into the La Tène horizon in Southern Germany and the Jastorf culture in Northern Germany. By 55 BC, the Germans had reached the Danube river and had either assimilated or otherwise driven out the Celts who had lived there, and had spread west into what is now Belgium and France. Conflict between the Germanic tribes and the forces of Rome under Julius Caesar forced major Germanic tribes to retreat to the east bank of the Rhine, in Roman-held territories with Germanic populations, the Germanic and Roman peoples intermarried, and Roman, Germanic, and Christian traditions intermingled. The adoption of Christianity would later become an influence in the development of a common German identity
10.
Frisian people
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The Frisians are a Germanic ethnic group native to the coastal parts of the Netherlands, Germany and the southern tip of Southern Jutland in Denmark. They inhabit an area known as Frisia and are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, East Frisia and North Frisia. The Frisian languages are spoken by more than 500,000 people. The ancient Frisii enter recorded history in the Roman account of Drususs 12 BC war against the Rhine Germans and they occasionally appear in the accounts of Roman wars against the Germanic tribes of the region, up to and including the Revolt of the Batavi around 70 AD. Frisian mercenaries were hired to assist the Roman invasion of Britain in the capacity of cavalry and they are not mentioned again until c. 296, when they were deported into Roman territory as laeti, from the 3rd through the 5th centuries Frisia suffered marine transgressions that made most of the land uninhabitable, aggravated by a change to a cooler and wetter climate. Whatever population may have remained dropped dramatically, and the lands remained largely unpopulated for the next two centuries. When conditions improved, Frisia received an influx of new settlers, mostly Angles and these people would eventually be referred to as Frisians, though they were not necessarily descended from the ancient Frisii. It is these new Frisians who are largely the ancestors of the medieval, by the end of the 6th century, Frisian territory had expanded westward to the North Sea coast and, in the 7th century, southward down to Dorestad. This farthest extent of Frisian territory is referred to as Frisia Magna. Early Frisia was ruled by a High King, with the earliest reference to a Frisian King being dated 678 and these wars benefited attempts by Anglo-Irish missionaries to convert the Frisian populace to Christianity, in which Saint Willibrord largely succeeded. The eastern periphery of Frisia would become part of various German states, an old tradition existed in the region of exploitation of peatlands. As both the Anglo-Saxons of England and the early Frisians were formed from largely identical tribal confederacies, Old Frisian is the most closely related language to Old English and the modern Frisian dialects are in turn the closest related languages to contemporary English. Of these three languages both Saterland Frisian and North Frisian are endangered, West Frisian is spoken by around 354,000 native speakers and is not threatened. Today there exists a division of the Frisians, into North Frisians, East Frisians and West Frisians. The West Frisians in general do not see themselves as part of a group of Frisians. Therefore, the term Frisian, when applied to the speakers of all three Frisian languages, is a linguistic and to some extent cultural concept, not a political one. Because of centuries of cohabitation and active participation in Dutch society, as well as being bilingual, talking ethnicity on the middle ground, Ton Derks, Nico Roymans, Ethnic Constructs in Antiquity, The Role of Power and Tradition, 207-218
11.
Danish people
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Danes are the citizens of Denmark, most of whom speak Danish and consider themselves to be of Danish ethnicity. The first mention of Danes are from the 6th century in Jordanes Getica, by Procopius, the first mention of Danes within the Danish territory is on the Jelling Rune Stone which states how Harald Bluetooth converted the Danes to Christianity in the 10th century. Since the formulation of a Danish national identity in the 19th century, Danish national identity was built on a basis of peasant culture and Lutheran theology, theologian N. F. S. Grundtvig and his popular movement played a prominent part in the process. Today, the criterion for being considered a Dane is having Danish citizenship. Frankish annalists of the 8th century often refer to Danish kings, the Bobbio Orosius from the early 7th century, distinguishes between South Danes inhabiting Jutland and North Danes inhabiting the isles and the province of Scania. The first mention of Danes within the Danish territory is on the Jelling Rune Stone which mentions how Harald Bluetooth converted the Danes to Christianity in the 10th century. Between c.960 and the early 980s, Harald Bluetooth established a kingdom in the lands of the Danes, stretching from Jutland to Scania. Around the same time, he received a visit from a German missionary who, by surviving an ordeal by fire according to legend, the following years saw the Danish Viking expansion, which incorporated Norway and Northern England into the Danish kingdom. After the death of Canute the Great in 1035, England broke away from Danish control, canutes nephew Sweyn Estridson re-established strong royal Danish authority and built a good relationship with the archbishop of Bremen — at that time the Archbishop of all of Scandinavia. The Reformation, which originated in the German lands in the early 16th century from the ideas of Martin Luther, had a impact on Denmark. The Danish Reformation started in the mid-1520s, some Danes wanted access to the Bible in their own language. In 1524, Hans Mikkelsen and Christiern Pedersen translated the New Testament into Danish and those who had traveled to Wittenberg in Saxony and come under the influence of the teachings of Luther and his associates included Hans Tausen, a Danish monk in the Order of St John Hospitallers. The Dano-Norwegian Kingdom grew wealthy during the 16th century, largely because of the traffic through the Øresund. The Crown of Denmark could tax the traffic, because it controlled both sides of the Sound at the time, in the centuries after this loss of territory, the populations of the Scanian lands, who had previously been considered Danish, came to be fully integrated as Swedes. Later, in the early 19th century, Denmark suffered a defeat in the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark lost control over Norway, the political and economic defeat ironically sparked what is known as the Danish Golden Age during which a Danish national identity first came to be fully formed. The Danish liberal and national movements gained momentum in the 1830s, a new constitution emerged, separating the powers and granting the franchise to all adult males, as well as freedom of the press, religion, and association. The king became head of the executive branch, Danishness is the concept on which contemporary Danish national and ethnic identity is based. It is a set of values formed through the historic trajectory of the formation of the Danish nation, importantly, since its formulation, Danish identity has not been linked to a particular racial or biological heritage, as many other ethno-national identities have
12.
Danish language
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There are also minor Danish-speaking communities in Norway, Sweden, Spain, the United States, Canada, Brazil and Argentina. Due to immigration and language shift in urban areas, around 15–20% of the population of Greenland speak Danish as their home language. Along with the other North Germanic languages, Danish is a descendant of Old Norse, until the 16th century, Danish was a continuum of dialects spoken from Schleswig to Scania with no standard variety or spelling conventions. With the Protestant Reformation and the introduction of printing, a language was developed which was based on the educated Copenhagen dialect. It spread through use in the system and administration though German. Today, traditional Danish dialects have all but disappeared, though there are variants of the standard language. The main differences in language are between generations, with youth language being particularly innovative, Danish has a very large vowel inventory comprising 27 phonemically distinctive vowels, and its prosody is characterized by the distinctive phenomenon stød, a kind of laryngeal phonation type. The grammar is moderately inflective with strong and weak conjugations and inflections, nouns and demonstrative pronouns distinguish common and neutral gender. As in English, Danish only has remnants of a case system, particularly in the pronouns. Its syntax is V2, with the verb always occupying the second slot in the sentence. Danish is a Germanic language of the North Germanic branch, other names for this group are the Nordic or Scandinavian languages. Along with Swedish, Danish descends from the Eastern dialects of the Old Norse language, Scandinavian languages are often considered a dialect continuum, where there are no sharp dividing lines between the different vernacular languages. Like Norwegian and Swedish, Danish was significantly influenced by Low German in the Middle Ages, Danish itself can be divided into three main dialect areas, West Danish, Insular Danish, and East Danish. Danish is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Swedish, both Swedes and Danes also understand Norwegian better than they understand each others languages. By the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had some changes. This language was called the Danish tongue, or Norse language. Norse was written in the alphabet, first with the elder futhark. From the 7th century the common Norse language began to undergo changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, most of the changes separating East Norse from West Norse started as innovations in Denmark, that spread through Scania into Sweden and by maritime contact to southern Norway
13.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
14.
North Frisia
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North Frisia or Northern Friesland is the northernmost portion of Frisia, located primarily in Germany between the rivers Eider and Wiedau/Vidå. It includes a number of islands, e. g. Sylt, Föhr, Amrum, Nordstrand, the geestland islands along the North Frisian coastline were already densely settled in times of the early Roman Empire while the marshes further inland were not suited for settling. Only a few ancient marshland settlements have found during archaeological excavations, namely in the modern area of southern Sylt. With the beginning of the Migration Period, the number of settlements in North Frisia became ever lesser, a new increase in population in the 8th century has been attributed to immigration but it is thought that the area had not been completely depopulated before. The Frisians migrated to North Frisia from the South in two waves, during the 8th century A. D. they mostly settled on the islands Heligoland, Sylt, Föhr, Amrum and presumably also in parts of the Eiderstedt peninsula. The coastal marshlands of the mainland were settled in a second wave, while the marshland and its bogs had to be drained, the higher geestland cores of the islands were in turn mostly barren and needed fertilisation before a proper agriculture could be established. During the Middle Ages, trade flourished between North Frisia and East Anglia, England, in particular, pottery was imported from the town of Ipswich and it has been suggested that relations between Frisians and East Anglians must have lasted for several centuries. In 1252, an army of North Frisians from all territories between the Eiderstedt peninsula and the northern islands succeeded in defeating a Danish army led by king Abel. Salt making became a trade in the 14th and 15th century when the North Frisians used saline peat as a resource. The salt trade coincided with an increase in international herring fishery off Heligoland, treaties of 14th century farmers from Edoms Hundred with Hamburg based merchants and even the Counts of Flanders respectively have been preserved. The Frisian Uthlande region used to have its own jurisdiction, it was laid down for the first time in the so-called Siebenhardenbeliebung in 1424. North Frisia as a region was first recorded in 1424 although Saxo Grammaticus had written about Frisia minor, several floods such as the Grote Mandrenke in 1362 and the Burchardi Flood of 1634 damaged great parts of the North Frisian coastal area. In these floods entire islands were destroyed and a part of North Frisian language was torn apart in linguistical and political terms. Around the year 1700, Föhr had a population of roughly 6,000 people,1,600 of whom were whalers. At the height of Dutch whaling in the year 1762,1,186 seamen from Föhr were serving on Dutch whaling vessels alone, another example is the London-based South Sea Company whose commanding officers and harpooners were exclusively from Föhr. In the early 18th century, Sylt island was home to 20 captains who took part in the Greenland whaling, until 1864, North Frisia was a part of the Danish Duchy of Schleswig but was transferred to Prussia after the Second Schleswig War. During this time of German-Danish conflicts, a North Frisian identity was propagated by people such as Christian Feddersen who simultaneously denounced nationalist tendencies, the North Frisian coat of arms has been attributed to him. While not designed according to rules, the shield contains a Frisian eagle on the right side
15.
Westerland, Germany
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Westerland is a seaside resort and a former municipality located on the German North Sea island of Sylt. Since 1 January 2009, Westerland has been part of the municipality Gemeinde Sylt, Westerland is part of the Nordfriesland district in Schleswig-Holstein. It is the largest resort on the island, the transportation hub. Westerland is partly one of the settlements on the island of Sylt. After the All Saints Day Flood of 1436 had destroyed the biggest part of the community of Eidum, the new settlement was called Hedigen. Century most of the people on Sylt were involved in the hunting of Herring near Heligoland, Westerland was no exception. The Old Church of Eidum St. Niels was broken down by the people in 1634 and rebuild in 1636 in the heath area, westerlant had its first documentary mention in 1462. In 1636 there were 43 and in 169576 taxable houses, the Village grew heavily during the 17th. Century because the experienced a big increase in wealth thanks to Whaling. Before the people had lived from the sea and what little their fields could provide. In 1855, the local Landvogt decided to turn Westerland into a seaside resort, after 1857, the minor village centred on a church began to grow into a larger resort. That year the first hotel opened - the Dünenhalle, many others followed, although a number of them have since been torn down to make room for different structures. In 1880, the first solid building was erected on the right at the beach. In 1897, a cable to the mainland was laid. In 1888, the Kurhalle was inaugurated, followed in 1903 by the art nouveau hotel Miramar, in the 1890s, Westerland replaced Keitum as the preeminent town on Sylt, not just for tourists but also regarding infrastructure and facilities used by the locals. This was illustrated by the move, in 1892, of the only pharmacy from Keitum to Westerland. In 1908, a building for spa applications was built, the original airfield was constructed in 1912. Due to the fortification of the island under the Nazis
16.
Kampen (Sylt)
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Kampen is a municipality and seaside resort on the island Sylt, in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located north of the main town, Westerland. The municipality is part of the Amt Landschaft Sylt, the local economy is dominated by tourism. The name Kaamp means an out field. The first mention of Kampen occurs in a tax registry from 1543, the village is considered to have been founded quite late, possibly as a result of people moving there from an earlier settlement destroyed by a storm. In 1767, the local Landvogt and some inhabitants bought land to the north of the village and established the Kampener Vogelkoje and this was profitable over the next four decades and through 1921 yielded a total of 695,957 killed ducks. In 1803, Kampen consisted of 23 houses and 93 inhabitants, in 1853, King Frederick VII of Denmark ordered the construction of the Kampen lighthouse. In 1860, the number of houses had fallen to 22 and there were still 93 inhabitants, however, for centuries, until around 1900, Kampen was a rural village shaped by agriculture. Shipping and fishing as well as industries and crafts played a relatively smaller role in the villages development. Together with Wenningstedt, the village of Kampen constituted part of the so-called Northern Villages of Sylt, the church and school were shared due to the low number of citizens in the respective villages - so they could only be supported through a common effort. Kampen, a hamlet situated in a heath, was discovered by tourists quite late. Until the beginning of the 20th century the place was regarded an insiders tip among travellers. Only in the 1920s did Kampens reputation as a seaside resort begin to develop, an ordnance from 1912, which is still effective today, requires that all houses in the village be built in the traditional style, i. e. brick buildings with thatched roofs. In July 1903, Kampen was linked by the Sylter Nordbahn to Westerland, in 1908, this was extended north to List. In 1908, the Nordseebad Kampen auf Sylt GmbH built a large two-storied octagonal wooden pavilion on the northern heath, even earlier, in 1906, a development plan had called for covering all of the northwestern heath with new construction. After World War I, the Verein Naturschutz Insel Sylt e. V. was founded, Haus Kliffende to the north of the village became a cultural and artists meeting place in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1921, locals established the Verkehrsverein Kampen/Sylt e. V. to boost tourism, beginning in 1921, writer Thomas Mann was a guest of Siegfried Jacobsohn and later often stayed at Haus Kliffende, north of the village. Many other intellectuals, musicians, writers and other artists flocked to the area and these included Max Frisch, Emil Nolde, Carl Zuckmayer, Heinrich Vogeler and Lovis Corinth
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Wenningstedt-Braderup
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Wenningstedt-Braderup is a municipality and seaside resort on the island of Sylt in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located north of the town of Westerland and is part of the Amt Landschaft Sylt, the local economy is dominated by tourism. The name Wenningstedt likely means homestead of the people of Winni, Braderup probably means village on the slope. Tradition holds that in the 5th and 6th century the Angles and Saxons led by Hengist, reportedly, their raiding party set sail from a harbour in Frisia called Wynningstede. However, this is unproven and even if true, due to coastal erosion, according to another tradition, a few hundred metres off todays shoreline there was the ancient settlement of Wendingstedt with an old Frisian port at the west coast. This supposedly was home to 200 fishing boats and was destroyed by a storm in 1300 AD and it is disputed though among scientists if this village ever existed or if it is merely a legend. The first definitive mention of Wenningstedt occurs in 1462, Braderup by contrast is one of the youngest settlements on the geest of Sylt. It is first mentioned in a document in 1540, until the early 19th century, Wenningstedt remained almost unchanged for centuries, consisting of merely eight farmsteads. The inhabitants lived on agriculture and fishing, not a few men would also go whaling in the Arctic Sea or sailed on Hamburg ships to catch herring. Since 1859, Wenningstedt has been a resort, since 1960 it has been a recognised seaside spa. In 1830, Braderup still had more inhabitants than Wenningstedt, only by the beginning of the 20th century did the latter start to grow faster, boosted by tourism, and the number of inhabitants initially surpassed Braderup only slightly. Together with Kampen and Braderup, Wenningstedt was part of the so-called Northern Villages - an early municipal association on the island, the term was coined when List, the northernmost village on the island, was part of the Danish realm. Thus Wenningstedt, Braderup and Kampen were the German Northern Villages and this administrative cooperation ended in 1927 when Kampen and Wenninhgstedt became two separate communities, with Braderup becoming part of Wenningstedt. In 1903, the Sylter Inselbahn connected Wenningstedt to Westerland in the south, the railway was abolished in 1970. In 1914, a Protestant chapel was built at the village pond, during World War II a heavy coastal artillery battery was deployed in the dunes northwest of Wenningstedt. Until the mid 19th century, Wenningstedt was dominated by farmsteads in the Uthland Frisian style, the village centre was located by the pond, Kiar. With the rise of tourism, numerous small guest houses but also villas were built for summer tourists, until then, there had been no regular road network in the village, but due to the touristical development new streets and neighbourhoods were planned on the drawing board. As the guest houses more and more avoided the old village core, the new style was now leaning towards fashionable seaside resort architecture, two-storey buildings with high-ceilinged rooms and white, wooden porches
18.
North Sea
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The North Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean located between Great Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the ocean through the English Channel in the south and it is more than 970 kilometres long and 580 kilometres wide, with an area of around 570,000 square kilometres. The North Sea has long been the site of important European shipping lanes as well as a major fishery, the North Sea was the centre of the Vikings rise. Subsequently, the Hanseatic League, the Netherlands, and the British each sought to dominate the North Sea and thus the access to the markets, as Germanys only outlet to the ocean, the North Sea continued to be strategically important through both World Wars. The coast of the North Sea presents a diversity of geological and geographical features, in the north, deep fjords and sheer cliffs mark the Norwegian and Scottish coastlines, whereas in the south it consists primarily of sandy beaches and wide mudflats. Due to the population, heavy industrialization, and intense use of the sea and area surrounding it. In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean, in the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively. In the north it is bordered by the Shetland Islands, and connects with the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea is more than 970 kilometres long and 580 kilometres wide, with an area of 570,000 square kilometres and a volume of 54,000 cubic kilometres. Around the edges of the North Sea are sizeable islands and archipelagos, including Shetland, Orkney, the North Sea receives freshwater from a number of European continental watersheds, as well as the British Isles. A large part of the European drainage basin empties into the North Sea including water from the Baltic Sea, the largest and most important rivers flowing into the North Sea are the Elbe and the Rhine – Meuse watershed. Around 185 million people live in the catchment area of the rivers discharging into the North Sea encompassing some highly industrialized areas, for the most part, the sea lies on the European continental shelf with a mean depth of 90 metres. The only exception is the Norwegian trench, which extends parallel to the Norwegian shoreline from Oslo to a north of Bergen. It is between 20 and 30 kilometres wide and has a depth of 725 metres. The Dogger Bank, a vast moraine, or accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris and this feature has produced the finest fishing location of the North Sea. The Long Forties and the Broad Fourteens are large areas with uniform depth in fathoms. These great banks and others make the North Sea particularly hazardous to navigate, the Devils Hole lies 200 miles east of Dundee, Scotland. The feature is a series of trenches between 20 and 30 kilometres long,1 and 2 kilometres wide and up to 230 metres deep. Other areas which are less deep are Cleaver Bank, Fisher Bank, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the North Sea as follows, On the Southwest
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Storm tides of the North Sea
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A storm tide is a tide with a high flood period caused by a storm. Storm tides can be a danger to the coast and the people living along the coast. The water level can rise to more than 5 metres above the normal tide, the North Sea, especially the Netherlands, northern Germany and Denmark is particularly susceptible to storm tides. The coastline of the German Bight forms an L-shape facing northwest, also vulnerable is the southern North Sea between England and the Netherlands, where the sea shallows and is funnelled between the land. For the protection of the areas along the coast, long. Storm tides are a regular occurrence in areas, usually. Most of them do not cause significant damage, the Danish coastline changed following the flood of 1825, the North Jutlandic Island got separated from the Jutland Peninsula. Major impact on Cinque Ports in England,1949, January 8, Storm disturbance in the North Sea. 1981, November 24–25, North Frisian Flood, severe surge with dike breaches in Denmark,1982, December 19, the largest negative surge recorded in the North Sea coincided with a high tide, water levels dropped rapidly posing a navigational hazard. 1993, February 21, a surge in the North Sea. 1999, December 3, Cyclone Anatol 2007, November 8–9, North Sea flood of 20072011, November 24–27, Cyclone Berit,2013, October 10, east coast of England surge, Environment Agency warning of minor flooding and disruption, tide passed without major flooding. ESurge Surge Event Database, North Sea Floods in the Netherlands Geography of Germany List of settlements lost to floods in the Netherlands Storm surge Munich Re Historical storm surge events
20.
Hindenburgdamm
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The Hindenburgdamm or Hindenburg Dam is an 11 km-long causeway joining the North Frisian island of Sylt to mainland Schleswig-Holstein. It was opened on 1 June 1927 and is exclusively a railway corridor, the companies that built the Hindenburgdamm, a job that took four years, were Philipp Holzmann AG of Frankfurt, working from the mainland, and Peter Fix Söhne of Duisburg working from Sylt. A train trip along the causeway takes about 10 minutes, the Hindenburgdamm is part of the railway line known as the Marschbahn, which is double-tracked along much of the route, although there as yet exists a single-tracked stretch. On the causeway is a signal box, every day, more than 100 trains pass over the causeway,50 of those ferrying cars. Each year, the railway ferries more than 450,000 vehicles over the causeway and this change in tides, it is believed, is part of what has led to the loss of a certain amount of land at Sylts southern end. The causeway lies in the specially protected Zone I of the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer National Park, walks on the tidal flats are not allowed here, although they are quite popular elsewhere. After the Second War of Schleswig in 1864, when Prussia took over Schleswig from Denmark, Sylt, the seaside bathing town of Westerland gradually grew in popularity. The west coast railway already ran from Altona by way of Husum, from here, the tracks were extended to the port at the Hoyerschleuse, whence paddlesteamers ran to Munkmarsch harbour on Sylt. The connection was at the tides mercy, and in winter, already being planned at that time was a rail causeway from the mainland to Nösse on Sylt. The horrendous cost of such a project kept it shelved for quite a while, westerlands growing popularity as a seaside resort led in 1910 to serious official planning for the rail causeway. World War I brought all planning to a stop, after the war, Germany was obliged to cede Tønder and the Hoyerschleuse to Denmark. Because of this situation, construction on the long planned causeway was finally begun by Philipp Holzmann in 1925. Early in the construction, a flood swept away what had already been built. After this experience, it was decided to realign the causeways route somewhat more towards the north, a trenchlike cofferdam was built to facilitate construction. One thousand to 1,500 workers were employed on the project, in the two years that it took to build the causeway, more than 3 million cubic metres of sand and clay were moved, and 120,000 tonnes of stones used. It was opened on 1 June 1927, the auto-train terminal in Niebüll is connected to the Autobahnen in Schleswig-Holstein by Federal Highways B5 and B199. On 3 September 2009, there was an accident on the Hindenburgdamm when a squall blew a truck off a flatcar in one of the auto-trains. The driver was out of the truck and died at the accident scene
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Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
22.
Morsum
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Morsum is a village on the North Sea island of Sylt in the district of Nordfriesland in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Today, it is an Ortsteil of the Gemeinde Sylt, Morsum is located close to the scientifically important geotope Morsum-Kliff and to the beginning of the Hindenburgdamm linking Sylt with the mainland. Morsum derives from settlement of Mar. Morsum was first mentioned in a document of 1462, until the 19th century, it was the most populous village on Sylt. In 1695, Morsum had 118 taxable dwellings, a school house was built in 1705. In 1927, Morsum was connected to the railway on the Niebüll-Westerland line, Morsum is a Ringdorf located on the Wadden Sea side of the island of Sylt. Morsum is the eastern-most village on Sylt and consists of the sub-villages Abort, Groß-Morsum, Klein-Morsum, Holm, Klampshörn, Nösse, Osterende, Schellinghörn, the total area is around 1,164 hectares. Morsum is located at the transition between higher lying geest and the marshes that, until the Nössedeich was constructed in 1936/37, were constantly threatened with flooding. Northeast of the lies the Morsum-Kliff. The use of the dialect, Sölring is still more prevalent in Morsum than in other parts of the island. Agriculture has always more important in Morsum than in the other villages on Sylt. Today, like elsewhere on Sylt, tourism is the dominant industry, since 1958, Morsum has held the status of Luftkurort. There are many traditional Uthland-Frisian houses and a number of craftspeople, the Romanesque church St. Martin is located a bit outside of the village centre on a slight elevation in the marshes. It was built in the early 13th century and thus, with St. Severin at Keitum, is one of the oldest surviving buildings on Sylt. During the Thirty Years War, the church was turned into a fortified church, St. Martin has no steeple or tower. The wooden bell tower is separate from the building itself. St. Martin features a 13th-century baptismal font and a 17th-century oaken pulpit, today, St. Martin is a Protestant church. Morsum Kliff has been described as one of the most important geological monuments in Germany and it stretches for around 1.8 kilometres along the northeastern coast and rises to a height of up to 21 metres. The Kliff and the nearby heath-covered area have been a nature preserve since 1923 and this prevented the planned use of the sand deposits in construction of the Hindenburgdamm
23.
Wadden Sea National Parks
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The Wadden Sea National Parks in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands are located along the German Bight of the North Sea. In Germany and Denmark they also mark the area of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Wadden Sea, divided from each other by administrative borders, they form a single ecological entity. The purpose of the parks is the protection of the Wadden Sea ecoregion
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Tide
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Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and the Sun and the rotation of the Earth. Some shorelines experience a semi-diurnal tide—two nearly equal high and low tides each day, other locations experience a diurnal tide—only one high and low tide each day. A mixed tide—two uneven tides a day, or one high, Tides vary on timescales ranging from hours to years due to a number of factors. To make accurate records, tide gauges at fixed stations measure water level over time, gauges ignore variations caused by waves with periods shorter than minutes. These data are compared to the level usually called mean sea level. Tidal phenomena are not limited to the oceans, but can occur in other systems whenever a gravitational field varies in time. For example, the part of the Earth is affected by tides. Tide changes proceed via the following stages, Sea level rises over several hours, covering the intertidal zone, the water rises to its highest level, reaching high tide. Sea level falls over several hours, revealing the intertidal zone, the water stops falling, reaching low tide. Oscillating currents produced by tides are known as tidal streams, the moment that the tidal current ceases is called slack water or slack tide. The tide then reverses direction and is said to be turning, slack water usually occurs near high water and low water. But there are locations where the moments of slack tide differ significantly from those of high, Tides are commonly semi-diurnal, or diurnal. The two high waters on a day are typically not the same height, these are the higher high water. Similarly, the two low waters each day are the low water and the lower low water. The daily inequality is not consistent and is small when the Moon is over the equator. From the highest level to the lowest, Highest Astronomical Tide – The highest tide which can be predicted to occur, note that meteorological conditions may add extra height to the HAT. Mean High Water Springs – The average of the two high tides on the days of spring tides, mean High Water Neaps – The average of the two high tides on the days of neap tides. Mean Sea Level – This is the sea level
25.
Spit (landform)
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A spit or sandspit is a deposition bar or beach landform found off coasts or lake shores. It develops in places where re-entrance occurs, such as at a coves headlands, the drift occurs due to waves meeting the beach at an oblique angle, moving sediment down the beach in a zigzag pattern. This is complemented by longshore currents, which further transport sediment through the water alongside the beach and these currents are caused by the same waves that cause the drift. Where the direction of the shore inland re-enters, or changes direction, for example at a headland, no longer able to carry the full load, much of the sediment is dropped. This submerged bar of sediment allows longshore drift or littoral drift to continue to transport sediment in the direction the waves are breaking, forming an above-water spit. Without the complementary process of littoral drift, the bar would not build above the surface of the becoming an spit. Spits occur when longshore drift reaches a section of headland where the turn is greater than 30 degrees, the spit will continue out into the sea until water pressure becomes too great to allow the sand to deposit. Vegetation may then start to grow on the spit, and the spit may become stable, a spit may be considered a special form of a shoal. As spits grow, the water behind them is sheltered from wind and waves, wave refraction can occur at the end of a spit, carrying sediment around the end to form a hook or recurved spit. Refraction in multiple directions may create a complex spit, waves that arrive in a direction other than obliquely along the spit will halt the growth of the spit, shorten it, or eventually destroy it entirely. The sediments that make up spits come from a variety of sources including rivers and eroding bluffs, activities such as logging and farming upstream can increase the sediment load of rivers, which may hurt the intertidal environments around spits by smothering delicate habitats. Roads or bulkheads built along bluffs can drastically reduce the volume of sediment eroded, if the supply of sediment is interrupted the sand at the neck of the spit may be moved towards the head, eventually creating an island. If the supply is not interrupted, and the spit is not breached by the sea, if an island lies offshore near where the coast changes direction, and the spit continues to grow until it connects the island to the mainland, it is called a tombolo. The end of an attached to land is called the proximal end. The longest spit in the world is the Arabat Spit in the Sea of Azov and it is approximately 110 kilometres long. The longest spit in a body of water is Long Point, Ontario. A well-known spit in the UK is Spurn Point at the mouth of the Humber River, the Curonian Spit, off the coast of Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea, it is 98 km long. In a similar fashion, the Vistula Spit separates the Vistula Lagoon from the Gdańsk Bay off the coast of Poland, the spit bends slightly west or east, changing its direction gradually, depending on the conditions of the tides and weather
26.
Sylt-Ost
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Sylt-Ost is a former municipality on the island of Sylt, in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It used to be the seat of the Amt Landschaft Sylt. However, following a referendum in May 2008, Sylt-Ost merged with Westerland, since 2009, the seat of the Amt Landschaft Sylt has been in Westerland. The former municipality Sylt-Ost was created five villages in 1970. 1986-1996, Heinz Maurus, CDU 1996-2005, Ingbert Liebing, CDU 2005-2008, Christoph Schmatloch, CDU2008, Erik Kennel Blazon, Per fess low or, above a sun rising in his splendour gules, accompanied by five eight-pointed mullets azure. Below a herring argent swimming to the left, the coat of arms was designed by a Sylt artist and granted in 2002. The five mullets in it symbolise the villages of the municipality, the herring is meant to depict the former importance of fishery for the area, it was already used as the seal of the Sylt bailiffs in the 17th century. The colours are the traditional North Frisian colours which are reflected in the islands national costume. The most important factor of income in the area is tourism, having been the most important sector prior to the arrival of the tourist business, agriculture today plays a minor role
27.
Geest
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Geest is a type of landform, slightly raised above the surrounding countryside, that occurs on the plains of Northern Germany, the Northern Netherlands and Denmark. The term geest is a substantivisation of the Low German adjective güst and it is an Old Drift landscape, characterised by the sandy depositions of the Ice Age. In the depressions between the flats are wet meadows and, where drainage is poor, bogs. Geest lands are made up of moraines and sandurs and they are almost always next to flat marshlands, the geest being higher and better protected against flood but, compared to the marsh, with poor soil for agriculture. Where the geest borders the sea directly, sand cliffs exist, the oldest settlements in Northern Germany and Denmark lie on geest, since it provided better protection against storm floods. Many important towns are on the boundary between geest and marshland where people could enjoy the flood-protection of the geest but still use the more fertile soil in the marsh. Examples of regions characterised by geest are, the Burgdorf-Peine Geest the Cloppenburg Geest near Cloppenburg the geest slopes between Wedel, Altona and Hamburg-Neustadt and between Hamburg-St
28.
Marsh
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A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species. Marshes can often be found at the edges of lakes and streams and they are often dominated by grasses, rushes or reeds. If woody plants are present they tend to be low-growing shrubs, Marshes provide a habitat for many species of plants, animals, and insects that have adapted to living in flooded conditions. The plants must be able to survive in wet mud with low oxygen levels, many of these plants therefore have aerenchyma, channels within the stem that allow air to move from the leaves into the rooting zone. Marsh plants also tend to have rhizomes for underground storage and reproduction, familiar examples include cattails, sedges, papyrus and sawgrass. Aquatic animals, from fish to salamanders, are able to live with a low amount of oxygen in the water. Some can obtain oxygen from the air instead, while others can live indefinitely in conditions of low oxygen, Marshes provide habitats for many kinds of invertebrates, fish, amphibians, waterfowl and aquatic mammals. Marshes have extremely high levels of production, some of the highest in the world. Marshes also improve water quality by acting as a sink to filter pollutants, Marshes are able to absorb water during periods of heavy rainfall and slowly release it into waterways and therefore reduce the magnitude of flooding. The pH in marshes tends to be neutral to alkaline, as opposed to bogs, Marshes differ depending mainly on their location and salinity. Both of these factors influence the range and scope of animal and plant life that can survive. The three main types of marsh are salt marshes, freshwater marshes, and freshwater marshes. These three can be found worldwide and each contains a different set of organisms, saltwater marshes are found around the world in mid to high latitudes, wherever there are sections of protected coastline. They are located close enough to the shoreline that the motion of the tides affects them and they flourish where the rate of sediment buildup is greater than the rate at which the land level is sinking. Salt marshes are dominated by specially adapted rooted vegetation, primarily salt-tolerant grasses, salt marshes are most commonly found in lagoons, estuaries, and on the sheltered side of shingle or sandspit. The currents there carry the fine particles around to the side of the spit. These locations allow the marshes to absorb the nutrients from the water running through them before they reach the oceans. Coastal development and urban sprawl has caused significant loss of these essential habitats, although considered a freshwater marsh, this form of marsh is affected by the ocean tides
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Moraine
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A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions on Earth, through geomorphological processes. Moraines are formed from debris previously carried along by a glacier, lateral moraines are formed at the side of the ice flow and terminal moraines at the foot, marking the maximum advance of the glacier. Other types of moraine include ground moraines, till-covered areas with irregular topography, moraines may be composed of debris ranging in size from silt-sized glacial flour to large boulders. The debris is typically sub-angular to rounded in shape, moraines may be on the glacier’s surface or deposited as piles or sheets of debris where the glacier has melted. Moraines may form through a number of processes, depending on the characteristics of sediment, the dynamics on the ice, moraine forming processes may be loosely divided into passive and active. Passive processes involve the placing of chaotic supraglacial sediments onto the landscape with limited reworking and these moraines are composed of supraglacial sediments from the ice surface. Active processes form or rework moraine sediment directly by the movement of ice and these form push moraines and thrust-block moraines, which are often composed of till and reworked proglacial sediment. Moraine may also form by the accumulation of sand and gravel deposits from glacial streams emanating from the ice margin and these fan deposits may coalesce to form a long moraine bank marking the ice margin. Several processes may combine to form and rework a single moraine, moraines can be classified either by origin, location with respect to a glacier or former glacier, or by shape. Some moraine types are only from ancient glaciers, while medial moraines of valley glaciers are poorly preserved. Lateral moraines are parallel ridges of debris deposited along the sides of a glacier, the unconsolidated debris can be deposited on top of the glacier by frost shattering of the valley walls and/or from tributary streams flowing into the valley. The till is carried along the glacial margin until the glacier melts, lateral moraines stand high because they protect the ice under them from the elements, causing it to melt or sublime less than the uncovered parts of the glacier. Multiple lateral moraines may develop as the glacier advances and retreats, ground moraines are till-covered areas with irregular topography and no ridges, often forming gently rolling hills or plains. They are accumulated at the base of the ice as lodgment till, in alpine glaciers, ground moraines are often found between the two lateral moraines. Ground moraines may be modified into drumlins by the overriding ice, Rogen moraines or ribbed moraines are a type of basal moraines that form a series of ribs perpendicular to the ice flow in an ice sheet. The depressions between the ribs are sometimes filled with water, making the Rogen moraines look like tigerstripes on aerial photographs, Rogen moraines are named after Lake Rogen in Härjedalen, Sweden, the landform’s type locality. End moraines, or terminal moraines, are ridges of unconsolidated debris deposited at the snout or end of the glacier and they usually reflect the shape of the glaciers terminus. Glaciers act much like a belt, carrying debris from the top of the glacier to the bottom where it deposits it in end moraines
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Quaternary glaciation
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During this period, ice sheets expanded, notably from out of Antarctica and Greenland, and fluctuating ice sheets occurred elsewhere. It affected oceans, flooding, and biological communities, the ice sheets themselves, by raising the albedo, affect a major feedback on climate cooling. The Quaternary glaciation was the first ice age to be demonstrated in geology and this was done over the 1700s and 1800s CE. Over the last century, extensive field observations have provided evidence that continental glaciers covered large parts of Europe, North America, even before the theory of worldwide glaciation was generally accepted, many observers recognized that more than a single advance and retreat of the ice had occurred. Since then other, earlier ice ages have been identified, the Quaternary glaciation is the last of five known glaciations during Earths history. The other four are the Huronian glaciation, Cryogenian, Andean-Saharan glaciation, over the past 740,000 years there have been eight glacial cycles. The entire Quaternary Period, starting 2.58 Ma, is referred to as an ice age because at least one permanent large ice sheet—the Antarctic ice sheet—has existed continuously, there is uncertainty over how much of Greenland was covered by ice during the previous and earlier interglacials. During the colder episodes—referred to as glacial ice sheets at least 4 km thick at their maximum also existed in Europe, North America. The shorter and warmer intervals between glacials are referred to as interglacials, currently, Earth is in an interglacial period, which marked the beginning of the Holocene epoch. The current interglacial began between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago, which caused the ice sheets from the last glacial period to begin to disappear. Remnants of these last glaciers, now occupying about 10% of the land surface, still exist in Greenland, Antarctica. During the glacial periods, the present hydrologic system was completely interrupted throughout large areas of the world and was modified in others. Due to the volume of ice on land, sea level was approximately 120 meters lower than present, extensive evidence now shows that a number of periods of growth and retreat of continental glaciers occurred during the ice age, called glacials and interglacials. The interglacial periods of climate are represented by buried soil profiles, peat beds. No completely satisfactory theory has been proposed to account for Earths history of glaciation, the cause of glaciation may be related to several simultaneous factors, such as astronomical cycles, atmospheric composition, plate tectonics, and ocean currents. The role of Earths orbital changes in controlling climate was first advanced by James Croll in the late 19th century, later, Milutin Milanković, a Serbian geophysicist, elaborated on the theory and calculated these irregularities in Earths orbit could cause the climatic cycles known as Milankovitch cycles. They are the result of the behavior of several types of cyclical changes in Earths orbital properties. Changes in the eccentricity of Earth occur on a cycle of about 100,000 years
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Till
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Till or glacial till is unsorted glacial sediment. Till is derived from the erosion and entrainment of material by the ice of a glacier. It is deposited some distance down-ice to form terminal, lateral, medial, till is classified into primary deposits, laid down directly by glaciers, and secondary deposits, reworked by fluvial transport and other processes. Glacial drift is the graded and extremely heterogeneous sediment of a glacier. Its content may vary from clays to mixtures of clay, sand, gravel and this material is mostly derived from the subglacial erosion and entrainment by the moving ice of the glaciers of previously available unconsolidated sediments. Bedrock can also be eroded through the action of glacial plucking and abrasion, eventually, the sedimentary assemblage forming this bed will be abandoned some distance down-ice from its various sources. This is the process of glacial till deposition, when this deposition occurs at the base of the moving ice of a glacier, the sediment is called lodgement till. Rarely, eroded unconsolidated sediments can be preserved in the till along with their original sedimentary structures, till is deposited at the terminal moraine, along the lateral and medial moraines and in the ground moraine of a glacier. Prospectors use trace minerals in tills as clues to follow the glacier upstream to find kimberlite diamond deposits, in cases where till has been indurated or lithified by subsequent burial into solid rock, it is known as the sedimentary rock tillite. Matching beds of ancient tillites on opposite sides of the south Atlantic Ocean provided early evidence for continental drift, the same tillites also provide some support to the Precambrian Snowball Earth glaciation event hypothesis. There are various types of classifying tills, primary deposits – laid down directly by glacier action secondary deposits – reworked by fluvial transport, erosion, traditionally a further set of divisions has been made to primary deposits, based upon the method of deposition. Lodgement tills – sediment which has been deposited by plastering of glacial debris from a sliding glacier bed, deformation tills – Sediment which has been disaggregated and homogenised by shearing in the sub glacial deformed layer. Melt out tills – Released by melting of stagnant or slowly moving debris-rich glacier ice, split up into sub glacial melt out till and supraglacial melt-out till. Sublimation till – similar to melt out till, except the ice is lost through sublimation rather than melt, often occurs only in extremely cold and arid conditions, mainly in Antarctica. Van der Meer et al.2003 have suggested that these classifications are outdated and should instead be replaced with only one classification
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Erosion
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In earth science, erosion is the action of surface processes that remove soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earths crust, then transport it away to another location. Eroded sediment or solutes may be transported just a few millimetres, the rates at which such processes act control how fast a surface is eroded. Feedbacks are also possible between rates of erosion and the amount of eroded material that is carried by, for example. Processes of erosion that produce sediment or solutes from a place contrast with those of deposition, while erosion is a natural process, human activities have increased by 10-40 times the rate at which erosion is occurring globally. At well-known agriculture sites such as the Appalachian Mountains, intensive farming practices have caused erosion up to 100x the speed of the rate of erosion in the region. Excessive erosion causes both on-site and off-site problems, on-site impacts include decreases in agricultural productivity and ecological collapse, both because of loss of the nutrient-rich upper soil layers. In some cases, the end result is desertification. Off-site effects include sedimentation of waterways and eutrophication of bodies, as well as sediment-related damage to roads. Intensive agriculture, deforestation, roads, anthropogenic climate change and urban sprawl are amongst the most significant human activities in regard to their effect on stimulating erosion, however, there are many prevention and remediation practices that can curtail or limit erosion of vulnerable soils. Rainfall, and the surface runoff which may result from rainfall, produces four types of soil erosion, splash erosion, sheet erosion, rill erosion. Splash erosion is generally seen as the first and least severe stage in the erosion process. In splash erosion, the impact of a falling raindrop creates a crater in the soil. The distance these soil particles travel can be as much as 0.6 m vertically and 1.5 m horizontally on level ground. If the soil is saturated, or if the rate is greater than the rate at which water can infiltrate into the soil. If the runoff has sufficient flow energy, it will transport loosened soil particles down the slope, sheet erosion is the transport of loosened soil particles by overland flow. Rill erosion refers to the development of small, ephemeral concentrated flow paths which function as both sediment source and sediment delivery systems for erosion on hillslopes, generally, where water erosion rates on disturbed upland areas are greatest, rills are active. Flow depths in rills are typically of the order of a few centimetres or less and this means that rills exhibit hydraulic physics very different from water flowing through the deeper, wider channels of streams and rivers. Gully erosion occurs when water accumulates and rapidly flows in narrow channels during or immediately after heavy rains or melting snow
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Sediment
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For sediment in beverages, see dregs. For example, sand and silt can be carried in suspension in water and on reaching the sea be deposited by sedimentation. Sediments are most often transported by water, but also wind, beach sands and river channel deposits are examples of fluvial transport and deposition, though sediment also often settles out of slow-moving or standing water in lakes and oceans. Desert sand dunes and loess are examples of transport and deposition. Glacial moraine deposits and till are ice-transported sediments, sediment can be classified based on its grain size and/or its composition. Sediment size is measured on a log base 2 scale, called the Phi scale, composition of sediment can be measured in terms of, parent rock lithology mineral composition chemical make-up. This leads to an ambiguity in which clay can be used as both a size-range and a composition, sediment is transported based on the strength of the flow that carries it and its own size, volume, density, and shape. Stronger flows will increase the lift and drag on the particle, causing it to rise, rivers and streams carry sediment in their flows. This sediment can be in a variety of locations within the flow and these relationships are shown in the following table for the Rouse number, which is a ratio of sediment fall velocity to upwards velocity. If the upwards velocity is less than the settling velocity, but still high enough for the sediment to move, it will move along the bed as bed load by rolling, sliding. If the upwards velocity is higher than the velocity, the sediment will be transported high in the flow as wash load. As there are generally a range of different particle sizes in the flow, sediment motion can create self-organized structures such as ripples, dunes, antidunes on the river or stream bed. These bedforms are often preserved in rocks and can be used to estimate the direction. Overland flow can erode soil particles and transport them downslope, the erosion associated with overland flow may occur through different methods depending on meteorological and flow conditions. If the initial impact of rain droplets dislodges soil, the phenomenon is called rainsplash erosion, if overland flow is directly responsible for sediment entrainment but does not form gullies, it is called sheet erosion. If the flow and the substrate permit channelization, gullies may form, glaciers carry a wide range of sediment sizes, and deposit it in moraines. The overall balance between sediment in transport and sediment being deposited on the bed is given by the Exner equation and this expression states that the rate of increase in bed elevation due to deposition is proportional to the amount of sediment that falls out of the flow. This can be localized, and simply due to obstacles, examples are scour holes behind boulders, where flow accelerates
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Creek (tidal)
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A tidal creek, tidal channel, or estuary is the portion of a stream that is affected by ebb and flow of ocean tides, in the case that the subject stream discharges to an ocean, sea or strait. Thus this portion of the stream has variable salinity and electrical conductivity over the tidal cycle, due to the temporal variability of water quality parameters within the tidally influenced zone, there are unique biota associated with tidal creeks, which biota are often specialised to such zones. Creeks may often dry to a channel with little or no flow at low tide. In British English and in other countries in the Commonwealth, as well as some parts of the United States. In parts of southwest England and Wales, the pill is used. On the India and Pakistan borders the term applies to the salt water inlets enclosed by mangroves. Creeks are found dispersed all along the Indian coast, in the Florida Keys, a creek is a narrow channel between islands. There are thousands of examples of tidal creeks throughout the world
35.
Little Ice Age
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The Little Ice Age was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period. Although it was not an ice age, the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. It has been defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period, which varied according to local conditions. The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals, one beginning about 1650, another about 1770, and the last in 1850, at most, there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period. Hemispherically, the Little Ice Age can only be considered as a modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during this period of less than 1°C relative to late twentieth century levels. The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 discusses more recent research and it states that when viewed together, the currently available reconstructions indicate generally greater variability in centennial time scale trends over the last 1 kyr than was apparent in the TAR. Given that the confidence levels surrounding all of the reconstructions are wide, the major differences between the various proxy reconstructions relate to the magnitude of past cool excursions, principally during the twelfth to fourteenth, seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. There is no consensus regarding the time when the Little Ice Age began, in the 13th century, pack ice began advancing southwards in the North Atlantic, as did glaciers in Greenland. Anecdotal evidence suggests expanding glaciers almost worldwide, in contrast, a climate reconstruction based on glacial length shows no great variation from 1600 to 1850 but strong retreat thereafter. The Little Ice Age ended in the half of the 19th century or early in the 20th century. The Little Ice Age brought colder winters to parts of Europe, farms and villages in the Swiss Alps were destroyed by encroaching glaciers during the mid-17th century. Canals and rivers in Great Britain and the Netherlands were frequently frozen deeply enough to support ice skating, freezing of the Golden Horn and the southern section of the Bosphorus took place in 1622. In 1658, a Swedish army marched across the Great Belt to Denmark to attack Copenhagen, Sea ice surrounding Iceland extended for miles in every direction, closing harbors to shipping. The population of Iceland fell by half, but that may have been caused by skeletal fluorosis after the eruption of Laki in 1783, Iceland also suffered failures of cereal crops and people moved away from a grain-based diet. Greenland was largely cut off by ice from 1410 to the 1720s, in Lisbon, Portugal, snowstorms were much more frequent than today, one winter in the 17th century produced eight snowstorms. Many springs and summers were cold and wet but with great variability between years and groups of years, crop practices throughout Europe had to be altered to adapt to the shortened, less reliable growing season, and there were many years of dearth and famine. According to Elizabeth Ewan and Janay Nugent, Famines in France 1693–94, Norway 1695–96, in Estonia and Finland in 1696–97, losses have been estimated at a fifth and a third of the national populations, respectively
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Ammophila (plant)
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Ammophila is a genus of flowering plants consisting of two or three very similar species of grasses. The common names for these grasses include marram grass, bent grass and these grasses are found almost exclusively on the first line of coastal sand dunes. Their extensive systems of creeping underground stems or rhizomes allow them to thrive under conditions of shifting sands and high winds, Ammophila species are native to the coasts of the North Atlantic Ocean where they are usually the dominant species on sand dunes. Their native range includes few inland regions, with the Great Lakes of North America being the main exception, the genus name Ammophila originates from the Greek words ἄμμος, meaning sand, and ϕιλος, meaning lover. The Ammophila grasses are known as examples of xerophytes, plants that can withstand dry conditions. Despite their occurrence on seacoasts, Ammophila grasses are not particularly tolerant of soils, they can tolerate a salinity of about 15 g/l. Ammophila builds coastal sand dunes and thus stabilizes the sand, for this reason, the plants have been introduced far from their native range. Ammophila species were introduced in the late 19th century on the Pacific coast of North America as well, in essentially all of the locations where they have been introduced, Ammophila plants are now listed as invasive, and costly efforts are underway to eradicate them. Only two species seem incontrovertible, A. arenaria and A. breviligulata, two other species have been proposed, and are discussed below. A. arenaria - European marram grass or European beachgrass, native to coasts of Europe and northwest Africa. Inflorescence to 25 cm long, broad, a. baltica has now been identified as a hybrid between A. arenaria and Calamagrostis epigejos. The hybrid occurs in parts of northern Europe, mainly from the Baltic Sea west to eastern England, a. breviligulata - American marram grass or American beachgrass. Native to coasts of eastern North America, including the shores of the Great Lakes, inflorescence to 30 cm long, narrower than A. arenaria. A. champlainensis or A. breviligulata ssp. champlainensis - Champlain beachgrass, native to shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Champlain. Inflorescence to 22 cm long, very similar to A. breviligulata, marram grass is strongly associated with two coastal plant community types in the British National Vegetation Classification. In community SD6 Ammophila is the dominant species, in the semi-fixed dunes, where the quantity of blown sand is declining Ammophila becomes less competitive, and other species, notably Festuca rubra become prominent. The ability of marram grass to grow on and bind sand makes it a plant in the stabilization of coastal dunes. The usefulness was recognized in the late 18th century, on the North Sea coast of Jutland, Denmark, marram grass was traditionally much used for fuel, thatch, cattle fodder etc
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Geotextile
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Geotextiles are permeable fabrics which, when used in association with soil, have the ability to separate, filter, reinforce, protect, or drain. Typically made from polypropylene or polyester, geotextile fabrics come in three forms, woven, needle punched, or heat bonded. Geotextile composites have been introduced and products such as geogrids and meshes have been developed, Geotextiles were originally intended to be an alternative to granular soil filters. The original, and still used, term for geotextiles is filter fabrics. He used different styles of woven monofilament fabrics, all characterized by a high percentage open area. He discussed the need for both adequate permeability and soil retention, along with adequate strength and proper elongation and set the tone for geotextile use in filtration situations. Usually geotextiles are placed at the surface to strengthen the soil. Geotextiles are also used for sand dune armoring to protect upland coastal property from storm surge, wave action, a large sand-filled container within the dune system prevents storm erosion from proceeding beyond the SFC. Using a sloped unit rather than a single tube eliminates damaging scour, erosion control manuals comment on the effectiveness of sloped, stepped shapes in mitigating shoreline erosion damage from storms. Geotextile sand-filled units provide a soft armoring solution for upland property protection, Geotextiles are used as matting to stabilize flow in stream channels and swales. Geotextiles can improve soil strength at a lower cost than conventional soil nailing, in addition, geotextiles allow planting on steep slopes, further securing the slope. Geotextiles have been used to protect the fossil footprints of Laetoli in Tanzania from erosion, rain. In building demolition, geotextile fabrics in combination with wire fencing can contain explosive debris. Coir geotextiles are popular for erosion control, slope stabilization and bioengineering, coir geotextiles last approximately 3 to 5 years depending on the fabric weight. The product degrades into humus, enriching the soil, hard landscape materials Sediment control Koerner, R. M. Designing With Geosynthetics, 6th Edition, Xlibris Publishing Co.914 pgs. Geotextiles, From Design to Applications, Woodhead Publishing Co, john, N. W. M. Geotextiles, Blackie Publishing Ltd
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Coastal management
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Coastal management is defense against flooding and erosion, and techniques that stop erosion to claim lands. Coastal zones occupy less than 15% of the Earths land area, nearly 1.2 billion people live within 100 km of a shoreline and 100 m of sea level, with an average density nearly 3 times higher than the global average for population. With three-quarters of the population expected to reside in the coastal zone by 2025. Coastal zones contain rich resources to produce goods and services and are home to most commercial and industrial activities, in the European Union, almost half of the population lives within 50 kilometres of the sea and coastal resources produce much of the Unions economic wealth. The fishing, shipping and tourism industries all compete for space along Europes estimated 89,000 km of coastline, Protection against sea level rise in the 21st century will be especially important, as sea level rise accelerates. Changes in sea level damage beaches and coastal systems, Coastal sediments are disturbed and suspended by wave and tide energy. Coastal engineering of harbours began with the origin of maritime traffic, docks, breakwaters and other harbour works were built by hand, often in a grand scale. Ancient harbour works are still visible, most of the grander ancient harbor works disappeared following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Most coastal efforts were directed to port structures, venice and its lagoon is an example of measures not related to ports. Protection of the shore in Italy, England and the Netherlands began in the 6th century or earlier, the ancients understood phenomena such as Mediterranean currents and wind patterns and the wind-wave cause-effect link. The Romans introduced many innovations in harbor design and they built walls underwater and constructed solid breakwaters. In some cases wave reflection was used to prevent silting and they used surface-height breakwaters to trip the waves before they reached the main breakwater. They were the first dredgers in the Netherlands to maintain the harbour at Velsen, silting problems there were solved when the previously sealed solid piers were replaced with new open-piled jetties. Attack from the sea caused many coastal towns and their harbours to be abandoned, other harbours were lost due to natural causes such as rapid silting, shoreline advance or retreat, etc. The Venetian Lagoon was one of the few populated areas with continuous prosperity. Little improvement took place beyond the Roman approach to harbour construction after the Renaissance, prior to the 1950s, the general practice was to use hard structures to protect against beach erosion or storm damages. These structures included seawalls and revetments or sand-trapping structures such as groynes, during the 1920s and 30s, private or local community interests protected many coastal areas using these techniques on an ad hoc basis. In certain resort areas, structures proliferated to such an extent that the protection impeded recreational uses, erosion continued, but the structures remained, resulting in a loss of beach area
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Groyne
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A groyne is a rigid hydraulic structure built from an ocean shore or from a bank that interrupts water flow and limits the movement of sediment. It is usually out of wood, concrete or stone. In the ocean, groynes create beaches or prevent them being washed away by longshore drift, in a river, groynes prevent erosion and ice-jamming, which in turn aids navigation. Ocean groynes run generally perpendicular to the shore, extending from the foreshore or beach into the water. All of a groyne may be water, in which case it is a submerged groyne. The areas between groups of groynes are groyne fields, Groynes are generally placed in groups. They are often used in tandem with seawalls, Groynes, however, may cause a shoreline to be perceived as unnatural. A groynes length and elevation, and the spacing between groynes is determined according to local energy and beach slope. Groynes that are too long or too high tend to accelerate downdrift erosion, Groynes that are too short, too low, or too permeable are ineffective because they trap too little sediment. If a groyne does not extend far enough landward, water may flow past the end and erode a channel bypassing the groyne. A groyne creates and maintains a wide area of beach or sediment on its updrift side and it is a physical barrier to stop sediment transport in the direction of longshore drift. This causes a build-up, which is accompanied by accelerated erosion of the downdrift beach. Groynes add sediment to the beach by capturing downward drift, however, this can cause severe erosion on shorelines downstream from the groyne. If a groyne is correctly designed, then the amount of material it can hold will be limited, however, if a groyne is too large it may trap too much sediment, which can cause severe beach erosion on the down-drift side. River groynes are often constructed nearly perpendicular to the riverbanks, beginning at a riverbank with a root and they maintain a channel to prevent ice jamming, and more generally improve navigation and control over lateral erosion, that would form from meanders. Groynes have a impact on the river morphology, they cause autonomous degradation of the river. They are also used bridges to prevent bridge scour. Groynes can be distinguished by how they are constructed, whether they are submerged, Groynes can be permeable, allowing the water to flow through at reduced velocities, or impermeable, blocking and deflecting the current
40.
Windward and leeward
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Windward is the direction upwind from the point of reference. Leeward is the direction downwind from the point of reference, the side of a ship that is towards the leeward is its lee side. If the vessel is heeling under the pressure of the wind, during the age of sail, the term weather was used as a synonym for windward in some contexts, as in the weather gage. Windward and leeward directions are important factors to consider when sailing a sailing ship, other terms with broadly the same meaning are widely used, particularly upwind and downwind. The windward vessel is normally the more maneuverable vessel, for this reason, rule 12 of the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea stipulates that the windward vessel gives way to the leeward vessel. The opposing warship to leeward could often do little but comply without exposing itself unduly and this was particularly important once artillery was introduced to naval warfare. The ships heeled away from the wind so that the vessel was exposing part of her bottom to shot. Leeward and windward refer respectively to what a game stalker would call downwind and upwind, the terms are used by seamen in relation to their ships but also in reference to islands in an archipelago and to the different sides of a single island. In the latter case, the side is that side of an island subject to the prevailing wind. The leeward side is the side protected by the elevation of the island from the prevailing wind, thus, leeward or windward siting is an important weather and climate factor on oceanic islands. In the case of an archipelago, windward islands are upwind and leeward islands are the downwind ones
41.
Tetrapod (structure)
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In coastal engineering, a tetrapod is a tetrahedral concrete structure used as armour unit on breakwaters. Earlier barrier material used in breakwaters, such as boulders and conventional concrete blocks, Tetrapods and similar structures are often numbered so any displacement that occurs can be monitored from photographs. The unit was developed in 1950 by Laboratoire Dauphinois dHydraulique in Grenoble. They are no longer protected by a patent, and are used all over the world. In Japan, the word tetrapod is often used as a name for wave-dissipating blocks including other types and shapes. Tetrapods and concrete have become a Japanese institution in modern times and their manufacture and dispersal create jobs for Japanese citizens and contracts for construction companies. It is estimated that nearly 50 percent of Japans 35,000 kilometer coastline has been covered or somehow altered by Tetrapods, artificial reef Breakwater Coastal management Coastal erosion Dolos KOLOS Ocean surface wave Seawall Xbloc Lagasse, P. F. Countermeasures to protect bridge piers from scour, Environmentally friendly coastal protection, proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Environmentally Friendly Coastal Protection Structures, Varna, Bulgaria, 25-27 May 2004. Tetrapodistas, Beauty beheld in huge concrete forms, loving and Loathing Japans Concrete Coasts, Where Tetrapods Reign
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Dredging
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Dredging is an excavation activity usually carried out underwater, in shallow seas or freshwater areas with the purpose of gathering up bottom sediments and disposing of them at a different location. This technique is used to keep waterways navigable. It is also used as a way to replenish sand on some public beaches, fishing dredges are used as a technique for catching certain species of edible clams and crabs. Capital, dredging carried out to create a new harbor, berth or waterway, preparatory, work and excavation for future bridges, piers or docks/wharves, often connected with foundation work. This is often carried out with a trailing suction hopper dredge, most dredging is for this purpose, and it may also be done to maintain the holding capacity of reservoirs or lakes. Land reclamation, dredging to mine sand, clay or rock from the seabed and this is typically performed by a cutter-suction dredge or trailing suction hopper dredge. The material may also be used for flood or erosion control, beach nourishment, mining sand offshore and placing on a beach to replace sand eroded by storms or wave action. This is done to enhance the recreational and protective function of the beaches and this is typically performed by a cutter-suction dredge or trailing suction hopper dredge. Harvesting materials, dredging sediment for elements like gold, diamonds or other valuable trace substances, seabed mining, a possible future use, recovering natural metal ore nodules from the seas abyssal plains. Construction materials, dredging sand and gravels from offshore licensed areas for use in construction industry, very specialist industry focused in NW Europe using specialized trailing suction hopper dredgers self discharging dry cargo ashore. Anti-eutrophication, Dredging is an option for the remediation of eutrophied water bodies. Contaminant remediation, to areas affected by chemical spills, storm water surges. Disposal becomes a large factor in these operations. Removing trash and debris, often done in combination with maintenance dredging, flood prevention, this can help to increase channel depth and therefore increase a channels capacity for carrying water. This tradition has now more or less obsolete and the tools used to do this have also changed significantly. Oyster dredging or harvesting, in Louisiana and other states with salt water estuaries that can sustain bottom oyster beds. A heavy metal rectangular scoop device is towed astern of a boat with a chain bridle attached to a cable. The device is periodically hauled aboard and the oysters in it are sorted and bagged for shipment to a processing facility
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Sylt travel guide from Wikivoyage
