Uluru (Ayers Rock) - Australia

Uluru, also referred to as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia. It lies 335 km (208 mi) south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs; 450 km (280 mi) by road. Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and Uluru are the two major features of the Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park. Uluru is sacred to the Pitjantjatjara and

Mackenzie River - Canada

The Mackenzie River originates in Great Slave Lake, in the Northwest Territories, and flows north into the Arctic Ocean. It is the longest river in Canada at 1,738 km and, together with its headstreams the Peace and the Finlay, the second longest river in North America at 4,241 km in length. The Mackenzie and its tributaries drain 1,805,200 square kilometers. Its mean discharge is 9,700 cubic

Oasis in Morocco

Oases are formed from underground rivers or aquifers such as an artesian aquifer, where water can reach the surface naturally by pressure or by man made wells. Occasional brief thunderstorms provide subterranean water to sustain natural oases, such as the Tuat. Substrata of impermeable rock and stone can trap water and retain it in pockets; or on long faulting subsurface ridges or volcanic dikes

The most dangerous beaches

A beach vacation usually conjures up images of lying on white sand relaxing not dicing with death but Forbes.com has come up with a list of the world's most dangerous beaches. Strong currents and deadly jellyfish are among the dangers that spring to mind but the biggest fear is sharks, according to Stephen P. Leatherman of the International Hurricane Research Center & Laboratory for Coastal

The Time Is Now, Climate Experts Warn

Earlier this week, renowned NASA climate scientist James Hansen warned Congress of the dangers of climate change, exactly 20 years after he did so for the first time. The message he delivered was almost the same as it was in 1988, but there was one key difference: "The difference is that now we have used up all slack in the schedule for actions needed to defuse the global warming time bomb," he

Top 10 unusual places to stay

From converted train cars to converted prisons, travel Web site VirtualTourist.com has come up with its picks of the 10 most unusual places to stay. "With limited vacation time, there's no reason your lodging shouldn't be part of the travel experience," said VirtualTourist.com general manager Giampiero Ambrosi. 1. Edisto River Treehouses -

First hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic storm season - Hurricane Bertha

Hurricane Bertha strengthened again into a Category 2 storm on Wednesday as it inched closer to Bermuda, but it remained uncertain whether the hurricane would actually strike the British mid-Atlantic colony, U.S. forecasters said.The first hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic storm season surprised forecasters with the speed and vigor at which it strengthened into a "major" Category 3 hurricane on

Beautiful Lake Western Brook in Canada

The Western Brook Pond is a Canadian fjord or lake located in Gros Morne National Park on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland. It is in the Long Range Mountains, the most northern section of the Appalachian Mountains. It is surrounded by steep rock walls 600 m (2,000 ft) high., having been carved from the surrounding plateau by glaciers. After the glaciers melted, the land rebounded and

Sacred sites of Bali

The island of Bali is geographically located about 8 degrees south of the equator and about 18 degrees north of the western end of Australia. One of the thousands of islands that make up the Indonesian archipelago, Bali is a relatively small island with an area of only 2147 square miles (5633 sq. kilometers). Originally inhabited by aboriginal peoples of uncertain origin, Bali was colonized by a

Most beautiful beaches in Dubai

I would add Dubai beaches to the best beaches in the world list. Dubai has a few magnificent white sandy beaches. Water is crystal clear. So if you are a beach lover then you will love Dubai beaches.My favourite Dubai beaches are Jumeirah beach and Mamzar park beach.Jumeirah BeachJumeirah is about 25 minutes drive from the Dubai city centre. Jumeirah beach is world famous because of Burj Al Arab

Arctic ice melting at record speed

Tens of thousands of years ago, "armadas of ice" crumbled off of the ice sheet covering North America into the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away on the other side of the continent, icebergs calved off of another ice sheet into the Pacific. Their synchrony -- just uncovered by new research -- suggests the events might be connected in a long-distance domino effect. The fact that

Vatnajokull - Iceland

Vatnajökull is the largest glacier in Iceland. It is located in the south-east of the island, covering more than 8% of the country. With a size of 8,100 km², it is the largest glacier in Europe in volume (almost 3,000 km²) and the second largest (after Austfonna on Nordaustlandet, Svalbard) in area (not counting the still larger ice cap of Severny Island of Novaya Zemlya, Russia, which is

Antigua and Barbuda - Paradise on Earth

All the signs pointed towards Antigua. The island had warm, steady winds, a complex coastline of safe harbors, and a protective, nearly unbroken wall of coral reef. It would make a perfect place to hide a fleet. And so in 1784 the legendary Admiral Horatio Nelson sailed to Antigua and established Great Britain's most important

Beautiful island Ailsa Craig in Scotland

Ailsa Craig is an island in the outer Firth of Clyde, Scotland where granite was quarried to make curling stones. "Ailsa" is pronounced "ale-sa", with the first syllable stressed.The island is located approximately 16 km (10 miles) west of Girvan. 2 miles in circumference and rising to 338 metres, the island consists entirely of a volcanic plug of an extinct volcano that might have been active

Karnak temple - Egypt

The Karnak temple complex, universally known only as Karnak, describes a vast conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings. It is located near Luxor in Egypt. This was ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut ("The Most Selected of Places"), the main place of worship of the Theban Triad with Amun as its head, in the monumental city of Thebes. The complex retrieves its current name from

When volcano gets angry

A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or crust, which allows hot, molten rock, ash, and gases to escape from below the surface. Volcanic activity involving the extrusion of rock tends to form mountains or features like mountains over a period of time. Volcanoes are generally found where tectonic plates are pulled apart or come together. A mid-oceanic ridge, for example the

Hawaii sunset

The State of Hawaii is a state in the United States, located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. The state was admitted to the Union on August 21, 1959, making it the 50th state. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oahu. The most recent census puts the state's population at 1,211,537.

Krakatoa eruption 1883

Krakatoa , also spelled Krakatao or Krakatowa, is a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. The name is used for the island group, the main island (also called Rakata), and the volcano as a whole. It has erupted repeatedly, massively, and with disastrous consequences throughout recorded history. The best known eruption culminated in a series of massive

Valley of the Kings - Egypt

The Valley of the Kings is a valley in Egypt where for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century BC, tombs were constructed for the kings and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom (the Eighteenth through Twentieth Dynasties of Ancient Egypt). The valley stands on the west bank of the Nile, across from Thebes (modern Luxor), within the heart of the Theban Necropolis. The wadi

Rising Mississippi River threatens Midwestern towns

A small Illinois town was evacuated this morning after a levee breach along the Mississippi River. About 50 people in Meyer, Ill., have had to leave their homes. The evacuation order is likely not the last in Illinois or in neighbouring states. Towns along the Mississippi River were bracing for more floods Wednesday. The Mississippi broke through a levee near Gulfport, Ill., Tuesday, covering

Biggest Animals on Earth

In the Animal kingdom, size is a big factor in the battle for survival. For these large animals, predators are scarce but illegal hunting activities reduce their number considerably. Contrary to many expectations, the largest animal on Earth was not a dinosaur. The largest known to man was more than half the size of a blue whale. Here are the superlatives in terms of size for the wild.Biggest

Ténéré desert - Niger

The Ténéré is a desert region in the south central Sahara. It comprises a vast plain of sand stretching from northeastern Niger into western Chad, occupying an area of over 154,440 square miles (400,000 km²). Its boundaries are conventionally said to be the Aïr Mountains in the west, the Ahaggar Mountains in the north, the Djado Plateau in the northeast, the Tibesti Mountains in the east, and the

Sunset at Santorini

In the evening hordes of people arrive simply to watch its sunset. Every available seat, wall, step or patch of ground is occupied and picnicking while watching the sunset is almost de rigueur. A common method for enjoying the sunset is to take one of the boat charters from the docks at Thira. After visiting the volcano in the middle of the caldera, the boat will visit the opposite island for a

Los Glaciares National Park - Argentina

Parque Nacional Los Glaciares is a national park in the Santa Cruz Province, in Argentine Patagonia. It comprises an area of 4459 km². In 1981 it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The national park, created in 1937, is the second largest in Argentina. Its name refers to the giant ice cap in the Andes range that feeds 47 large glaciers, of which only 13 flow towards the Atlantic Ocean

Three Days in Beijing - What to See with Three Days in Beijing, Capital of China

Introduction to Beijing and TouringBeijing Overview: Beijing is getting a facelift for the 2008 Olympics - you'll be amazed at the amount of construction going on in the city. But in between the jackhammers and cranes, you'll find some of China's most historic and beautiful national treasures. You could spend weeks seeing all there is to see in Beijing, but if you only have a few days, make the

The 10 Rarest Animals in the World

Endangered, hunted, smuggled and now some would say abandoned, these animals have the smallest chances of recovery out off all the Earth’s creatures. Last year, studies shown that there are at least 35 different animals with world populations of under 1000. But which are the rarest, the animals on the brink of extinction? We have rounded up a list of 10 of the rarest animals in the wild. These

Hawaii hopes to boost tourism with $3 million campaign

HONOLULU (AP) — The Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau has launched a $3 million advertising campaign aimed at luring travelers amid a sagging economy and major cutbacks in the airline industry. The recently launched campaign highlights discounted air and hotel packages to convince Americans that they can still afford to come to Hawaii despite rising travel costs. The ads have begun appearing on

Beautifull beach in Minnajima - Japan

Okinawa Prefecture is one of Japan's southern prefectures, and consists of hundreds of the Ryukyu Islands in a chain over 1,000 km long, which extends southwest from Kyūshū (the southwesternmost of Japan's main four islands) to Taiwan. Okinawa's capital, Naha, is located in the southern part of the largest and most populous island, Okinawa Island, which is approximately half-way between Kyūshū

Before & After: 3rd Largest Rain Forest Vanishing Fast

Satellite images show Papua New Guinea's Gulf Province rain forest intact in 1988 (left) and laid bare by logging in 2002. The images were released this week as part of a new study. At the current rate of destruction, 53 percent of the country's rain forest—said to be the world's third largest—will disappear by 2021, according to the study of three decades of satellite imagery. Between 1972 and

Brooks Range - Alaska

The Brooks Range is a mountain range that stretches from west to east across northern Alaska and into Canada's Yukon Territory, a total distance of about 1100 km (700 mi). The mountains are not especially high, topping out at over 2,700 m (9,000 ft). This mountain range forms the northern-most drainage divide in North America, separating streams flowing into the Arctic Ocean and the North Pacific

Gosses Bluff crater - Australia

Gosses Bluff (Gosse's Bluff) is an impact crater in the southern Northern Territory, near the centre of Australia, about 175 km (109 mi) west of Alice Springs. It was formed by the impact of an asteroid or comet approximately 142.5 ± 0.8 million years ago, in the earliest Cretaceous Period, very close to the Jurassic - Cretaceous boundary. The original crater rim has been estimated at about 22 km

Aerial images prove existence of remote Amazon tribe

Deep in the Amazon jungle, one of the Brazil's last uncontacted indigenous tribes has been photographed from the air, to prove its existence.The pictures show tribesmen, painted red from head to toe, preparing to defend themselves with longbows against the aircraft carrying out the photography.The images, taken by the Brazil's department for Indian affairs (Funai), reveal a number of thatched

Namche Bazaar - The last town before Everest

Namche Bazaar is a village in the Khumbu region of Nepal. Namche is located at 3,440 metres (11,286 ft) (the low point that is), populating the sides of a hill. Namche is the main trading center for the Khumbu region so there are many Nepalese officials, a police check, post and a bank.Almost everyone trekking in the Khumbu region will visit Namche Bazaar, as it is the gateway to the high

Megastructures - Kansai International Airport - Japan

Kansai International Airport is an international airport located on an artificial island in the middle of Osaka Bay, off the shore of the cities of Sennan and Izumisano and the town of Tajiri in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. (It should not be confused with Osaka International Airport, which is closer to the city and now handles only domestic flights.) It was ranked 4th overall in the Airport of the

Flood fears force huge evacuation - China, Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces

Just two weeks after a devastating tremor in which more than 68,000 lives were perished, a pair of powerful aftershocks on Tuesday collapsed hundreds of thousands of more homes in Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces, adding to the suffering of millions of local residents. As the frequency of follow-up earthquakes does not bode well, a rising number of rural and urban households in Sichuan, its

Tian Shan - China

The Tian Shan , also commonly spelled Tien Shan, and known as Tangri Tagh ("celestial mountains" or "mountains of the spirits") in the Uyghur language, is a mountain range located in Central Asia. The now widely used name Tian Shan is a Chinese translation of the Uyghur name, which may in turn go back to a Xiongnu name, qilian reported by the Shiji as the last place where they met and had their

Dubai night skyline

The modern emirate of Dubai was created consequent with the formation of the United Arab Emirates in 1971. However, written accounts documenting the existence of the city have existed at least 150 years prior to the formation of the UAE. Dubai shares legal, political, military and economic functions with the other emirates within a federal framework, although each emirate has jurisdiction over

Ben Bulben - Ireland

Ben Bulben (alternatively spelt Benbulben or Benbulbin) is a large rock formation in Ireland. It is a Ben (the Irish name for a large, glacier-carved rock). It is in the part of Ireland known as Yeats Country, though it is officially in the Irish county of Sligo.Ben Bulben was formed during the Ice age, when large parts of the Earth were under glaciers. It was originally merely a large ridge,

Megastructures - Niagara Tunnel Project

The Niagara Tunnel Project is the most recent in a series of additions to the Sir Adam Beck hydroelectric generation complex in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.First constructed in 1922, the initial Sir Adam Beck power generating station, now abbreviated as SAB 1, derived its water supply from a canal connected to the Welland River. However, due to increased power demand in later years, a second

A small island in Lower Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks in the U.S.

Lower Saranac Lake is one of three connected lakes, part of the Saranac River, near the village of Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks in northern New York. The Saranac Lake Islands Public Campground provides 87 campsites on inlands in Lower and Middle Saranac Lake. In addition to the Saranac River, it is fed by nearby Lake Colby, Fish Creek, and Lilly Pad Pond.

Rainbow Over Blue Ice

A glacier is a large, slow moving river of ice, formed from compacted layers of snow, that slowly deforms and flows in response to gravity. The processes and landforms caused by glaciers and related to them are glacial (adjective); this term should not be confounded with glacial (noun), a cold period in ice ages (see glacial period). The process of glacier growth and establishment is called

Erta Ale - Ethiopia

Erta Ale is an active shield volcano located in the Afar Region of northeastern Ethiopia. It is the most active volcano in Ethiopia. Erta Ale stands 613 metres tall, with a lava lake, one of only four in the world, at the summit. It is located in the Danakil Depression, a desert area spanning the border with Eritrea. Erta Ale's last major eruption was in 2005, when thousands of nearby residents

Pantanal - Brazil

The Pantanal is the world’s largest area of wetlands , a flat landscape, with gently sloping and meandering rivers. The region, whose name derives from the Portuguese word “pântano” (meaning “swamp” or “marsh” ), is situated in South America, mostly within the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. There are also small portions in Bolivia and Paraguay. In total, the Pantanal

The Coldest Places on Earth

A few days ago, I woke to find my pipes frozen. The outdoor temperature was in the single digits, and the house temperature hovered in the 50s all day. The next day was warmer, but an ice storm soon followed. I made myself feel better by looking up the coldest places in the world.International FallsInternational Falls, Minnesota is known as the coldest spot in the lower 48 states. The town of

What You'll See From the Top of the Empire State Building

The Empire State Building is a 102-story art deco skyscraper in New York City, New York at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York. It stood as the world's tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center's North Tower was completed in 1972. Following

Hamersley Range - Australia

The Hamersley Range is a mountainous region of the Pilbara, Western Australia. The range runs from the Fortescue River in the northeast, 460km south. The range contains Western Australia's highest point, Mount Meharry, which reaches approximately 1,249 m AHD. There are many extensively-eroded gorges, such as Wittenoom Gorge. Karijini National Park (formerly Hamersley National Park), one of

Beautiful View of the Night Sky in San Francisco

One of those rare crystal clear nights with the perfect big puffy clouds above my city San Francisco. This picture was taken from my former backyard in Oakland. I since then moved but I never forgot how awesome the views were from that first purchased house. The house was really small, 900 sq ft. but the back yard was huge and had a great viewas you can see. When I was driving home from work in

Mount Katmai - Alaska

Mount Katmai is a volcano with glacier-covered walls and a large crater, located near the head of the Alaska Peninsula, in Katmai National Park. It was once much higher, but a violent eruption in 1912 collapsed the mountain. Its crater today is eight miles in circumference and 3,700 feet deep, and holds a lake with a small island. It rises near the shore of the Shelikof Straight, across which

Siberia

Siberia is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the U.S.S.R. from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the 16th century. Geographically, it includes a large part of the Eurasian Steppe

Beautiful Panorama of Aurora and Meteor over Alaskan Lake

Auroras (North/South Polar Lights; or aurorae) are natural colored light displays, which are usually observed in the night sky, particularly in the polar zone. The aurora typically occur in the ionosphere. Some scientists call them "polar auroras" (or "aurorae polares"). In northern latitudes, it is known as the aurora borealis (or the northern lights), named after the Roman goddess of dawn,

Great Glen - Scotland

The Great Glen (Scottish Gaelic: An Gleann Mòr), also known as Glen Albyn or Glen More is a series of valleys in Scotland running 100 kilometres from Inverness on the Moray Firth to Fort William at the head of Loch Linnhe.The Great Glen follows a large geological fault known as the Great Glen Fault. It bisects the Scottish Highlands into the Grampian Mountains to the southeast and Inverness to

Erupting volcano prompts new evacuation in Chile

PUERTO MONTT, Chile, May 5, 2008 (Reuters) — Chile prepared to evacuate another town in its remote Patagonian south on Monday, as ash spewed from a snowcapped volcano for a fourth day after its first eruption in thousands of years.President Michelle Bachelet made her way to the small town of Futaleufu, the second town to be evacuated, as residents packed what belongings they could carry. The town

19 (Colorful) Places to See Before You Die

Even if you haven’t yet been able to travel as your wildest dreams may desire, put these locations on your list of places to see in life. I hope you enjoy the pictures in our color-centric version of the series, and we regret it can’t contain every one of the world’s gorgeous locations.The Pyramids of Giza, EgyptThe Great Pyramid of Giza , also called Khufu's Pyramid or the Pyramid of Khufu, and

Global Warming Affects World's Largest Freshwater Lake

Russian and American scientists have discovered that the rising temperature of the world's largest lake, located in frigid Siberia, shows that this region is responding strongly to global warming.Drawing on 60 years of long-term studies of Russia's Lake Baikal, Stephanie Hampton, an ecologist and deputy director of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) in Santa Barbara

Dades Valley - Morocco

The strength of the colours will never escape your memory, red, green and white. The Dades Gorge has a fairy-tale feeling — just after you leave the rather dull Boumalne du Dades, the mountain closes up on both sides of you, before it opens again and you are in a world where the grass is greener, the soil redder and houses nicer.Serpentine roads leads you slowly through community after community,

What Chicago Looks Like at Night, From 36,000 Feet

Chicago is a city in the state of Illinois and the largest in the Midwest. With a population of nearly 3 million people located almost entirely in Cook County (a portion of the city's O'Hare International Airport overlaps into DuPage County), Chicago is the third largest city in the United States. The population of Chicago's metropolitan area, which covers several counties (and commonly called

Russia's Radioactive mines

These guys have gone deep into old Soviet uranium mines. In these mines Russian prisoners have dug for radioactive materials for the Soviet Army. As you can see on the top picture the Geiger counter shows that there is still some radioactive pollution.credited to englishrussia.com

Lake Titicaca - Peru, Bolivia

Lake Titicaca is a lake located on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It sits 3,812 m (12,507 ft) above sea level making it the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. By volume of water it is also the largest lake in South America. The lake is located at the northern end of the endorheic Altiplano basin high in the Andes on the border of Peru and Bolivia. The western part of the lake lies

Spectacular Sunset Over the Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia on the west and the Americas on the east. At 169.2 million square kilometers (65.3 million square miles) in area, this largest division of the World Ocean – and, in turn, the hydrosphere – covers about 46% of the Earth's water

Ellesmere Island - Canada

Ellesmere Island is part of the Qikiqtaaluk Region of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. Lying within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago it is considered part of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, with Cape Columbia being the most northerly point of land in Canada. It comprises an area of 196,235 square kilometres (75,767 sq mi), making it the world's tenth largest island and Canada's third largest island

Purnululu National Park - Australia

Purnululu National Park is a World Heritage Site in Western Australia, 2054 km northeast of Perth. The nearest major town is Kununurra to the north, or Halls Creek to the south. Access to the park by road is via Spring Creek Track, from the Great Northern Highway approximately 250 km south of Kununurra, to the track's end at the visitor centre. The track is 53 km long and is usable only in the

One night in Paris

Paris is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, with over 30 million foreign visitors per year. There are numerous iconic landmarks among its many attractions, along with world famous institutions and popular parks.credited to wikimedia

Pamukkale - Turkey

Pamukkale, meaning "cotton castle" in Turkish, is a natural site and attraction in south-western Turkey in the Denizli Province. Pamukkale is located in Turkey's Inner Aegean region, in the River Menderes valley, which enjoys a temperate climate over the greater part of the year. The ancient city of Hierapolis was built on top of the white "castle" which is in total about 2700 meters long and

Alesund: A Beautiful Sea Port in Norway

Ålesund (help·info) is a city and municipality in the county of Møre og Romsdal, Norway. It is a sea port, and is noted for its unique concentration of Jugendstil architecture. Ålesund was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). Borgund was merged with Ålesund January 1, 1968. Sula was separated from Ålesund January 1, 1977. Ålesund received city rights in 1848.

Cliffs of Moher - Ireland

The Cliffs of Moher (Irish: Aillte an Mhothair, lit. cliffs of the ruin, also known as the Cliffs of Mohair from the Irish: Mhothair) are located in the parish of Liscannor at the south-western edge of The Burren area near Doolin, which is located in County Clare, Republic of Ireland. The cliffs rise 120 meters (394 ft) above the Atlantic Ocean at Hag's Head, and reach their maximum height of 214

Heavy Rain Floods South America

Two months after intense rains began to pound much of South America, rivers along the northwest coast of Peru remained flooded. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured the top image of the flooded river systems on April 1, 2008. Streams and pools of dark blue water dominate what was a tan-pink desert in early February, immediately before the

Tassili n'Ajjer - Algeria

The Tassili n'Ajjer (It is a name from the Berber language and its English name is: "Tassili Plateau") is a mountain range in the Sahara desert in southeast Algeria, North Africa. The highest point is Adrar Afao, 2158 m. The nearest town is Djanet, about 10 km southwest of the range.The range is composed largely of sandstone. Erosion in the area has resulted in nearly 300 natural rock arches

Jellyfish Lake - Palau

Jellyfish Lake is a well-known dive site in the Pacific island of Palau. It is one of the rock islands, a series of small, rocky, uninhabited archipelagos off the coast of Koror. Jellyfish Lake is completely isolated, but in the distant past, it had an outlet to the ocean. The outlet was closed off and the high jellyfish population was isolated and started to feed on quickly-reproducing algae.

Deadliest and most unassuming creatures

As the archetypal bumper-sticker proclaims: "Being Paranoid Doesn't Mean that They Aren't Out to Get You." The world of the paranoiac is nothing but a teetering rock slide - impending destruction always hovering just a moment away. Some have suggested that a daily tablespoon full of this viewpoint can actually be a survival trait: In our capricious and elaborate world a certain degree of

Nahanni National Park Reserve - Canada

Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Northwest Territories of Canada, approximately 500 kilometres (311 miles) west of Yellowknife, protects a portion of the Mackenzie Mountains Natural Region. The centrepiece of the park is the South Nahanni River. Four great canyons, called First, Second, Third and Fourth Canyon, line this spectacular whitewater river. The name Nahanni comes from the indigenous

Salar de Uyuni - Bolivia

Salar de Uyuni is located between parallels 20° and 21° South latitudes and 68° West longitude. It holds an estimated total reserve of 9 million tons of lithium as well as other evaporative minerals. The Salt Lake is formed in a series of stratum-saline layers, most of which are highly pure and with an approximate depth of 6 meters each. It was caused 13,000 years ago by the disappearance of an

Lake Hillier - Australia

Lake Hillier, present in the middle island in the Recherche Archipelago, Western Australia, offers a flamboyant scenic beauty to anyone who visits it. The specialty of this lake is its unique color, which is rose pink. The color is permanent, as it does not alter when the water is taken in a container. The length of the lake is about six hundred meters. A narrow area covered by white dunes and

Abandoned amusement parks

Chippewa Lake in OhioChippewa Lake (formerly Chippewa-on-the-Lake) is a village in Medina County, Ohio, United States. It is located on Chippewa Lake, Ohio's largest natural inland lake. The population was 823 at the 2000 census."Chippewa Lake" is sometimes applied to the surrounding area, even the village of Gloria Glens Park.In the 1880s, Oscar Townsend and the Cleveland, Lorain, & Wheeling

Band-e Amir - Afghanistan

Band-e Amir refers to five lakes high in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Central Afghanistan near the famous Buddhas of Bamyan. They were created by the carbon dioxide rich water oozing out of the faults and fractures to deposit calcium carbonate precipitate in the form of travertine walls that today store the water of these lakes. Band-e Amir was to become Afghanistan's first national park in the

Study shows life was tough for ancient Egyptians

CAIRO, Mar. 30, 2008 (Reuters) — New evidence of a sick, deprived population working under harsh conditions contradicts earlier images of wealth and abundance from the art records of the ancient Egyptian city of Tell el-Amarna, a study has found. Tell el-Amarna was briefly the capital of ancient Egypt during the reign of the pharaoh Akhenaten, who abandoned most of Egypt's old gods in

Lake Assal - Djibouti

Lake Asal (Lake Assal) is a crater lake in central Djibouti, located at the southern border of Tadjoura Region, touching Dikhil Region. It lies 153 m (502 ft) below sea level in the Afar Depression and is the lowest point in Africa. It measures 10 by 7 km and has an area of 54 km². The mean depth is 7.4 meters, which makes for a water volume of 400 million m³. The catchment area measures 900 km².

Giant's Causeway - United Kingdom

The Giant's Causeway (or Irish: Clochán na bhFómharach) is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. It is located on the north-east coast of Northern Ireland, about two miles (3 km) north of the town of Bushmills. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, and a National Nature Reserve in 1987 by the Department of the

Barringer Meteor Crater - Arizona

Meteor Crater is a meteorite impact crater located about 35 miles (55 km) east of Flagstaff, near Winslow in the northern Arizona desert of the United States. The site was formerly known as the Canyon Diablo Crater, and scientists generally refer to it as Barringer Crater in honor of Daniel Barringer who was first to suggest that it was produced by meteorite impact. Meteor Crater lies at an

Colca Canyon - Peru

Colca Canyon is a canyon of the Colca River in southern Peru. It is located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Arequipa. It is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the United States. However, the canyon's walls are not as vertical as those of the Grand Canyon. The Cotahuasi Canyon to the northwest is a deeper canyon at 11,488 ft (3,501 m). Since they are such major features

The Pinnacles Desert - Australia

The Pinnacles is contained within Nambung National Park, near the town of Cervantes, Western Australia. Contrary to the title of this article the Pinnacles are not called "the Pinnacles desert". The Pinnacles are limestone formations. The raw material for the limestone of the Pinnacles came from seashells in an earlier epoch rich in marine life. These shells were broken down into lime rich sands

The Old Man of Storr - Scotland

The Storr is a rocky hill on the Trotternish peninsula of the Isle of Skye. The hill presents a steep rocky eastern face overlooking the Sound of Raasay, contrasting with gentler grassy slopes to the west. The Storr is prime example of the Trotternish landslip, the longest such feature in Great Britain. The area in front of the cliffs of The Storr is known as The Sanctuary. This has a number of

Beautiful clouds

Depending on sunshine and the surrounding weather patterns, cloud formations can be as beautiful as waves of ocean water and wondrous as a pottery wheel..Two eyes and a head what else do I see?They are in the clouds looking down at me.Who put them there and why,perhaps the answer is a mystery.Just to notice: those photos ARE NOT photoshoped! They are caught by people or sites credited here:Karen

China in mist

I have to admit, I did not expect China to be so visually stunning... Many imagine harsh mountains, endless plains and a glut of industry (and there's plenty of that), but in actual truth China can be a photographer's paradise, all the same.Click to enlarge.images source pic.yesky, 360.bolaa, hinhuanet

Burj Dubai: Now the Tallest Building in the World

Any day now Burj Dubai will overtake Taipei 101 and become the world's tallest building. It's already significantly higher than the Chicago Sears Tower (not counting the spire), and is quickly approaching the title of the highest concrete free-standing structure. Skyscraperpage forum has been quick to announce: "Ladies and Gentleman, the next tallest structure EVER built by the humans race !!!!!"

Amazing Photos of China

China, (People's Republic of China), is situated in eastern Asia, bounded by the Pacific in the east. The third largest country in the world, next to Canada and Russia, it has an area of 9.6 million square kilometers, or one-fifteenth of the world's land mass. It begins from the confluence of the Heilong and Wusuli rivers (135 degrees and 5

Trip around the World

Cherry bloom in JapanThe cherry blossom (sakura) is Japan's unofficial national flower. It has been celebrated for many centuries and takes a very prominent position in Japanese culture. There are many dozens of different cherry tree varieties in Japan, most of which bloom for just a couple of days in spring. The Japanese celebrate that time of the year with hanami (cherry blossom viewing)

The biggest creche on earth - King Penguins

From the sky, it looks like a giant swirling frothy coffee.Yet this scene shows an extraordinary community at work - thousands of king penguins instinctively herding their recently born young into giant huddles to stop them freezing to death.Parental instinct takes over in the inhospitable climate of the South Atlantic and the furry brown chicks are made to crowd together to retain their body

Autumn in Switzerland

Switzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country of roughly 7.5 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km². Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called cantons. Berne is the seat of the federation and de facto capital, while the country's economic centres are its two global cities, Geneva and especially Zürich. Switzerland is one of

Tropical Islands of Fiji - second word for paradise

The Republic of the Fiji Islands, or Fiji, is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Vanuatu, west of Tonga and south of Tuvalu. The country occupies an archipelago with two sizable islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, where the majority of inhabitants live, and is joined by over eight hundred islands, with about one hundred regularly inhabited. The name Fiji is the old Tongan word

So clear water !

A single boat seemingly floats in midair in the beautiful crystal clear beaches in the Republic of Maldives in the Indian Ocean.Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, is an island nation consisting of a group of atolls in the Indian Ocean, south of Lakshadweep group of islands of India, about seven hundred kilometers (435 mi) south-west of Sri Lanka. The twenty-six atolls encompass a

Water Bridge in Germany

Water Bridge in Germany... What a feat!Six years, 500 million euros, 918 meters long.......now this is engineering!This is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany, as part of the unification project. It is located in the city of Magdeburg, near Berlin. The photo was taken on the day of inauguration.Taking six years to build and costing around half a billion

Ten Longest Bridges In World

Here is a list of the ten longest bridges in the world with pictures and descriptions. Those beautiful photos are showing to us that there are no borders and everything is reachable.10. Seven Mile BridgeThe Seven Mile Bridge, in the Florida Keys, runs over a channel between the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Strait, connecting Key Vaca (the location of the city of Marathon, Florida) in the Middle

Beautiful Hawaii

Situated nearly at the center of the Pacific Ocean, Hawaii marks the northeast corner of Polynesia. While it was once a major hub for the whaling, sugar and pineapple industries, it is now economically dependent on tourism and the U.S. military. The natural beauty of the islands continues to be one of Hawaii's greatest assets.Where tourism is concerned, Hawaii has something for everyone. The

Creepy high voltage installations

Russian countryside yields sometimes most improbable sights - abandoned artifacts and installations from bizarre military/scientific research, strangely futuristic forms left to rust and decay - to be found by a curious photographer. "Master" stumbled upon this installation close to Russian city of Istra (50 km from Moscow) quite by chance, and these mysterious shots were percolating for a while

Avalanches On Mars Photographed By NASA Spacecraft

The High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took the photograph Feb. 19. It is one of approximately 2,400 HiRISE images being released today. Ingrid Daubar Spitale of the University of Arizona, Tucson, who works on targeting the camera and has studied hundreds of HiRISE images, was the first person to notice the avalanches. "It really surprised me," she

World's most beautiful beaches

Summer, sun, vacation...and offcourse beautiful beaches... Here is the list of some beautiful beaches...Horseshoe BayHorseshoe Bay is definitely the most popular and arguably the most beautiful of Bermuda’s beaches. Unsurprisingly its pink sands are shaped like a horseshoe. It also boasts more facilities than any other public beach in Bermuda.The Horseshoe Bay Beach House serves cold drinks,

Dust storms

They are known by many names: Haboob, Simum, Black Blizzards. A solid wall of dust almost a mile high, moving whole sand dunes and bringing Biblical darkness to the huge areas of the world. Scorching hot winds (up to 40 degrees Celsius) blowing the sand around with hurricane speeds... What seems extreme to us is actually a common occurrence in Africa and the Middle East. The similar

Abandoned ionospheric research station

During the 80s this place had the functioning antenna complex the size of a soccer field, plus the "Ural" super-computer presiding over it all... The Ionospheric Research Station is located near Zmiev, close to Kharkov and is still used from time to time by (no doubt desperate) scientists - the area was declassified recently (it used to be a top secret installation, hm... I wonder why). This

Biochemical oops list

It's a nice enough place, this barren dome of rock between Gairloch and Ullapool. Conveniently close to the mainland, like most of Scotland it's not without a certain bleak charm. Just the place for a Heathcliff to do some Wuthering Heights or some Shakespearian witches to stir up a bubbling pot of trouble.But if you'd landed on its shores just 17 years ago, you would have probably had a very

Collection of amazing electrical storms

Most visually effective lightnings occur over city skylines, somehow. That must be due to the added element of danger; they might strike a building or wreak havoc on the city's energy grid.Various skylines featured here belong to Toronto, Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore; other backdrops to heavenly unrest include the Arizona desert, Bryce Canyon, Baltic Sea, Madeira island or a nameless field in

Pictures of extreme weather instability

Extreme weather includes weather phenomena that are at the extremes of the historical distribution, especially severe or unseasonal weather. credited to extremeinstability.com

Most Poisonous Animal

Not all beautiful frogs depicted here are poisonous, but those who are - can be very deadly indeed. The most poisonous animal is not a snake or a spider. It's a beautiful little frog! "Most frogs produce skin toxins, but the dart poison frogs from Central and South America are the most potent of all. The golden poison frog, called terribilis (the terrible), is so toxic that even touching it can

Weird and strange clouds - Lenticular clouds

Strange Clouds known as Lenticular clouds(Lenticularis) but also known as "flying saucer clouds," "angelship clouds", "cloudships", "clouds of heaven".These clouds and clouds of similar kind have been reported as UFOs in cloud disguise.For others these cloud formations can be completely different things or simply just clouds.In the Bible there is much written about cloudships.The Bible is

Fort Boyard, west coast of France

Fort Boyard is a fort located between the Île-d'Aix and the Île d'Oléron in the Pertuis d'Antioche straits, on the west coast of France. It is 61 metres long, 31 metres wide, and its walls are 20 metres high. The construction of the fort was first considered during a build-up of the French armed forces undertaken by Louis XIV between 1661 and 1667, but Vauban, his leading military engineer,

Megastructures - Rungnado May Day Stadium, Pyongyang - Korea

Rungnado May Day Stadium has 150 000 seats and a total floor space of more than 207 000 square metres. The area of the pitches is over 22 500 square metres. The stadium has eight storeys and is more than 60 metres high from the ground to the roof. The 60 metre long canopy is enough to cover the section of the stands. The pent of the inner roof is 60 metres long and the outer roof 40m long. The 16

World's largest open pit iron ore Mine - Hibbing, Minnesota

In addition to several thousand gorgeous lakes, Minnesota is home to a "natural wonder" that's actually human engineered. Sometimes called the "Grand Canyon of the North," the Hull Rust Mine is the biggest open pit iron ore

Ten worst earthquakes

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph. The moment magnitude of an earthquake is conventionally reported, or the related and mostly obsolete Richter magnitude, with magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes being mostly imperceptible and magnitude 7 causing serious

List of all known Bermuda Triangle accidents

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region of the northwestern Atlantic Ocean in which a number of aircraft and surface vessels have disappeared in what are said to be circumstances that fall beyond the boundaries of human error or acts of nature. Some of these disappearances have been attributed to the paranormal, a suspension of the laws of physics, or activity by

Kamchatka - Magnificent Russian Far East

Kamchatka Peninsula is a 1,250-kilometer long peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of 472,300 km². It lies between the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Sea of Okhotsk to the west. Immediately offshore along the Pacific coast of the peninsula runs the 10,500 meter deep Kuril-Kamchatka Trench. The Kamchatka Peninsula, the Commander Islands, and Karaginsky Island constitute the

Langkawi Sky Bridge

Langkawi sky-bridge in Malaysia is suspended at 700 metres above sea level. This unique curved pedestrian bridge spans 125 metres across a spectacular chasm. The view from the bridge is simply breathtaking. You'd be able to view the Andaman Sea and Thailand’s Tarutao Island as well. The 1.8m-wide bridge had two 3.6m-wide triangular platforms that provided a spectacular viewing-cum-resting area

Ghost town - Hashima Island, Gunkanjima, Japan

Hashima Island (meaning "Border Island"), commonly called Gunkanjima (meaning "Battleship Island") is one among 505 uninhabited islands in the Nagasaki Prefecture about 15 kilometers from Nagasaki itself. The island was populated from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mining facility. The island's most notable features are the abandoned concrete buildings and the sea wall surrounding it. "Battleship Island"

Ghost town - Kadykchan, Russia

Kadykchan, The City of Broken DreamsNo, this isn’t Chernobyl and there isn’t any dangerous radioactive background or toxic pollution. You can even live in this town… but there is no reason for. This place has become absolutely useless after the collapse of the USSR, like many other Soviet industrial settlements.

Megastructures - Hoover Dam

History Construction of Hoover Dam began in 1931, and the last concrete was poured in 1935 , two years ahead of schedule. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the dam on September 30,1935. The power plant structures were completed in 1936, and the first generator began commercial operation in October of that year. The 17th and final generator went into commercial operation in 1961.Hoover Dam

Ships in storm

The 2007 Hurricane Season is on, with the onslaught of the monster hurricane "Dean" - a catastrophic category five storm. I'm sure we'll all see the tv coverage of what it's like somewhere on-shore, but here are some hair-raising pictures of ships in heavy seas, including a wrecked oil rig platform (the likes of which they are evacuating right now, away from the hurricane's path)

World's most Interesting Bridges

1. The Piazza di San Marco - VeniceThe Piazza di San Marco may be more famous, but the Ponte di Rialto (Rialto Bridge) is the true heart of Venice. The current structure was built in just three years, between 1588 and 1591, as a permanent replacement for the boat bridge and three wooden bridges that had spanned the Grand Canal at various times since the 12th Century. It remained the only way to

Building the Panama Canal

The idea of making a passageway across Panama dates back to 1534, when Spain considered the possibility of building a canal. In 1850 the Colombian government (Panama was part of Colombia until 1903) gave the French, who were interested in a passageway to the Pacific Ocean, permission to create a canal. However, it was not until January 20, 1882

Weather extremes

Which parts of the USA have the highest annual average temperature? According to the National Climatic Data Center, the warmest parts of the USA are the Florida Keys, where the annual average temperature is about 77.7°. Southeast Florida, including Miami, is also warm at 75.4°. Those spots are even warmer than Oahu in Hawaii, where the temperature averages 74.4°. Compare that to

Global warming in Antarctica

Signs of global warming are three times more apparent in Antarctica than across the rest of the planet, a new study shows.Using newly digitized temperature, humidity, and wind data collected from instruments aboard weather balloons between 1971 and 2003, scientists found a winter season warming throughout the Antarctic atmosphere. The scientists estimate that atmospheric temperatures over

Dakar Rally pictures

The Dakar Rally (or simply "The Dakar"; formerly known as "The Paris Dakar" and now as "The Lisbon Dakar Rally") is an annual off-road race, organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. The race is open to amateur and professional entries; amateurs typically make up about eighty percent of the participants. Despite its name, it is an off-road endurance race rather than a conventional rally – the

Orinoco river

The Orinoco River has the third largest flow of the world’s rivers averaging a discharge of 5.4 x 1011 m3 per year to the Atlantic Ocean. Combined, the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers account for 25 percent of the freshwater discharge to the world’s oceans.The Orinoco River originates in the Sierra Parima at an elevation of 1,074 m and receives water from more than 2,000