<p>The Mountain Springs Hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is located in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, at the corner of East Main Street and Spring Garden Street. It was originally built in 1848 as a summer resort, capitalizing on its natural spring water, and hosted a variety of high-profile guests including several Presidents. The resort lost its popularity in the early 20th century and fell into disrepair, but was eventually purchased and converted into the first hospital in the Ephrata area—serving from 1937 through 1949. It remained under private ownership and became dilapidated over the following decades, culminating in its complete closure in 1988 and the auctioning of its contents in 1991. The following decade was met with a variety of redevelopment proposals, and in the years around the turn of the 21st century it was decided that the property would be redeveloped with another hotel. The majority of the Mountain Springs Hotel was demolished in 2004, retaining a portion of one of the primary buildings. Today, a Hampton Inn hotel and Applebee&#39;s restaurant occupy the site alongside the restored building from the original Mountain Springs Hotel.</p><br>
<h2>Hotel & spa resort</h2><br>
<p>In 1848, Joseph Konigmacher, a state Senator representing the area, built and established the Konigmacher Mansion as a summer resort facility. It was located at the edge of the Ephrata Ridge, above the center of town, along the turnpike leading toward Downingtown (modern US 322). At this location was a natural mineral spring which gave rise to a renowned spa. By 1860, the original farmstead had grown to a 400-room hotel containing a 60 ft high observatory. Under the direction of Senator Konigmacher, the resort grew to become a popular getaway for residents of Philadelphia, New York City, and Baltimore, and included visitors such as Presidents Lincoln, Grant, and Buchanan; and also Thaddeus Stevens. In its heyday, a trolley line connected the resort with the town&#39;s rail station further downhill. After the death of Joseph Konigmacher in 1861, the Mountains Springs Hotel continued to operate into the early 20th century, but was ultimately closed in the early 1900s. It remained in the hands of its sole owner Mr. D. S. Von Nieda.</p><br>
<h2>Hospital</h2><br>
<p>A spiritualist group named Camp Silver Belle met Mr. and Mrs. John Stephan, an Ephrata couple, in Florida during the 1930s. Together, the couple and the group bought what was to eventually become the Ephrata Park. This property was used for meetings, conferences, services, and vacations, until in 1935 the local American Legion Post 429 bought the park property. Camp Silver Belle subsequently purchased the Mountain Springs Hotel property from the Von Neida family. By this point, the hotel had been closed for approximately 30 years and had entered a state of considerable disrepair.</p><br>
<p>The area had been proposing tentative plans for a local hospital as early as 1918, as at the time the nearest hospitals were in Lancaster. On 20 June 1937, the Silver Belle group, in its publication Spiritual Truth, announced that the Camp was establishing the Stephan Memorial Hospital on the property of the Mountain Springs Hotel. The facility was dedicated to the Stephans, who had since died. The new hospital was declared a non-profit organization and was supervised by Mr. Henry Munch, with his wife as assistant and director of nursing. Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Von Nieda helped to operate the new hospital. At its dedication, the nursing staff consisted of Laura Shirk of Ephrata and Mary Einwechter of Audubon, New Jersey. Initial plans anticipated constructing a hospital of brick and concrete block along Spring Garden Street, though these plans were never realized.</p><br>
<p>Nearly three years later, on 31 May 1940, the Court of Common Pleas in Lancaster granted a charter to the institution such that it would be named the Ephrata Community Hospital. The hospital provided a full range of services among its 16-bed facility, including surgery and x-rays. An ambulance was supplied and maintained by the American Legion Post 429 until approximately 1960. In a one-year period between May 1946 and May 1948, the hospital cared for 58 medical, 414 surgical, 280 obstetrical, and 267 newborn patients. Preceding this, in 1943, the Board recognized that a new, larger, and better-equipped hospital would be necessary, prompting a fundraising drive beginning in May 1943. By July 1947, a new site was chosen on Martin Street, in the Arlington neighborhood of Ephrata. Ground was broken began that year and in 1948, local judge Guy K. Bard presented an address at the ceremonial laying of the cornerstone. Construction continued until autumn 1949, when from 29 October through 6 November the hospital hosted an open house of the new facility; and on the 6th, the new hospital was officially unlocked by Burgess David E. Good and, along with Rev. Andre, performed the formal dedication. The first patient was moved in the following day, on 7 November 1949.</p><br>
<h2>Disrepair</h2><br>
<p>The hotels site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on 2 March 1982. The hotels site remained privately occupied until 1988, when the property was completely closed. Since the founding of the new Ephrata Community Hospital, the Mountain Springs facility fell into considerable disrepair, sprouting local legends and becoming known as the "haunted house" among local children. The contents of the hotel were sold at an on-site auction in 1991. Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, a variety of reuse proposals were considered and rejected. A July 1992 proposal planned to subdivide 8.3 acre of the property for redevelopment, to reuse the frame hotel building, but to demolish some of the oldest structures on the property.</p><br>
<h2>Modern Hotel</h2><br>
<p>In December 1999, the Ephrata Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) received a grant from the Ephrata Borough facilitating the purchase of the Mountain Springs Hotel property. Local planning efforts within the community—including the Downtown Visioning Process of 2002—consistently identified the need to reestablish a hotel on the 8 acre site, intended to serve as a focal point for the revitalization of the downtown area. Over the following years, the EEDC entered the property into the Keystone Opportunity Program run by the State, securing a $2.6 million Commonwealth Redevelopment Capital Assistance Program grant to create a hotel on the site.</p><br>
<p>The majority of the Mountain Springs property was demolished in 2004, leaving only a portion of the main building remaining. Much of the property was cleared and regraded to make way for a new Hampton Inn hotel and an Applebee&#39;s restaurant. The remaining building was restored. The new hotel opened in 2005.</p><br>
<p>Western Maryland Railway Station is a historic railway station in Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland. It was built in 1913 as a stop for the Western Maryland Railway. It is a -story hip roof brick building, reflecting the influence of the Commercial Style of the early 20th century. The building features overscaled Classical detailing, a stone foundation, and a massive, modillioned cornice with stone disks defining each bay. The building is also encircled by a one-story porch that has a cantilevered roof on three sides.</p><br>
<p>The Western Maryland Railway ended passenger train service to the Hagerstown station in June 1957.</p><br>
<p>The station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The building is now used as the headquarters of the Hagerstown Police Department.</p><br>
<p>Aquincum was an ancient city, situated on the northeastern borders of the Pannonia province within the Roman Empire. The ruins of the city can be found today in Budapest, the capital city of Hungary. It is believed that Marcus Aurelius wrote at least part of his book Meditations at Aquincum.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Aquincum was originally settled by the Eravisci, a Celtic tribe. Aquincum served as a military base (castrum), having been part of the Roman border protection system called limes. Around AD 41-54, a 500-strong cavalry unit arrived, and a Roman legion of 6,000 men was stationed here by AD 89. The city gradually grew around the fortress, and after Pannonia was reorganised by the Romans in AD 106, Aquincum became the capital city of the Roman province of Pannonia Inferior. The city had around 30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants by the end of the 2nd century, and covered a significant part of the area today known as the Óbuda district within Budapest. Ruins from the old Roman settlement can be seen in other parts of Budapest as well, notably Contra-Aquincum. These Roman structures were, during the 2nd and 3rd century AD, the heart of the commercial life of the Pannonia province. The excavations show evidence of the lifestyle of this period. The most important monuments in Aquincum are the two amphitheatres the Aquincum Civil Amphitheatre and the Aquincum Military Amphitheatre built in the 1st century AD.</p><br>
<h2>Settlement buildings</h2><br>
<p>People living in the settlement could enjoy the achievements of the Empire, like central heating in the houses, public baths, a Mithraeum and palaces, as well as two amphitheatres, the Aquincum Civil Amphitheatre and the larger Aquincum Military Amphitheatre for gladiatorial combats and beast fights.</p><br>
<h2>Aquincum Museum</h2><br>
<p>Many historic artifacts from the city now appear in the Aquincum Museum. The museum exhibits a reconstruction of the hydraulic system, Roman houses and paintings that have been recovered on site. The ruins of a three-level aqueduct have been discovered around the city.</p><br>
<p>The Gulf of Mexico  is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. The USA states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida border the Gulf on the north, which are often referred to as the "Third Coast" in comparison with the USA Atlantic and Pacific coasts, or sometimes the "south coast", in juxtaposition to the Great Lakes region being the "north coast."</p><br>
<p>The Gulf of Mexico formed approximately 300 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics. The Gulf of Mexico basin is roughly oval and is approximately 810 nmi wide and floored by sedimentary rocks and recent sediments. It is connected to part of the Atlantic Ocean through the Florida Straits between the USA and Cuba, and with the Caribbean (with which it forms the American Mediterranean Sea) via the Yucatán Channel between Mexico and Cuba. With the narrow connection to the Atlantic, the Gulf experiences very small tidal ranges. The size of the Gulf basin is approximately 1.6 million km (615,000 sq mi). Almost half of the basin is shallow continental shelf waters. The basin contains a volume of roughly 2,500 quadrillion liters (550 quadrillion Imperial gallons, 660 quadrillion US gallons, 2.5 million km or 600,000 cu mi).</p><br>
<h2>Extent</h2><br>
<p>The International Hydrographic Organization defines the southeast limit of the Gulf of Mexico as follows:</p><br>
<p>A line leaving Cape Catoche Light (21&deg;37&prime;N latitude, 87&deg;04&prime;W longitude) with the Light on Cape San Antonio in Cuba, through this island to the meridian of 83°W and to the Northward along this meridian to the latitude of the South point of the Dry Tortugas (24°35N), along this parallel Eastward to Rebecca Shoal (82°35W) thence through the shoals and Florida Keys to the mainland at eastern end of Florida Bay, all the narrow waters between the Dry Tortugas and the mainland being considered to be within the Gulf.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The consensus among geologists who have studied the geology of the Gulf of Mexico, is that prior to the Late Triassic, the Gulf of Mexico did not exist. Before the Late Triassic, the area now occupied by the Gulf of Mexico consisted of dry land, which included continental crust that now underlies Yucatán, within the middle of the large supercontinent of Pangea. This land lay south of a continuous mountain range that extended from north-central Mexico, through the Marathon Uplift in West Texas and the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma, and to Alabama where it linked directly to the Appalachian Mountains. It was created by the collision of continental plates that formed Pangea. As interpreted by Roy Van Arsdale and Randel T. Cox, this mountain range was breached in Late Cretaceous times by the formation of the Mississippi Embayment.</p><br>
<p>Geologists and other Earth scientists agree in general that the present Gulf of Mexico basin originated in Late Triassic time as the result of rifting within Pangea. The rifting was associated with zones of weakness within Pangea, including sutures where the Laurentia, South American, and African plates collided to create it. First, there was a Late Triassic-Early Jurassic phase of rifting during which rift valleys formed and filled with continental red beds. Second, as rifting progressed through Early and Middle Jurassic time, continental crust was stretched and thinned. This thinning created a broad zone of thick transitional crust, which displays modest and uneven thinning with block faulting, and a broad zone of uniformly thinned transitional crust, which is half the typical thickness, 35 kilometers, of normal continental crust. It was at this time that tectonics first created a connection to the Pacific Ocean across central Mexico and later eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. This flooded the subsiding basin created by rifting and crustal thinning to create the Gulf of Mexico. While the Gulf of Mexico was a restricted basin, the subsiding transitional crust was blanketed by the widespread deposition of Louann Salt and associated anhydrite evaporites. Initially, during the Late Jurassic, continued rifting widened the Gulf of Mexico and progressed to the point that sea-floor spreading and formation of oceanic crust occurred. At this point, sufficient circulation with the Atlantic Ocean was established that the deposition of Louann Salt ceased.</p><br>
<p>During the Late Jurassic through Early Cretaceous, the basin occupied by the Gulf of Mexico experienced a period of cooling and subsidence of the crust underlying it. The subsidence was the result of a combination of crustal stretching, cooling, and loading. Initially, the combination of crustal stretching and cooling caused about 5–7 km of tectonic subsidence of the central thin transitional and oceanic crust. Because subsidence occurred faster than sediment could fill it, the Gulf of Mexico expanded and deepened.</p><br>
<p>Later, loading of the crust within the Gulf of Mexico and adjacent coastal plain by the accumulation of kilometers of sediments during the rest of the Mesozoic and all of the Cenozoic further depressed the underlying crust to its current position about 10–20 km below sea level. Particularly during the Cenozoic, thick clastic wedges built out the continental shelf along the northwestern and northern margins of the Gulf of Mexico.</p><br>
<p>To the east, the stable Florida platform was not covered by the sea until the latest Jurassic or the beginning of Cretaceous time. The Yucatán platform was emergent until the mid-Cretaceous. After both platforms were submerged, the formation of carbonates and evaporites has characterized the geologic history of these two stable areas. Most of the basin was rimmed during the Early Cretaceous by carbonate platforms, and its western flank was involved during the latest Cretaceous and early Paleogene periods in a compressive deformation episode, the Laramide Orogeny, which created the Sierra Madre Oriental of eastern Mexico.</p><br>
<p>In 2002 geologist Michael Stanton published a speculative essay suggesting an impact origin for the Gulf of Mexico at the close of the Permian, which could have caused the Permian–Triassic extinction event. However, Gulf Coast geologists do not regard this hypothesis as having any credibility. Instead they overwhelmingly accept plate tectonics, not an asteroid impact, as having created the Gulf of Mexico as illustrated by papers authored by Kevin Mickus and others. This hypothesis is not to be confused with the Chicxulub Crater, a large impact crater on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico on the Yucatán Peninsula.</p><br>
<p>Today, the Gulf of Mexico has the following 7 main areas:</p><br>
<p>Gulf of Mexico basin, which contains the Sigsbee Deep and can be further divided into the continental rise, the Sigsbee Abyssal Plain, and the Mississippi Cone.</p><br>
<p>Northeast Gulf of Mexico, which extends from a point east of the Mississippi River Delta near Biloxi to the eastern side of Apalachee Bay.</p><br>
<p>South Florida Continental Shelf and Slope, which extends along the coast from Apalachee Bay to the Straits of Florida and includes the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas.</p><br>
<p>Campeche Bank, which extends from the Yucatán Straits in the east to the Tabasco–Campeche Basin in the west and includes Arrecife Alacran.</p><br>
<p>Bay of Campeche, which is an isthmian embayment extending from the western edge of Campeche Bank to the offshore regions just east of the port of Veracruz.</p><br>
<p>Western Gulf of Mexico, which is located between Veracruz to the south and the Rio Grande to the north.</p><br>
<p>Northwest Gulf of Mexico, which extends from Alabama to the Rio Grande.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>European exploration</h3><br>
<p>Although Christopher Columbus was credited with the discovery of the Americas by Europeans, the ships in his four voyages never reached the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, Columbus sailed into the Caribbean around Cuba and Hispaniola. The first European exploration of the Gulf of Mexico was by Amerigo Vespucci in 1497. He followed the coastal land mass of Central America before returning to the Atlantic Ocean via the Straits of Florida between Florida and Cuba. In his letters, Vespucci described this trip, and once Juan de la Cosa returned to Spain, a famous world map, depicting Cuba as an island, was produced.</p><br>
<p>In 1506, Hernán Cortés took part in the conquest of Hispaniola and Cuba, receiving a large estate of land and Indian slaves for his effort. In 1510, he accompanied Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, an aide of the governor of Hispaniola, in his expedition to conquer Cuba. In 1518 Velázquez put him in command of an expedition to explore and secure the interior of Mexico for colonization.</p><br>
<p>In 1517, Francisco Hernández de Córdoba discovered the Yucatán Peninsula. This was the first European encounter with an advanced civilization in the Americas, with solidly built buildings and a complex social organization which they recognized as being comparable to those of the Old World; they also had reason to expect that this new land would have gold. All of this encouraged two further expeditions, the first in 1518 under the command of Juan de Grijalva, and the second in 1519 under the command of Hernán Cortés, which led to the Spanish exploration, military invasion, and ultimately settlement and colonization known as the Conquest of Mexico. Hernández did not live to see the continuation of his work: he died in 1517, the year of his expedition, as the result of the injuries and the extreme thirst suffered during the voyage, and disappointed in the knowledge that Diego Velázquez had given precedence to Grijalva as the captain of the next expedition to Yucatán.</p><br>
<p>In 1523, Ángel de Villafañe sailed toward Mexico City, but was shipwrecked en route along the coast of Padre Island, Texas, in 1554. When word of the disaster reached Mexico City, the viceroy requested a rescue fleet and immediately sent Villafañe marching overland to find the treasure-laden vessels. Villafañe traveled to Pánuco and hired a ship to transport him to the site, which had already been visited from that community. He arrived in time to greet García de Escalante Alvarado (a nephew of Pedro de Alvarado), commander of the salvage operation, when Alvarado arrived by sea on July 22, 1554. The team labored until September 12 to salvage the Padre Island treasure. This loss, in combination with other ship disasters around the Gulf of Mexico, gave rise to a plan for establishing a settlement on the northern Gulf Coast to protect shipping and more quickly rescue castaways. As a result, the expedition of Tristán de Luna y Arellano was sent and landed at Pensacola Bay on August 15, 1559.</p><br>
<p>On December 11, 1526, Charles V granted Pánfilo de Narváez a license to claim what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States, known as the Narváez expedition. The contract gave him one year to gather an army, leave Spain, be large enough to found at least two towns of 100 people each, and garrison two more fortresses anywhere along the coast. On April 7, 1528, they spotted land north of what is now Tampa Bay. They turned south and traveled for two days looking for a great harbor the master pilot Miruelo knew of. Sometime during these two days, one of the five remaining ships was lost on the rugged coast, but nothing else is known of it.</p><br>
<p>In 1697, Pierre Le Moyne dIberville sailed for France and was chosen by the Minister of Marine to lead an expedition to rediscover the mouth of the Mississippi River and to colonize Louisiana which the English coveted. Ibervilles fleet sailed from Brest on October 24, 1698. On January 25, 1699, Iberville reached Santa Rosa Island in front of Pensacola founded by the Spanish; he sailed from there to Mobile Bay and explored Massacre Island, later renamed Dauphin Island. He cast anchor between Cat Island and Ship Island; and on February 13, 1699, he went to the mainland, Biloxi, with his brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville. On May 1, 1699, he completed a fort on the north-east side of the Bay of Biloxi, a little to the rear of what is now Ocean Springs, Mississippi. This fort was known as Fort Maurepas or Old Biloxi. A few days later, on May 4, Pierre Le Moyne sailed for France leaving his teenage brother, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, as second in command to the French commandant.</p><br>
<h2>Shipwrecks</h2><br>
<p>The Mardi Gras shipwreck around the early-19th century about 35 miles off the coast of Louisiana in 4,000 feet (1220 meters) of water. She is believed to have been a privateer or trader. The shipwreck, whose real identity remains a mystery, lay forgotten at the bottom of the sea until it was discovered in 2002 by an oilfield inspection crew working for the Okeanos Gas Gathering Company (OGGC). In May 2007, an expedition, led by Texas A&M University and funded by OGGC under an agreement with the Minerals Management Service (now BOEM), was launched to undertake the deepest scientific archaeological excavation ever attempted at that time to study the site on the seafloor and recover artifacts for eventual public display in the Louisiana State Museum. As part of the project educational outreach Nautilus Productions in partnership with BOEM, Texas A&M University, the Florida Public Archaeology Network and Veolia Environmental produced a one-hour HD documentary about the project, short videos for public viewing and provided video updates during the expedition. Video footage from the ROV was an integral part of this outreach and used extensively in the Mystery Mardi Gras Shipwreck documentary.</p><br>
<p>On July 30, 1942 the Robert E. Lee, captained by William C. Heath, was torpedoed by the. She was sailing southeast of the entrance to the Mississippi River when the explosion destroyed the #3 hold, vented through the B and C decks and damaged the engines, the radio compartment and the steering gear. After the attack she was under escort by the USS PC-566, captained by LCDR Herbert G. Claudius, en route to New Orleans. The USS PC-566 began dropping depth charges on a sonar contact, sinking the U-166. The badly damaged Robert E. Lee first listed to port then to starboard and finally sank within about 15 minutes of the attack. One officer, nine crewmen and 15 passengers were lost. Ironically the passengers aboard the Robert E. Lee were primarily survivors of previous torpedo attacks by German U-boats. The wreck&#39;s precise location was discovered during the C & C Marine survey that located the U-166.</p><br>
<p>The German submarine U-166 was a Type IXC U-boat of Nazi Germany&#39;s Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on December 6, 1940 at the Seebeckwerft (part of Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG, Deschimag) at Wesermünde (modern Bremerhaven) as yard number 705, launched on November 1, 1941 and commissioned on March 23, 1942 under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Günther Kuhlmann. After training with the 4th U-boat Flotilla, U-166 was transferred to the 10th U-boat Flotilla for front-line service on June 1, 1942. The U-boat sailed on only two war patrols and sank four ships totalling. She was sunk on July 30, 1942 in Gulf of Mexico.</p><br>
<p>In 2001 the wreck of U-166 was located in 5,000 feet (1,500 m) of water, less than two miles from where it had attacked the Robert E. Lee. An archaeological survey of the seafloor prior to construction of a natural gas pipeline led to the discoveries by C & C Marine archaeologists Robert A. Church and Daniel J. Warren. The sonar contacts consisted of two large sections lying approximately 500 feet apart at either end of a debris field that indicated the presence of a U-boat.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Gulf of Mexicos eastern, northern, and northwestern shores lie along the US states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The US portion of the Gulf coastline spans 1,680 mi, receiving water from 33 major rivers that drain 31 states. The Gulfs southwestern and southern shores lie along the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and the northernmost tip of Quintana Roo. The Mexican portion of the Gulf coastline spans 1,743 miles (2,805 km). On its southeast quadrant the Gulf is bordered by Cuba. It supports major American, Mexican and Cuban fishing industries. The outer margins of the wide continental shelves of Yucatán and Florida receive cooler, nutrient-enriched waters from the deep by a process known as upwelling, which stimulates plankton growth in the euphotic zone. This attracts fish, shrimp, and squid. River drainage and atmospheric fallout from industrial coastal cities also provide nutrients to the coastal zone.</p><br>
<p>The Gulf Stream, a warm Atlantic Ocean current and one of the strongest ocean currents known, originates in the gulf, as a continuation of the Caribbean Current-Yucatán Current-Loop Current system. Other circulation features include the anticyclonic gyres which are shed by the Loop Current and travel westward where they eventually dissipate, and a permanent cyclonic gyre in the Bay of Campeche. The Bay of Campeche in Mexico constitutes a major arm of the Gulf of Mexico. Additionally, the gulfs shoreline is fringed by numerous bays and smaller inlets. A number of rivers empty into the gulf, most notably the Mississippi River and Rio Grande in the northern gulf, and the Grijalva and Usumacinta rivers in the southern gulf. The land that forms the gulfs coast, including many long, narrow barrier islands, is almost uniformly low-lying and is characterized by marshes and swamps as well as stretches of sandy beach.</p><br>
<p>The Gulf of Mexico is an excellent example of a passive margin. The continental shelf is quite wide at most points along the coast, most notably at the Florida and Yucatán Peninsulas. The shelf is exploited for its oil by means of offshore drilling rigs, most of which are situated in the western gulf and in the Bay of Campeche. Another important commercial activity is fishing; major catches include red snapper, amberjack, tilefish, swordfish, and various grouper, as well as shrimp and crabs. Oysters are also harvested on a large scale from many of the bays and sounds. Other important industries along the coast include shipping, petrochemical processing and storage, military use, paper manufacture, and tourism.</p><br>
<p>The gulf&#39;s warm water temperature can feed powerful Atlantic hurricanes causing extensive human death and other destruction as happened with Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In the Atlantic, a hurricane will draw up cool water from the depths and making it less likely that further hurricanes will follow in its wake (warm water being one of the preconditions necessary for their formation). However, the Gulf is shallower; when a hurricane passes over the water temperature may drop but it soon rebounds and becomes capable of supporting another tropical storm.</p><br>
<p>The Gulf is considered aseismic; however, mild tremors have been recorded throughout history (usually 5.0 or less on the Richter magnitude scale). Earthquakes may be caused by interactions between sediment loading on the sea floor and adjustment by the crust.</p><br>
<h3>2006 earthquake</h3><br>
<p>On September 10, 2006, the USA Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center reported that a magnitude 6.0 earthquake occurred about 250 mi west-southwest of Anna Maria, Florida, around 10:56 AM EDT. The quake was reportedly felt from Louisiana to Florida in the Southeastern United States. There were no reports of damage or injuries. Items were knocked from shelves and seiches were observed in swimming pools in parts of Florida. The earthquake was described by the USGS as an intraplate earthquake, the largest and most widely felt recorded in the past three decades in the region. According to the September 11, 2006 issue of The Tampa Tribune, earthquake tremors were last felt in Florida in 1952, recorded in Quincy, 20 mi northwest of Tallahassee</p><br>
<h3>Maritime boundary delimitation agreements</h3><br>
<p>Cuba and Mexico: Exchange of notes constituting an agreement on the delimitation of the exclusive economic zone of Mexico in the sector adjacent to Cuban maritime areas (with map), of July 26, 1976.</p><br>
<p>Cuba and United States of America: Maritime boundary agreement between the United States of America and the Republic of Cuba, of December 16, 1977.</p><br>
<p>Mexico and United States of America: Treaty to resolve pending boundary differences and maintain the Rio Grande and Colorado River as the international boundary, of November 23, 1970; Treaty on maritime boundaries between the United States of America and the United Mexican States (Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean), of May 4, 1978, and Treaty between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the United Mexican States on the delimitation of the continental shelf in the Western Gulf of Mexico beyond 200 nmi, of June 9, 2000.</p><br>
<p>On December 13, 2007, Mexico submitted information to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) regarding the extension of Mexicos continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. Mexico sought an extension of its continental shelf in the Western Polygon based on international law, UNCLOS, and bilateral treaties with the United States, in accordance with Mexicos domestic legislation. On March 13, 2009, the CLCS accepted Mexicos arguments for extending its continental shelf up to 350 NM into the Western Polygon. Since this would extend Mexicos continental shelf well into territory claimed by the United States, however, Mexico and the USA would need to enter a bilateral agreement based on international law that delimits their respective claims.</p><br>
<h2>Biota</h2><br>
<p>Various biota include chemosynthetic communities near cold seeps and nonchemosynthetic communities such as bacteria and other micro – benthos, meiofauna, macrofauna, and megafauna (larger organisms such as crabs, sea pens, crinoids, and demersal fish and cetaceans including endangered ones) are living in the Gulf of Mexico. Recently, resident Bryde&#39;s whales within the gulf were classified as an endemic, unique subspecies and making them as one of the most endangered whales in the world. The Gulf of Mexico yields more finfish, shrimp, and shellfish annually than the south and mid-Atlantic, Chesapeake, and New England areas combined.</p><br>
<p>The Smithsonian Institution Gulf of Mexico holdings are expected to provide an important baseline of understanding for future scientific studies on the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In Congressional testimony, Dr. Jonathan Coddington, Associate Director of Research and Collections at the Smithsonian&#39;s National Museum of Natural History, provides a detailed overview of the Gulf collections and their sources which Museum staff have. The samples were collected for years by the former Minerals Management Service (renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement) to help predict the potential impacts of future oil/gas explorations. Since 1979, the specimens have been deposited in the national collections of the National Museum of Natural History.</p><br>
<h2>Pollution</h2><br>
<p>The major environmental threats to the Gulf are agricultural runoff and oil drilling.</p><br>
<p>There are frequent "red tide" algae blooms that kill fish and marine mammals and cause respiratory problems in humans and some domestic animals when the blooms reach close to shore. This has especially been plaguing the southwest and southern Florida coast, from the Florida Keys to north of Pasco County, Florida.</p><br>
<p>The Gulf contains a hypoxic dead zone that runs east-west along the Texas-Louisiana coastline. In July 2008, researchers reported that between 1985 and 2008, the area roughly doubled in size and now stretches from near Galveston, Texas, to near Venice, Louisiana. It is now about 8,000 square miles, nearly the record. Poor agricultural practices in the northern portion of the Gulf of Mexico have led to a tremendous increase of nitrogen and phosphorus in neighboring marine ecosystems, which has resulted in algae blooms and a lack of available oxygen. Occurrences of masculinization and estrogen suppression were observed as a result. An October 2007 study of the Atlantic croaker found a disproportioned sex ratio of 61% males to 39% females in hypoxic Gulf sites. This was compared with a 52% to 48% male-female ratio found in reference sites, showing an impairment of reproductive output for fish populations inhabiting hypoxic coastal zones.</p><br>
<p>There are 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells beneath the Gulf. These have generally not been checked for potential environmental problems.</p><br>
<h3>Ixtoc I explosion and oil spill</h3><br>
<p>In June 1979, the Ixtoc I oil platform in the Bay of Campeche suffered a blowout leading to a catastrophic explosion, which resulted in a massive oil spill that continued for nine months before the well was finally capped. This was ranked as the largest oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico until the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.</p><br>
<h3>Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill</h3><br>
<p>On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, located in the Mississippi Canyon about 40 mi off the Louisiana coast, suffered a catastrophic explosion; it sank a day-and-a-half later. It was in the process of being sealed with cement for temporary abandonment, to avoid environmental problems. Although initial reports indicated that relatively little oil had leaked, by April 24, it was claimed by BP that approximately 1,000 barrels of oil per day were issuing from the wellhead, about 1 mi below the surface on the ocean floor. On April 29, the USA government revealed that approximately 5,000 barrels per day, five times the original estimate, were pouring into the Gulf from the wellhead. The resulting oil slick quickly expanded to cover hundreds of square miles of ocean surface, posing a serious threat to marine life and adjacent coastal wetlands, and to the livelihoods of Gulf Coast shrimpers and fishermen. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Sally Brice O&#39;Hare stated that the USA government will be "employing booms, skimmers, chemical dispersants and controlled burns" to combat the oil spill. By May 1, 2010, the oil spill cleanup efforts were underway, but hampered by rough seas and the "tea like" consistency of the oil. Cleanup operations were resumed after conditions became favorable. On May 27, 2010, The USGS had revised the estimate of the leak from 5,000 barrels to 12,000–19,000 barrels an increase from earlier estimates. On July 15, 2010, BP announced that the leak stopped for the first time in 88 days.</p><br>
<p>In July 2015 BP reached an $18.7bn settlement with the US government, the states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, as well as 400 local authorities. To date BP&#39;s cost for the clean-up, environmental and economic damages and penalties has reached $54bn.</p><br>
<h3>Minor oil spills</h3><br>
<p>According to the National Response Center, the oil industry has thousands of minor accidents in the Gulf of Mexico every year.</p><br>
<h4>Brutus oil spill</h4><br>
<p>On May 12, 2016, a release of oil from subsea infrastructure on Shell&#39;s Brutus oil rig released 2,100 barrels of oil. This leak created a visible 2 mile by 13 mile oil slick in the sea about 97 miles south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana, according to the USA Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.</p><br>
<p>Santa Catalina Island  is a rocky island off the coast of the USA state of California in the Gulf of Santa Catalina. The island name is often shortened to Catalina Island or just Catalina. The island is 22 mi long and 8 mi across at its greatest width. The island is located about 22 mi south-southwest of Los Angeles, California. The highest point on the island is 2,097 ft Mt. Orizaba. Santa Catalina is part of the Channel Islands of California archipelago and lies within Los Angeles County.</p><br>
<p>Catalina was originally settled by Native Americans who called the island Pimugna or Pimu and referred to themselves as Pimugnans or Pimuvit. The first Europeans to arrive on Catalina claimed it for the Spanish Empire. Over the years, territorial claims to the island transferred to Mexico and then to the United States. During this time, the island was sporadically used for smuggling, otter hunting, and gold-digging, before successfully being developed into a tourist destination by chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr. beginning in the 1920s. Since the 1970s, most of the island has been administered by the Catalina Island Conservancy.</p><br>
<p>Its total population in the 2010 census was 4,096 people, 90 percent of whom live in the islands only incorporated city, Avalon. The second center of population is the unincorporated village of Two Harbors at the islands isthmus. Development occurs also at the smaller settlements of Rancho Escondido and Middle Ranch. The remaining population is scattered over the island between the two population centers.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Prior to the modern era, the island was inhabited by people of the Gabrielino/Tongva tribe, who, having had villages near present-day San Pedro and Playa del Rey, regularly traveled back and forth to Catalina for trade. The Tongva called the island Pimu or Pimugna and referred to themselves as the Pimugnans or Pimuvit. Archeological evidence shows Pimugnan settlement beginning in 7000 BC. The Pimugnans had settlements all over the island at one time or another, with their biggest villages being at the Isthmus and at present-day Avalon, Shark/Little Harbor, and Emerald Bay. The Pimugnans were renowned for their mining, working and trade of soapstone which was found in great quantities and varieties on the island. This material was in great demand and was traded along the California coast.</p><br>
<p>Franciscan friars considered building a mission on Catalina, but abandoned the idea because of the lack of fresh water on the island. While Spain maintained its claim on Catalina Island, foreigners were forbidden to trade with colonies. However, it lacked the ships to enforce this prohibition, also many inhabitants of the colonies wanted to trade with other European powers by themselves, and the island served as home or base of operation for many visitors. Russian hunters from the Aleutian Islands, and America set up camps on Santa Catalina and the surrounding Channel Islands to hunt otters and seals around the island for their pelts. Pirates, of all countries, including Spain, also found that the island&#39;s abundance of hidden coves, as well as its short distance to the mainland and its small population, made it suitable for smuggling activities. In the 1850s and 1860s, Catalina was also home to gold miners as the result of a minor gold rush, though evidence that gold was ever on the island is inconclusive.</p><br>
<p>In 1846, Governor Pío Pico made a Mexican land grant of the Island of Santa Catalina to Thomas M. Robbins in 1846, as Rancho Santa Catalina. Robbins established a small rancho on the island, but sold it in 1850 to José María Covarrubias. A claim was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1853, and the grant was patented to José María Covarrubias in 1867. Covarrubias sold the island to Albert Packard of Santa Barbara in 1853. By 1864 the entire island was owned by James Lick, whose estate maintained control of the island for approximately the next 25 years.</p><br>
<p>By the end of the 19th century, the island was almost uninhabited except for a few cattle herders. The first owner to try to develop Avalon into a resort destination was George Shatto, a real estate speculator from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Shatto purchased the island for $200,000 (equivalent to $ million in ) from the Lick estate at the height of the real estate boom in Southern California in 1887. Shatto created the settlement that would become Avalon, and can be credited with building the towns first hotel, the original Hotel Metropole, and pier. Despite Shattos efforts, he defaulted on his loan after only a few years and the island went back to the Lick estate. The sons of Phineas Banning bought the island in 1891 from the estate of James Lick. The Banning brothers fulfilled Shattos dream of making Avalon a resort community with the construction of numerous tourist facilities. On November 29, 1915, a fire burned half of Avalons buildings, including six hotels and several clubs. In the face of huge debt related to the fire and the subsequent decline in tourism due to World War I, the Banning brothers were forced to sell the island in shares in 1919.</p><br>
<p>One of the main investors to purchase shares from the Bannings was chewing-gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr. In 1919, Wrigley bought out nearly every share-holder until he owned controlling interest in the Santa Catalina Island Company. Wrigley invested millions in needed infrastructure and attractions to the island, including the construction of the Catalina Casino which opened on May 29, 1929. Wrigley also sought to bring publicity to the island through events and spectacles. Starting in 1921, the Chicago Cubs, also owned by Wrigley, used the island for the teams spring training. The Cubs continued to use the island for spring training until 1951, except during the war years of 1942 to 1945. Following the death of Wrigley, Jr. in 1932, control of the Santa Catalina Island Company passed down to his son, Philip K. Wrigley, who continued his fathers work improving the infrastructure of the island.</p><br>
<p>During World War II, the island was closed to tourists and used for military training facilities. Catalina&#39;s steamships were expropriated for use as troop transports and a number of military camps were established. The USA Maritime Service set up a training facility in Avalon, the Coast Guard had training at Two Harbors, the Army Signal Corp maintained a radar station in the interior, the Office of Strategic Services did training at Toyon Bay, and the Navy did underwater demolition training at Emerald Bay.</p><br>
<p>In 1972, the Brown Berets, a group of Latino activists, Chicanos and Mexican residents took the Santa Catalina Island, invoking the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which has no mention of the islands.</p><br>
<p>On February 15, 1975, Philip Wrigley deeded 42,135 acres of the island from the Santa Catalina Island Company to the Catalina Island Conservancy that he had helped to establish in 1972. This gave the Conservancy control of nearly 90 percent of the island. The balance of the Santa Catalina Island Company that was not deeded to the Conservancy maintains control of much of its resort properties and operations on the island.</p><br>
<p>Actress Natalie Wood drowned in the waters near the settlement of Two Harbors under questionable circumstances over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in 1981. Wood and her husband, Robert Wagner, were vacationing aboard their motor yacht, Splendour, along with their guest, Christopher Walken, and Splendour captain, Dennis Davern. In 2011, thirty years after the actress&#39; death, the case was reopened, partially due to public statements made by Davern.</p><br>
<p>In May 2007, Catalina experienced the 2007 Avalon Fire. Largely due to the assistance of 200 Los Angeles County fire fighters transported by USA Marine Corps helicopters and U.S Navy hovercraft, only a few structures were destroyed, yet 4,750 acres of wildland burned. In May 2011, another wildfire started near the Isthmus Yacht Club and was fought by 120 firefighters transported by barge from Los Angeles. It was extinguished the next day after burning 117 acres.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Catalina is primarily composed of two distinct rock units: Catalina Schist from the Early Cretaceous (95 to 109 million years ago), and Miocene volcanic and intrusive igneous rocks. The island is rich in quartz, to the extent that some beaches on the seaward side have silvery-grey sand. These formations originally occurred on the ocean floor and emerged from the ocean through tectonic activity. This means that the Santa Catalina Island land-mass was never directly connected to mainland California. Other geologic factors that contributed to the island topography observed today include further geologic uplift and subsidence, tectonic plate movement, sedimentation, metamorphic activity, weathering, and erosion.</p><br>
<h3>Climate</h3><br>
<p>Santa Catalina Island has a very mild warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb) with warm temperatures year-round. The National Weather Service maintains cooperative weather records at the Santa Catalina airport. The average January temperatures are a maximum of 58.4 &deg;F and a minimum of 47.6 &deg;F. Average July temperatures are a maximum of 78.1 &deg;F and a minimum of 60.0 &deg;F. There are an average of 12.5 days with highs of 90 &deg;F or higher and an average of 0.3 days with lows of 32 &deg;F or lower. The record high temperature was 103 &deg;F on August 29, 1967, and the record low temperature was 29 &deg;F on January 11, 1949. Coastal high fog is common during summer, but usually burns off by the afternoon.</p><br>
<p>Average annual precipitation at the airport is 11.82 in; the highest mountain peaks get up to 17 in per year. There are an average of 45 days with measurable precipitation. The wettest year was 1952 with 21.74 in and the driest year was 1964 with 5.53 in. The most precipitation in one month was 7.81 in in January 1952. The most precipitation in 24 hours was 2.95 in on December 5, 1966. Snowfall is a rarity on the island, averaging only 0.4 in a year at the airport, but 4.0 in fell in 1949, including 3.0 in in January.</p><br>
<h2>Wildlife</h2><br>
<p>Since Catalina Island was never connected to mainland California, it was originally lacking in all terrestrial life. Any plants or animals that arrived on the island had to make their way across miles of open ocean. The original species to come to the island arrived by chance by blowing over on the wind, drifting or swimming over the ocean, or flown over by wing. Starting with the Native Americans and continuing today, animals and plants have also been introduced by humans, both intentionally or accidentally.</p><br>
<p>Catalina is home to at least fifty endemic species that occur naturally on the island and nowhere else in the world. This limited distribution of a species may result from the extinction of the original population on the mainland combined with its continued survival on the island where there may be fewer threats to its continued existence.</p><br>
<h3>Flora</h3><br>
<p>The most common native plant communities of Catalina Island are chaparral, coastal sage scrub, island oak-ironwood woodland and grassland. Eucalyptus trees are the most common introduced plant.</p><br>
<p>About 400 species of native plants grow on the island. Six species, subspecies or varieties are endemic and can be found only on Catalina Island. These plants are: Catalina manzanita (Arctostaphylos catalinae); Catalina mahogany (Cercocarpus traskiae); Catalina dudleya (Dudleya hassei); St. Catherine’s lace (Eriogonum giganteum var. giganteum); Santa Catalina bedstraw (Galium catalinense ssp. catalinense); and Santa Catalina Island ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus ssp. floribundus). A disjunctive population of toyon var. macrocarpa is also a Santa Catalina endemic. These plants may be seen at the island&#39;s Wrigley Memorial & Botanical Gardens.</p><br>
<h3>Fauna</h3><br>
<p>The island is home to five native land mammals: the island fox, the Spermophilus beecheyi nesioticus subspecies of California ground squirrel, the Santa Catalina Island harvest mouse (Reithrodontomys megalotis catalinae), the Santa Catalina Island deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus catalinae), and the ornate shrew (Sorex ornatus). Only one ornate shrew was ever found, from a now-developed spring area above Avalon. Shrews are difficult to capture and may survive in wetter areas of the island.</p><br>
<p>The Catalina orangetip butterfly is a notable insect of the island. The Southern Pacific rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus helleri) is also present on the island. This species should not be confused for the Santa Catalina rattlesnake, found on Santa Catalina Island, Mexico.</p><br>
<p>The island is also home to a number of non-native animals, notably including the American bison. In 1924, fourteen bison were brought to the island for the filming of the Western movie The Vanishing American, though the scenes with the bison did not make it into the final cut of the film. Due to cost overruns, the film company decided to leave the bison on the island instead of bringing them back to the mainland. Today the size of the Catalina Island bison herd is maintained at population of about 150 animals. Other non-native animals currently living on the island include the blackbuck, bullfrog, feral cat, mule deer, rat, and common starling. The island was also previously home to populations of cattle, feral goat, feral pig, and sheep, but these animals are no longer present.</p><br>
<p>According to the Catalina Island Conservancy, there are 37 resident bird species on the island. Considerably more marine, pelagic, and migrating birds frequent the island, and 127 species have been reported to the Cornell University eBird database from 10 different eBird hotspots. There are several live camera feeds showing bald eagle nests on the island; nests are active February–July.</p><br>
<p>In the waters surrounding the island, there are schools of fish like Garibaldi, California sheephead, leopard sharks, white seabass, yellowtail, bat rays, giant sea bass, and many more. Great white sharks are also occasionally found or caught off the coast of Catalina, though usually around seal rookeries and not around inhabited areas. Common marine mammals around Catalina include California sea lions and harbor seals.</p><br>
<h3>Conservation</h3><br>
<p>Most of the island is controlled by the Catalina Island Conservancy, a private nonprofit organization. The mission of the Catalina Island Conservancy is to be a steward of its lands through a balance of conservation, education and recreation. The Conservancy protects the natural and cultural heritage of Santa Catalina Island, stewarding approximately 42,000 acre of land (88 percent of the island), 50 mi of shoreline, an airport, and more than 200 mi of roads.</p><br>
<p>One of the Conservancy&#39;s key goals is the conservation of the island fox, an endangered endemic species. In 1999, all but 100 out of 1,300 foxes on Catalina Island were wiped out because of a virulent strain of canine distemper. Following a successful recovery program which included captive breeding, distemper vaccinations and population monitoring, the Catalina fox community has been restored to more than 400 – a number deemed by the Conservancy scientists to be a self-sufficient population. However, mysterious, usually fatal ear tumors continue to plague the Catalina fox. Three Catalina Island Conservancy wildlife biologists continue to monitor the population through pit tagging, trapping and inspection.</p><br>
<p>The Institute for Wildlife Studies, a separate conservation organization, has worked to restore bald eagles to the island on Conservancy land since the late 1970s. Bald eagles had been common on the island until the 1960s, when it is believed that the effects of dumping the pesticide DDT off the coast of Southern California made it impossible for eagles to successfully hatch their young. The reintroduction of the bald eagle to the island may also edge out an invasive golden eagle population that threatens the native island fox.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>Just over one million people travel to Catalina Island every year, though the total number in any given year varies depending on economic conditions. Glass bottom boats tour the reefs and shipwrecks of the area, and scuba diving and snorkeling are popular in the clear water. Lover&#39;s Cove, to the east of Avalon, and Descanso Beach, to the west of the Casino, are popular places to dive. At Casino Point is the Avalon Underwater Dive Park, which was the first non-profit underwater park in the United States. The area flying fish and the bright orange Garibaldi are attractions. Parasailing is also offered. Jeep and Bus tours are given of the interior, which is a conservation area managed by the Catalina Island Conservancy. The Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau operates the official island visitor center and provides visitor services assists tourists with any information on how to get to Catalina Island.</p><br>
<p>Two Harbors is the second, and much smaller, resort village on the island. Located at the isthmus of the island, northwest of Avalon, it is the primary landing spot for those who wish to tour the western half of the island. It is accessible by boat from San Pedro and by bus or boat from Avalon. While tourists rarely have an opportunity to surf, two beaches on the "backside" of Catalina offer good waves: Shark Harbor and Ben Weston Beach. There is also a place called Camp Emerald Bay on the north end of the island that offers summer camps for children and Boy Scouts.</p><br>
<p>The Catalina Island Museum, formerly located in the historic Catalina Casino but since 2016 in a standalone building, is also an attraction as it is the keeper of the island&#39;s cultural heritage with collections numbering over 100,000 items and including over 8,000 years of Native American history, over 10,000 photographs and images, a large collection of Catalina-made pottery and tiles, ship models, and much more. The museum features dynamic exhibits on this history, an art gallery, special exhibitions traveling from around the world, and a unique Museum Store. Programs include First Fridays at the Museum, an annual tour of the historic Tuna Club, a Holiday Symphony Concert, book signings, gallery talks, an annual silent film benefit and more. From 1927 until 1937, pottery and tiles were made on the island at the Catalina Clay Products Company, and these items are now highly sought-after collectibles.</p><br>
<h2>Education</h2><br>
<p>Children in Avalon attend schools in the Long Beach Unified School District. There are two schools on Catalina Island. Two Harbors is served by a one-room school house for grades K–5; students travel to Avalon for grades 6–12. Avalon schools are housed on one main campus that includes Avalon Elementary School, Avalon Middle School and Avalon High School. Thousands of school-age youths travel from the mainland to study at the Catalina Island Marine Institute every year.</p><br>
<p>There is also a branch of the County of Los Angeles Public Library system in downtown Avalon, adjacent to the Sheriff&#39;s office.</p><br>
<p>The USC Wrigley Marine Science Center houses research and teaching facilities at Big Fisherman&#39;s Cove, near Two Harbors, for the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies. Maintained by the University of Southern California and named for Philip K. Wrigley, it consists of a 30,000 ft&sup2; laboratory building, dormitory housing, cafeteria, a hyperbaric chamber, and a large waterfront staging area complete with dock, pier, helipad, and diving lockers. The facility was made possible by a donation from the Wrigley family in 1995.</p><br>
<h2>Infrastructure</h2><br>
<h3>Transportation</h3><br>
<p>Catalina is serviced by passenger ferries. Ferries depart from Orange County in Newport Beach and Dana Point as well as from Los Angeles County in Long Beach and San Pedro. The round trip takes approximately an hour. Helicopter service is also available from Long Beach or San Pedro. Catalina has also been an active port of many cruise lines since the 1990s, with Royal Caribbean, Princess Cruises, and Carnival Cruise Lines making the port a regular for Baja cruises. Specifically, Carnival Cruise Lines&#39; Carnival Paradise has made calls to the island every week since 2004, making it the ship to have the most weekly calls to the port, but left in November 2011 and was replaced by Carnival Inspiration. The ships anchor about 1,000 feet off of Avalon Harbor. Passengers disembark through shore boat tendering services.</p><br>
<p>The island is also home to the Catalina Airport (FAA Identifier: AVX), also known as Airport-in-the-Sky. The airport was founded by Dick Probert and built in 1946. The airport is located 7 mi northwest of Avalon. The 3,000 ft runway sits on a mountaintop, 1,602 ft above sea level. Until the time of the airport&#39;s construction, the only scheduled passenger air service to the island was provided by seaplanes which served Avalon and Two Harbors.</p><br>
<p>The use of motor vehicles on the island is restricted; there is a limit on the number of registered cars, which translates into a 14-year-long wait list to bring a car to the island. Most residents move around via golf carts. Because of these restrictions, there is no regular car vehicle ferry service for visitors. Tourists can hire a taxi from Catalina Transportation Services. Bicycles are also a popular mode of transportation. There are a number of bicycle and golf cart rental agencies on the island. Only the city of Avalon is open to the public without restrictions. The only major road into the back country is Stage Road. Under an agreement with Los Angeles County, the Conservancy has granted an easement to allow day hiking and mountain biking, but visitors must first obtain a permit at the Conservancy&#39;s office (on which they declare the parts of the island they intend to visit). Hiking permits are free, whereas bicycle permits are available for a fee.</p><br>
<h3>Communication</h3><br>
<p>Catalinas isolation offered good opportunities to experiment with new communication technologies throughout its history. Although not high tech, the first of these communication innovations was the use of pigeons by Catalinas gold prospectors. Homing pigeons delivered messages to the mainland in 45 minutes, compared to 10 days to deliver mail from Isthmus to Wilmington by regular post in 1864. Even today, Avalon Post Office does not match the airmail service enjoyed by the miners. Pigeons were used to deliver messages for Catalina residents until 1899. By 1902, the first commercial wireless telegraph station was built in Avalon where the Chimes Tower now stands.</p><br>
<p>On July 16, 1920 the worlds first commercial wireless radiotelephone toll circuit was opened to the public between San Pedro and Avalon. Designed by and installed under the direction of Western Electric Company/Bell Labs engineer Lewis M. Clement (1892-1979), the system drew other engineers from all over the world to study it. The Avalon telephone directory in 1920 listed 52 subscribers serviced by a manual switchboard. People stood for hours to use this new technology the only drawback of which was that all conversations could be monitored by anyone listening to their radio. Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. solved that problem with the installation of two submarine cables running 23 miles from Avalon to San Pedro in 1923. Another communication first touched Catalina when the worlds first commercial microwave telephone system was installed in 1946. Although microwave telephones had been used for wartime applications, this was the first peacetime use of this technology.</p><br>
<p>Catalina&#39;s isolation also left the island as the last central office in the US Bell System to operate entirely using manual switchboard operators. The Catalina Island exchange was converted to dial in 1978. The island is now Area Code 310, Exchange 510.</p><br>
<h3>Emergency services</h3><br>
<p>The Los Angeles County Sheriff&#39;s Department (LASD) operates the Avalon Station in Avalon, serving Santa Catalina Island.</p><br>
<p>Fire Protection is provided by the Avalon Fire Department inside city limits, and by the Los Angeles County Fire Department in other areas of the island. Two county fire stations are located on Catalina Island, Station #55 is located just outside Avalon in Avalon Canyon and call firefighters staff Station #155 in the remote hamlet of Two Harbors.</p><br>
<p>Paramedic and lifeguard services are provided by the County Fire Department&#39;s Lifeguard Division, also known as Baywatch. Catalina Island Medical Center, located in Avalon, is the only hospital/medical center on the island. It operates 24 hours, 7 days a week. Baywatch operates Baywatch Rescue/Lifeguard Boats.</p><br>
<h3>Utilities</h3><br>
<p>From 2000 to 2013, 11 out of 13 annual reports released by the Natural Resources Defense Council listed Avalon as one of the 10 most chronically polluted beaches in the nation for failing state health tests as much as 73% of the time. Researchers identified Avalons sewer system as the cause of the pollution. Many of the citys century-old clay and metal pipes had deteriorated to the point where they had vanished, allowing human sewage to enter the city&#39;s ground water and into the bay. In February 2012, a cease and desist order was issued against the City for illegally discharging polluted water into the bay. After the cease and desist order, the city invested $5.7 million on sewer main improvements and inspection and tracking systems. As a result of these efforts, the 2014 report showed that water quality had improved, and Avalon Beach was removed from the list of the most polluted beaches.</p><br>
<h2>Culture</h2><br>
<p>In its heyday in the 1930s, due to its proximity to Hollywood, Catalina Island was a favored getaway destination for Hollywood stars such as Clark Gable. The island also served as a filming location for dozens of movies.</p><br>
<p>Art Good, host of the Jazztrax Showcase of the Absolute Newest, holds the Catalina Island Jazztrax Festival there each year.</p><br>
<p>The 2008 movie Step Brothers features the Catalina Wine Mixer event (often referred to as the "f--ing Catalina Wine Mixer"). While the scene in the movie was filmed at the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, the island can be seen offshore in the background. The movie inspired a real life Catalina Wine mixer, hosted by the Catalina Island Visitor&#39;s Bureau.</p><br>
<h3>In music</h3><br>
<p>In 1946 Harold Spina published his song "Santa Catalina (Island of Romance)". The song was performed and recorded by many Pop artists including Tony Martin, Dorothy Collins, Gordon Jenkins and His Orchestra, The Modernaires, Eddy Howard and His Orchestra, Freddy Martin and His Orchestra and several others.</p><br>
<p>In 1958, the song "26 Miles" by the Four Preps hit number 2 on the Billboard charts. The main theme of the song is summed up in the last line in the refrain, stating that Santa Catalina is "the island of romance", with the word "romance" repeated four times.</p><br>
<p>Featured in the lyrics of a song called "Pasadena" by Modern Skirts – "let&#39;s move to Pasadena... and then on to Catalina."</p><br>
<p>The Descendents wrote a song called "Catalina". It appears on their album Milo Goes to College.</p><br>
<p>"Southern Cross" by Crosby, Stills and Nash – "in a noisy bar in Avalon I tried to call you"</p><br>
<p>"Avalon" is a 1920 popular song written by Al Jolson, Buddy DeSylva and Vincent Rose referencing Avalon, California.</p><br>
<p>The Los Angeles band Allah-Las wrote a song called "Catalina". It appears on their 2012 album.</p><br>
<p>The Californian band Joyce Manor wrote a song called "Catalina Fight Song". It appears on their 2014 album Never Hungover Again.</p><br>
<p>In the mockumentary series Documentary Now!, the band Blue Jean Committee released a number one album called Catalina Breeze. Fred Armisen and Bill Hader went on to record an EP by that name.</p><br>
<h2>Notable residents</h2><br>
<p>Author Zane Grey, whose works include The Vanishing American, built a home in Avalon, which now serves as the Zane Grey Pueblo Hotel.</p><br>
<p>Marilyn Monroe lived with her first husband, James Dougherty, in the town of Avalon for several months in 1943 before her husband, who enlisted in the Merchant Marine, was shipped out to the Pacific during World War II.</p><br>
<p>General George S. Patton Jr. met his wife Beatrice (Ayer) on Catalina when they were children.</p><br>
<p>Gregory Harrison, actor, was born in Catalina Island.</p><br>
<p>Zach Galifianakis, actor/comedian, with notable films such as The Hangover: Part III.</p><br>
<p>The Old Greene County Courthouse is a historic courthouse in Eutaw, Alabama, United States. It housed the seat of government for Greene County from 1869 until 1993. The building is a two-story masonry structure in the Greek Revival style with Italianate influences. Architect Clay Lancaster proposed that it may be the last Greek Revival public building to be built in Alabama. It replaced an earlier wooden courthouse on the same site that was built in 1838. The prior courthouse was burned in 1868, in what is considered by most historians to have been a deliberate act of arson that was executed to destroy indictments brought by the recently installed Radical Reconstruction government against local citizens. The fire destroyed paperwork pertaining to some 1,800 suits by freedmen against planters which were about to be acted on. The courthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 24, 1971, due to its architectural significance.</p><br>
<p>Queechy Lake is a lake in Canaan, Columbia County, New York. Situated near the Massachusetts state border, the lake is 40 ft deep and contains a surface area of 141 acre.</p><br>
<p>The name comes from the Native American Mahican name Quis-sich-kook, of unknown meaning.</p><br>
<p>The lake is located near two major roads, New York State Route 295 and New York State Route 22. Among the present fish species are brown bullhead, brown trout, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, chain pickerel, pumpkinseed, bluegill, rock bass, rainbow trout, black crappie and yellow perch. Queechy Lake is a natural body of water; however, sometime prior to 1910, the water levels were raised as a result of the construction of a dam along the Stony Kill, a tributary of Queechy Lake. The purpose of the dam was to store water that would supply mills located downstream. In the early 19th century, a summer of dry weather contributed to decreased water levels, which exposed a muddy surface at the lower end of the lake.</p><br>
<p>Koprinka  is a reservoir and dam in the Rose Valley, central Bulgaria.</p><br>
<p>Its construction began after 1944 and was finished in 1956. It was built on the Tundzha river at 7 km to the west of the city of Kazanlak near the village of Koprinka. It is situated at 300 m to the south of the main sub-Balkan road between the capital Sofia and Burgas. The reservoir is around 7 km in length and covers an area of 11.2 km². The depth varies between 44 and 78 metres. The shores are rugged with many branches and bays.</p><br>
<h2>Seuthopolis</h2><br>
<p>During the construction of the dam was discovered the ancient Thracian city Seuthopolis which was the capital of the Odrysian kingdom. The remains of the city were carefully studied and the artifacts were collected in the Regional Museum of History. In 2005, the Bulgarian architect Zheko Tilev proposed a project to uncover, preserve and reconstruct the city of Seuthopolis which is the best preserved Thracian city in Bulgaria by means of a dam wall surrounding the ruins in the middle of the dam, enabling the site&#39;s inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and making it a tourist destination of world importance. Tourists would be transported to the site by boats. The round wall, 420 metres in diameter, would enable visitors to see the city from 20 metres above and would also feature "hanging gardens", glass lifts, a quay, restaurants, cafés, shops, ateliers, etc. It would be illuminated at night.</p><br>
<p>The project was donated by the architect to Kazanlak municipality and funds are being raised to begin construction. According to Tilev, it would cost minimum €50 million.</p><br>
<h2>Leisure</h2><br>
<p>Many citizens of Kazanlak spend their leisure time around the reservoir which offers good conditions for water sports. It is also a good place for fishing with the abundance of barbel, chub, carp, catfish and other species of freshwater fish. Many birds use Koprinka as a winter place.</p><br>
<p>The Grwyne Fawr is a river in the Brecon Beacons National Park in south Wales. A section of it forms the administrative border between Powys and Monmouthshire and also of the historic counties of Brecon and Monmouth. The river and its major tributary the Grwyne Fechan flow into the River Usk at Glangrwyney. The name probably originates from gweryn or gwerynau and mawr/fawr meaning &#39;large river at the wet place&#39;.</p><br>
<p>The Gwryne Fawr rises at Blaen Grwyne Fawr on the southern slopes of Rhos Dirion in the Black Mountains and follows a southeastward course for several miles, its flow interrupted by the presence of Grwyne Fawr Reservoir, the only waterbody within this range of hills. Some way below the reservoir, Mynydd Du Forest clothes the sides of the valley. Though a public road penetrates the valley as far as the north end of the forest, the valley is very sparsely populated. It is only approaching the hamlet of Partrishow that the valley takes on a farmed appearance. The river now heads west along a valley whose alignment is guided by the presence of a geological line of weakness known as the Neath Disturbance.</p><br>
<p>To the west, the Grwyne Fechan takes a parallel course to that of it larger neighbour. It rises on the southern slopes of Waun Fach and gathers a number of tributary streams from the broad ridge which separates it from the Grwyne Fawr. Though there are numerous conifer plantations, the valley has a more open aspect than that of the Grwyne Fawr.</p><br>
<p>The two rivers join near the village of Llanbedr and head south as the Grwyne Fawr through the hamlet of Llangenny to their confluence with the River Usk at Glangrwyney.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Both the Grwyne Fawr and the Grwyne Fechan drain the Old Red Sandstone hills of the Black Mountains. These are the Brownstones and Senni Formations which date from the Breconian stage of the Devonian period. The sandstones and mudstones of these formations can frequently be seen in the beds of the two rivers and sometimes exposed in the often steep valley sides. The lower reaches of the river run through an area blanketed with glacial till, a legacy of the last ice age.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The valley of the Grwyne Fawr, then known as "Coed Grano", was the site of the murder in 1136 of the Norman Marcher lord Richard de Clare, 1st Earl of Hereford, by the Welsh under Iorwerth ab Owain and his brother Morgan, grandsons of Caradog ap Gruffydd. This resulted in a period of conflict between the Welsh and English in south Wales.</p><br>
<p>The Public Quarry at Government Island in Stafford County, Virginia is the principal source of Aquia Creek sandstone, a building stone used in many of the early government buildings in Washington, D.C., including the USA Capitol and the White House. A quarry was established just off the Potomac River at Wiggintons Island on Aquia Creek by George Brent after 1694, providing stone for tombstones and to houses and churches in northern Virginia, including Gunston Hall, Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia, Mount Airy in Richmond County, Virginia, and Aquia Church, as well as steps and walkways at George Washingtons Mount Vernon. Washington selected Aquia sandstone as the primary material for use in Washingtons government buildings. Acting on the governments behalf, the Wiggintons Island quarry was purchased by Pierre Charles LEnfant in 1791, becoming known afterward as Government Island.</p><br>
<p>Use of the stone declined as its susceptibility to weathering was observed, and the quarry became worked out and derelict after the USA Civil War. The property was sold by the USA Government in 1963.</p><br>
<p>The property was acquired by Stafford County as a county park and opened to the public on November 6, 2010 with trails and markers highlighting the historical significance of the island. It is a designated site on the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.</p><br>
<p>The Trimble Community Forest or Trimble Township Community Forest is a 1,200 acre forest preserve owned by the Appalachia Ohio Alliance, a land trust located in southeast Ohio. Formerly called Taylor Ridge, it was purchased in 2006 from the Sunday Creek Coal Company, and was formerly part of the Sunday Creek State Wildlife Area. The land has a long history of coal, oil, natural gas, and timber production. The AOA negotiated with the Trimble Township Trustees on its use before purchase. It is located in Athens County, Ohio, south of Ohio State Route 78, between Glouster, Ohio and Murray City, Ohio.</p><br>
<p>The forest is used as a land lab by nearby Trimble High School and Trimble Middle School. The land lab area is known as the Trimble Tomcat Environmental Learning Lab. The Ohio Division of Wildlife provides assistance to a local citizens committee that manages the forest.</p><br>
<h2>Aerial photos and maps</h2><br>
<p>Sherwood Manor, also known as Sherwoods Neck, is a historic home about four miles west of Saint Michaels, Talbot County, Maryland. It is a post-Revolutionary War brick structure located on a small point of land in Hemmersley Creek. The house is a five bay, two story brick structure, with an unusual pair of inset panels, the size of windows, on both stories of the west gable end. It was acquired in 1771 by Matthew Tilghman, a Maryland statesman and onetime member of the Continental Congress, to augment his own large property holdings in the area, which included his home at Rich Neck Manor. Matthew Tilghmans son, Lloyd Tilghman, occupied the Sherwood property and built Sherwood Manor some time before 1798.</p><br>
<p>Sherwood Manor was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.</p><br>
<p>The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in the Dutch East Indies  began in the afternoon of Sunday, 26 August 1883 , and peaked in the late morning of Monday, 27 August when over 70% of the island and its surrounding archipelago were destroyed as it collapsed into a caldera. Additional seismic activity was reported to have continued until February 1884, though reports of seismic activity after October 1883 were later dismissed by Rogier Verbeeks investigation into the eruption. The 1883 eruption was one of the deadliest and most destructive volcanic events in recorded history. At least 36,417 deaths are attributed to the eruption and the tsunamis it created. Significant additional effects were also felt around the world in the days and weeks after the volcanos destruction.</p><br>
<h2>Early phase</h2><br>
<p>In the years before the 1883 eruption, seismic activity around the Krakatoa volcano was intense, with earthquakes felt as far away as Australia. Beginning 20 May 1883, steam venting began to occur regularly from Perboewatan, the northernmost of the island&#39;s three cones. Eruptions of ash reached an estimated altitude of 6 km (20,000 ft) and explosions could be heard in New Batavia (Jakarta) 160 km away. Activity died down by the end of May, and there was no further recorded activity for several weeks.</p><br>
<p>Eruptions at Krakatoa started again around 16 June with loud explosions and a thick black cloud covering the islands for five days. On 24 June, a prevailing east wind cleared the cloud, and two ash columns could be seen issuing from Krakatoa. The seat of the eruption is believed to have been a new vent or vents that formed between Perboewatan and Danan. The violence of the ongoing eruptions caused tides in the vicinity to be unusually high, and ships at anchor had to be moored with chains. Earthquakes were felt at Anyer, Banten, and ships began to report large pumice masses to the west in the Indian Ocean.</p><br>
<p>On 11 August, a Dutch topographical engineer, Captain H. J. G. Ferzenaar, investigated the Krakatoa islands. He noted three major ash columns (the newer from Danan), which obscured the western part of the island, and steam plumes from at least eleven other vents, mostly between Danan and Rakata. When he landed, he noted an ash layer about 0.5 m thick, and the destruction of all vegetation, leaving only tree stumps. He advised against any further landings. The next day, a ship passing to the north reported a new vent "only a few meters above sea level&quot this may be the most northerly spot indicated on Ferzenaar&#39;s map. Activity continued through mid-August.</p><br>
<h2>Climactic phase</h2><br>
<p>By 25 August, the Krakatoa eruptions intensified. At about 13:00 (local time) on 26 August, the volcano went into its paroxysmal phase. By 14:00, a black cloud of ash could be seen 27 km high. At this point, the eruption was virtually continuous and explosions could be heard every ten minutes or so. Ships within 20 km of the volcano reported heavy ash fall, with pieces of hot pumice up to 10 cm in diameter landing on their decks. Between 18:00 and 19:00 hours, a small tsunami hit the shores of Java and Sumatra, some 40 km away.</p><br>
<p>On 27 August, four enormous explosions occurred. At 5:30am, the first explosion was at Perboewatan, triggering a tsunami heading straight to Telok Betong, now known as Bandar Lampung. At 6:44am, Krakatoa exploded again at Danan, with the resulting tsunami stretching eastward and westward. The largest explosion, at 10:02am, was so violent that it was heard 3,110 km away in Perth, Western Australia, and the Indian Ocean island of Rodrigues near Mauritius, 4,800 km away, where they were thought to be cannon fire from a nearby ship. The third explosion has been reported as the loudest sound heard in historic times. The loudness of the blast heard 160 km from the volcano has been calculated to have been 180 dB. Each explosion was accompanied by tsunamis estimated to have been over 30 m high in places. A large area of the Sunda Strait and a number of places on the Sumatran coast were affected by pyroclastic flows from the volcano. The energy released from the explosion has been estimated to be equal to about 200 megatons of TNT, roughly four times as powerful as the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever detonated. At 10:41am, a landslide tore off half of Rakata volcano, causing the final explosion.</p><br>
<h3>Final explosive eruption</h3><br>
<p>The pressure wave generated by the colossal fourth and final explosion radiated out from Krakatoa at 1,086 km/h. The eruption is estimated to have reached 310 dB, loud enough to be heard clearly 5,000 km away. It was so powerful that it ruptured the eardrums of sailors 40 mi away on ships in the Sunda Strait, and caused a spike of more than 2+1/2 inHg in pressure gauges 100 mi away, attached to gasometers in the Batavia gasworks, sending them off the scale.</p><br>
<p>The pressure wave was recorded on barographs all over the world. Several barographs recorded the wave seven times over the course of five days: four times with the wave travelling away from the volcano to its antipodal point, and three times travelling back to the volcano. Hence, the wave rounded the globe three and a half times. Ash was propelled to an estimated height of 80 km.</p><br>
<p>The eruptions diminished rapidly after that point, and by the morning of 28 August, Krakatoa was silent. Small eruptions, mostly of mud, continued into October 1883. By then, less than 30% of the original island remained.</p><br>
<h2>Effects</h2><br>
<p>The combination of pyroclastic flows, volcanic ash, and tsunamis associated with the Krakatoa eruptions had disastrous regional consequences. Some land on Java was never repopulated; it reverted to jungle, and is now the Ujung Kulon National Park. The official death toll recorded by the Dutch authorities was 36,417, although some sources put the estimate at 120,000 or more.</p><br>
<h3>"The Burning Ashes of Ketimbang"</h3><br>
<p>Verbeek and others believe that the final major Krakatoa eruption was a lateral blast, or pyroclastic surge (similar to the catastrophic 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens). Around noon on 27 August 1883, a rain of hot ash fell around Ketimbang (now Katibung in Lampung Province) in Sumatra. Approximately 1,000 people were killed in Sumatra, there were no survivors from the 3,000 people located on the island of Sebesi. There are numerous documented reports of groups of human skeletons floating across the Indian Ocean on rafts of volcanic pumice and washing up on the east coast of Africa, up to a year after the eruption.</p><br>
<h3>Tsunamis and distant effects</h3><br>
<p>Ships as far away as South Africa rocked as tsunamis hit them, and the bodies of victims were found floating in the ocean for months after the event. The tsunamis which accompanied the eruption are believed to have been caused by gigantic pyroclastic flows entering the sea; each of the four great explosions was accompanied by massive pyroclastic flows resulting from the gravitational collapse of the eruption columns. This caused several cubic kilometers of material to enter the sea, displacing an equally huge volume of seawater. The town of Merak was destroyed by a tsunami 46 m high. Some of the pyroclastic flows reached the Sumatran coast as much as 40 km away, having apparently moved across the water on a cushion of superheated steam. There are also indications of submarine pyroclastic flows reaching 15 km from the volcano.</p><br>
<p>Smaller waves were recorded on tidal gauges as far away as the English Channel. These occurred too soon to be remnants of the initial tsunamis, and may have been caused by concussive air waves from the eruption. These air waves circled the globe several times and were still detectable on barographs five days later.</p><br>
<h3>Geographic effects</h3><br>
<p>In the aftermath of the eruption, it was found that the island of Krakatoa had almost entirely disappeared, except for the southern third. The Rakata cone was cut off along a vertical cliff, leaving behind a 250 m deep caldera. Of the northern two-thirds of the island, only a rocky islet named Bootsmansrots (Bosuns Rock&#39;), a fragment of Danan, was left; Poolsche Hoed had totally disappeared.</p><br>
<p>As a result of the huge amount of material deposited by the volcano, the surrounding ocean floor was drastically altered. It is estimated that as much as 18 - of ignimbrite was deposited over an area of 1,100,000 km&sup2, largely filling the 30 - deep basin around the mountain. The land masses of Verlaten and Lang islands were increased, as was the western part of the remnant of Rakata. Much of this gained material quickly eroded away, but volcanic ash continues to be a significant part of the geological composition of these islands.</p><br>
<p>Two nearby sandbanks (called Steers and Calmeyer after the two naval officers who investigated them) were built up into islands by ashfall, but the sea later washed them away. Seawater on hot volcanic deposits on Steers and Calmeyer had caused steam to rise, which some mistook for a continued eruption.</p><br>
<h3>Global climate</h3><br>
<p>In the year following the 1883 Krakatoa eruption, average Northern Hemisphere summer temperatures fell by as much as 1.2 &deg;C. Weather patterns continued to be chaotic for years, and temperatures did not return to normal until 1888. The record rainfall that hit Southern California during the “water year” from July 1883 to June 1884 – Los Angeles received 38.18 in and San Diego 25.97 in – has been attributed to the Krakatoa eruption. There was no El Niño during that period as is normal when heavy rain occurs in Southern California, but many scientists doubt that there is a causal relationship.</p><br>
<p>The Krakatoa eruption injected an unusually large amount of sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas high into the stratosphere, which was subsequently transported by high-level winds all over the planet. This led to a global increase in sulfuric acid (H2SO4) concentration in high-level cirrus clouds. The resulting increase in cloud reflectivity (or albedo) reflected more incoming light from the sun than usual, and cooled the entire planet until the suspended sulfur fell to the ground as acid precipitation.</p><br>
<h3>Global optical effects</h3><br>
<p>The 1883 Krakatoa eruption darkened the sky worldwide for years afterwards, and produced spectacular sunsets throughout the world for many months. British artist William Ashcroft made thousands of colour sketches of the red sunsets halfway around the world from Krakatoa in the years after the eruption. The ash caused "such vivid red sunsets that fire engines were called out in New York, Poughkeepsie, and New Haven to quench the apparent conflagration." This eruption also produced a Bishop&#39;s Ring around the sun by day, and a volcanic purple light at twilight.</p><br>
<p>In 2004, an astronomer proposed the idea that the blood-red sky shown in Edvard Munch&#39;s famous 1893 painting The Scream is also an accurate depiction of the sky over Norway after the eruption.</p><br>
<p>Weather watchers of the time tracked and mapped the effects on the sky. They labeled the phenomenon the "equatorial smoke stream". This was the first identification of what is known today as the jet stream.</p><br>
<p>For several years following the eruption, it was reported that the moon appeared to be blue and sometimes green. This was because some of the ash clouds were filled with particles about 1 µm wide—the right size to strongly scatter red light, while allowing other colors to pass. White moonbeams shining through the clouds emerged blue, and sometimes green.</p><br>
<p>People also saw lavender suns and, for the first time, recorded noctilucent clouds.</p><br>
<h2>Possible causes</h2><br>
<p>The fate of northern Krakatoa itself has been the subject of some dispute among geologists. It was originally proposed that the island had been blown apart by the force of the eruption. However, most of the material deposited by the volcano is clearly magmatic in origin and the caldera formed by the eruption is not extensively filled with deposits from the 1883 eruption. This indicates that the island subsided into an empty magma chamber at the end of the eruption sequence, rather than having been destroyed during the eruptions.</p><br>
<p>The established hypotheses – based on the findings of contemporary investigators – assume that part of the island subsided before the first explosions on the morning of August 27. This forced the volcano&#39;s vents below sea level, causing:</p><br>
<p>massive flooding which created a series of phreatic explosions (interaction of ground water and magma).</p><br>
<p>seawater to cool the magma enough for it to crust over and produce a "pressure cooker" effect that was relieved only when explosive pressures were reached.</p><br>
<p>However, there is geological evidence which does not support the assumption that only subsidence before the explosion was the cause. For instance, the pumice and ignimbrite deposits are not of a kind consistent with a magma-seawater interaction. These findings have led to other hypotheses:</p><br>
<p>a massive underwater land slump or partial subsidence suddenly exposed the highly pressurized magma chamber, opening a pathway for seawater to enter the magma chamber and setting the stage for a magma-seawater interaction.</p><br>
<p>the final explosions may have been caused by magma mixing caused by a sudden infusion of hot basaltic magma into the cooler and lighter magma in the chamber below the volcano. This would have resulted in a rapid and unsustainable increase in pressure, leading to a cataclysmic explosion. Evidence for this theory is the existence of pumice consisting of light and dark material, the dark material being of much hotter origin. However, such material reportedly is less than five per cent of the content of the Krakatoa ignimbrite and some investigators have rejected this as a prime cause of the 27 August explosions.</p><br>
<p>A numerical model for a Krakatoa hydrovolcanic explosion and the resulting tsunami was described by (Mader & Gittings, 2006). A high wall of water is formed that is initially higher than 100 meters driven by the shocked water, basalt and air.</p><br>
<h2>Verbeek investigation</h2><br>
<p>Although the violent phase of the 1883 eruption was over by late afternoon of 27 August, after light returned by the 29 August, reports continued for months that Krakatoa was still in eruption. One of the earliest duties of Verbeek&#39;s committee was to determine if this was true and also verify reports of other volcanoes erupting on Java and Sumatra. In general, these were found to be false, and Verbeek discounted any claims of Krakatoa still erupting after mid-October as due to steaming of hot material, landslides due to heavy monsoon rains that season, and "hallucinations due to electrical activity" seen from a distance.</p><br>
<p>No signs of further activity were seen until 1913, when an eruption was reported. Investigation could find no evidence the volcano was awakening, and it was determined that what had been mistaken for renewed activity had actually been a major landslide (possibly the one which formed the second arc to Rakata&#39;s cliff).</p><br>
<p>Examinations after 1930 of bathymetric charts made in 1919 show evidence of a bulge indicative of magma near the surface at the site that became Anak Krakatau.</p><br>
<p>Mynydd Llangatwg or Llangattock Mountain is a hill in the Brecon Beacons National Park in the county of Powys, south Wales. It is named from the village of Llangatwg  which sits in the valley of the River Usk to the north of it. It is essentially an undulating plateau rising in the west to a height of 530 m at and in the east to a height of 529 m at Hen Dy-aderyn / Twr Pen-cyrn. This spot is marked by a trig point. The shallow pool of Pwll Gwy-rhoc sits in a broad depression towards the northern edge of the plateau whilst a smaller pool frequently occupies a large shakehole a few hundred metres to its west. The hill forms an impressive northern scarp overlooking the Usk valley and commonly referred to as the Llangattock Escarpment. Its southern margins are more subdued. Its eastern end is defined by the drops into the Clydach Gorge. Beyond the B4560 to the west the hill merges with Mynydd Llangynidr which has a similar character.</p><br>
<p>Particular features of note include The Lonely Shepherd, an isolated limestone pinnacle which stands at the eastern tip of the plateau, left there by quarryworkers who removed great quantities of the surrounding rock. A number of cairns are scattered across the hill, notably the sizeable pair which decorate the summit of Twr Pen-cyrn and which are thought to be of Neolithic age. A more recent addition to the landscape was Cairn-Mound Reservoir which once impounded the headwaters of Nant yr Hafod on the southern slopes though Welsh Water abandoned this some years ago and its bed has revegetated, though the embankment remains. A couple of gas pipelines have been laid across the mountain and their courses can be traced variously by fences, vegetation changes and marker poles.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Mynydd Llangatwg is formed from a layer cake of Palaeozoic Era sandstones and limestones which dip gently southwards into the South Wales Coalfield basin. Imposing cliffs of Carboniferous Limestone occur along the northern escarpment and this rock underlies the entire hill and hosts the extensive cave systems which lie beneath it, notably those of Ogof y Daren Cilau and Ogof Agen Allwedd. These two systems are amongst the longest in Britain. The plateau is formed from coarse sandstones (gritstones) also dating from the Carboniferous Period and which have foundered in many places as the underlying limestone has dissolved over millennia. The sandstone forming low secondary scarps above the main northern and eastern escarpments is the frequently conglomeratic Twrch Sandstone often still referred to by its earlier name, the Basal Grit. In contrast, the more poorly exposed sandstone forming the high ground of the centre of the hill is the lowermost Westphalian age Farewell Rock which marks the base of the South Wales Coal Measures. Sections of the hill have a pock-marked appearance due to the dozens of shakeholes in its surface arising from the presence of the limestone beneath the sandstone cover.</p><br>
<h2>Quarries and tramways</h2><br>
<p>The greater part of the length of the northern escarpment is scarred by limestone quarries which operated for much of the ninenteenth century. The rock was removed by means of a series of tramroads or tramways which linked north via steep inclines to a wharf on the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal at Llangattock and south to Brynmawr and the ironworks at Nant-y-glo by two tramroads which contoured the eastern end of the hill. The upper tramway which dates from the start of the nineteenth century, runs south from Pant y Gilwern and Daren Disgwylfa and then west around the head of Cwm Clydach. It is now a grassy footpath providing easy walking through otherwise rough terrain. The lower tramway was constructed in 1828-30 and has since been converted to a public road. Both tramroads had several branches to serve individual quarries along the escarpment. Both the Twrch Sandstone and Farewell Rock have been quarried on a small scale in the past alongside the B4560 Beaufort Road with larger quarries in the latter once operating near the hill&#39;s southwestern corner.</p><br>
<h2>Access</h2><br>
<p>The B4560 road from Garnllydan to Llangynidr cuts across the high moorland and offers the easiest access to the hill and to Mynydd Llangynidr to its west. The hill is mapped as open country and therefore freely available for walkers to roam at will. There are few defined paths though a public footpath crosses from north to south passing just east of the top known as Twr Pen-cyrn. The former tramways mentioned above also provide easy level access around the margins of the hill.</p><br>
<p>Pinnacle Point a small promontory immediately south of Mossel Bay, a town on the southern coast of South Africa. Excavations since the year 2000 of a series of caves at Pinnacle Point have revealed occupation by Middle Stone Age people between 170,000 and 40,000 years ago. The focus of excavations has been at Cave 13B , where the earliest evidence for the systematic exploitation of marine resources  and symbolic behaviour has been documented, and at Pinnacle Point Cave 5–6 , where the oldest evidence for the heat treatment of rock to make stone tools has been documented. The only human remains have been recovered from younger deposits at PP13B which are years old.</p><br>
<h2>History of the research</h2><br>
<p>The discoveries at Pinnacle Point have been made by an international team, headed by palaeoanthropologist Curtis Marean from the Institute of Human Origins of the Arizona State University as well as researchers from South Africa (UCT), Australia (Archaeology Program, La Trobe University, UoW), Israel, and France.</p><br>
<p>After debating for decades, paleoanthropologists now agree there is enough genetic and fossil evidence to suggest that Homo sapiens evolved in Africa years ago. At that time, the world was in an ice age, and Africa was dry and arid. As archaeological sites dating to that time period are rare in Africa, palaeontologist Curtis Marean analysed geologic formations, sea currents, and climate data to pinpoint likely archaeological sites; one such was Pinnacle Point.</p><br>
<h2>Pinnacle Point 13B and its implications for modern behaviour</h2><br>
<p>At PP13B, the evidence for symbolic behaviour comes in the form of scraped and ground ochre (usually referred to as limonite bearing powders) that may have been used to form a pigment for body painting. This is similar to more complex ochre utilisation known from Blombos Cave slightly farther to the west at roughly 70,000 years ago. These discoveries contradict the classical hypothesis that the modern behaviour emerged only 40,000 years ago and was reached through a "large cultural leap". The harsh climate and reduced food resources may have been why people moved to the shore at Pinnacle Point, where they could eat marine creatures like shellfish, whale, and seal.</p><br>
<h2>Provincial heritage site</h2><br>
<p>In December 2012, the provincial heritage resources authority Heritage Western Cape declared Pinnacle Point a provincial heritage site in the terms of Section 27 of the National Heritage Resources Act. This provides the site with the highest form of protection under South African heritage law.</p><br>
<p>In 2015, the South African government submitted a proposal to add the cave to the list of World Heritage Sites and it has been placed on the UNESCO list of tentative sites as a potential future serial nomination together with Blombos Cave, Sibudu Cave, Klasies River Caves, Border Cave, and Diepkloof Rock Shelter.</p><br>
<p>The Sweeney House is a Michigan State Historic Site that was built in 1888 by Frank S. Sweeney.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>The Sweeney House is located at 304 South Washington, Mount Pleasant, Isabella County, Michigan, and is currently owned and operated by the estate of Elizabeth C. Sweeney and Mark. A. Mumford.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Frank S. Sweeney, a native of Scarborough, Ontario, came to Michigan in 1868 and found work first as a stave manufacturer and later as a surveyor of timber lands in Saginaw and Bay City, Michigan. Sweeney moved to Mt. Pleasant in the spring of 1881, and for the next half-century operated a grocery, produce, crockery and seed business in Mt. Pleasant under the name of Sweeney and Company. Sweeney was elected City treasurer in 1883 and 1884. In 1887 Sweeney purchased land from his partner John Barry and constructed the present stately frame residence the next year. The Frank S. Sweeney House has historical significance as the residence of a prominent Mt. Pleasant grocer, merchant and civic official.</p><br>
<h2>Design</h2><br>
<p>The Sweeney House is designed to be an asymmetrically shaped, two-and-one-half-story, cross-gable, Stick-style clapboard building, resting on a stone foundation. It has squared one and two-story bays, a shed-roofed enclosed porch, one-over-one double hung windows, and is crowned with an asphalt shingled roof.</p><br>
<p>The Jefferson Standard Building is a 374 ft  skyscraper in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was completed in 1923 as the headquarters for Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Co.  and has 18 floors. Until it was superseded by the Nissen Building in Winston-Salem in 1927, it was the tallest building in North Carolina  and the tallest building between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.</p><br>
<p>A 20-story addition first known as the Jefferson-Pilot Building and later the Lincoln Financial Building was finished in 1990.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Julian Price, president of Jefferson Standard Life Insurance, asked New York City architect Charles C. Hartmann to design his company&#39;s new headquarters. Price paid for the building in full because he did not believe in debt. The corridors used "23 carloads of marble".</p><br>
<p>In 1930, Jefferson Standard gained a controlling interest in Pilot Life Insurance Co. In 1967, Pilot Life Insurance Co. and Jefferson Standard became Jefferson-Pilot Corporation, and 800 Pilot Life employees moved into the Jefferson Standard Building and its 20-story addition in 1990. In 2008, Kisco Senior Living bought the Pilot Life buildings, which were built in Sedgefield, North Carolina in the 1920s, for $9.9 million. In January 2015, Kisco announced Pilot at Sedgefield, an updated version of a retirement community delayed by the economic crisis.</p><br>
<p>Jefferson-Pilot merged with Lincoln Financial Group in 2006. The buildings remain the headquarters for the company&#39;s life insurance operations, though the company headquarters moved to Philadelphia.</p><br>
<p>In October 2009, a limited edition cover of Acme Comics G-Man Cape Crisis #2 showed the 1990 Lincoln Financial insurance division headquarters (formerly the Jefferson-Pilot Building), with G-Man fighting the Acme Bat. Chris Giarusso drew the cover, which recalled Superman fighting Spider-Man in 1976. A special appearance by Giarusso at the Greensboro Acme Comics store marked the cover&#39;s release on October 24. Also present were Gregg Schigiel (whose work includes SpongeBob SquarePants), Jacob Chabot (Mighty Skullboy Army), Brian Smith (Stuff of Legend) and Art Baltazar (Tiny Titans).</p><br>
<h2>Lincoln Financial Building</h2><br>
<p>A 20-story addition to the Jefferson Standard Building, officially known as the Lincoln Financial Building, opened in 1990. Originally known as the Jefferson-Pilot Building, the 384,993 ft² building was designed by the architectural firm Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart and constructed by the Hardin Construction Group. The Lincoln Financial Building, which is the tallest building in Greensboro, was constructed in a Gothic Revival architecture style to match the existing Jefferson Standard Building, a rarity for buildings constructed at the end of the 20th century.</p><br>
<p>The Ogden Apartment Hotel is an apartment building in the Downtown West neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The building was designed for middle class worker housing when demand for such housing was increasing around the beginning of the 20th century. It was billed as an "apartment hotel", a design briefly popular in Minneapolis. The individual units did not have their own separate kitchens; instead, residents ate from a common restaurant in the building. The building was designed primarily to appeal to single men and women, as well as married couples without children. It included modern conveniences  such as private bathrooms, Murphy beds, and electric appliances.</p><br>
<p>The building changed its name to the Continental Hotel in 1948. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 as the last remaining single room occupancy residential structure in Minneapolis. The building was purchased by the Central Community Housing Trust, now known as Aeon, in 1992. At the time, it had only a few residents, some who had lived there as long as 34 years, and the roof was deteriorating. Aeon rehabilitated the building, which now houses 70 residents who were formerly homeless. The staff provides support services, classes, and workshops for its residents. The renovation earned two awards: the "Neighborhood Environment Award" in 1993 from the City of Minneapolis Committee on Urban Environment (CUE), and the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission Award in 1995.</p><br>
<p>Mynydd Llangynidr is a mountain in the Brecon Beacons National Park largely in the county of Powys, south Wales. Its southern slopes extend into the northernmost parts of the county borough of Blaenau Gwent. It is named from the village of Llangynidr which sits in the valley of the River Usk to the north of it. It is essentially an undulating plateau rising in the west to a height of 557m at Garn Fawr at OS grid ref SO 123151. A secondary high point is achieved at a point marked by a trig point at SO 147159. To the north the hill overlooks the valleys of Dyffryn Crawnon and Cwm Claisfer, themselves tributary valleys of the Usk. The shallow upper valley  of the Ebbw River reaches into the plateau in the southeast whilst the upper reaches of the Sirhowy Valley and its tributary the Nant Trefil define its western margins. A further tributary, the Nant Milgatw, reaches in from the south whilst the sharp edge of Rassau Industrial Estate also defines a part of its southern margin. Passing east across the B4560, the hill merges with Mynydd Llangatwg which has a similar character.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Mynydd Llangynidr is formed from a layer cake of Palaeozoic Era sandstones and limestones which dip gently southwards into the South Wales Coalfield basin. Broken cliffs of Carboniferous Limestone occur along the northern edges and this rock underlies the entire mountain. The plateau is formed from coarse sandstones (gritstones) also dating from the Carboniferous Period and which have foundered in many places as the underlying limestone has dissolved over millennia. The larger part of the mountain has a pock-marked appearance due to the hundreds of shakeholes in its surface arising from the presence of the limestone beneath the sandstone cover. The frequently conglomeratic sandstones of the central and northern parts of the hill are the Twrch Sandstone, also often still referred to by its earlier name, the Basal Grit. The less frequently exposed sandstone of the southern part is the lowermost Westphalian age Farewell Rock which forms the base of the Coal Measures.</p><br>
<h3>Caves</h3><br>
<p>The most celebrated cave on Mynydd Llangynidr is Ogof Fawr or Chartist Cave (or sometimes Chartists Cave), so named as it was reputed to be a hiding place for the Chartists of South Wales, situated 500m to the east of the top of Garn Fawr. The Carno Adit is a major horizontal tunnel driven beneath the mountain from the south. It intersects a cave system and has provided useful additional information about the areas geological make-up. Other caves include Ogof Cynnes (warm cave&#39;) whose small entrance lies in an elongate shakehole at SN 140154 and Crescent Cave not far from Chartist Cave at SN 129151.</p><br>
<h3>Conservation designation</h3><br>
<p>The area was proposed for designation as a site of special scientific interest by the Countryside Council for Wales in August 2012 in respect of its karstic geomorphology. The SSSI citation makes reference to the doline field, describing the site as a part of the best British example of an interstratal karst. The SSSI extends to 896.8 hectares. The designation process was completed in February 2013.</p><br>
<h2>Quarrying</h2><br>
<p>A couple of major limestone quarries intrude upon the mountain. There is an active quarry at Trefil whilst that at Blaen Onneu in the northeast has not been worked since the 1980s. There are also a few small quarries for limestone which predate the larger workings. Some small scale mining of ironstone was also carried out near the head of Cwm Carneilw before the middle of the nineteenth century.</p><br>
<p>There are a handful of small abandoned workings for sandstone in the Farewell Rock outcrop on the hill&#39;s eastern margin in the vicinity of the Beaufort Road.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeology</h2><br>
<p>There are numerous ancient cairns on this tract of moorland, the most notable of which are Garn Fawr (big cairn) and Carn Caws (cheese cairn). Other prehistoric cairns and a stone row together with evidence of house platforms occur towards its northern edge.</p><br>
<h2>Access</h2><br>
<p>The mountain is mapped as open country and therefore freely available for walkers to roam at will. There are few defined paths though two public footpaths cross from north to south from Llangynidr towards Tredegar. The B4560 road from Garnllydan to Llangynidr cuts across the high moorland to the east of the mountain and offers the easiest access to both Mynydd Llangynidr and to Mynydd Llangatwg to its east. To the west a minor road heads north from the A465 Heads of the Valleys Road through the small village of Trefil and continues north as a bridleway, also offering easy access to the hill.</p><br>
<p>The Canal des Ardennes  is a summit level canal built to the Freycinet gauge between the river valleys of the Aisne and the Meuse.</p><br>
<h2>Physical Characteristics</h2><br>
<p>The Canal des Ardennes is 87.779 km long and has 44 locks (37 on the Aisne side and 7 on the Meuse side) with a tunnel in Saint-Aignan. As originally built it was 5.5 km longer, entering the Aisne further downstream, but this section was bypassed by the Canal latéral à l&#39;Aisne in 1841.</p><br>
<p>The canal connects the village of Pont-à-Bar (in the commune of Dom-le-Mesnil) to the junction with the lateral canal downstream of Vieux-lès-Asfeld. The first part of the canal is 39 km long and crosses the threshold between the valleys of the Meuse and the Aisne by following the Bar Valley, with a short cut through a tunnel at Saint-Aignan. This section of the canal up to the summit level is supplied with water from the Lac de Bairon, with water pumped from the Meuse. After the summit is reached the canal quickly drops down to the Aisne through a series of 27 locks in just 9 km. From Semuy the canal closely follows the course of the Aisne. In places it even follows the old winding river bed, but mostly runs straight through new cuts. On the Aisne side the canal is fed directly by the river Aisne through diversion weirs at Vouziers, Rilly, Givry, Biermes, and Asfeld.</p><br>
<p>On the Aisne side the Vouziers Branch, 12.066 kilometres long, rises 9 m (following the course of the river Aisne) through 4 locks to the town of Vouziers.</p><br>
<p>The canal has two separate sections and two series of locks, as if it were made up of two distinct canals. The first is the portion from the Meuse to the Aisne river at the junction with the Vouziers Branch (Pont-à-Bar to Semuy, 39 km). The second is the entire length parallel to the Aisne beginning at Vouziers and continuing parallel to the Aisne to Vieux-lès-Asfeld (61 km).</p><br>
<p>Altitude at Vieux-lès-Asfeld: 60.55 metres.</p><br>
<p>Altitude at Pont-à-Bar: 151.30 metres.</p><br>
<p>Altitude at the summit level: 165 metres.</p><br>
<p>Average lock height: 2.68 metres.</p><br>
<p>Aisne side: 2.70 metres.</p><br>
<p>Meuse side: 2.57 metres.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The first canal projects in the region date from 1684 under the Louvois ministry and consisted of using and extending the course of the Bar which was then navigable. Various proposals were made over the decades and, in letters patent of June 1776 – almost a century later – the Prince of Conti was granted the privilege of its construction and operation. The prince died shortly after and nothing was done. After the French Revolution of 1789 the National Constituent Assembly relaunched the project but found fault with previous studies and the project did not proceed.</p><br>
<p>In "Year VIII" (1800), the local general councilors reminded the government of the project. The prefect Joseph Frain supported and argues for the canal, on the basis of a new route, in a report on 4 October 1800 to the Interior Minister, Lucien Bonaparte. The subsequent Interior Minister, the scientist Jean-Antoine Chaptal, agreed to undertake construction but granted only very limited funds. Work began slowly It became more important during the Bourbon Restoration with the launch in 1820 of a loan to finance the project.</p><br>
<p>The opening of the canal took place between 1827 and 1835 with modernization between 1842 and 1846. The Vouziers Branch was opened to shipping in 1836. For the part parallel to the Aisner downstream of Lock No. 26 at Rilly initially, until the dams were built, these parts of the navigable canal were connected by a series of artificial reaches.</p><br>
<p>From 1842 to 1845 improvements were being made, in particular through the creation of the reservoir and the artificial Lake Bairon.</p><br>
<h3>Appearance of a Weed</h3><br>
<p>The plant Matricaria discoidea (Pineapple weed, wild Chamomile), a native of North America, appeared in 1861 along the Canal des Ardennes and then from 1880 to 1895 in the North of France. It spread so rapidly that it displaced the native Tripleurospermum inodorum "to seem as native as he".</p><br>
<h2>Ports</h2><br>
<p>The most important port is Rethel</p><br>
<p>There are Marinas or stops in: Rethel, Attigny, Semuy, Vouziers, and Le Chesne</p><br>
<h2>Canel des Ardennes Picture Gallery</h2><br>
<h2>Images of Detailed Maps of the Canal</h2><br>
<h2>Sources</h2><br>
<p>By date of Publication</p><br>
<p>J. Dutens, vol. 1, Paris, A. Sautelet & Cie and Alexander Mesnier, 1829, 651 p., pp. 536–550</p><br>
<p>Jean-Baptiste Victor Vifquain, Brussels, Em Devroye, 1842, 497 pp., p. 122-128</p><br>
<p>Ernest Grangez, Imprimerie Cantrale Chaix Napoleon & Cie, 1855, 796 p., p. 44-51</p><br>
<p>Pierre Berthot, vol. 3, Paris, Fanchon and Artus, 1898, 959 p., pp. 747–748</p><br>
<p>Gilles Demuth and Jean Tulard (preface), Ardennes under the First Empire: Prefect Frain (1800-1814), Revue Historique Ardennaise, Vol. XVII, 1982, pp. 133–248</p><br>
<p>Harbor Island is a man-made peninsula created in 1961 from harbor dredgings, located in San Diego Bay, San Diego, California. It lies between Shelter Island and Downtown San Diego, and is directly across Harbor Drive from San Diego Airport. It is 2 mi long and only a few hundred feet wide. A single road, Harbor Island Drive, runs from one end of Harbor Island to the other and connects it to the mainland.</p><br>
<p>The "island" includes several marinas which harbor thousands of small boats, as well as several restaurants, two high-rise hotels, and Harbor Island Drive Park. It is under the control of the Port of San Diego, which owns all the land and provides municipal services such as police, road maintenance, etc. Harbor Island businesses lease their location from the Port. Under California law, property on Harbor Island cannot be sold and permanent residences cannot be built there, because the area falls under the law governing public tidelands.</p><br>
<p>The Civic Club building, now the New York Estonian House , is a 3-story Beaux-Arts building located at 243 East 34th Street between Second and Third Avenues in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.</p><br>
<p>The house was originally built for the Civic Club in 1898–1899, having been designed by Brooklyn architect Thomas A. Gray. The Civic Club was founded by the local social reformer F. Norton Goddard (1861–1905) to reduce poverty and fight against gambling in the neighborhood. After Goddard’s death in 1905 the club ceased to exist, but the building remained in the Goddard family until 1946, when Frederick Norton’s widow sold it for $25,000 to The New York Estonian Educational Society, Inc., which is still the owner of the house today. The building underwent a $100,000 restoration in 1992.</p><br>
<p>Known as the Estonian House (Eesti Maja), the building houses a number of Estonian organizations such as the New York Estonian School (New Yorgi Eesti Kool), choruses for men and women and a folk dancing group. Vaba Eesti Sõna, the largest Estonian-language newspaper in the United States is also published at the New York Estonian House. The Estonian House has become the main center of Estonian culture on the USA Eastern seaboard, especially amongst Estonian-Americans.</p><br>
<p>The building was designated as a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1978 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.</p><br>
<p>Malinao is a volcano located in the Bicol Region of the Philippines. The stratovolcano has no historical eruption but displays strong fumarolic activity which is harnessed for generating electricity. Located on its slope is Tiwi Geothermal Power Plant, one of the first geothermal energy plant commissioned in the country.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>Malinao Volcano is situated between the provinces of Albay and Camarines Sur in the southeastern region of Luzon Island; about 20 km north-northwest of Mayon volcano, the most active volcano in the Philippines.</p><br>
<h2>Physical features</h2><br>
<p>The mountain is forested with an elevation of 1,548 m asl and a base diameter of 22.5 km. On the summit of the volcano is a large crater with bare inner walls that is breached on the eastern side. On the lower flank this side of the predominantly andesitic volcano, is Luzon&#39;s largest solfataras and hot springs, some of which deposit siliceous sinter. Naglagbong and Jigabo are two thermal wells located on the volcano. Temperatures up to 108 &deg;C were recorded on the fumaroles of Naglagbong.</p><br>
<h3>Tiwi Geothermal Power Plant</h3><br>
<p>This area was one of the first studied for generating electricity starting with a 250 kW power plant in 1967. In 1979, the first of the three 110 MW geothermal power plant was commissioned that year; the other two, in 1980 and 1982. At its peak, the plant was producing a maximum of 330 MW output. Recently, the 1979 plant was decommissioned due to decrease in steam supply.</p><br>
<h2>Classification</h2><br>
<p>The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), the government bureau that deals with volcanism in the country classifies Malinao as a potentially active volcano.</p><br>
<h2>Eruptions & activities</h2><br>
<p>There are no historical eruptions from Malinao which is believed to have been active from about 500,000 years ago until 60,000 years ago.</p><br>
<h3>1970 earthquake swarms</h3><br>
<p>There was an increase in seismicity in 1970 accompanied by rumbling noises in Malinao prompting an issue of warning that the mountain might be reactivating. The tremors detected were ranging from 1 to 5 in intensity.</p><br>
<h3>Small explosion in 1980</h3><br>
<p>There was a minor phreatic explosion in the Naglagbong pool area in Tiwi on July 29, 1980, ejecting mud and rocks up to 2/3 m, reaching 150 m in height and distances up to 350 m. One person was injured and two buildings were damaged by the explosion. Prior to the event, as early as July 6, the area was experiencing unusual microseisms recorded at seismic station of the Commission on Volcanology (COMVOL) - the predecessor of PHIVOLCS - in the area. Geysering was also observed on the pool, two hours before the explosion. One theory about the cause of the explosion was water drawdown during the development of the Tiwi geothermal field.</p><br>
<p>Allt yr Esgair is a hill in the Brecon Beacons National Park in Powys, Wales. It is commonly referred to locally as simply &#39;The Allt&#39;. The Welsh name signifies &#39;wooded slope of the ridge&#39;. It takes the form of a northwest-southeast aligned ridge which rises to a height of 393m  and which overlooks the valley of the River Usk to the west and south. To the northeast are panoramic views across Llangorse Lake to the Black Mountains There is a viewfinder on the summit erected as a monument to Eirene White, Baroness White|</p><br>
<p>Eirene Lloyd White, Baroness White of Rhymney. It is a Marilyn with a prominence of 205 metres (672 feet).</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The hill is formed from sandstones and mudstones of the Senni Beds Formation of the Old Red Sandstone laid down during the Devonian period. The lower slopes are formed from mudstones and sandstones of the slightly older St. Maughans Formation. A number of small sandstone quarries, now disused, adorn the slopes. The hill probably stood out above the Usk Valley glacier ice during the ice age. At a late stage in de-glaciation, the cols at either end of the ridge at the villages of Pennorth and Bwlch are believed to have conveyed water from a greatly enlarged Llangorse Lake into the Usk catchment.</p><br>
<h2>Access</h2><br>
<p>Several bridleways run along the length of the hill giving access to walker, horseriders and mountain-bikers. The summit area and the woodland to the northeast are open access for walkers. A car park off the A40 road immediately south of the hill provides a convenient starting point for many walkers.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeology</h2><br>
<p>Allt yr Esgair&#39;s summit is crowned by an Iron Age hillfort, one of several in the Usk Valley.</p><br>
<p>The Roman road between the Roman fort of CICVCIVM at Y Gaer, Brecon and Gobannium at Abergavenny runs along the ridge and is followed by a modern-day bridleway.</p><br>
<p>Goodales Cutoff formed a spur of the Oregon Trail beginning in Idaho, United States. The cutoff left the trail near Fort Hall, crossed the Snake River Plain to the Lost River, and then turned west to the area of Boise, crossing Camas Prairie. It rejoined the main trail from Ditto Creek to Boise, then ran to the north of the main trail, crossing the Snake River into Oregon at Brownlees Ferry. In Oregon travelers could now reach the Eagle Valley and Pine Valley areas, and the gold mines in Auburn. The cutoff rejoined the main Oregon Trail at the Powder River, near Baker City.</p><br>
<p>In 1852, John Jeffrey began promoting a trail following traditional Shoshoni paths in order to generate business for his ferry on the Blackfoot River. The cutoff received limited use from 1852–54. By 1862, the Northern Shoshone and Bannock tribes were beginning to resist the intrusion of settlers into their homeland, and that year Shoshone Indians ambushed a wagon train at Massacre Rock, killing 10 people. During 1862 Tim Goodale led a group of 1,095 people, 338 wagons, and 2,900 head of stock safely from Fort Hall to Old Fort Boise on the cutoff pioneered by Jeffrey. By 1863, seven out of every ten wagons en route from Fort Hall to Boise took Goodales Cutoff instead of the main Oregon Trail. Goodales Cutoff is visible at many points along USA Highway 20, USA Highway 26, and USA Highway 93 between Craters of the Moon National Monument and Carey</p><br>
<p>Punta San Matteo is a secondary peak of Ortler-Vioz in the Ortler Alps, at the border between the Province of Sondrio  and Trentino  in northern Italy.</p><br>
<p>It was the scene of the Battle of San Matteo in World War I, which, until the 1999 Kargil war, has been the highest battlefield in modern warfare history.</p><br>
<h2>Further reading</h2><br>
<p>Peter Holl: Alpenvereinsführer Ortleralpen, 9. Auflage, Munich (2003) OCLC 231128013</p><br>
<p>The Alpine Journal, Volume III, page 145, London 1865</p><br>
<p>Eduard Richter (Redaktion): Die Erschließung der Ostalpen, II. Band, Verlag des Deutschen und Oesterreichischen Alpenvereins, Berlin, (1894)</p><br>
<p>Casa Editrice Tabacco, Udine: Carta topografica 1:25.000, Blatt 08, Ortles-Cevedale/Ortlergebiet</p><br>
<p></text></p><br>
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<p>The Nissen Building is a 283 ft  18-story skyscraper in Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, North Carolina, built in 1927. It was the tallest building in North Carolina from 1927 to 1929, when it was succeeded by the Reynolds Building, also in Winston-Salem. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places March 17, 1983, with a boundary increase in 2004 to include a one-story addition built in 1969. With the spire on top, its height is 102.1m.</p><br>
<p>It has a steel frame, with buff brick and pre-cast concrete for the exterior, along with details in granite, marble and limestone.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>W.M. Nissen and new leasee Coach Kolstad, the owner of Nissen Wagon Works, built the Nissen Building between 1926 and 1927. William Lee Stoddart of New York City, known for the Battery Park Hotel in Asheville, North Carolina, was the architect. The building opened with a Bob-a-Link miniature golf course in the basement. The first tenants included the Civil Service Administration, Veterans Administration and the Office of Flying Safety. In 1931 the street level shops included The Vogue clothing shop, the Bland Piano Company, Gladys Lingerie Shop, the Belcher-Forlaw Shoe Company and Bobbitts Nissen Drug. William and Ida Nissen lived on the 18th floor until 1954.</p><br>
<p>The United States Air Force later became a major tenant.</p><br>
<p>The Nissen Building was the first air-conditioned building in the Southeast.</p><br>
<p>On August 19, 2002, the Winston-Salem aldermen agreed to lend $3 million to Historic Restoration Inc. (HRI) of New Orleans, which needed $350,000 more to renovate the building at a cost estimated at the time at $26 million. The Downtown Winston-Salem Foundation provided $3.5 million and HUD loaned $12.8 million.</p><br>
<p>In 2005, the building was in the process of being converted into 145 luxury apartments. A plan for condominiums was considered but dropped. Nissen Risk Capital LLC and HRI, using Holder Construction Co. as general contractor, began work in Summer 2004. Little Diversified Architectural Consulting and Acanthus Architecture Group provided architectural expertise. The lobby was being restored to the way it looked when the building was new, including a granite floor and brass on steel elevator doors. A pool has been added to the roof.</p><br>
<p>When the project was completed, the Nissen Building had 14,000 ft&sup2; of commercial space and nearly 128,000 ft&sup2; of residential space.</p><br>
<p>The Marshall Field Garden Apartments is a large non-governmental subsidized housing project in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The project occupies two square city blocks and was the largest moderate-income housing development in the USA at the time of construction in 1929. Marshall Field Garden Apartments has 628 units within 10 buildings.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The project was developed by the estate of Marshall Field, entrepreneur and founder of the Chicago Marshall Field&#39;s department store chain. The project was directed by Marshall Field III. Its aim was not only to provide housing at a reasonable cost but also to provide a catalyst for renewal of the surrounding area. Marshall Field Garden Apartments was at the time of construction one of two large philanthropic housing developments in Chicago. The other was Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments, at 47th and Michigan. Both were built in 1929 and both were modeled after the Dunbar Apartments built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in 1926 in Harlem, New York City.</p><br>
<p>Marshall Field Garden Apartments was meant to be the first of three or four similar projects, but the Great Depression kept those plans from coming to fruition. Marshall had hoped to provide low cost housing but land acquisition and construction cost overruns pushed the rent into the moderate range.</p><br>
<p>In 1991, the apartments were deteriorated, and were sold to private investors with a clause that specified that they would remain available only to low income tenants for 25 years.</p><br>
<p>In 2016, the apartments were sold to Related Midwest, and in a public-private partnership agreement plan to keep the units affordable until 2045.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>Marshall Field Garden Apartments is located on 1450 North Sedgwick in Chicago, Illinois 60610. Marshall Field Gardens Apartments is a populated place located in Cook County at a latitude of 41.908 and longitude -87.639.The elevation is 594 feet. Marshall Field Garden Apartments appears on the Chicago Loop USA Geological Survey Map. Cook County is the Central Time Zone (UTC -6 hours) which Marshall Fields Gardens Apartments have.</p><br>
<h2>Security</h2><br>
<p>A controversial security system was installed in 1999 to control access and provide valuable investigative information, using biometric devices.</p><br>
<p>Auburn House is a historic home located on the grounds of Towson University in Towson, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It was built in 1790 by Charles Ridgely III and stayed in the family until it became part of the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital property in 1944. Towson University  acquired it in 1971.</p><br>
<p>The building currently serves as the home of the executive offices of the Department of Athletics.</p><br>
<p>The National Register listing shows it having been built in 1849, but it also says that Rebecca Dorsey Ridgely, wife of Charles Ridgely III, lived there from 1791 to 1812. The listing calls it Greek Revival, but 1791 is well before the Greek Revival period in the United States. Towson University calls it "an important example of Italianate–Federal architecture".</p><br>
<p>It is a rectangular three story stone structure faced with scored stucco. The front is three bays, with ground floor windows, six over nine, the full height of the front door. The next story is also six over nine, but not as tall, and the top floor windows are the same size as the upper sash of the floor below. The interior is elegant, including acanthus pattern cornices, Italian marble mantels, graceful chandleiers, and a carved mahogany balustrade. The two story addition on the southwest side was built in the 1920s.</p><br>
<p>Auburn House was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 17, 1975, reference number 75000869.</p><br>
<p>Brooklandwood, or Brookland Wood, is a historic home located in Brooklandville, Baltimore County, Maryland. Its grounds became developed for the St. Paul`s School for Boys.</p><br>
<p>The house is a -story, five-bay dwelling. The central block and two later wings are brick, painted white. The central-block section is original and built about 1790, with porches and Palladian-style windows forming a symmetrical, functional unit. It was owned by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and several of his descendants: Carroll&#39;s daughter and son-in-law Mary and Richard Caton, parents of Emily Caton, who married John MacTavish, the British Consul to Baltimore in the early 1800s. It was also owned by Isaac E. Emerson, the inventor of Bromo-Seltzer.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 11, 1972.</p><br>
<p>The Cloisters, also known as Cloisters Castle, is a historic home located at Lutherville, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It was built about 1930 and is a -story house that is highly picturesque and irregular in elevation and plan that features a multiplicity of architectural ornament. It is built of large, random-sized blocks of a native gray and gold colored rock known as "Butler stone" and features a flagstone roof, with details principally of sandstone, wood from the site, plaster, and wrought iron. The main façade is dominated by two asymmetrically placed, projecting sections topped by massive half-timbered gables which were originally part of a Medieval house in Domrémy, France. It also features a massive stone octagonal stair tower, which contains a stone and wrought-iron spiral staircase and is crowned by a crenellated parapet and a small, round, stone-roofed structure from which one can exit onto the roof of the main tower. The house&#39;s roof is constructed of overlapping flagstones secured by iron pins, the only roof of this kind in America.</p><br>
<p>The property is owned by Baltimore City, despite being located in Baltimore County. The city ran a children&#39;s museum in the building until 1996, at which time it moved the museum to the Inner Harbor area and renamed it "Port Discovery". The Cloisters is currently operated as a rental facility.</p><br>
<p>The Cloisters was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.</p><br>
<h2>In popular culture</h2><br>
<p>On December 31, 1997, about 100 guests attended Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith wedding at The Cloisters.</p><br>
<p>Yangguan, or Yangguan Pass, is a mountain pass that was fortified by Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty around 120 BC and used as an outpost in the colonial dominions adjacent to ancient China. It is located approximately 70 km southwest of Dunhuang, in the Gansu territory to the west of the Shaanxi province in the far Northwest China, which was in ancient times the westernmost administrative center of China. It was established as a frontier defense post, as well as a developed place in China&#39;s remote western frontier; Emperor Wu encouraged Chinese to settle there. Today Yangguan is located in Nanhu Village, along the Hexi Corridor.</p><br>
<p>Yangguan is one of China&#39;s two most important western passes, the other being Yumenguan. In Chinese, yang means "sunny", but it can also be used to mean "south" (the sunny side of a hill being the southern side). Yangguan was therefore so-named because it lies to the south of the Yumenguan Pass. It was an important landmark on the Silk Road. The fortress at Yangguan however had fallen into ruin by around 900 AD.</p><br>
<h2>Cultural references</h2><br>
<p>Yangguan is associated with sad parting in Chinese literature as it was the last stop for Chinese travellers leaving China to the Western Regions. In a famous poem, "Seeing Yuaner off on a Mission to Anxi", the Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei wrote:</p><br>
<p>The morning rain of Weicheng dampens the light dust,</p><br>
<p>The guest house is green with the colour of fresh willows.</p><br>
<p>Let&#39;s finish another cup of wine, my dear sir,</p><br>
<p>Out west past the Yangguan, old friends there&#39;ll be none.</p><br>
<p>Wang Weis poem inspired one of Chinas best-known musical pieces, the "Three Variations of Yangguan" (Yangguan Sandie, ) which existed as early as the Tang Dynasty. The song became a classic farewell song sung down the centuries, and additional lines were added by others to the song as refrains. The "three variations" indicates that the poem is to be repeated, either in part or in whole, three times, and each time with some variations. The earliest surviving music score dates back to the Ming Dynasty.</p><br>
<p>The Musical Fund Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is a landmark building both of architectural and historic significance, noted especially for the illustrious persons who have spoken or performed there. It is perhaps best remembered as the setting for the first Republican National Convention, June 17–19, 1856. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Originally the building housed the First Presbyterian Church; it was converted into the largest musical auditorium in Philadelphia by William Strickland and opened in December 1824.</p><br>
<p>Noted for its fine acoustics, the Hall was described in a newspaper review of the first concert: "The room is exceedingly neat, and its decoration does honor to the taste of Mr. Strickland, an architect of whom Philadelphia may be justly proud. It is one hundred and six feet long, sixty feet wide, and twenty-six feet high, and is admirably calculated for the conveyance of sound..." As it continued to serve as the leading concert hall in the city, the building was renovated in 1847 by Napoleon LeBrun and expanded by architect Addison Hutton in 1891.</p><br>
<p>Internationally known musical artists, authors and lecturers graced the stage of the Musical Fund Hall, including:</p><br>
<p>1825: Marquis de Lafayette, honored at a reception</p><br>
<p>1827: Madame Malibran</p><br>
<p>1848: Ole Bull, violinist</p><br>
<p>1842: Charles Dickens</p><br>
<p>1850 and 1851: Jenny Lind, "the Swedish Nightingale&quot Ede Reményi</p><br>
<p>1852: Henriette Sontag and Adelina Patti</p><br>
<p>1853 and 1856: William Makepeace Thackeray, lectures on the "English Humorists" (1853) and "Charity and Humor" (1856)</p><br>
<p>1897: poet Paul Laurence Dunbar read selections of his own works</p><br>
<p>Renowned pianists such as Louis Gottschalk, Kossowski, Sigismond Thalberg, and Wolfsohn also appeared at the Hall.</p><br>
<p>In 1856, the first National Republican Convention was held at the Musical Fund Hall. John C. Frémont was nominated on the second ballot. William L. Dayton of New Jersey was the vice-presidential nominee.</p><br>
<p>With its busy and notable schedule of events, 1856 was the banner year for the Musical Fund Hall. By the end of the year, the 3,000-seat Philadelphia Academy of Music opened and immediately supplanted the Musical Fund Hall as the premier venue for concerts and lectures in the city. The Musical Fund Society moved its concerts to the Academy of Music in 1868.</p><br>
<p>After seeing use as (among other things) a boxing arena and a tobacco warehouse, the Hall was abandoned, then was converted into condominiums in order to save it from the wrecker’s ball. As a result of the conversion, the auditorium no longer exists. The building was removed from the list of National Historic Landmarks but it retains a position on the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>Around 1900, the society was a main proponent in creating the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1982, The Musical Fund Society’s document collection including manuscripts of European music as well as music by Pennsylvania composers, went to the library of the University of Pennsylvania.</p><br>
<p>Phnom Voar   is a small range of mountains in southern Cambodia. The mountain range is located in Damnak Chang&#39;eaur District of Kep Province, near the border with Kampot Province. This relatively isolated range became notorious as a battleground during the Cambodian Civil War, when it was a base for communist insurgent forces and the target of significant bombing by B-52s and other air strikes.</p><br>
<p>The main north south railway line between Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville runs along the base of the mountain. National road 33 between Kampong Trach and Kampot also runs nearby. However, there are few roads or paths within the mountains and only two permanent communities: Chamkar Bei and Rones villages.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Between 1975 and 1979, the area around Phnom Voar was the site of several killing fields and two prisons run by the Santebal – the secret police of the Democratic Kampuchea regime.</p><br>
<p>After the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, Phnom Voar became one of the southern rebel bases for the remaining Democratic Kampuchea forces and on July 26, 1994, Phnom Voar rose to international attention as the site of a Khmer Rouge attack on a Cambodian train that resulted in the deaths of at least 8 people (three government soldiers, at least four Khmer Rouge and one civilian passenger) and led to the mass-kidnapping of more than 100 hostages (including at least two Cambodians, three Vietnamese, and three westerners, all of whom were later killed).</p><br>
<p>The exact circumstances of the deaths of the hostages remains unclear with some reports indicating that they died perhaps as early as September, 1994 or possibly after 15 October 1994. Regardless, their bodies were found on November 2, 1994.</p><br>
<p>Chhouk Rin, a Khmer Rouge officer at the time, was later convicted of the murders of the three western hostages and as of April, 2013 was serving out a life sentence in Prey Sar Prison.</p><br>
<h2>After the war</h2><br>
<p>Since 1994, and the capture or surrender of the last rebel forces in the mountains, Phnom Voar has attracted significant attention from international NGOs, particularly from Unesco in 1998. These agencies have been attempting to improve health, education and livelihoods for villagers who had missed the rapid development and reconstruction of the rest of the country due to years of isolation and war.</p><br>
<p>Ein Avdat  or Ein Ovdat is a canyon in the Negev Desert of Israel, south of Kibbutz Sde Boker. Archaeological evidence shows that Ein Avdat was inhabited by Nabateans and Catholic monks. Numerous springs at the southern opening of the canyon empty into deep pools in a series of waterfalls. The water emerges from the rock layers with salt-tolerant plants like Poplar trees and Atriplexes growing nearby.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>Ein (עין) is Hebrew for spring or water source. Avdat (עבדת) derives from the nearby city of Avdat that stood south of the canyon. Avdat was named after the Nabataean King Obodas I who, according to tradition, was buried there.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Prehistoric era</h3><br>
<p>Habitation during the prehistoric era is attested to by numerous flint artifacts found in the area believed to be 80,000–90,000 years old and part of Mousterian culture. The flint in the outcrops nearby was utilized for arrows and points. Ostrich egg shells and onager bones shed light on the fauna of the time. Man-made knives and other hand held implements date from the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods. Remains of a small settlement consisting of several round structures dates from the Bronze Age.</p><br>
<h3>Antiquity</h3><br>
<p>During the Hellenistic period Avdat became a station along the Nabatean Incense Route, an ancient trading route from Egypt to India through the Arabian Peninsula. Agriculture developed during the early Roman era. Forts along the Incense Route developed into thriving cities with many public buildings and farms.</p><br>
<p>In the Byzantine period, Ein Avdat was inhabited by monks who lived in caves. They carved out closets, shelves, benches, stairs, and water systems, and decorated the walls of the caves with crosses and prayers.</p><br>
<p>UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization recognizes Avdat as a Heritage Site in part because of the uniqueness of the magnificent Byzantine Church. Dating from the third century, it is both one of the earliest and one of the best-preserved churches constructed before the recognition of Christianity by the Emperor Constantine. The church was badly damaged by Bedouin vandals in 2009.</p><br>
<p>After the Muslim conquest of Palestine, the region was abandoned.</p><br>
<h3>Modern era</h3><br>
<p>After the establishment of Kibbutz Sde Boker in 1952 and the construction of Highway 40 to Eilat, a hiking trail was created.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The canyon of Ein Avdat is part of Nahal Zin, the largest Wadi or dry riverbed in the Negev. The 120 kilometer-long riverbed begins at the northwestern tip of Makhtesh Ramon and heads north before veering sharply eastwards. Ein Avdat was created by erosion.</p><br>
<h3>Springs</h3><br>
<p>The southernmost spring is Ein Ma&#39;arif, A Byzantine fortress overlooks the spring and adjacent agricultural land.</p><br>
<p>Further north is Ein Avdat, a 15-meter high waterfall that flows into an 8-meter deep pool of water divided by a small artificial dam.</p><br>
<p>Located near the northern entrance of the park is a spring called Ein Mor, named for the spice myrrh.</p><br>
<p>Growing around the springs are Poplar trees and Atriplexes, commonly known as saltbush, which grows on riverbanks and can tolerate salinity.</p><br>
<h3>Climate</h3><br>
<p>According to statistics compiled by a weather station at Sde Boker, the summers are hot with almost no precipitation while the winters are cold with some rain. The lowest recorded temperature for January was -3.6 &deg;C. In the summer temperatures can reach over 40 &deg;C. The humidity is relatively high.</p><br>
<p>Russell Glacier  is a glacier in the Qeqqata municipality in central-western Greenland. It flows from the Greenland ice sheet  in the western direction. The front of the glacier is located 25 km east of Kangerlussuaq. It is active, advancing 25 m every year, and due to easy approach it remains a popular tourist target.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The ice sheet outflow ending in Russell Glacier is bounded from the north by the tundra highland of Isunngua and from the south by an exposed, barren, flattened ridge of Akuliarusiarsuk. Several meltwater outflow streams from the base of the glacier form the Akuliarusiarsuup Kuua river, which flows west-south-west towards Kangerlussuaq. The sandur basin of the outflow river forming the valley of the same name (Sandflugtdalen) is very shallow; shallow enough to form quicksand fields several kilometers long.</p><br>
<p>Directly to the west of the glacier is a large lake, the 2x10km Aajuitsup Tasia. Due to minimal height differential, its waters are not conjoint with the meltwater outflow lake immediately to the west of Russell Glacier.</p><br>
<p>A sibling, unnamed glacier approximately 7 km to the southeast of Russell Glacier is the source to the wide outflow meltwater river of Qinnguata Kuussua. The confluence of the latter and the Akuliarusiarsuup Kuua river flowing from Russell Glacier is located at the eastern outskirts of the Kangerlussuaq settlement near the end of Kangerlussuaq Fjord, and used to be known as Watson River.</p><br>
<h2>Methane cycling below the glacier</h2><br>
<p>A 2014 study found based on subglacial drainage samples (dominated by Proteobacteria), evidence for methane cycling below the ice sheet of the Russell Glacier. During the study, on 12 July 2012 the most widespread surface melt on record for the past 120 years was observed in Greenland, unfrozen water was present on almost the entire ice sheet surface (98.6%). The findings indicate that methanotrophs could serve as a biological methane sink in the subglacial ecosystem, and the region was at least during the sample time, a source of atmospheric methane. Scaled dissolved methane flux during the 4 months of the summer melt season was estimated at 990 Mg CH4. Because the Russell-Leverett Glacier is representative of similar Greenland outlet glaciers, the researchers concluded that the Greenland Ice Sheet may represent a significant global methane source.</p><br>
<p>The Eagles Nest is an historic home located at Phoenix, Baltimore County, Maryland. It is a large fieldstone dwelling begun, it is believed, in the 1690s and completed in 1802 on part of a 2500-acre tract named "The Valley of Jehosaphat" by Richard Smith, Jr., who was granted the land by Lord Baltimore in 1684 in recognition of Smiths service as the first attorney general of Maryland. Smiths descendants owned the tract until Walter Dulany bought half of it in the 1720s and the other half about 20 years later. While the origin of the name, "Eagles Nest", is unknown, one possible explanation has to do with the fact that a Mr. FitzHugh of Virginia married one of famed lawyer Daniel Dulanys sisters and lived with her at "Fitzhugh Farm", adjoining the original "Eagles Nest" to the north. The FitzHughs owned, among other properties, a plantation north of the James River named, "Eagle&#39;s Nest". Might Mr. FitzHugh have suggested the name?</p><br>
<p>The Dulany family was a prosperous mercantile and land-owning family with an extensive trading relationship with England. Their loyalties lay with the Mother Country throughout the American Revolution, the outcome of which left them out of favor. "The Eagles Nest " was confiscated and the house with some acreage was sold at sheriffs sale to Thomas Marsh, the propertys overseer who lived in the house as it was then. Since the Marshes were Quakers, they had no interest in owning slaves, instead producing 10 or more children in each generation. Thomas son, Joshua, served as a captain in the Revolution and afterward became financially successful in his management of raising and selling crops and livestock. It was he who built the main portion of the house a decade and a half after Hampton Mansion was built. A copy of his portrait still hangs in the house.</p><br>
<p>The three-part house consists of a tall, -story 5-bay Georgian portion and two long -story portions. The newest portion, the garage wing, incorporates timbers salvaged from the old slave quarters before the flooding of the valley in order to create Loch Raven Reservoir. The house features a profusion of original detail including the fine main entrance, the interior woodwork, the original arcade, period outbuildings including the smokehouse, icehouse, springhouse, and root cellar. Foundation ruins of the barn, tenant farmers house, and tollbooth still stand, though now on neighboring properties. The late-20th-century neighborhoods built on the eastern portion of the original property, including Golden Eagle, Eagles View, Stone Eagle, and Towson Golf & Country Club (formerly Eagle&#39;s Nest Golf and Country Club) derive their names from the name of the original tract.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and is listed on the Maryland and Baltimore County historical registers.</p><br>
<p>Glencoe is a historic home and resort complex located at Glencoe, Baltimore County, Maryland. It consists if a complex of Italianate-influenced domestic buildings and structures, clustered around a square, two-story frame dwelling. The house features a broad porch, which wraps around two sides with an iron-railed deck atop the porch. Four interior brick chimneys rise around a central observation deck. The property also includes a two-story, mansard roofed stable / carriage house, a smokehouse, ice house, sheep shed, garden house , and a latticed frame gazebo. It was built in 1851-1856 as a private residence, but was subsequently developed as a summer resort.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.</p><br>
<p>Hilton is a historic home located at The Community College of Baltimore County in Catonsville, Baltimore County, Maryland. It is an early-20th-century Georgian Revival–style mansion created from a stone farmhouse built about 1825, overlooking the Patapsco River valley. The reconstruction was designed by Baltimore architect Edward L. Palmer, Jr. in 1917. The main house is five bays in length, two and a half stories above a high ground floor, with a gambrel roof. The house has a -story wing, five bays in length, with a gabled roof, extending from the east end; and a two-story, one-bay west wing. The roof is covered with Vermont slate. The house features a small enclosed porch of the Tuscan order that was probably originally considered a porte cochere.</p><br>
<p>Hilton is situated on the 5000 acre "Taylors Forest" surveyed in 1678. The first construction at the 511 acre site was a stone farmhouse built between 1818-1825 for James W. McCulloh. After defending several charges of conspiracy, the property was sold to John Lewis Buchanan in 1825. In 1827 Dr. Lennox Birckhead, son of McCollohs business partner Soloman Birkhead purchased the property. Birkhead named his home "Hilton" for its high elevation.</p><br>
<p>William Carson Glenn purchased the property in 1837 selling to his politician brother John Glenn in 1842. Guests during this period included Robert E. Lee. In 1852, Glenn added several stone outbuildings. The property passed to Marrietta Glen and was managed by newspaper publisher William Wilkens Glenn. William Glen managed the farm with 26 slaves, sympathizing with the south during the civil war. Hilton was used as a stopping location for Southerners fleeing Union troops for home. Hilton died in 1876 with the farm falling into disuse. In 1905 the estate was subdivided into 25 lots. In 1907 43 acres were donated by Russell Sage Foundation director John Mark Glenn(1858-1950) to create the first section of Patapsco Valley State Park. Hilton was purchased in 1917 by National Enameling and Stamping Company owner George Worth Knapp as a summer home and dairy farm reassembling 105 acres of the estate. In 1962 Baltimore County Public Schools purchased the property to establish a Community College of Baltimore County branch. In the 1970s Lecture halls occupied the mansion. In 2011, a grant was awarded to renovate the building as the Center for Global Education.</p><br>
<p>In addition to the Hilton Mansion, several other slavery-era outbuildings are on the property. Two Tudor style stone houses built in 1852, which one is in ruins. A 1852 stone bowling alley in ruins and a stone gardeners building.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.</p><br>
<p>The Lost Arrow Spire is a detached pillar in Yosemite Valley, California, located immediately adjacent to Upper Yosemite Falls. The structure includes the Lost Arrow Spire Chimney route which is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America. The last two pitches of Lost Arrow Spire Chimney are called the Lost Arrow Spire Tip and completes the detached portion of the spire. The Tip route is often reached by rappelling into an area known as The Notch. Once the route is completed climbers will often return to the main wall via a dramatic and famous Tyrolean traverse.</p><br>
<p>The spire was originally summited by lassoing the summit from the main wall and then Ax Nelson prusiked the lassoed line to the peak and was followed by Jack Arnold. While Steve Roper called this "one of the greatest rope stunts ever pulled off in climbing history" many climbers did not recognize this "rope trick" as a true ascent. An undisputed ascent was completed later that season by John Salathé and Ax Nelson via the Lost Arrow Spire Chimney.</p><br>
<p>Lost Arrow Spire later became one of the early hotspots for Highlining, the version of slacklining on high places. The first successful walk over a slackline to the spire happened on July 13, 1985.</p><br>
<p>The Teakettle Experimental Forest is a part of the Sierra National Forest that is set aside for research into forest ecology. The forest is located 80 km east of Fresno, California, between Yosemite and Kings Canyon National Parks. The area is old-growth forest at 2000 to 2800 m elevation and consists primarily of mixed-conifer and red fir forest common on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada.</p><br>
<p>The forest was established in the 1930s when California state and federal agencies began exploring how the Central Valley of California&#39;s water supply might be increased through management of Sierra Nevada watersheds. In 1938, a 1,300 hectare area surrounding Teakettle Creek was designated the Teakettle Experimental Area and five drainages were chosen for study. Stream gauge stations and sediment basins were built in the 1940s. Research collaborators have come from the following institutions and agencies: California State University, Michigan Technological University, National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Goddard Space Flight Center, Oregon State University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, University of Maryland, Virginia Commonwealth University, Universidad Metropolitana, University of Michigan, University of Nevada, University of Washington, USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program, Sierra National Forest, and Southern Research Station. There is a bunkhouse cabin, dry laboratory, and storage garage. The experimental forest is gated and relatively remote.</p><br>
<p>The Port of Naples is one of the largest Italian seaports and one of the largest seaports in the Mediterranean Sea basin having an annual traffic capacity of around 25 million tons of cargo and 500,000 TEU&#39;s.</p><br>
<p>The port is also an important employer in the area having more than 4,800 employees that provide services to more than 64,000 ships every year.</p><br>
<h2>General information</h2><br>
<p>The Port of Naples is situated in the centre of Naples, very close to the central Piazza Municipio, near PiazzaPiazza Garibaldi (FS and MN terminals) and about 15 km from Naples Airport.</p><br>
<h2>Statistics</h2><br>
<p>In 2007 the Port of Naples handled 20,269,163 tonnes of cargo and 460,812 TEU&#39;s making it one of the busiest cargo ports in Italy and one of the largest container ports in the country.</p><br>
<h2>Terminals</h2><br>
<h3>Container terminal</h3><br>
<p>The terminal has a storage capacity of 1,336,000 m, 70 mooring places, 11.5 km of docks and an annual traffic capacity of around 500,000 TEU&#39;s.</p><br>
<h3>Commercial cargo</h3><br>
<p>The commercial cargo section of the port has four terminals: one for timber, one for cellulose and two for cereals with a total storage area of 75,000 m&sup2; (35,000 sq m for timber and cellulose and 40,000 sq m for cereals).</p><br>
<h3>Automobile terminal</h3><br>
<p>The Port of Naples has one RoRo terminal with a total length of 850 m, a land area of 120,000 m, storage capacity of 8,000 cars and a transshipment capacity of 900,000 units per year. The daily traffic with Sicily alone is 700 vehicles per day.</p><br>
<p>In 2007 the RoRo terminal handled 370,000 trucks and 475,000 cars.</p><br>
<h3>Passenger terminal</h3><br>
<p>The cruise terminal has ten mooring places, seven mobile walkways, 12 computerised check-in desks and an annual traffic capacity of around 1.5 million passengers.</p><br>
<h2>Shipyard</h2><br>
<p>The shipyards are an important part of the Port of Naples. The structures of the ports shipyards consist of 3 brick-built docks and 4 floating docks.</p><br>
<p>The sector involves four large companies and 60 small workshops which undertake ship repairs, that have a total number of 2,000 employees and a turnover over US$ 200 million.</p><br>
<p>Rodney Square is the public square and national historic district located in downtown Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware, named after American Revolutionary leader Caesar Rodney. A large statue of Rodney by James E. Kelly stands in the front of the square. The square was created in the early 20th century by John Jacob Raskob who worked for Pierre S. du Pont. The City Beautiful movement served as the inspiration for the effort.Abstract free; full text requires payment.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011, as the Rodney Square Historic District.</p><br>
<h2>Events</h2><br>
<p>Clifford Brown Jazz Festival</p><br>
<p>First Night Wilmington</p><br>
<p>Saint Patrick&#39;s Day Parade</p><br>
<p>Citizens Bank Caesar Rodney Half Marathon</p><br>
<h2>Surrounding architecture</h2><br>
<p>The eight blocks surrounding the square contain a number of downtown buildings:</p><br>
<h2>Corporate headquarters</h2><br>
<h3>Current</h3><br>
<p>Chemours</p><br>
<p>Wilmington Trust</p><br>
<p>Bank of America Credit Card Division</p><br>
<h3>Former</h3><br>
<p>American Viscose Company</p><br>
<p>Atlas Powder Company</p><br>
<p>Barnsdall Oil</p><br>
<p>Delaware Trust</p><br>
<p>DuPont</p><br>
<p>Hercules Inc.</p><br>
<p>MBNA</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>Rodney Square serves as a major hub for public transit with the following connections:</p><br>
<p>DART First State bus lines: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 30, 33, 35, 38, 39, 40, 42, 45, 54, 55, 301</p><br>
<p>Hallett Peak is a mountain summit in the northern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 12,720 ft peak is located in the Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness, 16.2 km southwest by west  of the Town of Estes Park, Colorado, United States, on the Continental Divide between Grand and Larimer counties.</p><br>
<h2>Mountain</h2><br>
<p>Hallett Peak is on the Continental Divide, flanked by Flattop Mountain to the north and Otis Peak to the south. Just to its east lie Emerald Lake, Dream Lake, and Nymph Lake, which are usually accessed from the Bear Lake Comfort Station.</p><br>
<p>The Northcutt-Carter Route of Hallett Peak is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America. Non-technical climbers may reach the summit of Hallett Peak by hiking up the Flattop Mountain Trail to its highpoint, then walking south along the ridgeline and ascending the peak over talus piles.</p><br>
<p>Todd Farmhouse is a historic home located at Fort Howard, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It is a -story, brick dwelling that is three bays in width. Although initially of a Federal architecture inspired plan, later Italianate alterations dominate its present exterior appearance. It features a steeply pitched gable roof. Also on the property are several farm buildings and a family cemetery.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In 1664, Thomas Todd made the first purchase of land in what would become over 1000 acres of Baltimore County, MD. During the War of 1812, the house, which overlooks Shallow Creek and the Chesapeake Bay, was used by the Todd family as a lookout point to observe the approaching British Fleet. When troops were spotted coming ashore, family members would sound an alarm. As they withdrew from Baltimore on September 14, 1814, following the Battle of North Point, the British burned the house in retaliation. The Todd farmhouse was one of the few private properties burned by the British.</p><br>
<p>The house was rebuilt in 1816 and remodeled in 1867. The Todd family owned the property until the early 1970s, when it was purchased by Mr. Elmer H. Cook, a teacher and historian who grew up in the Fort Howard area. It underwent further renovations in 2009, and was opened to the public as part of the annual Defenders Day celebrations held in September.</p><br>
<p>The Todd House is owned by the State of Maryland and overseen by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. An all-volunteer group, is responsible for daily operations.</p><br>
<p>The Todd Farmhouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.</p><br>
<p>Downton Lake, originally Downton Reservoir, and also known as Downton Lake Reservoir, is a reservoir in the Bridge River Country of the Interior of British Columbia, Canada, formed by Lajoie Dam, the uppermost of the series of dams and diversions of the Bridge River Power Project.</p><br>
<p>It was named for Geoffrey M. Downton, BCLS (British Columbia Land Surveyor), credited with first noting the hydroelectric potential inherent in the elevation differential between the Bridge River and Seton Lake on opposing sides of Mission Ridge above Shalalth in 1912. Mount Downton in the Chilcotin District is also named for him.</p><br>
<p>As of 2013, a new power plant is being built at Jamie Creek, about 17 km from the eastern end of the Lake.</p><br>
<p>Fort Garrison, also known as Oultons Garrison, Risteaus Garrison, and Olton&#39;s Garrison, is a historic fortification building located at Stevenson, Baltimore County, Maryland on Garrison Farms Court. It is a rectangular fieldstone building built about 1695. The fort was built to serve as a stronghold against attacks by Native Americans and was used during the French and Indian War. It is approximately 48 feet long and 18 feet wide with one large stone fireplace. Modifications in the early-19th century raised the height of the fort building adding a second story loft and a wood shingle roof. It was constructed following a 1693 order from Governor Francis Nicholson and his Council. The property was acquired in 1965 by the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.</p><br>
<p>Montrose Mansion and Chapel, originally known as Montrose Mansion, is a historic home located on the grounds of the former Maryland Industrial Training School for Girls at Reisterstown, Baltimore County, Maryland. It is a two-story neoclassical stone house constructed originally about 1826 by William Patterson who gave it to his grandson, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte as a wedding present. By the middle of the 19th century, a large two-story wing was added, then a mansard roof with round-top dormers, a cupola, and a bracketed cornice with pendants was added about 1880. The chapel was completed in 1855 and is a rectangular structure of stone with Greek Revival decorative detailing. It features a three-story bell and entrance tower.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.</p><br>
<p>Mt. Gilboa Chapel is a historic African Methodist Episcopal Church located in Oella, Baltimore County, Maryland. It is a small stone church measuring 28 feet by 42 feet, built about 1859 by free African Americans. The front façade is ashlar masonry, but the sides and rear are of rubble.</p><br>
<p>The building is the replacement of an earlier log chapel of unknown origin. It is possible that neighbor Benjamin Banneker attended services in such a log building. An obelisk that the Maryland Bicentennial Commission and the State Commission on Afro American History and Culture erected in 1977 to commemorate Banneker stands in the church&#39;s yard near his unmarked grave.</p><br>
<p>The chapel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.</p><br>
<p>Innværfjorden is a small fjord in the municipality of Bømlo in Hordaland county, Norway. It lies on the south of the village of Rubbestadneset on the eastern side of the island of Bømlo. The 3.5 km fjord flows to the west from the Stokksundet strait.</p><br>
<p>The Innværfjorden stretches west from the island of Osparøya between Justenakken and Rubbestadneset and then heads a little southwest. The outermost part of the fjord is about as long as it is wide, and on the south side lies Klenesvågen and Ekornsætre. Along the west side of the fjord lies the small village of Innvær, after which the fjord is named. Between the villages of Innvær and Rubbestadneset, a small, narrow arm of the fjord stretches about 1.5 km northwards to Stangarvågen. A 15 m bridge that is part of County Road 541 crosses this arm of the fjord on its way to the village of Rubbestadneset.</p><br>
