<p>Lake Vyrnwy  is a reservoir in Powys, Wales, built in the 1880s to supply Liverpool with fresh water. It flooded the head of the Vyrnwy  valley and submerged the village of Llanwddyn. The Lake Vyrnwy Nature Reserve and Estate that surrounds the lake is jointly managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds  and Severn Trent Water is a popular destination for ornithologists, cyclists and hikers. The reserve is designated as a national nature reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Special Protection Area, and a Special Area of Conservation.</p><br>
<h2>Construction</h2><br>
<p>George Deacon (1843–1909) was instructed to prepare the parliamentary plans for the Vyrnwy Dam in 1879. The valley was chosen because of its size, favourable geology and its source, the River Vyrnwy, has a large water catchment area. The river is 39.7 mi. It now flows from the dam into Shropshire where it converges with the River Severn near the village of Melverley on the Welsh border. The ouflow is into the Bristol Channel.</p><br>
<p>Thomas Hawksley was appointed as engineer-in-chief and prepared the design for a stone dam. Dam construction started in 1881 and was completed in 1888. George Deacon was appointed as joint engineer and Hawksley resigned in 1885 because of this conflict. It was the first large stone-built dam in the United Kingdom, and is built partly out of great blocks of Welsh slate. When built it cost £620,000 (equivalent to £ million in ). The dam is 146 ft high from the bottom of the valley, and 120 ft thick at the base; it is 1,165 ft long and has a road bridge running along the top. It is decorated with over 25 arches and two small towers (each with four corner turrets) rising 14 ft above the road surface.</p><br>
<p>Vyrnwy was the first dam to carry water over its crest instead of in a channel at the side. At the bottom of the dam is a body of water known as a stilling basin, this is necessary to absorb the energy when the water flows over the crest and into the valley, and to stop the water eroding the foundations of the dam.</p><br>
<p>A power house located under the west tower contains an electrical generator driven by water leaving the reservoir. Before mains electricity arrived in the 1960s this was the area&#39;s only source of power.</p><br>
<p>The west and east towers release compensation water by huge valves, which are controlled by Severn Trent Water. This water flows into for the River Vyrnwy, which would otherwise dry out unless in flood. Depending on the water levels downstream the reservoir can release anything from 25 to 45 Ml of compensation water per day. This flow is measured by the Environment Agency at a weir few hundred metres downstream.</p><br>
<p>Earlier dams in Britain had been built using great earth embankments to hold back the water. This new type of stone dam would change the face of the Welsh landscape over the coming years. The next stone dams to be built in Wales on an even bigger scale than Vyrnwy were those built in the Elan Valley.</p><br>
<h2>Straining tower and aqueduct</h2><br>
<p>Approximately 0.75 mi from the dam is the reservoir&#39;s straining tower. Standing only 98 ft from the shore, its purpose is to filter or strain out material in the water with a fine metal mesh, before the water flows along the aqueduct to Liverpool. Its architecture represents Gothic revival, built at the same time as the dam. The tower as a whole is 154 ft tall, 104 ft of which is above water, and is topped with a pointed copper-clad roof, coloured light green.</p><br>
<p>The water from Lake Vyrnwy is carried 68 mi to Liverpool in the Vyrnwy Large Diameter Trunk Main (LDTM) aqueduct. This originally consisted of two pipelines, made largely of cast iron. To help maintenance work on the 9 ft diameter cast-iron tunnel which took the aqueduct under the Mersey, riveted steel piping was also used. This was an early use of the material which was to become the norm for trunk water-main piping.</p><br>
<p>The original aqueduct was constructed across the valley from the reservoir between 1881-92. It crosses the valley floor near Penybontfawr and then runs north of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant and Efail-rhyd on the north-east of the Tanat Valley. The aqueduct is largely hidden from view although there are some visible surface features including air valves, the Cileos valve house, the Parc-uchaf balancing reservoirs, and a deep cutting to the west of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant.</p><br>
<p>Brick and concrete-lined tunnels carried pipes at Hirnant, Cynynion and Llanforda, and a fourth later added at Aber so that the Hirnant tunnel could be made accessible for maintenance. The first section of a third pipeline was laid in 1926-38 using bituminous-coated steel. To increase capacity, a fourth pipeline was added in 1946.</p><br>
<p>Re-organisation of the pipe crossings beneath the Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal was undertaken in 1978-81. The current provision relies on three pipes 42 in in diameter delivering up to 50 e6impgal per day into reservoirs at Prescot, east of Liverpool. In 2013 United Utilities commenced a major refurbishment of the LDTM aqueduct, which was scheduled for completion in 2020.</p><br>
<h2>The lake/reservoir</h2><br>
<p>The reservoir is Severn Trent Water&#39;s largest. When full, it is 84 ft deep, contains 13.125 e9impgal, and covers an area of 1,121 acre, the equivalent of around 600 football pitches. The lake has a circumference of 12 mi with a road that goes all the way around it. Its length is 4.75 mi. On a clear day the lake, along with many others in North Wales, can be seen from space.</p><br>
<p>311 brooks, waterfalls and rivers flow into the lake and are named after the mountains or hillsides they flow from. Some are no more than a trickle, while others cascade down the mountains. The main ones, clockwise from the west side of the dam, are named Afon Hirddu, Eunant, Afon Eiddew, Afon Naedroedd, Afon Cedig and Afon Y Dolau Gwynionew.</p><br>
<p>On the northern edge of the lake is a small hamlet called Rhiwargor where the rivers Afon Eiddew and Afon Naedroedd meet. Up the valley of Afon Eiddew is an impressive waterfall, one of the largest surrounding the lake. Known locally as Pistyll Rhyd-y-meincau, it is commonly known as Rhiwargor waterfall.</p><br>
<p>In 1889, shortly after completion, the lake was stocked with 400,000 Loch Leven trout.</p><br>
<p>The lake continues to supply Liverpool with fresh water.</p><br>
<h2>Nature reserve and conservation</h2><br>
<p>Lake Vyrnwy is a designated Nature Reserve. The RSPB has several bird hides around the lake, where a number of rare species of birds are known to be breeding, including the peregrine falcon, the pied flycatcher, the redstart, the siskin and the wood warbler. Every spring they host a dawn chorus tour.</p><br>
<p>Around 90 species of bird have been recorded as breeding on the reserve, and six species of bat, including the pipistrelle and brown long-eared bat. Butterfly species include purple hairstreaks, commas and peacocks. Dragonflies include golden ringed, common hawker and four spotted chaser.</p><br>
<p>Heather moorland that grows on the mountains around the lake is now being restored. This restoration of heather moorland is becoming increasingly common in Britain. In most moorlands, heather is usually burnt, cut and the seeds collected to be sowed where the heather has gone. Burning at the Lake Vyrnwy moorland is no longer carried out, as the burning of heather can have negative consequences for water management (namely water colouration). Management of the moorland helps improve the habitat for red grouse and the short-eared owl.</p><br>
<p>Sheep, cattle and ponies also graze on the heather. The livestock is managed by tenant farmers who farm the moorland in accordance with organic agriculture.</p><br>
<p>Broadleaf trees are being planted to replace coniferous trees, and man-made features such as hedgerows and dry-stone walls are also being restored, and wildflower areas are being restored to help insects, birds and other wildlife.</p><br>
<h2>Demographics</h2><br>
<p>Llanwddyn, the community surrounding Lake Vyrnwy, had a population of 257 in 2011, according to the census; a 17.1% decrease since the 310 people noted in 2001.</p><br>
<p>The 2011 census showed 38.1% of the population could speak Welsh, a fall from 60.3% in 2001.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<h3>Wood sculpture</h3><br>
<p>Llanwddyn has had since 1995 a sculpture park in the valley below the dam, containing many wooden carved works. There are large wooden picnic benches in the shape of leaves and trees on the west side of the lake at Llechwedd Ddu. Near the old village on the beach is a sculpture of dolphins which, when the lake rises in a flood, appear to be jumping out of the water. Several totems are carved into standing trees and re-erected fallen trunks.</p><br>
<h3>Recreation</h3><br>
<p>Activities in the area include sailing, hiking on Glyndŵr&#39;s Way, rock climbing, cycling, walking and horse riding. The Lake Vyrnwy Half Marathon is conducted annually.</p><br>
<p>The RSPB have laid out seven waymarked trails ranging from 1 to 5.5 mi in a range of habitats.</p><br>
<h3>Tallest tree</h3><br>
<p>The site was once home to the tallest tree in the UK, a Douglas Fir 63.79 m high. This was damaged in stormy weather and had to be felled. A nearby Douglas Fir is now, at 60.62 m, the tallest tree in Wales.</p><br>
<p>The Ötztal Alps  are a mountain range in the Central Eastern Alps, in the State of Tyrol in southern Austria and the Province of South Tyrol in northern Italy.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Ötztal Alps are arrayed at the head of the Ötztal valley, a side valley of the Inn river southwest of Innsbruck, Austria. One line of summits forms part of the border between Austria and Italy.</p><br>
<p>The Ötztal Alps are bordered by the Reschen Pass (1504 m) in the west and the Inn river in the northwest and north. In the east the range is separated from the Stubai Alps by the Ötztaler Ache in the Ötztal, the Timmelsjoch (2474 m) and the Passer river in the Passeier Valley. On the south and southwest, the range is limited by the deep valley of the Etsch river, here known as the Vinschgau.</p><br>
<p>In September 1991, Ötzi the so-called "Iceman" was found on the Hauslabjoch between the peaks Fineilspitze and Similaun.</p><br>
<h2>Peaks</h2><br>
<p>The highest point of the Ötztal Alps is Wildspitze 3,774 m, which is also the second highest mountain in Austria (after Großglockner). Wildspitze is on one of several arms that extend north and northeast from the main ridge.</p><br>
<p>Some of the main peaks of the Ötztal Alps are:</p><br>
<h2>Passes</h2><br>
<p>The main mountain passes of the Ötztal Alps are:</p><br>
<p>The Stubai Alps  is a mountain range in the Central Eastern Alps of Europe. It is named after the Stubaital valley to its east. It is located southwest of Innsbruck, Austria, and several summits of the range form part of Austria&#39;s border with Italy. The range is bounded by the Inn River valley to the north; the Sill River valley  and the Brenner Pass to the east ; the Ötztal and Timmelsjoch to the west , and to the south by tributaries of the Passer River and Eisack.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Stubai Alps are named after the Stubai valley, which runs from south of Innsbruck in a southwesterly direction deep into the mountain range.</p><br>
<p>Important parts of the Stubai Alps show signs of glaciation.</p><br>
<p>The northern part around the Sellrain valley and the Kühtai is now only lightly glaciated and a popular ski touring destination (Zischgeles, Lampsenspitze, Pirchkogel, Sulzkogel). The High Stubai around the upper Stubai valley is still heavily glaciated and a classic high mountain touring region in the Eastern Alps. Here there is a glacier ski area on the Stubai Glacier.</p><br>
<p>Together with the Ötztal Alps to the west, with which they are linked by the saddle of Timmelsjoch, the Stubai Alps form one of the biggest mountain blocks of the Eastern Alps.</p><br>
<h3>Boundary and neighbouring mountain groups</h3><br>
<p>In the Alpine Club classification of the Eastern Alps (AVE) the Stubai are no. 31.</p><br>
<p>Their boundary follows the following line:</p><br>
<p>in the north, it follows the course of the River Inn</p><br>
<p>in the northwest, it follows the Inn from its confluence with the Ötztaler Ache (near Ötztal railway station) to the confluence with the Gurglbach (near Imst), then to the Mieming Chain (AVE 4) in the Northern Limestone Alps</p><br>
<p>in the north, it follows the River Inn to Innsbruck, which divides the Stubai Alps from the Karwendel (AVE 5) in the Northern Limestone Alps</p><br>
<p>in the east, it is formed by the Wipptal valley:</p><br>
<p>in the northeast it follows the Sill to its confluence with the Schmirnbach (Schmirntal) near St. Jodok, opposite the Tux Alps (AVE 33)</p><br>
<p>in the southeast, it follows the Sill to the Brenner Pass – Eisack to Sterzing, which separates the Stubai Alps from the Zillertal Alps (AVE 35)</p><br>
<p>in the south it follows the lower Ridaunbach – Jaufenbach (Jaufental) – Jaufen Pass – St. Leonhard in Passeier, a line which divides it from the Sarntal Alps (AVE 32, which are counted as part of the Central Eastern Alps)</p><br>
<p>in the west, it follows the line: Passeiertal – Schönauer Alm – Timmelsjoch – Timmelsbach – Gurgler Ache – Ötztaler Ache (the whole Ötz valley) to its confluence with the Inn, forming the boundary to the Ötztal Alps (AVE 30)</p><br>
<h3>Subgroups</h3><br>
<p>The Alpine Club guide to the Stubai Alps divides the range into 15 subgroups as follows:</p><br>
<p>Northern Sellrain Mountains (Nördliche Sellrainer Berge), highest peak: Rietzer Grießkogel,</p><br>
<p>Southwestern Sellrain Mountains (Südwestliche Sellrainer Berge), highest peak: Gleirscher Fernerkogel,</p><br>
<p>Southeastern Sellrain Mountains (Südöstliche Sellrainer Berge), highest peak: Hohe Villerspitze,</p><br>
<p>Larstig Mountains (Larstiger Berge) + Bachfallenstock, highest peak: Strahlkogel,</p><br>
<p>Alpein Mountains (Alpeiner Berge), highest peak: Schrankogel,</p><br>
<p>Habicht-Elfer-Kamm, highest peak: Habicht,</p><br>
<p>Serleskamm, highest peak: Kirchdachspitze,</p><br>
<p>Sulztalkamm, highest peak: Wilde Leck,</p><br>
<p>Western Main Chain (Westlicher Hauptkamm), highest peak: Zuckerhütl, (also the highest mountain in the entire Stubai Alps)</p><br>
<p>Central Main Chain (Mittlerer Hauptkamm), highest peak: Wilder Freiger,</p><br>
<p>Eastern Main Chain (Östlicher Hauptkamm), highest peak: Pflerscher Tribulaun,</p><br>
<p>Windach-Brunnenkogelkamm, highest peak: Jochköpfl,</p><br>
<p>Botzergruppe + foothills, highest peak: Botzer,</p><br>
<p>Aggls-Rosskopf-Kamm, highest peak: Agglsspitze,</p><br>
<p>Kalkkögel, highest peak: Schlicker Seespitze,</p><br>
<h3>Peaks</h3><br>
<p>The ten highest peaks in the Stubai Alps are:</p><br>
<p>Zuckerhütl,</p><br>
<p>Schrankogel,</p><br>
<p>Pfaffenschneide,</p><br>
<p>Ruderhofspitze,</p><br>
<p>Sonklarspitze,</p><br>
<p>Wilder Pfaff,</p><br>
<p>Wilder Freiger,</p><br>
<p>Östliche Seespitze,</p><br>
<p>Schrandele,</p><br>
<p>Hohes Eis,</p><br>
<p>There is a total of just under 500 named and surveyed mountains in the Stubai Alps. Amongst the better known are (in order of height and excluding the top ten above):</p><br>
<p>Wilde Leck,</p><br>
<p>Stubaier Wildspitze,</p><br>
<p>Schaufelspitze,</p><br>
<p>Lüsener Fernerkogel,</p><br>
<p>Breiter Grießkogel,</p><br>
<p>Habicht,</p><br>
<p>Östlicher Feuerstein,</p><br>
<p>Schneespitze,</p><br>
<p>Pflerscher Tribulaun,</p><br>
<p>Hohe Villerspitze,</p><br>
<p>Weißwandspitze,</p><br>
<p>Sulzkogel,</p><br>
<p>Hochreichkopf,</p><br>
<p>Zischgeles,</p><br>
<p>Roter Kogel,</p><br>
<p>Gamskogel,</p><br>
<p>Schlicker Seespitze,</p><br>
<p>Serles,</p><br>
<p>Hoher Burgstall,</p><br>
<p>Lämpermahdspitze</p><br>
<p>Elferspitze,</p><br>
<p>Gargglerin,</p><br>
<p>Saile (Nockspitze),</p><br>
<h3>Passes</h3><br>
<p>The main mountain passes of the Stubai Alps are:</p><br>
<p>The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory  is a volcano observatory located at Uwekahuna Bluff on the rim of Kīlauea Caldera on the Island of Hawaii. The observatory monitors four active Hawaiian volcanoes: Kīlauea, Mauna Loa, Hualālai, and Haleakalā. Because Kīlauea and Mauna Loa are significantly more active than Hualālai and Haleakalā, much of the observatory&#39;s research is concentrated on the former two mountains. The observatory has a worldwide reputation as a leader in the study of active volcanism. Due to the relatively non-explosive nature of Hawaiian volcanic eruptions, scientists can study on-going eruptions in proximity without being in extreme danger. Located at the main site is the public Thomas A. Jaggar Museum.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Besides the oral history of Ancient Hawaiians, several early explorers left records of observations. Rev. William Ellis kept a journal of his 1823 missionary tour, and Titus Coan documented eruptions through 1881.</p><br>
<p>Scientists often debated the accuracy of these descriptions. When prominent geologist Thomas Jaggar of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology gave a lecture in Honolulu in 1909, he was approached by businessman Lorrin A. Thurston (grandson of Asa Thurston who was on the 1823 missionary tour) about building a full-time scientific observatory at Kīlauea. The Hawaiian Volcano Research Association was formed by local businessmen for its support. George Lycurgus, who owned the Volcano House at the edge of the main caldera, proposed a site adjacent to his hotel and restaurant.</p><br>
<p>In 1911 and 1912, small cabins were built on the floor of the caldera next to the main active vent of Halemaumau, but these were hard to maintain.</p><br>
<p>MIT added $25,000 in support in 1912 from the estate of Edward and Caroline Whitney to build a more permanent facility. The first instruments were housed in a cellar next to the Volcano House called the Whitney Laboratory of Seismology. Inmates from a nearby prison camp had excavated through 5.5 ft of volcanic ash. Massive reinforced concrete walls supported a small building built on top of the structure. Professor Fusakichi Omori of Japan, now best known for his study of aftershocks, designed the original seismometers. This seismograph vault (building number 29 on a site inventory) is state historic site 10-52-5506, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 24, 1974 as site 74000292.</p><br>
<p>From 1912 until 1919, the observatory was run by Jaggar personally. Many important events were recorded, although as pioneers, the team often ran into major problems. For example, in 1913 an earthquake opened a crack in a wall and water seeped in. The windows meant to admit natural light caused the vault to heat up in the intense tropical sun. The opening of the national park in 1916 (at the urging of Thurston) brought more visitors to bother the scientists, but also park rangers who would take over public lectures. The prison that had supplied laborers was replaced by the Kīlauea Military Camp.</p><br>
<p>In 1919, Jaggar convinced the National Weather Service to take over operations at the observatory. In 1924, the observatory was taken over by the United States Geological Survey and it has been run by the USGS ever since (except for a brief period during the Great Depression, when the observatory was run by the National Park Service).</p><br>
<p>When the Volcano House hotel burned to the ground in 1940, the old building was torn down (although the instruments in the vault continued to be used until 1961).</p><br>
<p>George Lycurgus convinced friends in Washington D.C. (many of whom had stayed in the Volcano House) to build a larger building farther back from the cliff, so he could built a new larger hotel at the former HVO site. By 1942, the "Volcano Observatory and Naturalist Building" was designated number 41 on the park inventory. However, with the advent of World War II, it was commandeered as a military headquarters. HVO was allowed to use building 41 from October 1942 to September 1948, when it became the park headquarters (and still is today, after several additions).</p><br>
<p>About two miles west, in an area known as Uwekahuna, a "National Park Museum and Lecture Hall" had been built in 1927. The name means roughly "the priest wept" in the Hawaiian Language, which indicates it might have been used to make offerings in the past. The HVO moved there in 1948 after some remodeling of the building. This site was even closer to the main vent of Kīlauea. In 1985 a larger building was built for the observatory adjacent to the old lecture hall, which was turned back into a museum and public viewing site.</p><br>
<h3>Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO)</h3><br>
<p>1912 to 1940, Thomas A. Jaggar, Jr. (1871–1953)</p><br>
<p>1940 to 1951, Ruy H. Finch</p><br>
<p>1951 to 1955, Gordon A. MacDonald (1911–1978)</p><br>
<p>1956 to 1958, Jerry P. Eaton</p><br>
<p>1958 to 1960, Kiguma J. Murata</p><br>
<p>1960 to 1961, Jerry P. Eaton</p><br>
<p>1961 to 1962, Donald H. Richter</p><br>
<p>1962 to 1963, James G. Moore</p><br>
<p>1964 to 1970, Howard A. Powers</p><br>
<p>1970 to 1975, Donald W. Peterson</p><br>
<p>1975 to 1976, Robert I. Tilling</p><br>
<p>1976 to 1978, Gordon P. Eaton</p><br>
<p>1978 to 1979, Donald W. Peterson</p><br>
<p>1979 to 1984, Robert W. Decker (1927–2005)</p><br>
<p>1984 to 1991, Thomas L. Wright</p><br>
<p>1991 to 1996, David A. Clague</p><br>
<p>1996 to 1997, Margaret T. Mangan</p><br>
<p>1997 to 2004, Donald A. Swanson</p><br>
<p>2004 to 2015, James P. Kauahikaua</p><br>
<p>2015 to present, Christina A. Neal</p><br>
<h2>Present day operations</h2><br>
<p>Modern electronic equipment now monitors earthquakes from several sites. This information is provided immediately over the Internet, as is live coverage of ongoing eruptions from several webcams accessible from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory website (see External links). Another important function of HVO is to monitor the sulphur emissions that produce the volcanic pollution condition known as vog. The observatory advises the park service when to close areas due to this and other volcanic hazards.</p><br>
<p>While the main Observatory building itself is not open to the public, the adjacent Thomas A. Jaggar Museum includes interpretive exhibits on the work performed at the observatory. The exhibits range from general information on volcanoes and lava to the scientific equipment and clothing used by volcanologists. Some of the museum&#39;s windows provide a sheltered view of the Kīlauea Caldera and Halemaumau Crater. A public observation deck, overlooking Kīlauea and open 24 hours a day, provides spectacular views. It a popular destination within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, located at coordinates 19&deg;25&prime;12&Prime;N latitude, 155&deg;17&prime;16.8&Prime;W longitude, on Crater Rim Drive west from the Visitor Center.</p><br>
<p>Galiano Island is one of the Southern Gulf Islands between Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Located on the west side of the Strait of Georgia, it is 27.5 km long, 6 km at its widest point, and 1.6 km across at its narrowest point and is separated from Saltspring Island by Trincomali Channel. On the western side of the island there are a series of sandstone caves. The island is northwest of Mayne Island, northeast of Saltspring Island and southeast of Valdes Island. It is part of the Capital Regional District Electoral Area G, and has a population of 1258 inhabitants.</p><br>
<p>Named after the Spanish explorer Dionisio Alcalá Galiano, who explored the area in 1792, (the island is twinned with his home city - Cabra in Córdoba province, Spain). Galiano was long inhabited by aboriginal people from the Penelakut First Nation and used by other Coast Salish nations. Midden pits at Montague Harbour suggest 3000 years of habitation. Today there is only one Indian Reserve on the island, Galiano Indian Reserve No. 9, located at the northern tip of the island and under Penelakut administration. Industries of the past were logging, fishing and charcoal-burning, although today tourism and the arts are the most common methods of employment.</p><br>
<h2>Government</h2><br>
<p>Government bodies that oversee the island include Federal, Provincial and the Capital Regional District as well as the Islands Trust whose mandate is to establish land-use bylaws to "preserve and protect" the island, most notably in terms of development. For most of the twentieth century roughly half of the land on Galiano was owned by the logging firm MacMillan Bloedel. As a result, Galiano was not as extensively developed as neighboring islands. When the firm sold its holdings on Galiano, debate about development issues sharpened, and the Islands Trust set minimum lot sizes to limit development.</p><br>
<p>Local elections are held every three years to determine who will be the island&#39;s two Trustees.</p><br>
<h2>Access</h2><br>
<p>Galiano Island is accessible by vehicle via BC Ferries; the terminal is situated adjacent to the Village Sturdies Bay, in the southeast corner of the island, at the entrance to Active Pass. This vehicle and passenger scheduled ferry service runs from Tsawwassen (Vancouver) on the mainland and Swartz Bay (Victoria) on Vancouver Island. There are numerous inter-island ferries that connect the Gulf Islands.</p><br>
<p>Moorage is available at several public wharves for boat traffic: Sturdies Bay, (walking distance to the Village), Montague Harbour, Whalers Bay and Retreat Cove. Private moorage is available at Montague Harbour Marina and the Galiano Oceanfront Inn (Sturdies Bay)</p><br>
<p>Daily, regularly scheduled floatplane service is offered from Downtown Vancouver and the Vancouver International Airport through Seair Seaplanes to Montague Harbour. There is regularly scheduled floatplane service from Seattle daily through Kenmore Air, either through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Kenmore Air Harbor and Seattle Lake Union.</p><br>
<h2>Parks and wildlife</h2><br>
<p>Galiano Island has a large variety of animals and plants. In a major flight path for migrating birds, Galiano has hundreds of bird species. Commonly sighted are eagles, herons and cormorants. Off its shores are resident orca whales, seals, otters, sea lions and many varieties of sea life. The Galiano Trails Society has been providing trails to access many of these areas.</p><br>
<p>Montague Harbour Marine Provincial Park is one of the most popular parks in the Gulf Islands. It is unique for its Shell Beach, which is a west-facing beach with worn shells covering the whole expanse of the beach instead of sand. For thousands of years, it was the location of a midden used by Coast Salish people.</p><br>
<p>Montague Harbour is popular with the recreational boating community; the harbour is often crowded with yachts and sailboats during the warmer months of June, July, and August. The Park&#39;s mooring buoys are in limited supply and cannot be reserved, but the harbour is well sheltered if one chooses to anchor. A marina with moorage, gas dock, several small stores, and a cafe (summer only) is located at the southern end of the harbour. A public dock is near the marina.</p><br>
<p>Dionisio Point Provincial Park is a rugged natural park at the north end of the island with beautiful beaches that the local islanders call Coon Bay. Here you will find a unique shoreline with artistically sculpted sandstone formations, a sand beach for swimming, tidal pools, and colourful wildflowers and forests that fill this beautiful provincial park.</p><br>
<p>Bluffs Park is Galiano&#39;s oldest wilderness park, established by community subscription in 1948. With 130 hectares, it extends far inland into virgin forest, as well having high cliffs and a long sandy beach.</p><br>
<p>Mount Galiano is Galiano’s highest point of land. It rises 314 meters (1030 feet) above sea level. The top provides hikers with views over the Gulf Islands, the USA San Juan Islands and the distant mainland mountains as well. Sutil Mountain in the southeastern part of the island is 290 meters (951 feet) above sea level.</p><br>
<p>Collinson Point Provincial Park is essentially the shoreline of Mount Galiano, and is important in protecting the marine life of the approaches to Active Pass.</p><br>
<p>Bodega Ridge Provincial Park consists of a ridge rising several hundred metres above sea level, with views over many of the Gulf Islands&#39; hundreds of islands and islets and beyond to the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula. High cliffs are home to raptors like peregrine falcons and bald eagles, as well as trees like cedars and Douglas fir.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>Due to the minimal development of Galiano, tourism on the island has remained limited and sustainable. Few tourist amenities exist, and most accommodation comes in the form of Bed and Breakfasts, the Montague Provincial Park Campsite or holiday rentals. Activities on Galiano Island include hiking, boating, visiting art galleries, golfing and exploring beaches.</p><br>
<h2>Infrastructure</h2><br>
<p>The powerline HVDC Vancouver-Island crosses Galiano Island in southwestly direction as overhead powerline section, which ends at a cable terminal on Parker Island.</p><br>
<h2>Notable people</h2><br>
<p>Brett Gaylor</p><br>
<p>Iona Campagnolo</p><br>
<p>Jane Rule</p><br>
<p>Audrey Thomas</p><br>
<p>Mount Bierstadt  is a high mountain summit of the Chicago Peaks in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 14,065 ft fourteener is located in the Mount Evans Wilderness of Pike National Forest, 15.1 km south by east  of the Town of Georgetown in Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States. It was named in honor of Albert Bierstadt, the American landscape painter who made the first recorded summit of the mountain in 1863.</p><br>
<h2>Mountain</h2><br>
<p>Mount Bierstadt is located 2.2 km west by south of Mount Evans and 70.5 km west by south of downtown Denver.</p><br>
<p>Because it is generally considered an easy climb, along with its accessibility from nearby Denver, Mount Bierstadt is one of the most popular mountains to climb in Colorado. As with most peaks in Colorado, July and August make the best months for climbing Mount Bierstadt.</p><br>
<p>The most popular base from which to begin ascent of Mount Bierstadt is Guanella Pass, located to the west. From Guanella Pass it is approximately a 7 mi hike, with a climb of 2,391 ft. The trail descends slightly into the fairly level marshlands surrounding Scott Gomer Creek before reaching Bierstadt&#39;s western slopes. On the rocky upper regions of the mountain the route of the trail is marked by a series of cairns. The trail levels about 200 ft below the summit at saddle point before beginning the final ascent. Alternative trails cover the eastern slopes for longer hikes.</p><br>
<p>Once at the summit, a popular option is to continue the hike to nearby Mount Evans along a ridge known as The Sawtooth, an intermediate-level hike. Often such a trip will involve a detour down to Abyss Lake 12,650 ft elevation), which occupies the bottom of the valley separating Bierstadt and Evans.</p><br>
<p>Albert Bierstadt&#39;s painting A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie is based on sketches he made during his 1863 visit to the area. That painting shows either Mount Spalding or Mount Evans (it is ambiguous) from the Chicago Lakes, 3 mi north-northwest, but Bierstadt and his guide William Byers climbed onward to the summit of either Evans or Spalding (the account is ambiguous).</p><br>
<p>Grays Peak is the tenth-highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America and the USA state of Colorado. The prominent 4,352 m fourteener is the highest summit of the Front Range and the highest point on the Continental Divide in North America.  Grays Peak is located in Arapahoe National Forest, 6.2 km southeast by east  of Loveland Pass on the Continental Divide between Clear Creek and Summit counties. The peak is the highest point in both counties.</p><br>
<p>Grays Peak is one of 53 fourteeners (mountains of over 14,000 ft in elevation) in Colorado. Botanist Charles C. Parry made the first recorded ascent of the summit in 1861 and named the peak in honor of his botanist colleague Asa Gray. Gray did not see the peak until 1872, eleven years later. Grays Peak is commonly mentioned in conjunction with adjacent Torreys Peak.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing</h2><br>
<p>Like the other fourteeners nearby, Grays Peak is considered to be an easy hike by fourteener standards, and is very popular among weekend climbers. Often a climb to the summit of Grays Peak is accompanied by continuing on to Torreys Peak, less than a mile away. The main trail, Grays Peak Trail, departs from Stevens Gulch. To get to the Stevens Gulch Trailhead, take I-70 west from Denver about 50 mi to Bakerville Road, exit 221. From there, take Stevens Gulch Road south about 2.5 mi to the trailhead. As of the summer of 2009, Stevens Gulch Road is still open for traffic, but is no longer maintained. With cuts in the road over two feet deep and large stones in the path, travel to the trailhead is only feasible for high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicles, motorcycles or all-terrain vehicles. From the trailhead, it is a hike of about 3.5 mi and a climb of 3,040 ft. The trail, well-marked and well-trodden, begins by following the gulch for a slow rise in elevation, before hitting the steeper slopes. The summit includes a very small U-shaped rock shelter where a log book is maintained. Extensive views stretch south to Pikes Peak and the San Luis Valley, east to the Great Plains, West to Silverthorne, and north to Longs Peak and Rocky Mountain National Park. At the climber&#39;s option, the trail continues from the summit north to Torreys Peak. The trail descends the saddle down to 13,707 ft before climbing back to the summit of Torreys Peak at 14,267 ft.</p><br>
<h2>Wildlife</h2><br>
<p>Wildlife in the area includes, mountain goat, pika, cougar or mountain lion, mule deer, elk, marmot, coyote, ptarmigan, American red squirrel, and gray jay or Canada jay. Wildflowers that bloom in the tundra area on the Continental Divide of the Americas include moss campion (Silene acaulis), alpine forget-me-not (Myosotis alpestris), sky pilot (Polemonium viscosum), sea pink, old-man-of-the-mountain (Rydbergia grandiflora), and mountain gentian (Gentiana). Below the tree-line, the blooms of monkshood or wolfsbane, blue columbine, fireweed, and paintbrush (Castilleja) can be found.</p><br>
<p>Torreys Peak is a mountain in the Front Range region of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. It is one of 53 fourteeners in Colorado. Its nearest major city is Denver. Torreys Peak is located along the Continental Divide, as well as the division between Clear Creek County and Summit County.</p><br>
<h2>Name</h2><br>
<p>The first man to ascend Torreys Peak, botanist Charles C. Parry, named the peak for his botanist colleague John Torrey. Torrey actually did not see the peak until 1872, 11 years later. It is nearly always mentioned in conjunction with nearby Grays Peak.</p><br>
<h2>Hiking</h2><br>
<p>There are three main trails used to reach the summit. The first is actually a continuation of Grays Peak Trail to the summit of Grays Peak, which starts in Stevens Gulch. See the Grays Peak article for more information on accessing that trail.</p><br>
<p>A popular and challenging variation of this trail follows class-3 Kelso Ridge. This route splits from the Grays Peak trail 2 mi from the trailhead, climbs to the 12,400 ft saddle between Torreys and 13,164 ft Kelso Mountain, then follows the rugged ridge about 1 mi to the summit.</p><br>
<p>The third trail starts at Loveland Pass about 4.5 mi to the northwest. To reach Loveland Pass, follow I-70 west from Denver 55 mi to where US Route 6 breaks off and heads south. Follow the meandering Route 6 approximately seven miles to the trailhead at Loveland Pass, at an elevation of 11,990 ft. The steepest part of the trail actually begins right away with a half mile climb of 1,000 ft. The trail follows the Continental Divide gently taking the climber down into three saddles and up two more peaks, including Grizzly Peak at 13,427 ft and Mount Sniktau at 13,234 ft. The final saddle rests at approximately 12,600 ft. From this saddle, it is a mile-long ascent of 1,800 ft to the final summit.</p><br>
<p>Once at the summit, many opt to continue on to Grays Peak, 0.75 mi away. The trail from Torreys Peak to Grays Peak dips down to a 13,707 ft saddle and then climbs back up to 14,270 ft.</p><br>
<p>Donner Pass  is a mountain pass in the northern Sierra Nevada, above Donner Lake about 9 mi west of Truckee, California. Like the Sierra Nevada mountains themselves, the pass has a steep approach from the east and a gradual approach from the west.</p><br>
<p>The pass has been used by the California Trail, First Transcontinental Railroad, Overland Route, Lincoln Highway (later USA Route 40 and still later Donner Pass Road), as well as indirectly by Interstate 80.</p><br>
<p>Today the area is home to a thriving recreational community with several alpine lakes and ski resorts (Donner Ski Ranch, Boreal, and Sugar Bowl). The permanent communities in the area include Kingvale and Soda Springs, as well as the larger community below the pass surrounding Donner Lake.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>To reach California from the East, pioneers had to get their wagons over the Sierra Nevada mountain range. In 1844 the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party followed the Truckee River into the mountains. At the head of what is now called Donner Lake, they found a low notch in the mountains and became the first overland settlers to use the pass.</p><br>
<p>The pass was named after a later group of California-bound settlers. In early November 1846 the Donner Party found the route blocked by snow and was forced to spend the winter on the east side of the mountains. Of the 81 settlers, only 45 survived to reach California; some of them resorting to cannibalism to survive.</p><br>
<p>On January 13, 1952, 222 passengers and crew aboard a train became stranded about 17 mi west of Donner Pass at Yuba Pass, on Track #1 adjacent to Tunnel 35 (on Track #2), at about MP 176.5. Southern Pacific Railroad&#39;s passenger train City of San Francisco was en route westbound through the gap when a blizzard dumped so much snow the train was unable to move forward or reverse. The passengers and crew were stranded for three days until the nearby highway could be plowed sufficiently for a caravan of automobiles to carry them the few miles to Nyack Lodge.</p><br>
<h2>Central Pacific Railroad</h2><br>
<p>Principally designed and built under the personal, often on-site direction of CPRR&#39;s Chief Assistant Engineer, Lewis M. Clement (1837–1914), the original (Track 1) summit grade remained in daily use from June 18, 1868, when the first CPRR passenger train ran through the Summit Tunnel, until 1993 when the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) (which operated the CPRR-built Oakland-Ogden line until its 1996 merger with the Union Pacific Railroad (UP)) abandoned the 6.7 mile (10.7 km) section of Track #1 over the summit running between the Norden complex (Shed 26, MP 192.1) and the covered crossovers in Shed #47 (MP 198.8), one mile east of the old flyover at Eder. All traffic has since operated over the Track #2 grade crossing the summit 1 mi south of Donner Pass through the 10,322 ft-long Tunnel #41 running under Mount Judah between Soda Springs and Eder. SP made this change because the railroad considered Track 2 and Tunnel 41 (which was opened in 1925 when the summit section of the grade was finally double tracked) to be easier and less expensive to maintain during in the harsh Sierra winters than the Track 1 tunnels and snow sheds over the summit.</p><br>
<p>In conjunction with major ongoing upgrades and expansions being made to the Port of Oakland in order to better accommodate the rapidly growing North American trade with Asia and the Pacific, the cooperation of UP, the Port&#39;s principal rail partner, has been sought to "construct a second track and raise tunnel clearances over Donner Pass for container trains linking California with the rest of the country." This would likely require either a new parallel tunnel next to Tunnel 41 or the replacement of the summit section of Track 1 between the Norden complex and Shed 47; either would increase capacity and effectively eliminate delays currently caused by having to run all east and west bound traffic between Norden and Shed 47 over a single track. (To fully eliminate bottleneck delays the now single track 7.1 mi section between Switch 9 (MP 171.9) at Emigrant Gap and Shed 10 (MP 179.0) west of Cisco would likely also have to be restored to double track.) Improvements were completed on the Sierra grade in November 2009, including increasing 18,000 lineal feet of tunnel clearances in 15 restricted tunnels between Rocklin and Truckee and upgrading 30 miles of signals to CTC, although the original Donner Pass grade (Track 1) was not restored. Since then trains of full-height (20 ft 2 inch) double-stack container cars have run over Donner Pass; some tunnels on Track 2 between Bowman and Colfax were not enlarged, so stack trains in both directions must use the older, tunnel-free Track 1 between those points.</p><br>
<h2>Highways</h2><br>
<p>The Lincoln Highway, the first road across America, crosses Donner Pass. Interstate 80 was built through this area in the early 1960s. I-80 generally parallels the route of US 40 through the Sierra Nevada, but it crosses the Sierra crest at the Euer Saddle, about 2 mi north of Donner Pass. Euer Saddle is referred to by CalTrans as "Donner Summit" at 7,240 ft (39.339872&deg; latitude, -120.343958&deg; longitude), located on the south side of I-80 at the Castle Peak exit beyond Boreal Inn. Donner Summit is about 150 ft higher than Donner Pass, but is wider and has a gentler approach that aided construction to Interstate Highway standards, which do not allow the sharp curves used by the Donner Pass Road. The grade is 3-6% for 30 miles. The 1920s highway has been preserved as a scenic alternative to I-80.</p><br>
<h2>Weather</h2><br>
<p>Winter weather at Donner Pass can be brutal. Precipitation averages 51.6 in per year, much of which falls as snow. At an average of 411.5 in per year, Donner Pass is one of the snowiest places in the contiguous United States. Four times since 1880 total snowfall at Donner Summit has exceeded 775 in and topped 800 in in both 1938 and 1952. To take advantage of the heavy snows, the Boreal Ski Resort was built to the north. Ski resorts in the Lake Tahoe area report an average of 300 to 500 in of snowfall per season. Winds in the pass can also become extreme and wind gusts in excess of 100 mph are common during winter storms. Winter temperatures in the area drop below 0 &deg;F several times each year; the all-time record low for California of -45 &deg;F was recorded at Boca (east of Truckee) in January 1937.</p><br>
<p>The winter of 1846–47 was especially severe, and this is generally cited as the single most important factor in the disaster of the Donner Party.</p><br>
<h2>Recreation</h2><br>
<p>Summer and winter offer a wide variety of recreation and lifestyle sports such as backpacking, alpine and cross-country skiing, rock and ice climbing. The region was made world-famous during the early 1990s with snowboarding films by Fall Line Films (FLF) and Standard Films, for its easy access to frontcountry and backcountry terrain. However, its fame and quick access from Old Highway 40 or nearby Sugar Bowl Ski Resort has led to a large number of avalanche fatalities, including professional snowboarder Jamil Khan.</p><br>
<h2>Popular culture</h2><br>
<p>Albert Bierstadt&#39;s painting View of Donner Lake (1871–72).</p><br>
<p>The Donner Pass is featured in the History Channel special episode, America: The Story of Us: "Westward".</p><br>
<p>It is featured in the National Geographic Channel series Hell on the Highway, series focuses on the towing and recovery companies working the region.</p><br>
<p>High Willhays or, according to some authors, High Willes is the highest point on Dartmoor, Devon, at 2,039 ft above sea level, and the highest point in the United Kingdom south of the Brecon Beacons.</p><br>
<h2>Toponymy</h2><br>
<p>In 1912, William Crossing, writer and documenter, said that the name High Willes had been thought to have derived from the word huel or wheal meaning mine, but he did not think that very likely as old mine workings were invariably located near to streams. He suggested instead that the name derived from gwylfa, a watching place, noting its similarity with Brown Willy, the name of the highest hill on nearby Bodmin Moor, and suggested that a watch for beacon fires used to be kept here. He also posited a possible link to the word gwili meaning winding or tortuous, but said it was unlikely this was where it originated from.</p><br>
<p>The Place-Names of Devon (1931) notes that the peak was named Hight Wyll in a document of 1532, and was known in 1827 as High Willows. The authors state that the name may simply be a compound of high and well (meaning spring), though they admit that the additional syllable at the end is hard to explain.</p><br>
<h2>Topography</h2><br>
<p>High Willhays is near the northwestern edge of Dartmoor, about 2.5 km south east of Meldon Reservoir and about 5 km south of the town of Okehampton. Although it is the highest point of the moor, it is relatively insignificant in comparison to most of the moor&#39;s tors, consisting of no more than a few low outcrops of rock along a north-south ridge. The largest outcrop is crowned with a cairn. The more impressive, but slightly lower, Yes Tor is about 1 km north along this ridge, which is known as "the roof of Devon".</p><br>
<p>High Willhays and Yes Tor are the only summits in England south of Kinder Scout in the Peak District to rise above 2,000 ft, apart from Black Mountain on the Welsh border. Before Ordnance Survey measured accurately the heights of High Willhays and Yes Tor many people believed Yes Tor was the higher of the two, and it was only the local farmers and moormen that believed the contrary. However, the first topographical survey of the area carried out by Ordnance Survey suggested that High Willhays was 12 ft higher, although the difference has now been measured at just 8 ft. William Crossing stated that High Willhays was the highest point in England south of Ingleborough in the Yorkshire Dales, but since then surveys have shown that Kinder Scout is also higher (albeit less prominent).</p><br>
<p>The geology of High Willhays, like most of Dartmoor, consists of granite intruded about 280 million years ago. However High Willhays is in an area of the northern plateau of the moor where the exposed rock has noticeably fewer of the large feldspar megacrysts that are typical of most of Dartmoor&#39;s tors. Each of the outcrops displays lamellar bedding.</p><br>
<p>High Willhays is within one of Dartmoor&#39;s Danger Zones, areas used periodically by the British Army for exercises. Red flags are raised around the perimeter when live-firing is due to take place.</p><br>
<p>Stanley Peak is a 3,155 m high mountain located in the Ball Range, at the northeastern section of Kootenay National Park, in the Canadian Rocky Mountains .</p><br>
<p>The mountain was named in 1901 by its first climber, the English explorer Edward Whymper, after Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, the sixth Governor-General of Canada.</p><br>
<p>The peak is visible from the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 93. Stanley Glacier on the northeast face of the peak can be seen up close by following a hiking trail into a hanging valley between the peak and a southern outlier of Storm Mountain.</p><br>
<p>Stanley Peak can be ascended from a scrambling route by late summer but involves much routefinding among the many ledges and gullies on the north face. Climbing routes (UIAA III) travel the north and northeast faces.</p><br>
<h2>Other BC peaks</h2><br>
<p>There are another two peaks in British Columbia called Stanley Peak. One is 2,935 m high, located at the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (50&deg;49&prime;48&Prime;N latitude, 123&deg;43&prime;18&Prime;W longitude), 24 km north-west from Keyhole Falls and 62 km west from Gold Bridge. The other is 2,030 m high, in the Stikine Region (59&deg;56&prime;52&Prime;N latitude, 136&deg;35&prime;35&Prime;W longitude) (90 km north-west from Skagway, Alaska United States).</p><br>
<p>The De Long Islands  are an uninhabited archipelago often included as part of the New Siberian Islands, lying north east of Novaya Sibir.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>This archipelago consists of Jeannette Island, Henrietta Island, Bennett Island, Vilkitsky Island and Zhokhov Island. These five islands have a total area of 228 km². Bennett (Bennetta in Russian) Island is the largest island and it has also the archipelago&#39;s highest point at 426 m. These islands lie around 77°N, are partially covered by glaciers, and rise to peaks.</p><br>
<p>In 1996, the total area of these islands covered by ice caps and glaciers was 80.6 km². This island group belongs to the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic administrative division of Russia.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Early Paleozoic, Middle Paleozoic, Cretaceous, and Neogene rocks have been mapped within the De Long Islands. The Early Paleozoic rocks are Cambrian and Ordovician sedimentary rocks interbedded with minor amounts of limestone. The Middle Paleozoic rocks consist of predominately folded and faulted basaltic, andesitic, and dioritic volcanoclastics, tuffs, lavas, dikes, and sills. Cretaceous rocks are composed of basalts and interbedded argillites, sandstones and minor coals. The youngest rocks exposed within the De Long Islands are Neogene basaltic volcanic rocks.</p><br>
<h3>Quaternary Geology</h3><br>
<p>The De Long Islands were once major hills within the Great Arctic Plain that once formed the northern part of Late Pleistocene “Beringia” between Siberia and Alaska during the Last Glacial Maximum (Late Weichselian Epoch). These islands are what remains of about 1.6 e6km2 of the formally subaerial Great Arctic Plain that now lies submerged below the Arctic Ocean and East Siberian Sea. At this plain&#39;s greatest extent during the Last Glacial Maximum, sea level was 100–120 m below modern sea level and the coastline was located 700 to 1000 km north of its current position. This plain was neither extensively glaciated during the Late Pleistocene nor during the Last Glacial Maximum because it lay in the rain shadow of the Northern European ice sheet. The Great Arctic Plain was submerged, except for the New Siberian and other isolated islands, within a relatively short time span of 7,000 years during the Early-Middle Holocene.</p><br>
<p>During the extremely frigid polar climate of the Last Glacial Maximum (Late Weichselian Epoch), 17,000 to 24,000 BP, small passive ice caps did form on the De Long Islands. Fragments of these ice caps are preserved on Jeannette, Henrietta, and Bennett Islands. Traces of former Late Weichselian slope and cirque glaciers in the form of buried ground ice deposits are preserved on Zhokhov Island.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Jeannette Island, Henrietta Island, and Bennett Island were discovered in 1881 by the ill-fated Jeannette expedition, commanded by Lieutenant Commander George W. De Long, USN.</p><br>
<p>In August 1901 Russian Arctic ship Zarya headed across the Laptev Sea, searching for the legendary Sannikov Land (Zemlya Sannikova) but was soon blocked by floating pack ice in the New Siberian Islands. During 1902 the attempts to reach Sannikov Land, deemed to be beyond the De Long Islands, continued while Zarya was trapped in fast ice. Leaving the ship, Russian Arctic explorer Baron Eduard Toll and three companions vanished forever in November 1902 while travelling away from Bennett Island towards the south on loose ice floes.</p><br>
<p>Vilkitsky Island (East Siberian Sea) and Zhokhov Island were discovered by Boris Vilkitsky during the Imperial Russian Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition (1910-1915) he led in 1913 and 1914 respectively. They lie slightly further south (around 76°N), are unglaciated, and lower lying.</p><br>
<p>Henrietta was the site of a research station from 1937 to 1963.</p><br>
<h2>Sovereignty</h2><br>
<p>Some US individuals assert American ownership of Jeannette, Henrietta and Bennet Islands in the De long group. This assertion is not supported by the US government.</p><br>
<h2>Views</h2><br>
<p>Rohtang Pass  - corpse, ཐང་། - plain/field due to people working in CBRE dying in bad weather trying to cross the pass) , is a high mountain pass on the eastern Pir Panjal Range of the Himalayas around 51 km from Manali. It connects the Kullu Valley with the Lahaul and Spiti Valleys of Himachal Pradesh, India. The first electric bus service at 13000ft altitude started on manali -rohtang pass</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The pass provides a natural divide between the Kullu Valley with a primarily Hindu culture (in the south), and the arid high-altitude Lahaul and Spiti valleys with a Buddhist culture (in the north). The pass lies on the watershed between the Chenab and Beas basins. On the southern side of this pass, the Beas River emerges from underground and flows southward and on its northern side, the Chandra River (flows from the eastern Himalayas), a source stream of the river Chenab, flows westward.</p><br>
<h2>Overview</h2><br>
<p>The pass is open from May to November. It is not particularly high or difficult to cross on foot by Himalayan standards, but it has a well-deserved reputation for being dangerous because of unpredictable snowstorms and blizzards.</p><br>
<p>This pass is an ancient trade route between the people on either side of Pir Panjal. The local name for this pass is a generic name of pass. There are many other passes in Lahaul and Spiti which have specific names (Kunzam La, Baralacha La, etc.). This is suggestive of the fact that this must have been the oldest and most frequented pass in the region, or the fact that it is the main pass leading from one cultural region to another, quite different one, to the north.</p><br>
<p>National Highway 21 (NH 21), the road through the Kullu Valley, past Manali and over the Rohtang Pass to Keylong, and Lahul and on to Leh in Ladakh, has become very busy during the summer months as an alternate military route, following the Kargil Conflict in 1999 in addition to tensions in Kashmir. Traffic jams are common as military vehicles, trucks, and goods carriers try to navigate the tight roads and rough terrain, compounded by snow and ice at certain points and the large number of tourist vehicles.</p><br>
<p>Several episodes of the History Channel&#39;s Ice Road Truckers series spinoff IRT Deadliest Roads dealt with truckers crossing the Rohtang Pass to deliver supplies.</p><br>
<p>With increase in Traffic at Rohtang Valley, Environmentalists fear its impact on the fragile mountain ecology. A rise in average temperature, and the consequent melting of glaciers, are also issues of severe concern.</p><br>
<p>The pass was featured on the Top Gear: India Special.</p><br>
<h2>Rohtang Pass Permit</h2><br>
<p>In 2016, the Himachal Pradesh Government started issuing permits online to limit the vehicles to prevent pollution in this area. Permits are issued only to the first 800 petrol vehicles and 400 diesel vehicles. Permits can only be applied for next 2 days from the current date. Also, no permits are issued on Tuesday as the day is marked for maintenance of Rohtang. A tax of Rs. 500 and sometimes, a congestion charges of Rs. 50 is to be paid and accordingly the permits are issued based on daily quota defined by National Green Tribunal Act. The tourism permit is valid only for one day only (to & fro). Mandatory information required for Rohtang Pass Permit - Valid ID Proof, Valid Pollution Under Check (PUC) Certificate and Vehicle Registration Date (Age of vehicle not to be more than 10 years). You can apply for the permit on the.rohtang pass</p><br>
<h2>Latest News</h2><br>
<p>Sometimes travelling to rothang pass is difficult,so there is a need for ropeway. Government is stressing on to setup ropeway between kothi village which is in manali and rothang pass. Ropeway reduces the number of tourist vehicles which reduces a lot of traffic in the way to rothang pass.The NGT (National Green Tribunal) has asked the state government of manali to complete all the formalities to start ropeway. With the coming of ropeway,we can reduce carbon emission from vehicles.In winter heavy snowfall blocks the road,so at that time ropeway is very useful.</p><br>
<h2>Rohtang road tunnel</h2><br>
<p>Due to the military significance of the highway and the need to keep it open the entire year, the Indian government began building the $320 million 8.5 km long Rohtang Tunnel in 2010 to bypass Rohtang pass for creating a much safer and faster year-around link to Keylong, Lahaul and Spiti and Leh in Ladakh. The tunnel will also shorten the distance by about 50 km and reduce the travel time between the southern and northern faces of Rohtang pass by five hours. While it now takes 4 to 6 hours to ascend, negotiate and descend the Rohtang pass, it will take only about 30 minutes to travel through the Rohtang tunnel.</p><br>
<p>Hambledon Hill is a prehistoric hill fort in Dorset, England, situated in the Blackmore Vale five miles northwest of Blandford Forum. The hill itself is a chalk outcrop, on the southwestern corner of Cranborne Chase, separated from the Dorset Downs by the River Stour. It is owned by the National Trust.</p><br>
<h2>Prehistory</h2><br>
<p>Its earliest occupation was in the Neolithic when a pair of causewayed enclosures were dug at the top of the hill, one smaller than the other. They were linked by a bank and ditch running northwest–southeast. Two long barrows, one 68 m in length, also stood within the complex and a third enclosure is now known to underlie later earthworks. In all, the area of activity covered more than 1 km².</p><br>
<p>Excavations in the 1970s and 1980s by Roger Mercer produced large quantities of Neolithic material. Environmental analysis indicated the site was occupied whilst the area was still wooded with forest clearances coming later, in the Bronze Age. The charcoal recovered seems to have come from timber lacing within the Neolithic earthworks.</p><br>
<p>Radiocarbon analysis gives a date of 2850 BC. At least one skeleton, of a young man killed by an arrow was found, seemingly connected with the burning of the timber defences and suggesting at least one phase of violence. A single grape pip and a leaf fragment is evidence of vine cultivation and the occupants seem to have traded with sites further to the southwest.</p><br>
<p>The ditches of the enclosures also contained significant quantities of pottery as well as red deer antler picks used to excavate them. Human skulls had been placed right at the bottom of one of the enclosure ditches possibly as a dedicatory or ancestral offering. Animal bone analysis suggests that most of the meat was consumed in late summer and early autumn, possibly indicating seasonal use of the site. Different material was found in different areas of the site suggesting that Hambledon Hill was divided up into zones of activity. The original interpretation was that the large causewayed enclosure was used as a mortuary enclosure for the ritual disposal of the dead and veneration of the ancestors with attendant feasting and social contact taking place in the smaller enclosure.</p><br>
<p>Little remains of the Neolithic activity and the site is more easily identified as a prime example of an Iron Age hill fort. It was originally univallate but further circuits of banks and ditches were added increasing its size to 125,000 m². Three entrances served the fort, the southwestern with a 100 m long hornwork surrounding it. Hut platforms can be seen on the hillside. The site appears to have been abandoned around 300 BC possibly in favour of the nearby site of Hod Hill.</p><br>
<p>Hambledon Hill is the first in a series of Iron Age earthworks, which continues with Hod Hill, Spetisbury Rings, Buzbury Rings, Badbury Rings and Dudsbury Camp. The Iron Age port at Hengistbury Head forms a final Iron Age monument in this small chain of sites.</p><br>
<h2>Battle of Hambledon Hill</h2><br>
<p>The Clubmen were a third force in the English Civil War, aligned to neither crown nor parliament, but striving to protect their land from being despoiled by foraging troops of either side. They armed themselves with clubs and agricultural implements and gathered in large numbers to protect their fields, especially in Dorset. Between 2,000 and 4,000 of them encamped on Hambledon Hill in August 1645. There were large numbers of Cromwells troops in the area at that time, after the siege of Sherborne Castle. Cromwell ordered that the Clubmen be dispersed and his well-equipped New Model Army soon drove them away on 4 August. The leaders were arrested but Cromwell sent most home saying they were poor silly creatures&#39;.</p><br>
<h2>National Nature Reserve</h2><br>
<p>The hill is now a National Nature Reserve (NNR) with common plants including milkwort, salad burnet, horseshoe vetch, squinancywort, pyramidal orchid and wild thyme. Rarer species include bastard toadflax, meadow saxifrage, early gentian and dwarf sedge. Butterflies include dingy skipper, grizzled skipper, chalkhill blue and adonis blue.</p><br>
<h2>Acquired by the National Trust</h2><br>
<p>In August 2014, Hambledon Hill fort was acquired by the National Trust for £450,000. The money to buy the hill had come from a Natural England grant and a legacy gift left to benefit Dorset countryside.</p><br>
<p>Cairnpapple Hill is a hill with a dominating position in central lowland Scotland with views from coast to coast. It was used and re-used as a major ritual site over about 4000 years, and in its day would have been comparable to better known sites like the Standing Stones of Stenness. The summit lies 312 m above sea level, and is about 2 miles  north of Bathgate. In the 19th century the site was completely concealed by trees, then in 1947–1948 excavations by Stuart Piggott found a series of ritual monuments from successive prehistoric periods. In 1998, Gordon Barclay re-interpreted the site for Historic Scotland. It is desinated a scheduled ancient monument.</p><br>
<h2>Neolithic</h2><br>
<p>Neolithic rituals began about 3500 BC with signs of small hearths, and precious objects left on the hill, presumably as offerings, including fine pottery bowls and stone axe heads imported from Cumbria and Wales.</p><br>
<p>Probably around 3000 BC a Class II henge was constructed with the hilltop being surrounded by a bank outside a ditch about 12 ft wide cut over 3 ft into the rock, with wide entrances from north and south. Inside this an egg-shaped setting of 24 uprights (thought to have been timber posts, or possibly standing stones) enclosed an inner setting of similar uprights.</p><br>
<h2>Bronze Age</h2><br>
<p>Some time later a Bronze age ritual added a small stone and clay cairn just off centre inside the monument, with a 7 ft high standing stone to the east and a setting of smaller stones. Also aligned to this cairn were sockets for three upright stones at the centre of an arc of seven small pits, six of which contained cremated bones and two contained remains of bone skewer pins. Under the cairn traces were found of at least one burial, with wooden objects (perhaps a mask and club) and beaker people style pottery which indicates a date around 2000 BC.</p><br>
<p>This cairn was later covered by a second much larger cairn about 50 ft across and several yards (metres) high, with a kerb of massive stone slabs, which incorporated Bronze age burial cists, one of which contained a food vessel pot. Subsequently, more stone was brought in to increase this cairn to about 100 ft diameter, enclosing two cremation burials in inverted urns and now covering the original ditch and bank, making the whole site a tomb monument. Lastly, inside the ditch to the east four graves considered Iron age are now thought to be early Christian because of their east-west alignment, and are dated to around 500 to 1000.</p><br>
<h2>Present day</h2><br>
<p>The site is open to the public April to September and has a small visitor centre. The 1940s excavations have been partly covered by a concrete dome replicating the second cairn (although the dome is much higher than the cairn) so that visitors can go inside what was once a solid cairn and see the reconstructed graves, and outside this the surrounding post holes and graves are marked by being filled with colour-coded gravel like an archaeological plan, with the red gravel indicating upright pits, and the white gravel denoting the alleged Christian burials. The current display attempts to show all the main phases of the site at the same time.</p><br>
<p>Cairnpapple Hill is the 445th highest Marilyn (sub 2000&#39; peaks) in Scotland (Out of 571 total Marilyns)</p><br>
<h2>Derivation of the name</h2><br>
<p>Although there is still some confusion about the origin of the name Cairnpapple Hill, or the alternative Cairniepapple, its meaning can be guessed to a certain extent. It is uncertain whether the name comes from a Brythonic language, related to Welsh, a Goidelic one, such as Scottish Gaelic, or a mixture of the two. The first part, cairn- means cairn, either from Brythonic (e.g. Welsh carn) or Goidelic (e.g. Gaelic càrn or càirn). The second part -ie-, means of the, as in Welsh y or Gaelic a&#39;. The third part is the most problematic, possibly meaning any of tent (Welsh pabell, Gaelic puball), people/congregation (Welsh pob(o)l, Gaelic pobull), or even eye (compare Old Welsh pubell). Thus, Cairniepapple is most likely to mean Cairn of the tent, Cairn of the people, or Cairn of the eye. Another meaning, put forward in the documentary Before Scotland (written and presented by historian Alistair Moffat), is Priest Rock.</p><br>
<h2>Chronology (a different interpretation in a nutshell)</h2><br>
<p>Late Neolithic: cremations (placed in an arc)</p><br>
<p>Copper Age: beaker burials and henge</p><br>
<p>Early Bronze Age: food vessel cairn</p><br>
<p>Middle Bronze Age: enlarged cairn with large cinerary urns</p><br>
<p>Early Iron Age: inhumations</p><br>
<p>Phocaea, or Phokaia  was an ancient Ionian Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia. Greek colonists from Phocaea founded the colony of Massalia  in 600 BC, Emporion  in 575 BC and Elea  in 540 BC.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Phocaea was the northernmost of the Ionian cities, on the boundary with Aeolis. It was located near the mouth of the river Hermus (now Gediz), and situated on the coast of the peninsula separating the Gulf of Cyme to the north, named for the largest of the Aeolian cities, and the Gulf of Smyrna (now İzmir) to the south.</p><br>
<p>Phocaea had two natural harbours within close range of the settlement, both containing a number of small islands. Phocaea&#39;s harbours allowed it to develop a thriving seafaring economy, and to become a great naval power, which greatly influenced its culture.</p><br>
<p>Recent archaeological surveys have shown that the city of Phocaea was large for the archaic period. Herodotus gives an idea of the size of Phocaea by describing the walls of Phocaea as having a length of several stadia.</p><br>
<p>A 4th century BC Persian Tomb, known as Tas Kule (rock tower), stands (38 39 37" N, 26 49 2" E) 7 km east of Phocaea along a main road. This funerary monument was carved out of solid rock with a lower 2.7 meter high rectangular story (9 × 6 meters) surmounted by a second 1.9 meter high story (3 × 3 meters). Four steps between the two levels suggest strong Persian influence and most archaeologists believe this tomb was built for a Persian aristocrat or local leader serving the Persians. Compare the style of the tomb of Cyrus the Great.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The ancient Greek geographer Pausanias says that Phocaea was founded by Phocians under Athenian leadership, on land given to them by the Aeolian Cymaeans, and that they were admitted into the Ionian League after accepting as kings the line of Codrus. Pottery remains indicate Aeolian presence as late as the 9th century BC, and Ionian presence as early as the end of the 9th century BC. From this an approximate date of settlement for Phocaea can be inferred.</p><br>
<p>According to Herodotus the Phocaeans were the first Greeks to make long sea-voyages, having discovered the coasts of the Adriatic, Tyrrhenia and Spain. Herodotus relates that they so impressed Arganthonios, king of Tartessus in Spain, that he invited them to settle there, and, when they declined, gave them a great sum of money to build a wall around their city.</p><br>
<p>Their sea travel was extensive. To the south they probably conducted trade with the Greek colony of Naucratis in Egypt, which was the colony of their fellow Ionian city Miletus. To the north, they probably helped settle Amisos (Samsun) on the Black Sea, and Lampsacus at the north end of the Hellespont (now the Dardanelles). However Phocaea&#39;s major colonies were to the west. These included Alalia in Corsica, Emporiae and Rhoda in Spain, and especially Massalia (Marseille) in France.</p><br>
<p>Phocaea remained independent until the reign of the Lydian king Croesus (circa 560–545 BC), when they, along with the rest of mainland Ionia, first, fell under Lydian control and then, along with Lydia (who had allied itself with Sparta) were conquered by Cyrus the Great of Persia in 546 BC, in one of the opening skirmishes of the great Greco-Persian conflict.</p><br>
<p>Rather than submit to Persian rule, the Phocaeans abandoned their city. Some may have fled to Chios, others to their colonies on Corsica and elsewhere in the Mediterranean, with some eventually returning to Phocaea. Many however became the founders of Elea, around 540 BC.</p><br>
<p>In 500 BC, Phocaea joined the Ionian Revolt against Persia. Indicative of its naval prowess, Dionysius, a Phocaean was chosen to command the Ionian fleet at the decisive Battle of Lade, in 494 BC. However, indicative of its declining fortunes, Phocaea was only able to contribute three ships, out of a total of "three hundred and fifty three". The Ionian fleet was defeated and the revolt ended shortly thereafter.</p><br>
<p>After the defeat of Xerxes I by the Greeks in 480 BC and the subsequent rise of Athenian power, Phocaea joined the Delian League, paying tribute to Athens of two talents. In 412 BC, during the Peloponnesian War, with the help of Sparta, Phocaea rebelled along with the rest of Ionia. The Peace of Antalcidas, which ended the Corinthian War, returned nominal control to Persia in 387 BC.</p><br>
<p>In 343 BC, the Phocaeans unsuccessfully laid siege to Kydonia on the island of Crete.</p><br>
<p>During the Hellenistic period it fell under Seleucid, then Attalid rule. In the Roman period, the town was a manufacturing center for ceramic vessels, including the late Roman Phocaean red slip.</p><br>
<p>It was later under the control of Benedetto Zaccaria, the Genoan ambassador to Byzantium, who received the town as a hereditary lordship; Zaccaria and his descendants amassed a considerable fortune from his properties there, especially the rich alum mines. It remained a Genoese colony until it was taken by the Turks in 1455. It is a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church.</p><br>
<p>In 1914, there was the Massacre of Phocaea by Turkish bands.</p><br>
<h2>Coinage</h2><br>
<p>Probably following the Lydians, the Phocaeans were among the earliest in the world to make and use coins as money. Its earliest coins were made of electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of silver and gold. The British Museum has a Phocaean coin containing the image of a seal dating from 600 to 550 BC.</p><br>
<p>Baiae  was an ancient Roman town situated on the northwest shore of the Gulf of Naples, and now in the comune of Bacoli. It was a fashionable resort for centuries in antiquity, particularly towards the end of the Roman Republic, when it was reckoned as superior to Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Capri by the super-rich who built luxurious villas here. It was notorious for its hedonistic offerings and the attendant rumours of corruption and scandal. It later formed part of Port Julius, the base of the western fleet of the Imperial Roman Navy. It was deserted and its ruins largely submerged by local volcanic activity by the time of the Renaissance.</p><br>
<p>Many impressive buildings can be seen in the Parco Archeologico delle Terme di Baia and recent underwater archaeology has revealed many of the fine buildings now protected in the submerged archaeological park.</p><br>
<h2>Name</h2><br>
<p>Baiae was said to have been named after Baius (Βαῖος, Baîos), the helmsman of Odysseuss ship in Homers Odyssey, who was supposedly buried nearby. The adjacent "Baian Gulf" (Sinus Baianus) was named after the town. It now forms the western part of the Gulf of Pozzuoli.</p><br>
<p>The settlement was also mentioned in 178 under the name ("Cumaean Waters").</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Baiae was built on the Cumaean Peninsula in the Phlegraean Fields, an active volcanic area. It was perhaps originally developed as the port for Cumae.</p><br>
<p>Baiae was particularly fashionable towards the end of the Roman Republic. Marius, Lucullus, and Pompey all frequented it. Julius Caesar had a villa there, and much of the town became imperial property under Augustus. With its large swimming pools and domed casino, it continued to be a getaway for the elite. Nero had a notable villa constructed in the middle of the 1st century and Hadrian died at his in 138. It was also a favourite spot of the emperor Septimius Severus. The resorts sometimes capitalised on their imperial associations: Suetonius mentions in his history that the cloak, brooch, and gold bulla given to the young Tiberius by Pompey&#39;s daughter Pompeia Magna were still on display around 120.</p><br>
<p>According to Suetonius, in 39, Baiae was the location for a stunt by the eccentric emperor Caligula to answer the astrologer Thrasylluss prediction that he had "no more chance of becoming emperor than of riding a horse across the Gulf of Baiae". Caligula ordered a 3-mile-long pontoon bridge to be built from impounded ships of the area, fastened together and weighted with sand, stretching from Baiae to the neighbouring port of Puteoli. Clad in a gold cloak, he then crossed it upon a horse. Cassius Dios Roman History also includes the event, with the detail that the emperor ordered resting places and lodging rooms with potable water erected at intervals along the bridge. As late as the 18th century, scattered fragments were still being shown to tourists as the "Bridge of Caligula". Malloch has argued that Suetonius&#39;s account was likely coloured by his bias against Caligula; instead, he claims that “the act of bridging the Bay of Naples was an excellent—and safe—means by which to lay the foundation for military glory.”</p><br>
<p>Baiae was notorious for the hedonistic lifestyle of its residents and guests. In 56, the prominent socialite Clodia was condemned by the defence at the trial of Marcus Caelius Rufus as living as a harlot in Rome and at the "crowded resort of Baiae", indulging in beach parties and long drinking sessions. An elegy by Sextus Propertius written in the Augustan Age describes it as a "den of licentiousness and vice". In the 1st century, "Baiae and Vice" formed one of the moral epistles written by Seneca the Younger; he described it as a "vortex of luxury" and a "harbour of vice".</p><br>
<p>It never attained municipal status, being administered throughout by nearby Cumae. Under the later Roman Empire, Baiae also formed part of Port Julius, the base of the western fleet of the Roman Navy.</p><br>
<p>Baiae was sacked during the barbarian invasions and again by Muslim raiders in the 8th century. It was deserted owing to recurrent malaria by 1500, but Pedro de Toledo erected a castle, Castello di Baja, in the 16th century.</p><br>
<p>Because the coast subsided, largely due to local volcanic activity, most of Baiae is now under water in the Bay of Naples.</p><br>
<p>The site has occasionally revealed Roman sculptures. The Aphrodite of Baiae, a variant of the Venus de Medici, was supposedly excavated there sometime before 1803, when the English antiquary Thomas Hope began displaying it in his gallery on Duchess Street in London. A cache of plaster casts of Hellenistic sculptures was discovered in the cellar of the Baths of Sosandra at Baiae; they are now displayed at the towns archaeological museum. The collection includes parts of several famous sculptures, including Athenss Harmodius and Aristogeiton and the Athena of Velletri. It suggests that the area had a workshop mass-producing marble or bronze copies of Greek art for the Italian market.</p><br>
<h2>Ruins</h2><br>
<p>The most remarkable ruins are the so-called Temple of Mercury, the Temple of Venus, and the Temple of Diana, which were traditionally credited to some of the more famous residents of the town&#39;s villas.</p><br>
<p>The "Temple of Mercury" consists of an enormous 21.5 m diameter dome, a miracle of engineering and the largest in the world prior to the construction of Rome&#39;s Pantheon in 128. It was, and is still today, used to enclose the cold pool of the public baths.</p><br>
<p>Some of the items excavated on site are preserved at the town&#39;s archaeological museum, the (Phlegraean Fields Archaeological Museum).</p><br>
<p>The public and private baths of Baiae were filled with warm mineral water directed to their pools from underground hot springs, as many still are today. Roman engineers were also able to construct a complex system of chambers that channelled underground heat into facilities that acted as saunas. In addition to their recreational function, the baths were used in Roman medicine to treat various illnesses and physicians would attend their patients at the springs.</p><br>
<p>Baiae was supplied with fresh drinking water from a branch of the Aqua Augusta aqueduct, a cross-section of which can be seen nearby.</p><br>
<h2>In culture</h2><br>
<p>The lost wonders of Baiae were a common feature of Romantic poetry. It appears in John Keatss "Ode to May" and in the third stanza of Shelleys "Ode to the West Wind". The vanished columns of the ancient town inundated by the sea is the central conceit of Konstantin Batyushkov&#39;s 1819 "You awake, oh Bayya, from the tomb..." (Ты пробуждаешься, о Байя, из гробницы...), "one of his last and finest poems"</p><br>
<p>The "princely" seaside resort of the empire appears in J. Meade Falkners 1895 novel The Lost Stradivarius and Anatole Frances 1902 "Procurator of Judea" (Le Procurateur de Judée). In current fiction, it is the setting of Caroline Lawrences Sirens of Surrentum; John Maddox Robertss Under the Shadow of Vesuvius; Steven Saylors 1992 Arms of Nemesis, set during the Spartacus Rebellion; and Marguerite Yourcenars Memoirs of Hadrian.</p><br>
<p>In the Ecce Romani series of Latin textbooks, Baiae is the location of the character Gaius Cornelius Calvus&#39;s summer villa.</p><br>
<p>Baiae was featured in the PBS show Secrets of the Dead in the March 2017 episode.</p><br>
<p>Baiae was featured on Channel 4 in the UK on Sunday 16th April 2017 (Easter Sunday) in the programme Romes Sunken Secrets&#39;.</p><br>
<p>Sněžka or Śnieżka (in Czech and Polish; is a mountain on the border between the Czech Republic and Poland, the most prominent point of the Silesian Ridge in the Krkonoše mountains. At 1,603 m, its summit is the highest point in the Czech Republic, in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in the Krkonoše and in the entire Sudetes.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Sněžka was one of the first European mountains visited by many tourists. This was mainly due to the relatively minor technical difficulties of the ascent and the fact that since the sixteenth century, many resort visitors flocked to the nearby Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój and the highly visible Sněžka, visually dominant over all Krkonoše was for them an important attraction.</p><br>
<p>The first historical account of an ascent to the peak is in 1456, by an unknown Venetian merchant searching for precious stones. The first settlements on the mountain soon appeared, being primarily mining communities, tapping into its deposits of copper, iron and arsenic. The mining shafts, totalling 1.5 km in length, remain to this day.</p><br>
<p>The first recorded German name was Riseberg ("giant mountain", cf. Riesengebirge, "Giant Mountains"), mentioned by Georg Agricola in 1546. Fifteen years later the name Riesenberg appears on Martin Helwig&#39;s map of Silesia. The German name later changed to Riesenkoppe ("giant top") and finally to Schneekoppe ("snow top", "snowy head").</p><br>
<p>In Czech, the mountain was initially called Pahrbek Sněžný. Later Sněžka, with the eventual name Sněžovka, meaning "snowy" or "snow-covered", which was adopted in 1823. An older Polish name for the mountain was Góra Olbrzymia, meaning "giant mountain".</p><br>
<p>The first building on the mountaintop was the Chapel of Saint Lawrence (Laurentiuskapelle), built ca. 1665–1681 by the Silesian Schaffgotsch family to mark their dominion, serving also as an inn for a brief period of time. The territory including the mines were the property of the Schaffgotsch family until 1945. The so-called Prussian hut was built on the Silesian (now Polish) side in 1850, followed by the Bohemian hut on the Bohemian (now Czech) side in 1868, both built with the purpose of providing lodging. The Prussian hut was rebuilt twice after fires (1857 and 1862), and the (after 1945) "Polish hut" was finally demolished in 1967. The Bohemian hut fell into disrepair after 1990 and was demolished in 2004.</p><br>
<p>A wooden weather station was built on the mountaintop ca. 1900, being the only weather station in Central Europe remaining intact after World War II. It was demolished in the 1980s.</p><br>
<h2>The mountain today</h2><br>
<p>One side of the mountain is in the Czech Republic; the other belongs to Poland. The area is very popular in summer with tourists from the Czech Republic, Poland, and Germany who enjoy hiking in the alpine environment unique to this area.</p><br>
<p>On the Polish side a disc-shaped observatory and restaurant was built in 1974, a weather station and the St. Lawrence Chapel. On the Czech side are the remains of the Bohemian hut, a post office, and a chairlift station, connecting the peak with the town of Pec pod Sněžkou at the base of the mountain.</p><br>
<p>Although the mountain is the highest natural peak of Czech Republic, the actual highest point is the top of the television transmitter on Praděd, reaching 1,652 metres (1,491+162 m). If the Polish observatory is taken into account, Sněžka peaks at 1,620 metres.</p><br>
<p>In 2004 a new post office and observation platform replaced an old post office and the remains of the Bohemian hut, which had been closed since the 1980s.</p><br>
<p>In March 2009 the Polish observatory suffered serious damage to the upper disc as a result of extreme weather and structural failure. The upper disc&#39;s floor broke. Fast response from Technical University of Wrocław saved the remaining disc from taking any further damage. The restaurant and meteo offices were reopened soon after the construction team had finished clearing the debris and securing what was left of the observatory. After detailed expertise it was decided that no further damage should occur and the building was restored to its previous state. Actually, the upper disc was restored to its 1974 design (with contemporary improvements), skipping certain "improvements" made in 1980s and 1990s which were suspected to contribute to the structural failure of March 2009.</p><br>
<p>Old chairlift to the top of Sněžka was replaced by a new cable car system. Since February 2014, the four-person cabins in two sections export 250 visitors per hour from the Czech city Pec pod Sněžkou.</p><br>
<p>Śnieżka belongs the Crown of Europe, Crown of Polish Mountains and Crown of Sudetes.</p><br>
<p>The Brielse Meer  is a long, narrow lake between the Dutch estuary islands of Voorne and Rozenburg in the province of South Holland.</p><br>
<p>The lake takes its name from Den Briel, a town on its shore. It was formerly a Meuse branch known as Brielse Maas (Den Briel Meuse), which ran from the Botlek strait near Rotterdam into the North Sea. The first stretch, between Botlek and the former confluence with the Het Scheur branch, was alternatively known as (the last stretch of) Nieuwe Maas.</p><br>
<p>When the Brielse Maas silted up in the late nineteenth century, the Nieuwe Waterweg ship canal was constructed (1872) and Het Scheur was separated from the Brielse Maas by a dam. As a precursor to the Delta Works sea barrier constructions, the Brielse Maas was closed off at both ends in 1950, becoming the Brielse Meer.</p><br>
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<p>Velebit  is the largest though not the highest mountain range in Croatia. Its highest peak is the Vaganski vrh at 1,757 m.</p><br>
<p>The range forms a part of the Dinaric Alps and is located along the Adriatic coast, separating it from Lika in the interior. Velebit begins in the northwest near Senj with the Vratnik mountain pass and ends 145 km to the southeast near the source of the Zrmanja river northwest of Knin.</p><br>
<p>Major mountain passes on Velebit include the aforementioned Vratnik or Senjsko bilo at 694 m.a.s.l., where the Josephina connects Senj with Josipdol; Oštarijska vrata at 928 m.a.s.l. that connects Karlobag and Gospić; and Prezid at 766 m.a.s.l. that connects Obrovac and Gračac.</p><br>
<p>The important characteristic of Velebit are its simple, solid form, stiff cliffs, and the nakedness of seaward side and the wood-covered slopes of the Lika side. The basic geological characteristic of the mountains is karst; flora and fauna are abundant. The most popular spots on Velebit are: the peak of Vučjak, above Zavižan, the botanical gardens on Zavižan, Rožanski kukovi, Štirovača and the Paklenica National Park.</p><br>
<p>The Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service has a permanent measurement station at Zavižan.</p><br>
<h2>The regions</h2><br>
<p>Velebit is usually divided into four regions:</p><br>
<p>the northern part between the mountain passes Vratnik and Veliki Alan, with the highest peak Mali Rajinac (1699 m)</p><br>
<p>the middle part between Veliki Alan and Baške Oštarije with the highest peak Šatorina (1624 m)</p><br>
<p>the southern part between Oštarije and Mali Alan (peaks Vaganski vrh – 1757, Sveto brdo – 1753,)</p><br>
<p>the southeastern part with Crnopac as the most remarkable peak</p><br>
<p>Velebit as a whole is a nature park, from which two national parks have been carved out: Paklenica and Sjeverni Velebit.</p><br>
<p>A further category of even more careful nature preservation exists within Sjeverni Velebit, the special reservation Hajdučki i Rožanski Kukovi, under the highest nature protection available in Croatia. Officially no human activity is allowed there (except research). These are the mostly still unexplored and wild places and probably will stay that way in the future.</p><br>
<p>A pathway called Premužićeva staza (Premužić&#39;s pathway) leads through the northern and middle parts of Velebit. This pathway was built between 1930 and 1933 and it connects northern and southern Velebit. Its length is 57 km. Many parts of Velebit would not be reachable without it. The Velebit mountains are transversed by the A1 through the Sveti Rok Tunnel.</p><br>
<h3>Peaks and areas of Velebit</h3><br>
<p>Zavižan area – North Velebit (Mali Rajinac) (1699 m)</p><br>
<p>Rožanski Kukovi group – North Velebit (Gromovaca (1676 m) and Vratarski Kuk (1676 m))</p><br>
<p>Alančić, Rožanski Vrh, Seravski Vrh, North Velebit (Goli Vrh (1670 m))</p><br>
<p>Veliki Kozjak (1629 m), North Velebit</p><br>
<p>Šatorina (1624 m) – Mid Velebit</p><br>
<p>Stap area – South Velebit, (Debeli Kuk) (1269 m)</p><br>
<p>Visočica (1619 m) – South Velebit</p><br>
<p>Bojin Kuk (1110 m) – South Velebit</p><br>
<p>Viserujna (1632 m) and Rujno – South Velebit</p><br>
<p>Paklenica area – South Velebit</p><br>
<p>Vaganski vrh (1757 m) – South Velebit (highest peak of Velebit)</p><br>
<p>Liburnija (1710 m) – South Velebit</p><br>
<p>Sveto Brdo (1751 m) – South Velebit</p><br>
<p>Tulove Grede (1120 m) – Southeast Velebit</p><br>
<p>Crnopac (1404 m) – Southeast Velebit</p><br>
<p>Around 70 peaks exceed 1600 m.</p><br>
<h2>The caves</h2><br>
<p>There are hundreds of "holes" on Velebit. It has the largest and deepest caves in Croatia. The three-part "Lukina jama" cave is 1392 m deep, making it one of the deepest caves in the world, and the deepest in southeast Europe, while the "Slovačka jama" is 1320 m. What makes it unique is that it is completely vertical, steepest in the world. At the bottom of the pothole is a water course or siphon with branches that are still unexplored. A kind of leech was discovered in the pothole, which has been ascertained to represent a new species, genus and family; it has been named Erpobdella mestrovi.</p><br>
<p>List of potholes on Velebit deeper than 500 m:</p><br>
<p>Lukina Jama, 1392 m, Hajdučki Kukovi – North Velebit</p><br>
<p>Slovačka Jama, 1320 m, Rožanski Kukovi – North Velebit</p><br>
<p>Velebita, 941 m, Rožanski Kukovi – North Velebit</p><br>
<p>Meduza, 679 m, Rožanski Kukovi – North Velebit</p><br>
<p>Patkov Gušt, 553 m, Hajdučki Kukovi – North Velebit</p><br>
<p>Ledena Jama, 536 m, Lomska Duliba – North Velebit</p><br>
<p>Ponor na Bunovcu, 534 m, Bunovac – South Velebit</p><br>
<p>Jama Olimp, 531 m, Hajdučki Kukovi – North Velebit</p><br>
<p>Lubuška Jama, 521 m, Hajdučki Kukovi – North Velebit</p><br>
<p>It is also home to Degenia velebitica, an endemic and protected species of plant in the mustard family discovered in 1907 by the Hungarian botanist Árpád von Degen.</p><br>
<p>The imposing nature of the Velebit mountain has made it something of a national symbol in Croatian folklore. There is a patriotic folk song Vila Velebita that personifies a fairy in Velebit.</p><br>
<h2>Climate</h2><br>
<h2>Velebit in literature</h2><br>
<p>In the Republic of Venice, Velebit was known as Montagna della Morlacca ("Mountain of the Morlachs"), after its inhabitants.</p><br>
<p>Planine, the first Croatian novel by Petar Zoranić, was inspired by the Velebit mountain.</p><br>
<p>Falster is an island in south-eastern Denmark with an area of 486.2 km&sup2; and 43,398 inhabitants as of 1 January 2010. Located in the Baltic sea, it is part of Region Sjælland  and is administered by Guldborgsund Municipality. Falster includes Denmark&#39;s southernmost point, Gedser Odde, near Gedser.</p><br>
<p>The largest town is Nykøbing Falster with over 40% of the island&#39;s inhabitants. Other towns include Stubbekøbing, Nørre Alslev and Gedser.</p><br>
<p>Falster has motor and railway links both to the larger island of Zealand to the north and to the island of Lolland to the south-west. These links also lead to the smaller islands of Masnedø and Farø. European route E47 links Copenhagen to Hamburg (Germany) via Falster.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>From medieval times until 1766, most of Falster belonged to the crown. King Valdemars Census Book from c. 1231 lists all the parishes and most of the villages. Falsters two main towns, Nykøbing and Stubbekøbing, were both founded towards the end of the 12th century.</p><br>
<p>In medieval times, the island was marked by wars with the Wends in 1158 and with Lübeck in 1253. The census of 1509 includes only 90 of the 110 villages mentioned earlier. By contrast, it mentions 29 new settlements mainly along the coast.</p><br>
<p>In the 16th century, Falster had a number of farms which were owned by the local nobility but, from 1560 to 1630, they were slowly returned to the crown which once again owned the entire island. Therefore, Falster could therefore be used as the dowry for Frederick III&#39;s wife, Sophie Amalie but as a result of the high taxes which resulted, many of the farms were deserted.</p><br>
<p>Falster was managed as a crown estate from 1718 until 1766 when it was sold by auction and divided up into ten large farms, five of which were given large new fields. But as the fields had to be prepared through the serfdom of local peasants, this led to many disputes.</p><br>
<p>The villages were replaced by the community from 1778 to 1814, and gradually moved to freehold tenants, a process which was only completed in about 1860.</p><br>
<p>Falster experienced significant economic expansion after 1880 when, with the establishment of cooperative dairies and slaughterhouses, farming was concentrated on livestock production and forage crops. There was also an increase in the cultivation of sugar beet which was processed in factories at Nykøbing and Stubbekøbing between 1890 and 1914. Many seasonal workers, especially women, from Sweden and Poland came to help with harvesting the sugar beet and some of them stayed.</p><br>
<p>With the new railway from Orehoved to Nykøbing in 1872 and railway ferries to Masnedø (1884) and Warnemünde (1903), Falster slowly became a traffic hub. Its position was reinforced by the construction of the Storstrøm Bridge (1937) and Farø Bridges (1985).</p><br>
<p>Since 1975, Falster has been marked by high unemployment as a result of harder times for both farming and industry.</p><br>
<h2>Towns and villages</h2><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>With its marinas, sandy beaches and cycle tracks, Falster attracts tourists who wish to have relaxing holidays in unspoilt surroundings. One of the most popular resorts is Marielyst on the east coast.</p><br>
<p>Nykøbing offers a number of attractions including its old-town atmosphere with narrow streets. Of particular interest are the Middle Ages Centre, which is an open-air museum build as a part of a medieval town around year 1400 and the biggest attraction of the town. Among other attractions in Nykøbing are the Abbey Church (Klosterkirke) which was built in the 15th century, a City Museum and a zoo.</p><br>
<p>Scattered around the island are several minor museum such as Danish Tractor Museum and Crocodile Zoo in Eskilstrup, a motorbike and radio Museum in Stubbekøbing and a geological museum in Gedser, which holds the worlds largest polished garnet by the name of "Nordstjernen" (the Northern Star).</p><br>
<h2>Transport</h2><br>
<p>Falster has a motorway and trunk roads linking its towns and villages.</p><br>
<p>Falster is connected to the larger island of Zealand to the north by the Farø Bridges (Farøbroerne) on European route E47 linking Copenhagen to Hamburg and the south. The Farø bridges join on the small island of Farø, and from there a further bridge gives access to the eastern neighbouring island of Møn. Falster is also connected to Zealand via the Storstrøm and Masnedsund bridges, via the island of Masnedø.</p><br>
<p>To the south-west, the E47 connects Falster to the island of Lolland via a tunnel under the Guldborgsund strait. There are two other bridges connecting to Lolland: the Guldborgsund Bridge at the northern end of the strait and the Frederick IX Bridge at Nykøbing Falster.</p><br>
<p>Nykøbing Falster&#39;s railway station is operated by Danish State Railways. There are regular passenger train services to Copenhagen via Ringsted. International trains operating between Copenhagen and Hamburg (via the train ferry between Rødby and Puttgarden) also call at the station. The company Lokaltog operates a rail service to Nakskov. The railway takes the Frederick IX bridge to Lolland and the Storstrøm and Masnedsund bridges to Zealand.</p><br>
<p>There are also frequent bus services linking Nykøbing with other towns and villages on the island as well as with destinations on Lolland, Møn and Zealand.</p><br>
<h2>Cultural references</h2><br>
<p>Marie Grubbe, whose tragic life has been the subject of several works of art including most notably Jens Peter Jacobsen&#39;s 1876 novel published in English as Marie Grubbe. A Lady of the Seventeenth Century in 1917, spent her last years in poverty on Falster.</p><br>
<h2>Notable residents</h2><br>
<p>People who are born, or have lived on Falster include:</p><br>
<p>Marie Grubbe (1643–1718), noble woman</p><br>
<p>Hans Egede (1686-1758), Lutheran missionary</p><br>
<p>Charles August Selby (1755–1823) English-Danish merchant and landowner, built the Orupgaard manor house</p><br>
<p>Bernhard Severin Ingemann (1789–1862), novelist and poet</p><br>
<p>Otto Valdemar Koch (1852–1902) architect and local politician</p><br>
<p>Sophus Torup (1861–1937) physiologist who settled in Norway</p><br>
<p>Evald Nielsen (1879–1958) silversmith</p><br>
<p>Rasmus Sigvardt (1886-??) mechanic from Orehoved. In 1904, he opened a cycle repair shop which later developed into an engine factory, specializing in boat motors and mechanized fruit-tree sprayers</p><br>
<p>Peter Freuchen (1886-1957), Arctic explorer, author, and anthropologist</p><br>
<p>Peter Laurits Jensen (1886-1961) engineer, inventor, entrepreneur and invented the first loudspeaker</p><br>
<p>Jørgen Hare (1923–2007) sports shooter, competed in the 50 m rifle, prone event at the 1952 Summer Olympics</p><br>
<p>Connie Kruckow (born 1953) nurse who headed The Danish Nurses&#39; Organization</p><br>
<p>Frederik Magle (b. 1977), composer, organist and pianist</p><br>
<p>Mads Rasmussen (b. 1981), rower</p><br>
<p>Matiu/Somes Island, at 24.9 hectare, is the largest of three islands in the northern half of Wellington Harbour, New Zealand. It lies 3 km south of the suburb of Petone and the mouth of the Hutt River, and about 5 km northwest of the much smaller Makaro/Ward Island.</p><br>
<p>Legend has it that both Matiu and Makaro Islands received their original Māori names from Kupe, the semi-legendary first navigator to reach New Zealand and get home again with reports of the new land. He named them after his two daughters (or, in some versions of the tale, nieces) when he first entered the harbour about 1000 years ago.</p><br>
<p>After European settlement, the island was known for over a century as Somes Island. In 1839 it fell under the control of the New Zealand Company along with much of the greater Wellington region. The island was renamed after Joseph Somes, the companys deputy-governor and financier at the time. In 1997 however, the New Zealand Geographic Board assigned the official bilingual name of Matiu/Somes in recognition of the islands colourful European and Māori histories.</p><br>
<p>Matiu/Somes became part of Lower Hutt in 1989 and came under the full control of the Department of Conservation ("DOC") as a scientific and historic reserve in August 1995. The island is free of introduced mammalian predators (such as stoats), an unusual state for an island so close to an urban centre.</p><br>
<h2>Human history</h2><br>
<p>Matiu/Somes Island has had an extensive Māori history and a varied, and a sometimes colourful and tragic, European one. Prior to the mid 17th century there were 2 Māori Pa on the island, however, like the Ngati Ira Pa on Ward Island, they were not permanently inhabited, being "Pa of refuge" where the tribespeople could retreat to in times of war. One was in the centre of the island and little more than the remains of some middens are left there, however there was another Pa on the northern tip of the island, strategically positioned with cliffs on three sides for ease of defence.</p><br>
<p>A lighthouse was built at the islands southwestern end in 1866, the first harbour light in New Zealand. The lighthouse that stands in place of the original today was constructed in 1900 and later automated. At various points throughout the 20th century it hosted enemy alien internees during wartime, and quarantine facilities for both human immigrants and animals. In 1942, the island was fortified with heavy anti-aircraft gun emplacements on the summit, but these were never used during the course of the war. This whole area was levelled flat for the purpose of this construction, with the result that 17 m was removed from the islands previous overall height. A degaussing station was built to provide protection for ships against magnetic mines. Many of the physical features of these sites are present on the island today.</p><br>
<h2>Island geography and ecology</h2><br>
<p>A distinct gully runs from the south of the quarantine station and terminates at the sea on the southern end of the island between two (now) largely forested ridges on either side to the east and west. Generally, this gully is a swampy area but it also represents an ephemeral watercourse and during and following periods of heavy rain a small creek flows down it.</p><br>
<p>The island is a stronghold for the little blue penguin, several species of shag, the spotted skink, the silver gull and several rare and endangered species of plants.</p><br>
<p>The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand has been revegetating the island since 1984 and successfully eradicated rats and mice over a period between 1988 and 1989. Eleven male red-crowned kākāriki (parakeets) were first introduced to the island in 2004 and immediately began breeding with a further eleven released in 2005. There are more than 500 species of invertebrates on the island including a couple of species of weta - Wellington tree wetas and Cook Strait giant wetas have been successfully transferred from Mana Island. A number of endangered plants species have found a refuge in the island.</p><br>
<p>The island is now home to 6 species of native reptiles - common skink (Oligosoma nigriplantare), spotted skink (Oligosoma lineoocellatum), copper skink (Cyclodina aenea) and the common gecko (Hoplodactylus maculatus). Brothers Island tuatara were released in 1998. Forest geckos (Hoplodactylus granulatus) were transferred to the island in 2006. North Island robins sourced from Kapiti Island were released in April 2006, they bred for the first time in late September and this is viewed as encouraging by DOC staff as it appears to indicate that the island ecosystem represents a suitable habitat for this species. A solar-powered speaker system to attract fluttering shearwaters was installed and began transmitting later that year.</p><br>
<p>Many of these projects have been supported by the community and the local iwi, Te Ati Awa. The Matiu/Somes Island Charitable Trust was established in 1998 as a partnership between Te Ati Awa and the general community to help protect, nurture and enhance the island by raising funds for projects that increased biodiversity and enhance visitors&#39; enjoyment of the island. Through its active arm, "The Friends of Matiu/Somes", it encourages community participation in work on the island. It also works closely with DOC and community groups such as Forest and Bird.</p><br>
<p>Matiu/Somes Island is an increasingly popular tourist attraction and educational resource for local schools, with about 15,000 visitors per year.</p><br>
<p>Just to the north lies a much smaller island, Mokopuna Island. To protect endemic wildlife present – particularly nesting seabirds – landing by members of the public is prohibited here.</p><br>
<p>Kohala is the oldest of five volcanoes that make up the island of Hawaii. Kohala is an estimated one million years old&mdash;so old that it experienced, and recorded, a reversal of magnetic field 780,000 years ago. It is believed to have breached sea level more than 500,000 years ago and to have last erupted 120,000 years ago. Kohala is 606 km&sup2; in area and 14,000 km3 in volume, and thus constitutes just under 6% of the island of Hawaii.</p><br>
<p>Kohala is a shield volcano cut by multiple deep gorges, which are the product of thousands of years of erosion. Unlike the typical symmetry of other Hawaiian volcanoes, Kohala is shaped like a foot. Toward the end of its shield-building stage 250,000 to 300,000 years ago, a landslide destroyed the northeast flank of the volcano, reducing its height by over 1,000 m and traveling 130 km across the sea floor. This huge landslide may be partially responsible for the volcano&#39;s foot-like shape. Marine fossils have been found on the flank of the volcano, far too high to have been deposited by standard ocean waves. Analysis indicated that the fossils had been deposited by a massive tsunami approximately 120,000 years ago.</p><br>
<p>Because it is so far from the nearest major landmass, the ecosystem of Kohala has experienced the phenomenon of geographic isolation, resulting in an ecosystem radically different from that of other places. Invasive species introduced by man present a problem to Kohalas ecosystem, as they push native species out of their habitat. There are several initiatives to preserve Kohalas ecosystem. Crops, especially sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), have been harvested on the Leeward side of the volcano for centuries as well. The northern part of the island is named after the mountain, with two districts named North and South Kohala. King Kamehameha I, the first King of the Kingdom of Hawaii, was born in North Kohala, near Hawi.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<h3>History</h3><br>
<p>desc bottom-left</p><br>
<p>Studies of the volcanos lava accumulation rate have put the volcanos age at somewhere near one million years. It is believed to have breached sea level more than 500,000 years ago. Beginning 300,000 years ago, the rate of eruption slowly decreased over a long period of time to a point where erosion wore the volcano down faster than Kohala rebuilt itself through volcanic activity. Decreasing eruptions combined with increasing erosion caused Kohala to slowly weather away and subside into the ocean. The oldest lava flows that are still exposed at the surface are just under 780,000 years old. It is difficult to determine the original size and shape of the volcano, as the southeast flank has been buried by volcanic lava flows from nearby Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. However, based on a sharp increase of incline on the submarine slope of the volcano at a depth of 1,000 m, scientists estimate that in its prime the portion of Kohala that was above the water was more than 50 km wide. Geologists estimate that the volcano was once about twice its current size.</p><br>
<p>The volcano is so old that it experienced, and recorded, a reversal of magnetic polarity (a change in the orientation of Earth&#39;s magnetic field so that the positions of the North and South poles interchange) that happened 780,000 years ago. Fifty different flow units in the top 140 m of exposed strata in the Pololu section are of normal polarity, indicating that they were deposited within the last 780,000 years. Radiometric dating ranged mostly from 450,000 to 320,000 years ago, although several pieces strayed lower; this indicated a period of eruptive history at the time.</p><br>
<p>Kohala was devastated by a massive landslide between 250,000 and 300,000 years before present. Debris from the slide was found on the ocean floor up to 130 km away from the volcano. Twenty kilometers wide at the shoreline, the landslide cut back to the summit of the volcano, and is partially, if not largely, responsible for the volcano losing 1,000 m in height since then. The famous sea cliffs of the windward Kohala shoreline stand as evidence of the massive geologic disaster, and mark the topmost part of the debris from this ancient landslide. There are also several other unique features found on the volcano, all marks made by the decimating collapse.</p><br>
<p>Kohala is thought to have last erupted 120,000 years ago. However, several samples of a more recent date have been obtained. Two samples collected about 120 m apart, obtained from Waipio Valley on the volcano&#39;s east flank in 1977, were dated reliably to 60,000 years. Another double set of samples, collected from the western part in 1996, was measured to be 80,000 years in age. The samples have been treated with skepticism by the scientific community, and their ages have been directly challenged. The rocks collected from the west site have not been tested by subsequent experiments. The lava samples collected from the eastern site were allegedly found under a Mauna Loa lava flow, which had been previously dated to 187,000 years. The Kohala lava flows could be as young as 120,000 years although they may be even younger.</p><br>
<p>In 2004, unidentified marine fossils were found at the base of the volcano 6 km inshore. A research team led by University of Hawaiis Gary McMurtry and Dave Tappin of the British Geological Survey found that the fossils had been deposited by a massive tsunami, 61 m above the current sea level. The team dated the fossils and nearby volcanic rock at about 120,000 years old. Based on the rate of Kohalas subsidence over the past 475,000 years, it was estimated that the fossils were deposited at a height of about 500 m, well out of reach of storms and far above the normal sea level at the time. The timing corresponds with the last great landslide of nearby Mauna Loa. Researchers hypothesize that the underwater landslide from the nearby volcano triggered a gigantic tsunami, which swept up coral and other small marine organisms, depositing them on the western face of Kohala. Mauna Loa, an active volcano, has since repaired its flank. Marine geologist Tappin believes that a "future collapse on this volcano, with the potential for mega-tsunami generation, is almost certain."</p><br>
<h3>Structure</h3><br>
<p>Kohala had two active rift zones, a characteristic common to Hawaiian volcanoes. The double ridge, shaped axially, was active in both the shield and postshield stages. The southeast rift zone passes under the nearby Mauna Kea and reappears further southeast in the Hilo Ridge, as indicated by the relationship between collected lava samples. In addition, the two features align to one another more closely then does the ridge to Mauna Kea, of which it was once thought to constitute a part. The bulk of the ridge is built of volcanic rock with reverse magnetic polarity, evidence that the volcano is at least 780,000 years old. Older lava dated from the toe of the ridge was estimated to be roughly between 1.1 and 1.2 million years old.</p><br>
<p>Geologists have classified the volcanos lava flows into two units. The Hawi Volcanic layers were deposited in the shield stage of the volcanos life, and the younger Pololu Volcanics were deposited in the volcano&#39;s post-shield stage. The rock in the younger Hawi section, which overlies the older Pololu flows, is mostly 260,000 to 140,000 years old, and composed mainly of hawaiite and trachyte. The separation between the two layers is not clear; the lowest layers may actually be in the Pololu section, based on their depositional patterns and low phosphorus content. The time intervals separating the two periods of volcanic evolution were extremely brief, something first noted in 1988.</p><br>
<p>The forest-covered summit of the volcano consists of many cones which generated lava from its two rift zones between 240,000 and 120,000 years ago. Potassium-argon dating indicates that the volcano last erupted about 120,000 years ago in the late Pleistocene. Kohala is currently in transition between the postshield and erosional Hawaiian volcanic stages in the life cycle of Hawaiian volcanoes.</p><br>
<p>The United States Geological Survey has assessed the extinct Kohala as a low-risk area. The volcano is in zone 9 (bottom risk), while the border of the volcano with Mauna Kea is zone 8 (second lowest), as Mauna Kea has not produced lava flows for 4,500 years.</p><br>
<p>Kohala, like other shield volcanoes, has a shallow surface slope due to the low viscosity of the lava flows that formed it; however, the northwest shoreline boasts some of the highest seacliffs on earth. Events during and after its eruptions give the volcano several unique geomorphic features, some possibly resulting from the ancient collapse and landslide. The volcano is shaped like a foot; the northeast coast is prominently indented across 20 km of shoreline.</p><br>
<p>There is a small string of faults on and near the main summit caldera, arranged parallel to the northern coast. The faults were originally regarded to be a direct result of the collapse; however scientists note the fault lines do not go all the way to the coast but are arranged tightly clustered around the caldera. This indicates that the fault lines may have been caused indirectly, possibly due to the sudden release of stress during the event.</p><br>
<h2>Hydrology</h2><br>
<p>The windward side of the Kohala mountains is dissected by multiple, deeply eroded stream valleys in a southwest-northeast alignment, cutting into the flanks of the volcano. North of Kohalas summit the volcanos northwest-southeast trending rift zone separates rainfall into two streams, going southeast, into Waipio Valley, or northwest, into Honokane Nui Valley. When the volcano was still active, vertical sheets of magma, arranged in what is known as dikes, forced their way out of the magma reservoir and intruded into the rift zone, which was weakened by the collapse.</p><br>
<p>The northwestern slope of Kohala has few stream valleys cut into it, the result of the rain shadow effect, as the dominant trade winds bring most of the rainfall to the northeastern slope of the volcano. The seven windward valleys of Kohala are, from southeast to northwest, Waipio, Waimanu, Honopue, Honokea, Honokane Iki, Honokane Nui, and Pololu. The size of the valleys reflects the amount of drainage they have been able to capture; Waipio, the largest, at some point drained Waimanu Valley as well, and the former headwaters of Waimanu are now one of its branches. Waimanu valley, cut off from its headwaters to the summit and left with Wai&#39;ilikahi as its main tributary, still had managed to form a substantial floodplain, although less than half the size of Waipio. Honokane Nui, the third largest valley, has its drainage almost exclusively from the north side of the summit, and as a result is a deep, long, narrow bottomed valley with little habitable floodplain.</p><br>
<p>The remaining valleys derive all their water from the lower northeastern slopes of the volcano, and as a result are smaller. In addition, there are innumerable gulches of various depths which have not yet reached sea level and began to form flood plains, becoming valleys. Still, some of these are more than 300 m in depth. The depth of the actual valley walls at the seashore range from 300 m at the Waipio Valley Lookout at the southeastern corner of Kohala mountain, to a high of over 500 m in Honopue, then diminishing to less than 150 m at Pololu Lookout at the northern end of the valleys. In the back, deeper in the mountain, all of the valleys have sheer walls well in excess of 1,000 m. Numerous spectacular waterfalls cascade or fall over these cliffs. Some, such as Hiilawe Falls in Waipio valley, have single drops exceeding 300 m.</p><br>
<p>The volcano stayed active well into the formation of these mountainside valleys, as illustrated by later Pololu lava flows, which covered the north and northwestern end of Kohala volcano and often flowed into Pololu Valley. Recent seafloor mapping seems to show that the valley extends a short way beyond the seashore, then terminates at what may be the headwall of the great landslide found off the northeast coast of Kohala.</p><br>
<p>In addition to being a primary factor in the development of the largest valleys, the dike complex plays another important role &mdash;that of creating and maintaining the water table. Hawaiian lava is extremely permeable and porous. Rainwater easily seeps into the lava, creating a large lens of fresh water below the island surface. In most places, the top of the water table is just a few feet from sea level, as the fresh water lens is floating on salt water. Unlike porous lava flows, however, dikes cool underground into dense rock with few cracks and vesicles. The dikes act as impermeable vertical walls through which groundwater cannot flow. Deep layers of ash compact into impermeable layers between lava flows, preventing percolation of the rainwater. Rainwater that would ordinarily seep right through the ground gets trapped in the dike "reservoirs," located well above sea level. The groundwater is confined to a flow along the dike until it finds a means to escape.</p><br>
<p>In Kohala, the numerous dikes near the summit inhibit groundwater from seeping downslope to the northeast, where it naturally wants to go. Rather, the Kohala dike complex guides it northwest or southeast, down the axis of the rift zones, just like the surface water. On the other hand, the three smaller valleys between the large ones - Honopue, Honokea, and Honokane Iki - as well as the many smaller gulches which are not yet valleys, are deprived of groundwater by the orientation of the rift zone and its dikes. Without the large amount of water that is received by the bigger valleys, these valleys grow far more slowly. Due to its topography as essentially a flat crater floor surrounded by cones and fault scarps, the main caldera is affected relatively little by erosion from water.</p><br>
<p>Most of Kohalas summit groundwater ends up in either Waipio or Honokane Nui; the enormous amount of water routed through these valleys results in a large amount of water erosion, which causes the valley walls to frequently collapse, accelerating valley development. This abundance of surface water inspired the first of Kohalas three massive irrigation diversion "ditches", the Upper Hamakua Ditch, although the water was initially used for transporting ("fluming") sugarcane to the mills rather than irrigation. Surface water supplies, however, were not stable enough for the large scale plantation economy developing in Hamakua and North Kohala, so later ditches tapped the spring fed base flows of the valleys and larger gulches. Only Waimanu Valley escaped with none of its tributaries tapped, along with the 16 smaller streams between Waikoloa Stream and the Wailoa river in Waipio Valley.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>The natural habitats in the Kohala district range across a wide rainfall gradient in a very short distance&mdash;from less than 5 in a year on the coast near Kawaihae, to more than 150 in a year near the summit of Kohala Mountain, a distance of just 11 mi. At the coast are remnants of dry forests, and near the summit lies a cloud forest, a type of rainforest that obtains much of its moisture from "cloud drip" in addition to precipitation. These large cloud forests dominate its slopes. This biome is rare, and contains a disproportionate percentage of the world&#39;s rare and endemic species. The soil at Kohala is nitrogen-rich, facilitating root growth.</p><br>
<p>The forest lies perpendicular to the prevailing trade winds, a characteristic that leads to frequent cloud formation and abundant rainfall. Thus the rain forests carpeting Kohala are vital to the supply of groundwater on the island. The role of Kohala&#39;s ecosystem in supporting water flow has long been recognized. As early as 1902, US Forester E. M. Griffith wrote "Forest protection means not only increasing the rainfall, but more important still, conserving the water supply. The future welfare and agricultural prosperity of the Hawaiian Islands depends upon the preservation of the forest."</p><br>
<p>Prior to the arrival of humans, the wildlife population at Kohala and on the rest of the island was isolated from other species, as it was separated from the nearest major landmass by over 2,000 mi of open water. The early colonizers of Kohala came by wind, storm or floating on the ocean. Successful colonizations occur on the magnitude of once every 35,000 years. The 2,000 successful ancestors that arrived at Kohala evolved into about 8,500 to 12,500 unique species, resulting in a very high ratio of the species present being found nowhere else on Earth. Only about 2.5% of the world&#39;s rainforest is cloud rainforest, making it a unique habitat as well.</p><br>
<p>The mountain supports approximately 155 native species of vertebrates, crustaceans, mollusks, and plants. A diverse complexion of fungi, liverwort, and mosses further add to the variety. In fact, up to a quarter of the plants in the forest are mosses and ferns. These work to capture the water from clouds, in turn providing microhabitats for invertebrates and amphibians, and their predators. Estimates on the water capacity of the forest range from 3000 to 15000 L/ha.</p><br>
<p>The mountain is also home to several bogs, which exist as breaks in the cloud forests. It is believed that bogs form in low-lying areas where clay in the soil prevents proper water drainage, resulting in an accumulation of water that impedes the root systems of woody plants. Kohala&#39;s bogs are characterized by sedges, mosses of the genus Sphagnum, and oha wai, native members of the bellflower family. Other habitats include rain forest and mesophytic (wet) forests.</p><br>
<p>The same isolation that produced Kohala&#39;s unique ecosystem also makes it very vulnerable to invasive species. Alien plants and feral animals are among the greatest threats to the local ecology. Plants like the kahili ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum) and the strawberry guava (Psidium cattleinum) displace native species. Prior to human settlement, many major organisms such as conifers and rodents never made it onto the island, so the ecosystem never developed defenses against them, leaving Hawaii vulnerable to damage by hoofed animals, rodents, and predation.</p><br>
<p>Kohala&#39;s native Hawaiian rain forest has a thick layer of ferns and mosses carpeting the floor, which act as sponges, absorbing water from rain and passing much of it through to the groundwater in aquifers below; when feral animals like pigs trample the covering, the forest loses its ability to hold in water effectively, and instead of recharging the aquifer, it results in a severe loss of topsoil, much of which ends up being dumped by streams into the ocean.</p><br>
<h2>Human history</h2><br>
<p>There is evidence of pre-modern agriculture on the leeward slopes of Kohala. From 1400 to 1800, the principal crop grown at Kohala was sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), although there is also evidence of yams (Dioscorea sp.), taro (Colocasia esculenta), bananas (Musa hybrids), sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum), and gourds of the family Cucurbitaceae. The optimal rainfall level for the sweet potato lies between 30 to 50 in per year. A combination of factors makes the rainfall at Kohala variable both from location to location and from year to year. In addition, Kohala is buffeted by strong winds, which are directly correlated to soil erosion; ancient farmers utilized a series of earthen embarkments and stone walls to protect their crops. This technique has been shown to reduce wind by at least 20&ndash;30 percent.</p><br>
<p>In addition to walls, there are a series of stone paths that divided the farmed area into plots of variable size. These structures are unique because although many people used such systems at the time, Kohala has some of the few to survive. At the peak of its production, the company had 600 employees, 13,000 acre of land, and a capacity of 45,000 t of raw sugar per year. In 1975 the company finally closed down.</p><br>
<p>Kohala supports a very complex hydrological cycle. In the early part of the 20th century, this was exploited by building surface irrigational channels designed to capture water at the higher elevations and distribute it to the then-extensive sugarcane industry. In 1905, after 18 months and the loss of 17 lives, the Kohala Ditch, a vast network of flumes and ditches, measuring 22 mi in length, was completed. It has since come into use by ranches, farms, and homes. A portion of the ditch became a tourist attraction until it was damaged by the 2006 Kiholo Bay earthquake, centered just southwest of the mountain. The Hawaii County Department of Water Supply relies on streams from Kohala to supply water to the population of the island. With increasing demand, the original surface channels have been supplemented by deep wells designed to channel groundwater for domestic use. In 2003 the Kohala Watershed Partnership was formed, a voluntary group of private land owners and state managers, designed to help manage the Kohala watershed and to protect it from threats, most especially invasive species.</p><br>
<p>Another project to raise awareness of Kohalas ecosystem is The Kohala Center, an independent, not-for-profit, community-based organization for research and education. It was established as a response to requests by island residents to create an educational and employment opportunity related to Hawaiis natural and cultural significance. The center&#39;s mission is "to respectfully engage the Island of Hawaii as an extraordinary and vibrant research and learning laboratory for humanity." The land around Kohala is administered as two districts, North Kohala and South Kohala, of the County of Hawaii. The beaches, parks, golf courses, and resorts in South Kohala are called "the Kohala Coast."</p><br>
<p>King Kamehameha I, the first King of the unified Hawaiian Islands, was born near Upolu Point, the northern tip of Kohala. The site is within Kohala Historical Sites State Monument. The original Kamehameha Statue stands in front of the community center in Kapaau, and replicas of the statue are found at Aliiōlani Hale in Honolulu, and in the United States Capitol at the Hall of Columns in Washington, D.C.</p><br>
<p>Říp Mountain , also known as Říp Hill, is a 459 m solitary hill rising up from the central Bohemian flatland where, according to legend, the first Czechs settled. Říp is located 20 km south-east of Litoměřice, Czech Republic. The mountain and the rotunda are among the Czech national cultural monuments.</p><br>
<p>Geologically, Říp is the erosional remnant of a Late Oligocene volcano and is composed of basalt nephelites containing olivine granules, amphibole, leucite and &mdash; among others &mdash; magnetite, so a local magnetic anomaly can even be observed there by the compass. The hill was bare until 1879 when Mořic Lobkowitz had it planted with trees. Today, almost all of the mountain is covered by an oak-and-hornbeam forest with some maple, pine ash, and linden trees. Some rare thermophile plants can be found at the few tree-less places on the top of the hill, such as Gagea bohemica and Iris pumila.</p><br>
<p>Říp, being visible from great distance, has always been an important orientation point in the Bohemian scenery and has attracted attention since the oldest times. The name of the mountain is of pre-Slavic origin and probably comes from the Germanic stem *rīp- which means "an elevation, a hill".</p><br>
<h2>Legend</h2><br>
<p>According to a traditional legend, first recorded by the ancient Czech chronicler Cosmas of Prague in the early 12th century, Říp was the place where the first Slavs, led by Forefather Čech, settled. The land was named after the leader. In the 16th century, the legend was revived by Václav Hájek of Libočany who claimed that Čech was buried in the nearby village of Ctiněves and, later on, by Alois Jirásek in his Old Bohemian Legends from 1894.</p><br>
<h2>Buildings</h2><br>
<p>On top of the hill there is a romanesque rotunda of Saint George, which is one of the oldest buildings in the Czech Republic. This is mentioned for the first time in 1126, when Soběslav I, Duke of Bohemia, commemorating his victory at the Battle of Chlumec, where he defeated Holy Roman Emperor Lothair III, had the rotunda repaired and extended by the western circular tower. The rotunda&#39;s current appearance is the result of a purist reconstruction during the 1870s.</p><br>
<p>Inside the rotunda is a stone sculpture by contemporary Czech artist Stanislav Hanzik—, 1979—symbolising the arrival of Czech ancestors to the country and the beginning of Czech history there.</p><br>
<p>Near the rotunda is a tourist hut that was built in 1907 and still serves travellers today. In accordance with the patriotic spirit of that era, a wooden plate is mounted on the hut wall that says, "What Mecca is to a Mohammedan, Říp is to a Czech" (Czech: "Co Mohamedu Mekka, to Čechu Říp").</p><br>
<h2>Points of interest</h2><br>
<p>The top of Říp became a popular pilgrimage place and a frequent site of national manifestations and mass meetings. A famous manifestation was held there on 10 May 1868 when the foundation stone was taken from the hill for the newly built National Theatre in Prague. Tradition has, that each Czech should climb this mountain at least once in his life.</p><br>
<p>The River Corrib  in the west of Ireland flows from Lough Corrib through Galway to Galway Bay. The river is among the shortest in Europe, with only a length of six kilometres from the lough to the Atlantic. It is popular with local whitewater kayakers as well as several rowing clubs and pleasure craft. The depth of this river reaches up to 94 feet.</p><br>
<p>The Corrib drains a catchment area of 3,138 km.</p><br>
<p>Although the Corrib is one of Irelands shortest rivers, it has a mean long-term flow rate of 104.8 m/s, making it Irelands second-largest river (by flow), only surpassed by the River Shannon.</p><br>
<h2>Naming</h2><br>
<p>The translation of the Irish name of the river is Galway river i.e. from Gaillimh. In Irish it is sometimes called An Ghaillimh ("the Galway") and also incorrectly called Abhainn na Coiribe. The legend concerning its naming states that it was called after Gaillimh inion Breasail, the daughter of a Fir Bolg chieftain who drowned in the river. The word Gaillimh is believed to mean "stony" as in "stony river". The commonly held myth that the city takes its name from the Irish word Gallaibh, "foreigners" i.e. "the town of the foreigners" (from Gall, a foreigner) is incorrect as the name Gaillimh was applied to the river first and then later onto the town. Indeed, the earliest settlement at Galway was called Dún Bhun na Gaillimhe, or "the fort at the end of the Galway (river)". the large standing wave at O&#39;Briens bridge</p><br>
<p>The river gave its name to the town, which grew to a city, and from c. 1570 onwards, the city gave its name to the county. It also aided massively in the industrial development of the town, allowing it to develop electrical power before London. At the height of water power, there were over twenty water wheels in operation from races built on the river and its accompanying cut, the Eglinton Canal, which was built as part of the "Drainage and Navigation scheme of Lough Carra, Lough Corrib and Lough Mask" in the mid-19th century. The canal, which is about three-quarters of a mile long, had a sea-lock, a large basin, a second lock at Parkavore and five swivelling bridges. It is still in water but the swivelling bridges have been replaced by fixed bridges; the last vessel to use the navigation was the Amo II, a 90&#39; motor-yacht that had been sold by the Guinness trustees to Frank Bailey, a Galway hotelier.</p><br>
<p>Lough Corrib is the anglicised form of Loch Coirib which itself is a corruption of Loch nOrbsean which according to placename lore is named after the Irish god of the sea. There is good fishing to be had on both the lake and river.</p><br>
<h3>Upper and Lower Corrib</h3><br>
<p>The part of the river that flows from the southern end of the lake to the Salmon Weir is known as the Upper Corrib. The weir, a set of weir gates also built during the above navigation scheme, was originally built from stone and timber but now only two of these gates remain and are only opened in times of flood. The rest have been replaced by fourteen steel gates, as shown in the photograph above.</p><br>
<p>The main channel leaving Lough Corrib is called Friars Cut or Friars River (Abhainn na mBráithre) as it is the result of a very early piece of canal engineering. In 1178 the friars of Claregalway Abbey, being tired of the long detour they had to make to the west to enter the river, asked permission from the Blakes of Menloe to make an artificial cut, which in time became the main course of the river and was then widened.</p><br>
<p>The section of the river that runs from the Salmon Weir through Galway city and out into Galway Bay is known as the Lower Corrib. Three bridges cross the Lower – the Salmon Weir Bridge, William O&#39;Brien Bridge and Wolfe Tone Bridge.</p><br>
<p>The only tributary of the Lower Corrib is Sruthán na gCaisláin (Castle Stream) known by whitewater kayakers as the Shit Chute and the access point to the river, a small stream that flows through Newcastle, the grounds of NUI, Galway, and empties into the Lower just downstream of King&#39;s weir, commonly known as the fish gates.</p><br>
<h2>Bridges</h2><br>
<p>Four bridges span Corrib near Galway. These are the Wolfe Tone Bridge, Salmon Weir Bridge, the Quincentenary Bridge and the William O&#39;Brien Bridge.</p><br>
<p>Cumbre Vieja  is an active although dormant volcanic ridge on the volcanic ocean island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, Spain, that erupted twice in the 20th century – in 1949, and again in 1971.</p><br>
<p>The ridge of the Cumbre Vieja trends in an approximate north-south direction and covers the southern two-thirds of the island. Several volcanic craters are located on the summit ridge and flanks.</p><br>
<h2>Volcanic history</h2><br>
<p>La Palma is a volcanic ocean island, located on the African Plate and is currently – along with Tenerife, one of the most volcanically active of the Canary Islands. Historical eruptions on the Cumbre Vieja occurred in 1470, 1585, 1646, 1677, 1712, 1949 and 1971.</p><br>
<p>Since ~125 ka, all sub-aerial eruptive activity has been associated with the Cumbre Vieja with eruptions ranging over the whole ~25 kilometres long ridge. The Cumbre Vieja is known from submarine surveys to continue south of Punta de Fuencaliente (the Point of the Hot Fountain). Volcanic activity connected with the submarine extension has not been observed or recorded.</p><br>
<p>Detailed geological mapping shows that the distribution and orientation of vents and feeder dykes within the volcano have shifted from a triple rift system (typical of most volcanic ocean islands) to one consisting of a single north-south rift. It is hypothesised that this structural reorganisation is in response to evolving stress patterns associated with the development of a possible detachment fault under the volcano&#39;s west flank. Siebert (1984) showed that such failures are due to the intrusion of parallel and sub-parallel dykes into a rift. This causes the flanks to become over-steep and this inevitably causes the structure of the volcano to become unstable and catastrophic failure may occur. There is no evidence that the 1949 section of the rift extends in a north-south direction beyond its surface expression, nor that there is a developing detachment plane. Research is ongoing.</p><br>
<h3>1949 eruption</h3><br>
<p>The onset of the eruption was witnessed by a shepherd who was tending his flock of sheep on the flank of the Nambroque – (Bonelli-Rubio 1950, is explicit that the shepherd was only tending sheep). He was startled to hear noises emanating from the Duraznero vent and became extremely alarmed when material started being expelled from the vent. In a state of panic he fled the area and sought refuge as far from the vent as he could. The only contemporaneous account of the eruption was published in 1950 by one of the scientists – Juan Bonelli-Rubio who witnessed the eruption first hand and recorded details of the various phenomena that occurred during the eruption. All other published accounts are based upon Bonelli-Rubios observations. The next report regarding the eruption was a joint publication by Ortiz and Bonelli-Rubio published in 1951. This drew heavily on Bonelli-Rubios observations and also analysis of various phenomena associated with the eruption. Both accounts are published in Spanish.</p><br>
<p>The eruption started on 24 June 1949 – the feast day of St John, which is why in Spanish texts the eruption is referred to as "la erupcion del Nambroque o San Juan," which in English is "The Eruption of the Nambroque or St John&#39;s volcano." During the 1949 eruption, eruptive activity was located at three vents—Duraznero, Llano del Banco, and Hoyo Negro—mild strombolian activity occurred at the Duraznero vent. Lava was erupted from the Llano del Banco vents, whilst only mild phreatomagmatic emissions occurred at the Hoyo Negro vent. Then on 30 July – the last day of eruptive activity, lava was erupted at the Duraznero fissure and vent. During the eruption on 1 and 2 July, two strong earthquakes with an estimated intensity of VIII on the Modified Mercalli Scale also occurred, the epicentre was calculated to be near Jedey. Following the earthquakes a fracture was noted and it had a length of approximately one and half kilometres. It was traceable to the Hoyo Negro and Duraznero vents, making a total length of about two and half kilometres or about 1/10 of the exposed length of the Cumbre Vieja, and parts of the western half of the Cumbre Vieja ridge had apparently moved about 1 metre sideways and 2 metres downwards towards the Atlantic Ocean. It was only in the vicinity of the Duraznero and Hoyo Negro vents that the vertical displacement attained about 4 metres. As of 2009, the fracture is still visible and still has the same dimensions recorded in 1949.</p><br>
<p>The timeline for the eruption, according to Bonelli-Rubio,</p><br>
<p>Volcanic Explosivity Index</p><br>
<p>The eruption style ranged from effusive – mildly explosive at the Duraznero and Llano del Banco vents to mildly explosive at the Hoyo Negro vent and was strombolian in style. It therefore is classed as having a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 1 or 2.</p><br>
<p>The earthquakes of 1 and 2 July</p><br>
<p>The process creating the earthquakes of 1 and 2 July is considered to have been driven by the pressure caused by the rising magma super-heating water trapped within the edifice of the volcano. It is unlikely that the trapped waters could vapourise due to being under considerable pressure. What is postulated is that the waters were heated to a point where they could not absorb further thermal energy in the available space. Continuing heating required the water to expand further and the only way it could do so was to move the flank of the volcano. This caused the two earthquakes that were reported as occurring during the eruption along with the development of the crack.</p><br>
<p>That the entrapped (within the edifice) water did not vapourise is shown by the absence of phreatomagmatic explosions except the mildly explosive eruptive activity that occurred at the Hoyo Negro vent from 12 July to 22 July: steam escaping explosively from the ground is often a precursor of volcanic activity. Further evidence that vapourisation did not occur is that when Rubio Bonelli visited the rift the following day, the newly opened fissure "... Was not issuing fumes, vapour, steam, ashes, lava or other materials..." In fact at no time during or after was steam or phreatomagmatic activity reported. This reinforces the claim that the waters trapped within the edifice never vapourised, which they would do if the pressure had fallen sufficiently to allow the super-heated water to flash into steam. Only at the Hoyo Negro did any phreatomagmatic activity occur. Unlike the northern sector of the island, the Cumbre Vieja is "dry." Unlike the northern sector there are no water galleries, and it is therefore unlikely that the earthquake was caused – as claimed by Day et al. by water becoming superheated by rising magma. Research is continuing.</p><br>
<p>Due to the lack of seismic monitoring equipment on the island – apart from reports in the media, no record exists of any seismic activity that occurred pre-, syn- or post- eruption. Therefore, any claims about seismic activity are based upon personal observation and may not be reliable.</p><br>
<h3>1971 eruption</h3><br>
<p>The 1971 eruption occurred at the southern end of the Cumbre Vieja at the Teneguía vent. The eruption was mainly strombolian in style. Lava was also erupted. Seismic activity did occur before and during the 1971 eruption, but was not on the scale associated with the 1949 eruption. Residual thermal emissions continue.</p><br>
<h2>Future threats</h2><br>
<h3>Megatsunami</h3><br>
<p>Day et al. (1999) indicated that the Cumbre Vieja may be in the initial stages of failure. The authors of the paper also claimed that the geological development of La Palma had undergone changes due to the southerly migration of the hotspot, and the collapse of the earlier volcanoes. Subsequent to this, a triple-arm rift system had evolved with the eventual closing down of volcanic activity associated with two of the arms – the north-west and north-east rifts. The reasons can only be hypothesised. This caused the southern arm – the Cumbre Vieja to be the sole source of volcanic activity. As a result, they postulated that the western flank may be in the initial stages of failure.</p><br>
<p>In October 2000, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) transmitted a "Horizon" programme called "Mega-tsunami; Wave of Destruction", which suggested that a future failure of the western flank of Cumbre Vieja would cause a "mega-tsunami".</p><br>
<p>On 18 April 2013, the BBC transmitted a follow-up programme entitled Could we survive a Mega-Tsunami? The programme was presented in a "Breaking News" reporting style. It claimed that the western flank of the Cumbre Vieja had collapsed and that the initial wave had an amplitude of about 1,000 metres. The programme used computer generated graphics to present a storyline that is based on a hypothesis. The programme "interviewed" several scientific personnel attempting to give credence to the story – which according to one of the scientists involved "This is a true story – only it hasn&#39;t happened yet!"</p><br>
<p>Day et al; (1999) and Ward and Day (2005) hypothesize, that during an eruption at some unascertained future date, the western half of the Cumbre Vieja—approximately 500 km (5 x 10 m) with an estimated mass of 1.5 x 10 kg (1.5 million million metric tons)—will catastrophically fail in a massive gravitational landslide and enter the Atlantic Ocean, generating a so-called "mega-tsunami". The debris will continue to travel along the ocean floor as a debris flow. Computer modelling indicates that the resulting initial wave may attain a local amplitude (height) in excess of 600 m and an initial peak to peak height that approximates to 2 km, and travel at about 720 km/h (approximately the speed of a jet aircraft), inundating the African coast in about 1 hour, the southern coastlines of the British Isles in about 3.5 hours, and the eastern seaboard of North America in about 6 hours, by which time the initial wave will have subsided into a succession of smaller ones each about 30 m to 60 m high. These may surge to several hundred metres in height and be several kilometres apart while retaining their original speed. The models of Day et al; (1999), Ward and Day (2001), suggest that the event could inundate up to 25 km inland. If the model is correct, then this scale of inundation would greatly damage or destroy cities along the entire North American eastern seaboard, including e.g. Boston, New York City, Miami, etc., and many other cities located near the Atlantic coast.</p><br>
<h3>Criticism</h3><br>
<p>There is controversy, however, about the threat presented by the Cumbre Vieja. Current indications are, that recent landslides may have been gradual, and therefore may not generate tsunamis unless they increased in magnitude. Studies of possible local mega-tsunamis in the Hawaiian Islands draw distinctions between the tsunami wave periods caused by landslides and subduction-zone earthquakes, arguing that a similar collapse in Hawaii would not endanger Asian or North American coastlines.</p><br>
<p>Sonar surveys around many volcanic ocean islands including the Canary Islands, Hawaii, Réunion etc., have mapped debris flows on the sea floor. Many of these debris flows are about 100 km or about 60 miles long, and up to 2 km or about 1.25 miles thick, contain mega-blocks mixed up with finer detritus. The debris flows are now considered to be a normal process where a volcano sheds excess material to make itself more stable. It is also known to occur on all volcanoes based on the land, in or under the sea.</p><br>
<p>Moore (1964) was the first geologist to interpret such features depicted on a United States Navy bathymetric chart. The chart showed two features that seem to originate from the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Molokai.</p><br>
<p>Moss et al. (1999) reported that the western flank is static and there is no indication that it has moved since 1949, confirming the dimensions provided by Bonelli-Rubio (1950).</p><br>
<p>Carracedo et al. (2001) state that they consider the crack to be a surface expression which is of a shallow and inactive nature. They also indicate that it should be monitored, but consider the possibility that the edifice is unstable as being almost non-existent.</p><br>
<p>The Tsunami Society (2002) claim that the model used by Day et al. (1999) and Ward and Day (2001), and Ward and Day (2005) is wrong. They cautioned about the claims made by Day et al. and Ward and Day, stating that there is no evidence of a mega-tsunami having been generated by volcanic edifice failure.</p><br>
<p>Ward and Day (2003) reported on the only documented flank collapse of a volcanic island – Ritter Island, that occurred on 13 March 1888. Approximately 5 X 10 m (or about 2 orders of magnitude less than the claimed mass of the Cumbre Vieja) of material generated a landslide which entered the ocean and generated a westerly directed tsunami. The tsunami inundated adjoining islands and may have killed several hundreds of people. According to Cooke, damage was inflicted on islands several hundreds of kilometres from Ritter Island. There is no record of inundation occurring at trans-oceanic distances. The tsunami was witnessed by several Europeans living on many of the islands.</p><br>
<p>Murty et al. (2005) claim that it is almost impossible for a trans-oceanic tsunami to be generated in the basin of the Atlantic Ocean, which—if correct—supports the work by many other researchers that the failure of the western flank of the Cumbre Vieja would be unlikely to generate a "mega-tsunami".</p><br>
<p>Pérez-Torrado et al. (2006) indicate that marine deposits located between 41 and 188 m above sea level in the Agaete Valley of Gran Canaria resulted, when ~3 x 10 m(one order of magnitude less than that of models of Day et al. (1999), Ward and Day, (2001); and Ward and Day, (2005),) of volcanic material collapsed, forming the Güimar Valle on Tenerife ~830 ka and generating a tsunami. They indicate that this collapse is the only plausible source, and also report that there is no indication that the tsunami propagated beyond Gran Canaria.</p><br>
<p>Scientists at TU Delft in the Netherlands reported in 2006, that the section of the western flank of the Cumbre Vieja that was conjectured as potentially failing and falling into the Atlantic Ocean to create the hypothesised La Palma mega-tsunami was both too small in mass and volume, and far too stable to break away within the next 10,000 years.</p><br>
<h3>2017 Seismic "crisis"</h3><br>
<p>During October 2017, a series of low magnitude earthquakes were recorded on the western flank of the Cumbre Vieja in the vicinity of La Sabina Vieja. These were picked up by the media (mostly English newspapers) and almost immediately the headlines were proclaiming an imminent eruption amid fears that the Cumbre Vieja was on the verge of collapse. The fact that the earthquakes are centred on latitude 28° 34′ 20" North, longitude 17° 51′ 24" West, (29.57229 N, −17.85701), at an average depth of ~21 kilometres, was conveniently ignored or mentioned in passing. Such earthquakes are undetectable except by specialist equipment and therefore at best may be the precursory activity for an eruption at some time in the future is ignored. Remember it took about 13 years from the first known earthquake in 1936 to the actual eruption.</p><br>
<h3>Historical "mega-tsunamis"</h3><br>
<p>On 9 July 1958 a 7.9 magnitude earthquake and landslide released ~3.1 x 10 m of rock and debris in Crillon Inlet at the head of Lituya Bay, Alaska. The mass impacted the water with a force of ~8.8 x 10 N m and this generated a massive plume and surge – (which has since become known as the Lituya Bay mega-tsunami), with an estimated initial height of about 300 m. As the water collapsed it generated a wave which then surged onto the headland opposite, rising to a height of approximately 520 m, stripping trees and soil from the headland as it flowed over the headland. As it flowed away from its origin it inundated the entire bay, destroyed two fishing boats and damaged a third (by ripping its anchor from the housing within the boat), that were anchored there, killing two people. According to eye-witness accounts (Ulrich and son, reported in Miller 1960), the wave as it approached their fishing boat had an amplitude of about ~30 m. Once the wave reached the open sea, however, it rapidly dissipated. It was the confining geography of Crillon Inlet and Lituya Bay that created the conditions that caused the initial impact plume to surge onto the headland opposite the impact site and this surge could only dissipate by moving away from the source – down Lituya Bay where it was constrained by the narrow profile of the bay. It remains the highest recorded surge, but was not a tsunami nor a mega-tsunami, despite some workers claiming it is – e.g., McGuire, in: BBC 2 TV. 2000. Transcript "Mega-tsunami; Wave of Destruction". Horizon. First screened 21.30, Thursday, 12 October 2000.</p><br>
<p>On 9 October 1963, a mass of rock, soil and other debris estimated at 2.6 x 10 m, slid in a massive landslide off Monte Toc infilling the newly constructed Vajont Dam or Vaiont Dam in north-east Italy. It displaced ~3.0x10 m – about 1/5th of the water present in the reservoir, which surged over the dam wall and flooded the Piave Valley below the dam, killing over 2000 people. From the onset of the landslide to impact on the opposite side of the gorge took an estimated 45 seconds – according to seismic records. By the definition of a tsunami the displacement and surge was not a tsunami, but rather a massive displacement of water with a resultant surge, it does serve to indicate how just like at Lituya Bay, massive volumes of debris can displace water. In the case of the disaster, the water behind the dam could only be displaced over the dam.</p><br>
<p>Both the Lituya Bay and Vaiont Dam incidents are examples of how large volumes of debris may cause a rapid displacement of water when they suddenly enter a body of water in a restricted area. Because the surges were only able to dissipate by moving down the Bay or over the dam they do not serve as examples of mega-tsunami generation.</p><br>
<p>In 1883 the Indonesian volcano Krakatau exploded in a cataclysmic explosive eruption. Most of the island vanished as the volcano exploded and this generated a tsunami which devastated local areas. It carried a Dutch Naval vessel, the Barouw, inland for over 5 km and left it stranded about 20 m above sea level. The tsunami itself did not propagate over trans-oceanic distances. What was noted on tide gauges around the world are considered to be the effect of the atmospheric pressure wave.</p><br>
<p>During the second millennium BC, the volcano on Santorini exploded with a VEI estimated at 7. Research suggests that the eruption generated a tsunami which inundated Crete, possibly triggering the downfall of the Minoan civilization.</p><br>
<p>Lateral collapse events at stratovolcanoes, similar to the current threat posed by the western flank of Cumbre Vieja, could increase due to the physical effects of global warming on the Earth from increases in deviatoric stress from post-glacial rebound, while the size and frequency of eruptions are also likely to increase.</p><br>
<p>The Phlegraean Fields  are a large volcanic area situated to the west of Naples, Italy. It was declared a regional park in 2003. Lying mostly underwater, the area of the caldera consists of 24 craters and volcanic edifices. Hydrothermal activity can be observed at Lucrino, Agnano and the town of Pozzuoli. There are also effusive gaseous manifestations in the Solfatara crater, the mythological home of the Roman god of fire, Vulcan.</p><br>
<p>This area is monitored by the Vesuvius Observatory.</p><br>
<p>The area also features bradyseismic phenomena, which are most evident at the Macellum of Pozzuoli (misidentified as a temple of Serapis), as geologists puzzled over bands of boreholes left by marine molluscs on marble columns, showing that the level of the site in relation to sea level had varied.</p><br>
<h2>Geological phases</h2><br>
<p>Three geological phases or periods are recognised and distinguished.</p><br>
<p>The First Phlegraean Period. It is thought that the eruption of the Archiflegreo volcano occurred about 39,280 ± 110 years (older estimate ~37,000 years) ago, erupting about 200 km3 of magma (500 km3 bulk volume) to produce the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption. Its Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) was 7. "The dating of the Campanian Ignimbrite Eruption (CI) to ~37,000 calendar years B.P. draws attention to the coincidence of this volcanic catastrophe and the suite of, Late Pleistocene biocultural changes that occurred within and outside the Mediterranean region. These included the Middle to Upper Paleolithic cultural transition and the replacement of Neanderthal populations by anatomically modern Homo sapiens, a subject of sustained debate. No less than 150 km of magma were extruded in this eruption (the CI eruption), whose signal can be detected in Greenland ice cores. As widespread discontinuities in archaeological sequences are observed at or after this eruption, a significant interference with ongoing human processes in Mediterranean Europe is hypothesized." It is possible that these eruptions drove Neanderthals to extinction and cleared the way for modern humans to thrive in Europe and Asia. The area is characterised by banks of and pipernoid grey tuff at Camaldoli hill, like in the northern and western ridge of Mount Cumae; other referable deep products are those found at Monte di Procida, recognizable in the cliffs of its coast.</p><br>
<p>The Second Phlegraean Period. Between 35,000–10,500 years ago, it is characterized by the yellow tuff that is the remains of an immense underwater volcano, with a diameter of; Pozzuoli is at its center. Approximately 12,000 years ago the last major eruption occurred, forming a smaller caldera inside the main caldera, centered on the town of Pozzuoli. This event produced the Neapolitan yellow tuff, referring to the characteristic yellow rocks there.</p><br>
<p>The Third Phlegraean Period. Dated between 8,000 – 500 years ago, it is characterized by white pozzolana, the material that forms the majority of volcanos in the Fields. Broadly speaking, it can be said there was an initial activity to the southwest in the zone of Bacoli and Baiae (10,000–8,000 years ago); an intermediate activity in an area centred between Pozzuoli, Spaccata Mountain and Agnano (8,000–3,900 years ago); and a more recent activity, moved towards the west to form Lake Avernus and Monte Nuovo (New Mountain) (3,800–500 years ago).</p><br>
<p>There are volcanic deposit indicating possible eruption, dated by argon at 315,000, 205,000, 157,000 and 18,000 years ago.</p><br>
<h3>More recent history</h3><br>
<p>The caldera, which now is essentially at ground level, is accessible on foot. It contains many fumaroles, from which steam can be seen issuing, and over 150 pools of boiling mud at last count. Several subsidiary cones and tuff craters lie within the caldera. One of these craters is filled by Lake Avernus.</p><br>
<p>In 1538, an eight-day eruption in the area deposited enough material to create a new hill, Monte Nuovo. It has risen about 2 m from ground level since 1970. It is a volcano capable of producing VEI 7 eruptions, as large as that of Tambora in 1815.</p><br>
<p>At present, the Phlegraean Fields area comprises the Naples districts of Agnano and Fuorigrotta, the area of Pozzuoli, Bacoli, Monte di Procida, Quarto, the Phlegrean Islands (Ischia, Procida and Vivara).</p><br>
<p>A 2009 journal article stated that inflation of the caldera centre near Pozzuoli might presage an eruptive event within decades. In 2012 the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program planned to drill 3.5 km (2.2 miles) below the earth&#39;s surface near Pompeii intending to monitor the massive molten rock chamber below in order to provide early warning of any eruption. Local scientists are worried that such drilling itself could initiate an eruption or earthquake. In 2010 the Naples city council had prevented the drilling project. Programme scientists said the drilling was no different from industrial drilling in the area. The newly elected mayor allowed the project to go forward. A Reuters article emphasized that the area could produce a "super volcano" that might kill millions.</p><br>
<p>A recent study from Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia describes recent volcanic unrest of the Campi Flegrei caldera from January 2012 to June 2013 characterised by rapid ground uplift of about 11 cm with a peak rate of about 3 cm per month during December 2012, and says that in previous years from 1985 to 2011 the dynamics of ground uplift have been mostly linked to the caldera&#39;s hydrothermal system, and that this relation broke down in 2012 and the driving mechanism of the ground uplift changed to periodical emplacement of magma within a flat sill-shaped magmatic reservoir in depth about 3,000 m, 500 m south from the port of Pozzuoli.</p><br>
<p>In December 2016, activity became so high that an eruption was feared. In May 2017 a new study by UCL and the Vesuvius Observatory and published in Nature Communications revealed that an eruption may be closer than previously thought. The study found that the geographical unrest since the 1950s has a cumulative effect, causing a build-up of energy in the crust and making the volcano more susceptible to eruption.</p><br>
<p>On the 22 August 2017 there was a magnitude 4 earthquake on the western edge of the Campi Flegrei area. Two women were killed and many more people injured in Casamicciola on the northern coast of the island of Ischia, which is south of the epicentre.</p><br>
<h2>Wine</h2><br>
<p>Italian wine, both red and white, under the Campi Flegrei DOC appellation comes from this area. Grapes destined for DOC production must be harvested up to a maximum yield of 12 tonnes/hectare for red grape varieties, and 13 tonnes/ha for white grape varieties. The finished wines need to be fermented to a minimum alcohol level of 11.5% for reds and 10.5% for whites. While most Campi Flegrei wines are blends, varietal wines can be made from individual varieties, provided the variety used comprises at least 90% of the blend and the wine is fermented to at least 12% alcohol for reds and 11% for whites.</p><br>
<p>Red Campi Flegrei is a blend of 50–70% Piedirosso, 10–30% Aglianico and/or Sciascinoso and up to 10% of other local (both red and white) grape varieties. The whites are composed of 50–70% Falanghina, 10–30% Biancolella and/or Coda di Volpe, with up to 30% of other local white grape varieties.</p><br>
<h2>Cultural importance</h2><br>
<p>Campi Flegrei has had strategic and cultural importance.</p><br>
<p>The area was known to the ancient Greeks, who had a colony nearby at Cumae, the seat of the Cumaean Sibyl.</p><br>
<p>The beach of Miliscola, in Bacoli, was the Roman military academy headquarters.</p><br>
<p>Lake Avernus was believed to be the entrance to the underworld, and is portrayed as such in the Aeneid of Virgil. During the civil war between Octavian and Antony, Agrippa tried to turn the lake into a military port, the Portus Julius.</p><br>
<p>Baiae, now lying underwater, was a fashionable coastal resort and was the site of summer villas of Julius Caesar, Nero, and Hadrian (who died there).</p><br>
<p>A Flavian Amphitheatre, the third-largest Italian amphitheatre, after the Colosseum and the Capuan Amphitheatre.</p><br>
<p>The Via Appia passed through the comune of Quarto, entirely built on an extinguished crater.</p><br>
<p>The Cave of Dogs, a famous tourist attraction during the early modern period—is on the eastern side of the Fields.</p><br>
<p>Europe&#39;s youngest mountain, Monte Nuovo is here. A WWF oasis lies beside the enormous Astroni crater.</p><br>
<p>The tombs of Agrippina the Elder and Scipio Africanus are here as well.</p><br>
<p>At Baiae, a Bacoli district the most ancient hot spring complex was built for the richest Romans. It included the largest ancient dome in the world before the construction of the Roman Pantheon.</p><br>
<p>Astronomical broadcaster and writer Patrick Moore used to cite these Fields as an example of why the impact craters on the Moon must be of volcanic origin, which was thought to be the case until the 1960s.</p><br>
<p>There is a theory that the Campanian Ignimbrite super-eruption around about 39,280 ± 110 years ago contributed to the demise of Neanderthal Man, based on evidence from Mezmaiskaya cave in the Caucasus Mountains of southern Russia.</p><br>
<p>Kakabeka Falls is a waterfall on the Kaministiquia River, located beside the village of Kakabeka Falls in the municipality of Oliver Paipoonge, Ontario, 30 km west of the city of Thunder Bay.</p><br>
<p>The falls have a drop of 40 m, cascading into a gorge carved out of the Precambrian Shield by meltwater following the last glacial maximum. Because of its size and ease of access, it has been consequently nicknamed "the Niagara of the North".</p><br>
<p>The rock face of the falls and the escarpments along the gorge are composed primarily of unstable shale, and are eroding. These rocks host sensitive flora, and contain some of the oldest fossils in existence, some 1.6 billion years of age. Due to the fragile rock, going into the gorge below the falls is prohibited.</p><br>
<p>The name "Kakabeka" comes from the Ojibwe word gakaabikaa "waterfall over a cliff".</p><br>
<h2>Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park</h2><br>
<p>Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park, established in 1955, covers 5 km&sup2; and is managed by Ontario Parks. It surrounds the falls and extends along the Kaministiquia River, which was used centuries ago by Voyageurs, who were the first Europeans to overwinter annually in northern Ontario. They used the Kaministiquia River as a major route to the northwest, with a 1.3 km mountain portage around the falls. A hotel with terrace which was once located on the edge of the gorge was removed after the Park&#39;s creation. It included a round restaurant that once overlooked the falls, and in winter would get covered in a thick layer of ice from the spray of the falls.</p><br>
<p>The park has two campgrounds with 169 camp sites, 90 of which have electricity. The park maintains 17.9 km of hiking on six trails, and offers cross-country ski trails in the winter. A small Natural Heritage Education program is operated within the park in the summer, and offers daily interpretive programs, guided hikes, and a visitor centre.</p><br>
<h2>The Legend of Green Mantle</h2><br>
<p>The Legend of Green Mantle is about an Ojibwe chief who upon hearing news of an imminent attack from the Sioux tribe instructs his daughter, Princess Green Mantle, to devise a plan to protect her people. She enters the Sioux camp along the Kaministiquia River and, pretending to be lost, she bargains with them to spare her life if she will bring them to her father&#39;s camp. Placed at the head of the canoe, she instead leads herself and the Sioux warriors over the falls to their deaths, sparing her tribe from the attack. The legend claims that one can see Green Mantle when looking into the mist of Kakabeka Falls, a monument to the princess that gave her life to save her people. Other versions of the legend say she came across the Sioux herself, and later jumped out of the canoe ahead of the falls and swam to shore, leaving the Sioux to go over the falls, then ran back to the camp to warn her people.</p><br>
<h2>The Falls in Art</h2><br>
<p>The most famous painting featuring the falls, painted by Lucius Richard O&#39;Brien in 1882, is held by the National Gallery of Canada.</p><br>
<p>Frances Anne Hopkins, whose historic paintings are well known for her portrayal of Canadian life, painted the portage around the falls in 1877. Her painting, "The Red River Expedition at Kakabeka Falls, Ontario", depicts the Red River Expedition of 1870 portaging around the falls on its way to the Red River Colony to interdict Louis Riel.</p><br>
<p>Ouimet Canyon is a large gorge in the municipality of Dorion, Thunder Bay District in northwestern Ontario, Canada, about 60 km northeast of the city of Thunder Bay. The gorge is 100 m deep, 150 m wide and 2,000 m long, protected as part of Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park.</p><br>
<p>There is a walkway consisting of boardwalks and trails, which leads to viewing platforms overlooking the canyon. Visitors to the canyon should remain on the marked trails for their own safety. Also in the Ouimet Canyon area, there are rare alpine flowers that are considered especially beautiful and arctic plants normally found one thousand kilometres further north. The canyon is shown in the IMAX film North of Superior.</p><br>
<p>The canyon was named after the former railway station of Ouimet, today an unincorporated place and railway point, located nearby on the Canadian Pacific Railway line. The station itself was named after the Canadian Minister of Public Works from 1892 to 1896, Joseph-Aldric Ouimet.</p><br>
<p>Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park, a day-use park with no camping facilities, covers an area of 7.77 km&sup2; around the canyon.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The canyon is believed to have formed when a diabase sill dating from a billion years earlier was split open, either by the weight of advancing glaciers or the large volumes of water released during their retreat. Erosion by wind and rain continued the formation of the canyon. A large rock column known as the Indian Head can be seen from the northern viewing area.</p><br>
<h2>Eagle Canyon</h2><br>
<p>Near Ouimet Canyon is the privately owned and operated Eagle Canyon, which features on-site camping, two footbridges spanning the gorge and a zip line.</p><br>
<p>The longer of the two footbridges is 182 m long and is suspended 45 m above the canyon floor. It claims to be Canadas longest foot suspension bridge. The zip line is claimed to be 0.5 mi long and is advertised as Canadas longest, highest (175 ft) and fastest (45 mph).</p><br>
<p>Lake Minnewanka  is a glacial lake located in the eastern area of Banff National Park in Canada, about 5 km northeast of the Banff townsite. The lake is 21 km long and 142 m deep, making it the longest lake in the mountain parks of the Canadian Rockies .</p><br>
<p>The lake is fed by the Cascade River, flowing east of Cascade Mountain, and runs south through Stewart Canyon as it empties into the western end of the lake. Numerous streams flowing down from Mount Inglismaldie, Mount Girouard and Mount Peechee on the south side of the lake also feed the lake.</p><br>
<p>Aboriginal people long inhabited areas around Lake Minnewanka, as early as 10,000 years ago, according to stone tools and a Clovis point spearhead discovered by archaeologists. The area is rich in animal life (e.g. elk, mule deer, mountain sheep, bears) and the easy availability of rock in the mountainous terrain was key to fashioning weapons for hunting.</p><br>
<p>The western end of the lake can be reached by following Lake Minnewanka road from the Trans-Canada Highway. Boat tours are available near the parking lot. A hiking and mountain biking trail runs along the northern shore of the lake, passing Stewart Canyon and six backcountry campsites. Mount Aylmer which at 3,162 m is the highest mountain in this area of the park, is located a few kilometres north of the lake.</p><br>
<p>Dams were built in 1912 and 1941 to supply the town with hydro-electric power. The most recent dam (1941) raised the lake 30 m and submerged the resort village of Minnewanka Landing that had been present there since 1888. Because of the presence of the submerged village, submerged bridge pilings, and submerged dam (the one from 1912) the lake is popular among recreational scuba divers.</p><br>
<p>The construction of the dam resulted in involuntary resettlement of inhabitants from the reservoir area.</p><br>
<p>Lake Timiskaming or Lake Temiskaming  is a large freshwater lake on the provincial boundary between Ontario and Quebec, Canada. The lake, which forms part of the Ottawa River, is 110 km in length and covers an area of almost 295 km&sup2;. Its water level ranges between 175 m and 179 m above sea-level, with a mean annual average of 178.4 m. The lake is in places up to 216 m deep. There are several islands on the lake, notably Mann and du Collège Islands.</p><br>
<p>The name is from the Algonquin Temikami or Temikaming, meaning "deep waters".</p><br>
<p>There are 30 species of fish in Lake Timiskaming, the best known are northern pike, sturgeon, lake trout, walleye, smallmouth bass, bullhead, carp, burbot, perch and whitefish.</p><br>
<p>The lake was shaped during the last ice age when glaciers carved into the rock. It is also the remnants of a huge basin called Lake Ojibway, which existed about 9,500 years ago. Between 1976 and 1981 the DuPagne Classic fishing tourney took place at Wells Rock (David&#39;s tobogganing hill).</p><br>
<p>For the trading post and some history see Fort Témiscamingue.</p><br>
<h2>Lake Timiskaming rift valley</h2><br>
<p>Lake Timiskaming is centered on a major rift valley that extends several hundred miles to the north-east called the Timiskaming Graben. It is the northern extension of the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben, which is part of the Saint Lawrence rift system. There have been recent earthquakes along the rift valley, the most recent being in 2000. There are numerous faults in the area and has produced cliffs such as Devil&#39;s Rock, just 5 km south of Haileybury and is dated to be 2.2 billion years old. There are known kimberlite pipes within the rift valley that are considered to be diamondiferous.</p><br>
<p>Krubera Cave  is the deepest-known cave on Earth. It is located in the Arabika Massif of the Gagra Range of the Western Caucasus, in the Gagra district of Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia.</p><br>
<p>The difference in elevation of the caves entrance and its deepest explored point is 2,197 +/-. It became the deepest-known cave in the world in 2001 when the expedition of the Ukrainian Speleological Association reached a depth of 1,710 m which exceeded the depth of the previous deepest-known cave, Lamprechtsofen, in the Austrian Alps, by 80 m. In 2004, for the first time in the history of speleology, the Ukrainian Speleological Association expedition reached a depth greater than 2,000 m, and explored the cave to -2,080 m. Ukrainian diver Gennadiy Samokhin extended the cave by diving in the terminal sump to 46 metres depth in 2007 and then to 52 m in 2012, setting successive world records of 2,191 m and 2,197 m, respectively. Krubera remains the only known cave on Earth deeper than 2,000 metres.</p><br>
<h2>Naming</h2><br>
<p>The original name "Krubera" had been assigned to the cave by Georgian speleologists who explored the entrance pit in 1960. This name was given after the noted Russian geographer Alexander Kruber. The name "Krubera Cave" thus has a priority. "Voronya Cave" means "Crows&#39; Cave" in Russian. This name was used as a slang name by Kiev speleologists during the 1980s due to a number of crows nesting in the entrance pit, and then remained in the literature and media as a second name for the cave.</p><br>
<h2>Location and background</h2><br>
<p>The Arabika Massif, the home of Krubera (Voronya) Cave, is one of the largest high-mountain limestone karst massifs in the Western Caucasus. It is composed of Lower Cretaceous and Upper Jurassic limestones that dip continuously southwest to the Black Sea and plunge below the modern sea level.</p><br>
<p>To the northwest, north, northeast, and east, Arabika is bordered by the deeply incised canyons of Sandripsh, Kutushara, Gega and Bzyb rivers. The Bzyb River separates Arabika from the adjacent Bzybsky Massif, another outstanding karst area with many deep caves, including the Snezhnaja-Mezhonogo-Iljuzia System (-1,753 m) and Pantjukhina Cave (-1,508 m). To the southwest, Arabika borders the Black Sea.</p><br>
<p>The Arabika Massif has a prominent high central sector with elevations above the tree line at ~1,800 -. This is an area of classical glaciokarstic landscape, with numerous glacial trough valleys and cirques, with ridges and peaks between them. The bottoms of trough valleys and karst fields lie at elevations of 2,000 -, and ridges and peaks rise to 2,500 -. The highest peak is the Peak of Speleologists (2,705 m) but the dominant summit is a typical pyramidal horn of the Arabika Mount (2,695 m). Some middle- to low-altitude ridges covered with forest lie between the central sector and the Black Sea. A plateau-like middle-altitude outlier of the massif in its south sector is Mamzdyshkha, with part of the plateau slightly emerging above the tree line.</p><br>
<p>Among several hundred caves known in the Arabika Massif, fifteen have been explored deeper than 400 m and five deeper than 1,000 m (shown in Figure 1).</p><br>
<p>Krubera Cave is located at 2,256 m above sea level in the Ortobalagan Valley, a perfectly shaped, relatively shallow, glacial trough of the sub-Caucasian stretch, which holds the advanced position in the Arabika&#39;s central sector relative to the seashore. Since 1980, Ukrainian cavers have been undertaking systematic efforts in exploring deep caves in the Ortobalagan Valley, resulting in exploration of the Krubera Cave to its current depth and of the Arabikskaja System to depth of -1,110 m. The latter consists of Kuybushevskaya Cave (also spelled as Kujbyshevskaja; −1,110 m) and Genrikhova Bezdna Cave (−965 m to the junction with Kujbyshevskaja). Another deep cave in the valley, located in its very upper part and explored by Moldavian and Ukrainian cavers is Berchilskaya Cave, 500 m deep. All large caves of the Ortobalagan Valley likely belong to a single hydrological system, connected to large springs at the Black Sea shore. The direct physical connection of Krubera Cave with the Arabikaskaja System is a sound possibility, although not yet physically realized.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The Ortobalagan Valley extends along the crest of the Berchil&#39;sky anticline, which gently dips northwest. The cave entrances are aligned along the anticlinal crest (Figure 2) but the caves are controlled by longitudinal, transverse, and oblique fractures and faults and comprise complex winding patterns in the plan view, remaining largely within and near the anticlinal crest zone. The caves are predominantly combinations of vadose shafts and steep meandering passages, although in places they cut apparently old fossil passages at different levels (e.g., at -2,100 - in Kujbyshevskaja and Krubera caves, -1,200 - and -980 - in the non-Kujbyshevskaja branch of Krubera Cave, etc.). The deep parts of Krubera display a more pervasive conduit pattern with a mixture of phreatic morphology, characteristic of the zone of high-gradient floods, which can be up to 400 m above the low-flow water table, and vadose downcutting elements that are observed even below the water table.</p><br>
<p>The core part of the Arabika Massif is composed of the Upper Jurassic succession resting on the Bajocian Porphyritic Series, which includes sandstones, clays and conglomerates at the top, and tuff, tuff sandstones, conglomerates and breccia, porphyry and lava. The Porphyritic series forms the non-karstic basement of Arabika, which is exposed only on the northern and eastern outskirts, locally in the bottoms of the Kutushara and Gega River valleys. In the central part of Arabika the Cretaceous cover (Valanginian and Hauterivian limestones, marls and sandstones) is retained only in a few ridges and peaks, but it lies intact through the low-altitude ridges to the south-west of the central part. There the Cretaceous succession includes Barremian and Aptian–Cenomanian limestones and marly limestones with abundant concretions of black chert.</p><br>
<p>The Upper Jurassic succession begins with thin-bedded Kimmeridgian–Oxfordian cherty limestones, marls, sandstones and clays, which are identified in the lower part of Krubera Cave. Above lies the thick Tithonian succession of thick-bedded limestones with marly and sandy varieties. Sandy limestones are particularly abundant through the upper 1,000 m sections of deep caves of the Ortobalagan Valley.</p><br>
<p>The tectonic structure of Arabika is dominated by the axis of the large sub-Caucasian anticline (oriented NW–SE), with the gently dipping southwestern mega-flank, complicated by several low-order folds, and steeply dipping northeastern flank (Figure 3). The axis of the anticline roughly coincides with the ridge bordering the Gelgeluk Valley to the north. Located on the southwestern flank of the major anticline is another large one (Berchilsky), in which the crest is breached by the Ortobalagan Valley. There are several smaller sub-parallel anticlines and synclines farther southwest, between the Berchil Ridge and the coast.</p><br>
<p>The plicative dislocation structure of the massif is severely complicated by faults, with the fault-block structure strongly controlling both cave development and groundwater flow. Major faults of the sub-Caucasian orientation delineate several large elongated blocks that experienced uplift with different rates during Pliocene and Pleistocene. This had a pronounced effect on the development of deep groundwater circulation and of Krubera Cave in particular. Both longitudinal and transverse faults and related fracture zones play a role in guiding groundwater flow; the latter guide flow across the strike of major plicative dislocations, from the central sector toward the Black Sea.</p><br>
<h2>Hydrogeology</h2><br>
<p>Major on-shore karst springs with individual average discharges of 1 to 2.5 m3/s are located at altitudes ranging from 1 m (Reproa Spring) to 540 m (Gega waterfall). Two of them are located in the shore area; these are Reproa (average discharge 2.5 m3/s; altitude 1 m above sea level) and Kholodnaja Rechka (1.2 m3/s; 50 m a.s.l.). Two more major springs are located in the river canyons bordering Arabika to the east: Goluboe Ozero in the Bzyb canyon (2.5 m3/s; 90 m a.s.l.) and Gega waterfall in the Gega canyon (1 m3/s; 540 m a.s.l.). There are also several smaller springs in the Gagra town. The Reprua River, one of the shortest rivers in the world, about 60 ft long, starts in the cave and flows toward the Black Sea.</p><br>
<p>Some boreholes located along the shore of the Black Sea yield karstic groundwater from depths of 40–280 m below sea level. Other much deeper boreholes tapped low-salinity karstic waters at depths of 500 and 1,750 m in the Khashupse Valley near Tsandripsh and 2,250 m near Gagra. This suggests the existence of a deep karst system and vigorous karst groundwater circulation at depth.</p><br>
<p>Submarine springs are known in the Arabika area, emerging from the floor of the Black Sea in front of the massif. Shallow springs at depths of 5–7 m can be reached by free dive near Tsandripsh. Tamaz Kiknadze (1979) reported submarine springs near the eastern part of Gagra at depth of 25–30 m and Buachidze and Meliva (1967) revealed submarine discharge at depths up to −400 m by hydrochemical profiling. from a digital bathymetric map that combines depth soundings and high-resolution marine gravity data. This is a huge submarine depression in front of the Zhovekvara River mouth, which has dimensions of about 5 x 9 km and a maximum depth of about 380 m. The Arabika Submarine Depression is a closed feature with internal vertical relief of about 120 m (measured from its lowest rim) separated from the abyssal slope by the bar at a depth of about 260 m. It has steep northern and northeastern slopes (on the side of the massif) and gentle south and southwestern slopes. Its formation is apparently karstic. Presently this depression seems to be a focus of submarine discharge of the karst systems of Arabika.</p><br>
<p>The speleological explorations and a series of dye tracing experiments conducted during the 1980s under the coordination of Alexander Klimchouk have radically changed previous notions of the hydrogeology of Arabika, revealed its outstanding speleological perspectives and strongly stimulated further efforts for exploration of deep caves. Tracers injected in the Kujbyshevskaja Cave and the Iljukhina System were detected in the Kholodnaja Rechka and Reproa springs, proving groundwater flow to the south-southwest across major tectonic structures over a distance of 13–16 km as the crow flies (Figure 1). The tracer from Kujbyshevskaja Cave was also detected in a borehole located between these two springs, which yields groundwater from a depth of 200 m below sea level. This has been interpreted as an indication of the connection of the cave with the submarine discharge. The large "Central Karst Hydrologic System", which encompasses most of the southeastern flank of the Arabika anticline, had been identified in this way. The system became the deepest in the world with its overall vertical range of about 2,500 m (measuring to the borehole water-bearing horizon) or even 2,700 m (measuring to the deepest reported submarine discharge points).</p><br>
<p>Another tracer was injected in the Moskovskaja Cave (−970 m) and detected at the Gegsky Vodopad spring, indicating the presence of a karst hydrologic system comprising the northeastern flank of the Arabika anticline (the "Northern System"). No connections have been revealed with yet another major spring, Goluboje Ozero in the Bzyb River canyon, although it apparently drains a large area of the eastern sector of the massif (the hypothetical "Eastern Karst Hydrological System"). It is not clear where Sarma Cave (−1,550 m) drains to, Goluboje Ozero to the southeast or Reproa to the southwest, at the shore.</p><br>
<p>The results of the dye-tracing tests demonstrated that groundwater flow is not subordinate to the fold structure but is largely controlled by faults that cut across the strike of major folds, and that the large part of the central sector of Arabika is hydraulically connected to the springs along the seashore and with submarine discharge points.</p><br>
<p>Krubera Cave has an extremely steep profile and reveals a huge thickness of the vadose zone. The lower boundary of the vadose zone (the top of the phreatic zone) is at an elevation of about 110 m at low flow, which suggests a low overall hydraulic gradient of 0.007-0.008. Low-TDS groundwater is tapped by boreholes in the shore area at depths of 40–280, 500, 1,750, and 2,250 m below sea level, which suggests the existence of a deep flow system with vigorous flow. Submarine discharge along the Arabika coast is reported at depths up to ~400 m b.s.l.</p><br>
<p>It is difficult to interpret these facts in terms of the development of karst systems controlled by contemporary sea level, or within the range of its Pleistocene fluctuations (up to −150 m). In combination with the existence of the Arabika Submarine Depression, all these facts point to the possibility that karst systems in Arabika could have originated in response to the Messinian salinity crisis (5.96–5.33 Ma) when the Black Sea (Eastern Paratethys) could have almost dried up, as did the adjacent Mediterranean, where the dramatic sea level drop of ~1,500 m is well established.</p><br>
<h2>Biology</h2><br>
<p>The biocenosis of Krubera-Voronja is composed of more than 12 species of arthropods of several groups, such as pseudoscorpions, spiders, opiliones, crustaceans, springtails, beetles and dipterans. Krubera-Voronja cave is inhabited by endemic species, including four springtails discovered in the CAVEX Team expedition of 2010: Anurida stereoodorata, Deuteraphorura kruberaensis, Schaefferia profundissima, and Plutomurus ortobalaganensis; the last of these is the deepest terrestrial animal ever found on Earth, living 1,980 m below the cave entrance. The beetle Catops cavicis inhabits Krubera-Voronja cave and also several caves around the Ortobalagan valley.</p><br>
<h2>History of exploration</h2><br>
<h3>Early exploration</h3><br>
<p>At the beginning of the 20th century, Arabika was visited by French speleologist Édouard-Alfred Martel, who published several works about the massif. In 1909–10 Russian karst scientist Alexander Kruber, a founder of the study in Russia, performed some field studies in Arabika. He published his observations in a series of Arabika-specific papers and several monographs. During the subsequent 50 years no special studies were undertaken of the karst and caves in the region, although the karst of Arabika was referred to in many works dealing with regional geology and hydrogeology.</p><br>
<h3>1960s</h3><br>
<p>In the early 1960s, Georgian geographer led by Levan Maruashvili began exploring caves in the high sector of the massif. Among several other caves, they made the first exploration of an open-mouthed 60 m shaft in the Ortobalagan Valley and named it after Alexander Kruber. The first explorers were stopped by impassable squeezes at −95 m in a meandering passage which led off from the foot of the entrance shaft. The cave remained largely neglected over the next 20 years, although occasionally visited by cavers from various caving clubs. Before 1980 there were no caves deeper than 310 m known in Arabika.</p><br>
<h3>1980s</h3><br>
<p>The new epoch in cave explorations in the Arabika Massif began in 1980 when the Kiev Speleological Club, led by Alexander Klimchuk, started exploring caves there. They adopted an approach to cave search and exploration which included thorough investigations in a defined area and systematic testing of cave limits, through digging in boulder chokes and enlarging squeezes which had previously obstructed exploration. The Ortobalagan Valley had been selected as a primary focus for the Ukrainian efforts. This approach, followed in subsequent years by other caving clubs which joined exploration activity in different parts of Arabika, resulted in the discovery of many deep caves including five caves deeper than 1,000 m.</p><br>
<p>In the Ortobalagan Valley, the Ukrainian cavers made breakthroughs in Kuybyshevskaya Cave at −160 m and pushed it to -1,110 m by 1986 through a series of massive boulder chokes. They broke through an impassable squeeze at −120 m in Genrikhova Bezdna Cave and eventually connected it to Kuybyshevskaya at −956 m in 1987. The resultant system has been named the Arabikskaya System.</p><br>
<p>From 1982 onwards, the Kiev cavers started systematically working in Krubera Cave, located less than 200 metres from the Kuybyshevskaya entrance, hoping to connect with the Arabikskaya System and increase its total depth by 60 m. Exploration progressed slowly because critically tight meanders between the pits required enormous amounts of work to widen them to a passable size. The cave was pushed to −340 m during 1982–1987. Two "windows" in a vertical shaft at depths of 220–250 m were documented on the cave map but remained unexplored. During this time the cave received its second, alternative name Voronja (Crows&#39;) Cave, owing to the number of crows nesting in the entrance shaft.</p><br>
<h3>1990s–early 2000s</h3><br>
<p>The political and ethnic conflict in Abkhazia during 1992–94 resulted in instability and border problems which continued over subsequent years. This suspended speleological explorations in Arabika. Some stabilization of the situation in 1998 has since enabled a renewal of exploration effort to take place in the region.</p><br>
<p>In 1999, the expedition of the Ukrainian Speleological Associations (Ukr. S.A.) led by Yury Kasyan made a major breakthrough in Krubera Cave by discovering and exploring two branches behind the windows at a depth of 220–250 m. These branches stretched in two different directions. The "Main Branch" was explored to −740 m and the "Nekuybyshevskaya Branch" to −500 m.</p><br>
<p>In 2000, the Main Branch was quickly pushed by the multi-stage expedition of the Ukr. S.A. in August to −1,200 m and in September to −1,410 m.</p><br>
<p>In January 2001, the Ukr.S.A. expedition explored the cave to -1,710 m making it the deepest cave in the world. For the first time in the history of speleology, the deepest cave in the world had been established outside of western Europe. Since 2001, the Krubera explorations by the Ukr.S.A. have been undertaken within the frame of the multi-year project named "The Call of the Abyss", coordinated by A. Klimchuk, Y. Kasyan, G. Samokhin and K. Markovskoy. Besides the Ukrainian speleologists, cavers from many countries such as France, Spain, Russia, Moldova, Bulgaria, United Kingdom, Ireland, Israel and Lithuania have taken part in different expeditions of the Ukr.S.A.</p><br>
<h3>2001 onwards</h3><br>
<p>The major events in the exploration of Krubera Cave in subsequent years were as follows (see Figure 4 for spot locations):</p><br>
<h4>2001</h4><br>
<p>August: the Ukr.S.A. expedition led by Yury Kasyan. Four underground camps established in the cave: in the Main Branch at −500, −1,200 and −1,400 m and in the Nekujbyshevskaja Branch at −500 m. Systematic inspection and probing of potential leads in the deep sections of the Main Branch; climbing in the Lamprechtsofen tributary; digging in the boulder choke in the Nekuybyshevskaya Branch.</p><br>
<h4>2003</h4><br>
<p>August: the expedition of the Kiev Speleological Club and the CAVEX team. Tested and passed a sump at −1,440 m (now known as Sump 1), explored the post-sump section to roughly −1,660 m, continued climbing in the Lamprechtsofen tributary.</p><br>
<h4>2004</h4><br>
<p>July: the CAVEX team started their separate explorations, beyond the Ukr.S.A. project, in Krubera Cave. Continued exploring a section beyond Sump 1 at −1,410 m and reached the next sump (Sump 2 – "Blue Lake") at depth claimed to be −1,840 m. The depth of that point according to the subsequent Ukr.S.A. survey is −1,775 m.</p><br>
<p>August: the Ukr.S.A. expedition led by Nikolay Solovyov and Alexander Klimchuk. In the Main Branch, surveyed the post-sump series, established a camp at −1,640 m, discovered a lead to a new section ("The Way to the Dream") and explored to −1,840 m. Explored the Uzhgorodskaya Series in the upper part of Krubera by climbing an 80 m high shaft in the Meander Krym. Continued working in the Nekuybyshevskaya Branch.</p><br>
<p>October: the Ukr.S.A. expedition led by Yury Kasyan. In the Main Branch, discovered a lead into a new section beyond the Big Junction at −1,790 m. Explored this section named "Windows" to a blind chamber called "Game Over" at −2,080 m. The depth mark of 2,000 m had been passed for the first time in the history of speleology.</p><br>
<h4>2005</h4><br>
<p>February–March: the Ukr. S.A. expedition led by Yury Kasyan. In the Main Branch, continued exploring the "Windows" series where many side leads and several sumps were tested. A sump at −1,980 m called "Kvitochka" was passed by Nikolay Solovyov, and a continuation found behind it.</p><br>
<p>July: the CAVEX team expedition. Explored the section beyond the Kvitochka Sump to a further sump called Dva Kapitana ("Two Captains") at −2,140 m.</p><br>
<p>August: the Ukr. S.A. expedition led by Nikolay Solovyov. Continued digging and broke through the boulder choke at −500 m in the Nekuybyshevskaya Branch, explored it to the next boulder choke at −640 m.</p><br>
<p>October: the Ukr.S.A. expedition led by Yury Kasyan. The exploration beyond the Kvitochka Sump had been cancelled due to a sudden flood. Established a camp at −1,960 m. Performed a verification survey to −1,200 m by hydrolevelling to assess the precision of the standard Ukr.S.A. survey (the Russian Geographic Society group). Continued climbing in the Lamprechtsofen tributary to +210 m relative to the junction.</p><br>
<h4>2006</h4><br>
<p>August–September: the Ukr.S.A. expedition coordinated by Yury Kasyan. In the Main Branch the terminal sump called Dva Kapitana ("Two Captains") was tested by Gennadiy Samokhin to depth of 17 m, which extended the total depth of Krubera Cave to 2,158 m. In the Nekuybyshevskaya Branch, a group led by Kyryl Markovskoy broke through the boulder choke at −640 m and explored a continuation to −1,004 m.</p><br>
<h4>2007</h4><br>
<p>January: the CAVEX team expedition. Performed a dive in the terminal "Dva Kapitana" sump and claimed it to reach −30 m depth below the water table. However, characteristics of morphology of the underwater passage reported by the team were not confirmed by the subsequent exploration, and no safety line was found deeper than 16 m.</p><br>
<p>August–September: the Ukr.S.A. expedition led by Yury Kasyan. In the Main Branch, Gennadiy Samokhin dived the terminal "Dva Kapitana" Sump for a length of 140 m and depth of −46 m, which set the new depth for Krubera Cave at 2,191 m. After an elbow at -35 m the underwater passage continues to depth under steep angle. Also in the deep parts of the Main Branch, several side passages and sumps at various depths were explored. In a side branch which previously ended at −1,775 m by the "Blue Lake" sump, a series of air-filled passages was explored behind the sump, separated by six intermediary sumps. The farthest sump, "Yantarny", was explored for 130 m in length and 19.5 m in depth and continues. The deepest point in this branch has been reached at −1,841 m. In the Nekuybyshevskaya Branch, a group led by Kyryl Markovskoy continued exploring new leads and extended the depth of this branch to −1,293 m.</p><br>
<h4>2008</h4><br>
<p>September: the Ukr.S.A. expedition led by Yury Kasyan. Explored the Nekuybyshevskaya Branch to depth of 1,390 m. An international scientific expedition "Towards the Centre of the Earth", led by Lithuanian Aidas Gudaitis (Aenigma), descended the main branch as far as -1,800 m, placing water level loggers at siphons here and in the "Chamber of Soviet Speleologists" at -1,710 m.</p><br>
<h4>2009</h4><br>
<p>August–September: the Ukr.S.A. expedition led by Yury Kasyan further pushed the Nekuybushevskaya Branch to a siphon at depth of 1,557 m. The international "Towards the Centre of the Earth" expedition led by Aidas Gudaitis returned to the main branch to collect data from water level loggers, swap their locations and push exploration in the "Spanish branch" near camp 1400. 2008–2009 data collected from 1,710 m and 1,800 m indicated that the sump levels rose in two distinct periods: continuously from May–July 2009 and with an isolated pulse in October 2008, both sumps reaching a maximum flood depth of 12 m. New logger locations at depths of 1,800 m, 1,980 m (Kvitochka sump) and 2,140 m (Dva Kapitana&#39;s sump).</p><br>
<h4>2010</h4><br>
<p>July–August: The CAVEX Team Summer expedition led by Konstantin Mujin performed the first biospeleological studies in the Krubera-Voronya cave. The biospeleological studies led by the cave biologists Ana Sofia Reboleira and Alberto Sendra, provided the deepest subterranean arthropods of the Earth.</p><br>
<p>August: During "Towards the Centre of the Earth" expedition led by Aidas Gudaitis, a Lithuanian member of Aenigma caving club Saulė Pankienė became the first woman to dive Kvitochka sump at 1,980 m, and subsequently to descend to the "Two Captains" sump at a depth of 2,140 m. Water level measurement results of 2009–2010, collected during this expedition, showed that the water level rose up to 228 m above the sump "Two Captains" during June 2010. Data logging devices were installed by Irish members of the expedition near to the entrance of the cave, to log surface conditions and enable correlation of data between surface and underground locations. "Spanish Branch" exploration was completed and a limit was reached with 131 m total passage surveyed.</p><br>
<h4>2012</h4><br>
<p>August: A team of 59 spent 27 days exploring Krubera. Including members from nine different countries, the team set up a series of camps underground. Ukrainian cave diver Gennadiy Samokhin was responsible for reaching a new world depth record of -2,197 m.</p><br>
<p>Mount of the Holy Cross is a high and prominent mountain summit in the northern Sawatch Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 4,270.5 m fourteener is located in the Holy Cross Wilderness of White River National Forest, 10.7 km west-southwest  of the Town of Red Cliff in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. The summit of Mount of the Holy Cross is the highest point in Eagle County and the northern Sawatch Range.</p><br>
<h2>Mountain</h2><br>
<p>Mount of the Holy Cross was named for the distinctive cross-shaped snowfield on its northeast face. Under USDA Forest Service administration, the mountain was proclaimed "Holy Cross National Monument" by Herbert Hoover on May 11, 1929. The monument was transferred to the National Park Service in 1933. In 1950, it was returned to the Forest Service and lost its National Monument status—the number of visitors to the mountain and the nearby "Pilgrim&#39;s Hut" had waned, and the expense of full-time staff could not be justified.</p><br>
<p>This mountain has been the subject of painters, photographers and even a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ("The Cross of Snow"). The first publicly available photograph was published in National Geographic magazine. Thomas Moran depicted the mountain in an oil painting, which now is part of the collection of the Museum of the American West, part of the Autry National Center in Los Angeles, California. It is still much photographed but it is not as well known today as it was in the past.</p><br>
<p>Nearby features include Bowl of Tears Lake, directly under the east face of the peak, Tuhare Lakes, in a cirque that lies south of a significant subpeak, and several other lakes. Notable locations within 35 mi include the Dotsero volcano (near Interstate 70), Vail and Aspen. US 24 runs near the peak through Gilman.</p><br>
<p>The first recorded ascent of Holy Cross was in 1873, by F. V. Hayden and photographer W. H. Jackson during one of Hayden&#39;s geographical surveys. However, the peak may well have been ascended previously by miners or American Indians. The first winter ascent of the peak was made in 1943 by Russel Keene and Howard Freedman of the 10th Mountain Division, then stationed at Camp Hale.</p><br>
<p>Holy Cross can be climbed by at least four different routes, with the easiest and most common route being the North Ridge, which involves 5,000 ft of vertical gain over 11.5 mi and is rated YDS Class 2 for moderate scrambling. The Cross Couloir route forms the vertical portion of the famous cross feature, and provides an advanced snow climb or extreme ski descent.</p><br>
<p>Mount of the Holy Cross has a history of endangering the lives of many hikers. Although the summit on Mount of the Holy Cross is frequently reached on a long day hike, hikers have become stranded or lost through missing the right turn down the ridgeline, heading straight down and into the wilderness; research and planning of the route is important to prevent tragedies. Efforts to improve safety have been made by the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative.</p><br>
<p>Mount of the Holy cross is accessible from Tigiwon Road, south of Minturn, Colorado. The Half Moon Pass Trail is the standard route to the summit of Mount of the Holy Cross via the North Ridge. Following the Fall Creek Trail to an ascent of Notch Mountain Trail provides the best view of the Holy Cross snow feature from Notch Mountain Ridge.</p><br>
<h2>Historical names</h2><br>
<p>Mount Holy Cross</p><br>
<p>Mount of the Holy Cross – 1947</p><br>
<p>Giudecca is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, in northern Italy. It is part of the sestiere of Dorsoduro and is a locality of the comune of Venice.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Giudecca lies immediately south of the central islands of Venice, from which it is separated by the Giudecca Canal. San Giorgio Maggiore lies off its eastern tip.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Giudecca was known in ancient times as the Spinalunga (meaning "Long Thorn"). The name Giudecca may represent a corruption of the Latin "Judaica" ("Judaean") and so may be translated as "the Jewry": a number of towns in Southern Italy and Sicily have Jewish quarters named Giudecca or Judeca. However, the original Venetian Ghetto was in Cannaregio, in the north of the city, and there is no evidence, but for the name, of Jews ever having lived in Giudecca. Furthermore, the term "Giudecca" was not used to denote the Jewish quarters of towns in northern Italy.</p><br>
<p>Giudecca was historically an area of large palaces with gardens, the island became an industrial area in the early 20th century with shipyards and factories, in addition to a film studio. Much of the industry went into decline after World War II, but it is now once more regarded as a quiet residential area of largely working-class housing with some chic apartments and exclusive houses. It is known for its long dock and its churches, including the Palladio-designed Il Redentore. The island was the home of a huge flour mill, the Molino Stucky, which has been converted into a luxury hotel and apartment complex. At the other end of Giudecca is the famous five-star Cipriani hotel with large private gardens and salt-water pool.</p><br>
<h3>Resort town</h3><br>
<p>Modern renovations of some antique architecture in Giudecca have bolstered the island&#39;s reputation as a vacation locale. In 2011, Venetian developers reopened the lodgings of a prominent 16th-century mansion as long-term rentals under the name "Villa F."</p><br>
<p>Church of the Redentore (7251821740).jpgIl Redentore church</p><br>
<p>Festa del Redentore 2009 1.jpegThe pier that connects Giudecca with Venice during the so-called Festa del Redentore in July</p><br>
<p>Le Zitelle (7257700906).jpgLe Zitelle church</p><br>
<p>Le quartier Junghans (Giudecca, Venise) (6157086872).jpgThe modern Junghans quarter</p><br>
<p>Teatro junghans giudecca.JPGJunghans contemporary theater, seat of the Venetian Theatrical Academy</p><br>
<p>Aerial view Venice l 07 2017 4999.jpgAerial view of the Giudecca Canal (left)</p><br>
<p>Laysan , located 808 nmi northwest of Honolulu at N25° 42&#39; 14" W171° 44&#39; 04", is one of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It comprises one land mass of 1,016 acre, about 1 by in size. It is an atoll of sorts, although the land completely surrounds a shallow central lake some 8 ft above sea level that has a salinity approximately three times greater than the ocean. Laysan&#39;s Hawaiian name of Kauō means egg, referring to its shape and how much life springs from the island.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Laysan is the second largest single landmass in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, after Sand Island at Midway Atoll. Laysan was created by coral growth and geologic upshift. The fringing reefs surrounding the island cover about 735 acre. Lake Laysan, the 100 acre, brown, hypersaline lake in the island&#39;s interior, has varied in depth over the decades. In the 1860s, the lake was at most 30 ft deep, but by the 1920s it averaged 3 - deep, because of the buildup of sand that had been blown away in sandstorms. The best way to find fresh water on Laysan is to observe where the finches are drinking; the fresh water floats on the saltier water and accumulates around the shore. The tallest point on the island is at 50 ft above sea level, on a large dune that covers much of the northern portion of the island.</p><br>
<p>A U.S. Geological Survey study found that Laysan, Midway Atoll, and Pacific islands like them could become inundated and unfit to live on during this century.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Discovery and early expeditions</h3><br>
<p>Native Hawaiians may have known about Kauō before Americans and Europeans sailed their ships into the region in the early 19th century. The first reported sightings of the island were by Massachusetts whalers in the 1820s. The Nantucket Enquirer reported a sighting in 1825. Here we probably find the first reference to the name Laysan in print. They were among many who took advantage of the newly discovered whaling grounds off the coast of Japan, making the waters around the Northwest Hawaian archipelago an increasingly popular commercial route. A United States government survey of Pacific Ocean geography in 1828 included the earlier whalers&#39; reports and an additional sighting of an island fitting Laysan&#39;s description by Capt. "Brigs." This may refer to Capt. John Briggs of New Bedford, who may have come across the island as early as 1822. Various publications name Capt. Stanyukovich of the Russian ship Moller as the discoverer of Laysan. Although he mapped the island in 1828 and attempted to name it for his ship, he clearly was there after the New Englanders, at least.</p><br>
<p>In 1857, Capt. John Paty of the Manuokawai annexed Laysan to the Kingdom of Hawaii. In 1859, Capt. Brooks of the ship Gambia traveled to the island, and in his ship log wrote that there was guano there, but "not of sufficient quantity to warrant any attempts to get it."</p><br>
<p>In 1890, the Kingdom of Hawaii granted George D. Freeth and Charles N. Spencer permission to mine the guano on Laysan anyway, as long as they paid a royalty. This newfound attention to Laysan attracted scientists, and in the next decade, many of Laysan&#39;s unique species were scientifically examined for the first time. The working conditions at the guano mines were grueling, but there seemed to be more guano than Capt. Brooks had thought. Around 100 ST were extracted per day. In August 1900, the Japanese workers mutinied against the American management and refused to work, leading to violence because of the language barrier; there were two deaths and two injuries.</p><br>
<p>Guano digging affected the island’s ecosystem dramatically. Professor William Alanson Bryan of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum estimated that there were 10 million seabirds on Laysan in 1903, but eight years later the estimation was at little more than a million. In those eight years, the Pritchardia palms that were unique to Laysan, and the island’s sandalwood trees (Santalum ellipticum) both became extinct.</p><br>
<p>1894 marked the arrival of Laysan’s most notorious inhabitant, German immigrant Max Schlemmer. Schlemmer released domestic rabbits, Belgian hares, English hares and guinea pigs on the island, expecting them to multiply, and provide supplies for a future meat-canning business. This proved to be crucial in the decline of Laysan.</p><br>
<h3>Period of extinction</h3><br>
<p>The rabbits did multiply rapidly. Soon, the appetite of the rabbits far exceeded the available vegetation. Complaints about this and about Japanese poachers of the bird population led President Theodore Roosevelt to declare the Northwestern Hawaiian chain a bird sanctuary in 1909. Schlemmer continued to allow the Japanese to export bird wings illegally and so was removed from the island. But without plant cover, much of the soil and sand became loose and blew about in horrific dust storms. By 1918, the rabbits had eaten so much that the remaining vegetation was only enough to sustain 100 rabbits. Twenty-six plant species had been eradicated, and the Laysan millerbird had gone extinct.</p><br>
<p>In 1923, the Tanager Expedition arrived, and the rabbits were exterminated at long last. The bird population had been reduced to about a tenth of its former size. Three endemic taxa had become extinct, as had numerous other plant species. Two other endemic species, the Laysan duck and the Laysan finch, survive to this day, but are endangered.</p><br>
<h3>Recent history</h3><br>
<p>Like most of the Northwestern Hawaiian islands, Laysan is currently uninhabited. It is protected by the Hawaiian Natural Life Act of 1961 and cared for by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who have had success in eliminating pests, restoring the island to almost pre-desert state, and restoring the numbers of imperiled species.</p><br>
<p>All sorts of garbage that is thrown from ships ends up floating to shore on Laysan. This poses a great danger to the birds because they swallow the plastic, which remains undigested and crowds the stomach, leaving no room for actual food. Curiously, most of the plastic found is Japanese in origin. Additionally, in the 1990s, biologists found that a container of poisonous carbofuran had floated to shore and burst open above the high tide line, creating a "dead zone" which killed anything alive that went near it.</p><br>
<h4>Sandbur eradication</h4><br>
<p>In 1991, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service started an effort to eradicate alien sandbur, a grass that crowds out the native bunchgrass, which is habitat for the birds. Sandbur was first introduced in the 1960s by US Armed Forces personnel. Costing almost one million dollars, the project ended in 2000 when the sandbur was completely removed. With this threat gone, the USFWS hopes to restore Laysan to how it was before it was discovered. To replace the Pritchardia palms that became extinct, the FWS wants to bring in Pritchardia remota from Nihoa, a similar species to Laysan’s lost fan palm. Next may be Nihoa millerbirds, to replace the extinct Laysan millerbirds that were closely related. These transfers would accomplish a two-fold goal: to restore Laysan to an ecology similar to its pre-industrial one, and to protect those two species from extinction by maintaining a second population on Laysan. That way, if diseases, fires, or hurricanes obliterate the Nihoa population, the population can be revived by transplanting some from Laysan.</p><br>
<h4>"Laysan fever"</h4><br>
<p>In 1991, several workers on Laysan contracted a feverish illness previously unknown there or anywhere else. It affected workers on Laysan in varying levels of severity: one woman was evacuated for persistent fever, but others exhibited very mild symptoms. Cedric Yoshimoto, of the University of Hawaii at Mānoa School of Public Health, wrote that "surveillance has identified a newly-described illness of humans termed &#39;Laysan fever (LF)&#39; It is associated with bites of the seabird tick Ornithodoros capensis... joins a short list of human illnesses associated with seabird colonies..." The symptoms of Q fever overlap significantly with those of Laysan fever, and scientists have speculated as to their possible common causes.</p><br>
<h2>Possible ancient Hawaiian presence</h2><br>
<p>In 2003, an archaeologist examining sediment cores found pollen from coconut palms deep below the bottom of the central lagoon. This unexpected find raises several issues. Heretofore, no evidence existed that the coconut ever reached any of the Hawaiian Islands before the arrival of the Polynesian voyagers. Further, there has never been any physical evidence that the ancient Hawaiians extended their explorations of the Hawaiian chain beyond Nihoa and Mokumanamana (Necker). Dating the sediment containing the Cocos pollen is imprecise, but appears to be somewhere between 5,500 years ago, and the arrival of Europeans in Hawaiian waters in the late 18th century. The full length of the core was 70 ft and is thought to represent a record spanning 7,000 years. Coconut pollen was not found in the deeper (older) part of the core. However, cores from Guam in the western Pacific show the presence of coconut trees there as early as 9,000 years ago, well before human habitation. Hawaiian traditions suggest that the Hawaiians were aware that islands existed to the northwest, and the pollen evidence could be interpreted as proof of early Hawaiian visitation to Laysan. Clearly, more precise dating of the sediment layers will be crucial to better interpreting this find.</p><br>
<h2>Distinctive species of Laysan</h2><br>
<p>Laysan is generally regarded as the "gem" of the NWHI, with the most biodiversity. It is home to the Laysan duck, the rarest duck in the world. The other native land bird of Laysan is the Laysan finch, an opportunistic hunter. Eighteen other bird species nest here and use Lake Laysan, the only lake in the NWHI, as a rest stop or breeding ground. Laysan also has its share of native plants, many of which, such as Eragrostis variabilis, were extirpated from Laysan during its extinction period and then reintroduced by scientists afterwards, from other leeward islands. Like most other of the NWHI, Laysan is home to Hawaiian monk seals and green sea turtles.</p><br>
<h3>Birds</h3><br>
<p>*Laysan finch, Telespiza cantans – endemic</p><br>
<p>*Laysan duck, Anas laysanensis – endemic</p><br>
<p>*Laysan albatross, Phoebastria immutabilis – nearly endemic</p><br>
<p>*Black-footed albatross,  Phoebastria nigripes</p><br>
<p>*Short-tailed albatross, Phoebastria albatrus</p><br>
<p>*Great frigatebird, Fregata minor</p><br>
<p>*Lesser frigatebird, Fregata ariel</p><br>
<p>*White tern (or "fairy tern"), Gygis alba</p><br>
<p>*Sooty tern, Onychoprion fuscatus</p><br>
<p>*Spectacled tern, Onychoprion lunata</p><br>
<p>*Bristle-thighed curlew, Numenius tahitiensis</p><br>
<p>*Pacific golden plover, Pluvialis fulva</p><br>
<p>*Christmas shearwater, Puffinus nativitatis</p><br>
<p>*Red-tailed tropicbird, Phaethon rubricauda rothschildi</p><br>
<p>*Brown noddy, Anous stolidus</p><br>
<p>*Black noddy, Anous minutus melangogenys</p><br>
<p>*Masked booby, Sula dactylatra</p><br>
<p>*Brown booby, Sula leucogaster</p><br>
<p>*Red-footed booby, Sula sula rubripes</p><br>
<p>*Bonin petrel, Pterodroma hypoleuca</p><br>
<p>*Laysan rail, Porzana palmeri – extinct, endemic</p><br>
<p>*Laysan honeycreeper Himatione fraithii – extinct, endemic</p><br>
<p>*Laysan millerbird, Acrocephalus familiaris familiaris – extinct, endemic</p><br>
<h3>Insects</h3><br>
<p>* Laysan dropseed noctuid moth, (Hypena laysanensis) – extinct</p><br>
<p>* Laysan noctuid moth, (Agrotis laysanensis) – extinct</p><br>
<p>* Procellaris grotis noctuid moth, (Agrotis procellaris) – extinct</p><br>
<p>* Laysan weevil, (Oedemasylus laysanensis) – extinct</p><br>
<p>Lisianski Island  is one of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, with a land area of 384.425 acre and a maximum elevation of 40 ft above sea level. It is a low, flat sand and coral island about 905 nautical miles  northwest of Honolulu. The island is surrounded by reefs and shoals, including the extensive Neva Shoals. Access to the island is limited by helicopter or by boat to a narrow sandy inlet on the southeastern side of the island.</p><br>
<h2>Geology and topography</h2><br>
<p>The island is made of limestone that caps the submerged summit of an extinct shield volcano that was active about 20 million years ago. Lisianski Island is undergoing the slow process of erosion, and features a depression between two tall sand dunes, that is thought to once have been a lagoon like the one on Laysan, its nearest neighbor. For this reason, the island&#39;s selected Hawaiian name, Papa‘āpoho, means "island with a depression". Over three-quarters of the Bonin petrels that nest in Hawaii nest here. Recent discovery of subfossils on the island indicate that Laysan duck populations occurred on the island, possibly as a result of the former lagoon.</p><br>
<p>The Island is named after Yuri Feodorovich Lisyansky, an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy. Lisianski was the commanding officer of the Russian-American Company&#39;s merchant sloop Neva, which was on an exploration mission as part of the first Russian circumnavigation of the world when she ran aground on the island in 1805. Lisianski reported the island to be of little interest, except insofar as its surrounding reefs and shoals posed a threat to passing vessels.</p><br>
<p>King Kamehameha IV claimed the island for the Hawaiian Kingdom on 10 May 1857. In 1890, the North Pacific Phosphate and Fertilizer Company acquired a twenty-year lease on the island from the Kingdom of Hawaii.</p><br>
<p>In 1909, Lisianski became part of the new Hawaiian Islands Bird Reservation established by USA President Theodore Roosevelt. Prior to this, there had been concern about the poaching of birds on the island.</p><br>
<h2>Neva Shoals</h2><br>
<p>Neva Shoals is a shallow reef covering 979 km&sup2;. more than half the size of Oahu, directly southeast of the island. Neva Shoals was named by Lisiansky, after his ship, Neva. The shoal is shallow and makes access to the island difficult.The reef has been described by divers as a "coral garden" because of the great variety of coral. Twenty-four types of coral have been identified at the reefs surrounding Lisianski. Reef fish are abundant, including predators.</p><br>
<p>Nisyros  is a volcanic Greek island and municipality located in the Aegean Sea. It is part of the Dodecanese group of islands, situated between the islands of Kos and Tilos.</p><br>
<p>Its shape is approximately round, with a diameter of about 8 km, and an area of 41.6 km&sup2;. Several other islets are found in the direct vicinity of Nisyros, the largest of which is Gyali. The Municipality of Nisyros includes Gyalí (pop. 21) as well as uninhabited Pacheiá, Pergoússa, Kandelioússa, Ágios Antónios and Stroggýli. It has a total land area of 50.055 km&sup2; and a total population of 1,008 inhabitants. The island was also called Nisiro in Italian and İncirli in Turkish.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The island has a 3 km to 4 km wide caldera, and was formed within the past 150,000 years, with 3 separate eruptive stages, ranging from explosive and effusive andesitic eruptions to explosive and effusive dacitic and rhyolitic activity. Its coasts are generally rocky or pebbled, but there are also a few sandy beaches (mainly in the northeastern part). The volcano is currently active (but not erupting), and fumaroles are found at the craters. The latest eruptive activity was a steam explosion in 1888, after small ash eruptions in 1871 and 1873 and earthquakes are not infrequent. A period of seismic unrest in 1996&ndash;1997 led an international team of scientist to initiate monitoring of the volcanic unrest in the European Union sponsored Geowarn project. The entire volcanic complex includes the seafloor between Nisyros and Kos, the island of Gyali and a part of Kos island.</p><br>
<h2>Settlements</h2><br>
<p>The island is reachable by ship from Piraeus and Kos, and in summer, there are many daily trips from the village of Kardamena on Kos. There is also a heliport. The main town and port of the island is Mandraki (pop. 660). Other villages are Paloi (239), Nikia (61), and Emporeios (27). According to the 2011 census, the municipality&#39;s resident population is 1,008 (including 21 on Gyali), although in summer it is augmented by many tourists as well as expatriate Nisyrians who visit the island for their vacations. Tourism is not so heavily developed as on other Greek islands. Deposits of perlite and pumice on Gyali provide much of the wealth of the island. The island used to be self-sufficient, and many crops were grown on its terraced slopes. Today, though, they are cultivated on a smaller scale.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>According to Greek mythology, the island was formed when Poseidon cut off a part of Kos and threw it onto the giant Polybotes to stop him from escaping. The ancient name of the Nisyros was Porphyris. Ancient walls, dating from the 5th century BC, part of the acropolis of the island, are found near Mandraki.</p><br>
<p>It was apparently also a source of millstones used in some of the earliest watermills, being referred to by epigrammatist Antipater of Thessalonica in the 1st century BC.</p><br>
<p>The island is mentioned by Homer in the Iliad.</p><br>
<p>In Roman times it became part of the Insulae province.</p><br>
<p>The Knights Hospitaller conquered the island in 1315 and built the crusader castle.</p><br>
<p>Later, the island passed from the Ottomans to the Italians in 1911, with the rest of the Dodecanese ialands, and finally was annexed to the Greek Kingdom after the WWII.</p><br>
<h2>Christianity</h2><br>
<p>The patron saint of the island is Saint Nikitas. Many Orthodox Christian churches are found on the island, as well as four monasteries which are not inhabited by monks today, although various celebrations take place in them. The largest monastery is the one of Panagia Spiliani (Blessed Virgin Mary of the cave) at Mandraki. It is built beside the medieval castle erected by the Knights Hospitaller.</p><br>
<h3>Diocese of Nisyrus</h3><br>
<p>Nisyrus was a suffragan of Rhodes, but the bishopric faded. Known bishops included and Pierre Fridaricus (served from the 1480s), Pedro Xague (appointed 1560), and Jerónimo Clavijo (appointed 1564).</p><br>
<h3>Latin titular see</h3><br>
<p>The diocese was nominally restored in 1927 as Titular See of the lowest (Episcopal) rank, initially named Nysirus (Curiate Italian Nisiro), in 1928 renamed as Nisyrus.</p><br>
<p>It is vacant since decades, having has had the following incumbents :</p><br>
<p>Francesco Fellinger (1929.02.26 – 1940.07.22)</p><br>
<p>Augusto Osvaldo Salinas Fuenzalida, Picpus Fathers (SS.CC.) (1941.02.09 – 1950.08.03)</p><br>
<p>Elizeu Simões Mendes (1950.08.21 – 1953.09.19)</p><br>
<p>Carlos Maria Jurgens Byrne, Redemptorists (C.SS.R.) (1954.02.07 – 1956.12.17) (later Archbishop)</p><br>
<p>Augusto Trujillo Arango (1957.04.25 – 1960.03.31) (later Archbishop)</p><br>
<p>Auguste Joseph Gaudel (1960.09.01 – 1969.08.08)</p><br>
<h2>Culture</h2><br>
<p>A traditional product of Nisyros is soumada, a non-alcoholic almond-flavoured drink.</p><br>
<h2>Twinning</h2><br>
<p>Mandraki is twinned with the following municipalities:</p><br>
<p>Lapithos, Cyprus</p><br>
<p>Castle Geyser is a cone geyser in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park. It is noted for the particularly large geyserite sinter deposits, which form its cone. These deposits have been likened in appearance to a castle.</p><br>
<p>When the geyser was given this name in 1870, the top edges of the structure resembled the typical profile associated with the modern concept of a castle, having the appearance of a large keep, multiple turrets, and especially because of the crenellation along the top edges of what resembled its towers. As the drawing below shows the cone had distinctive appearance at the time. Over time the cone&#39;s shape changes because of the layers of mineral deposited in successive eruptions.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>On September 18, 1870, the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition entered the Upper Geyser Basin. Eventually, members of the expedition named seven geysers they observed in the basin. The appearance of this geyser led Lieutenant Gustavus Cheyney Doane to name it Castle Geyser. Nathaniel P. Langford gave this account in his 1871 Scribner&#39;s article:</p><br>
<p>"The Castle," situated on the summit of an incrusted mound, has a turreted crater through which a large volume of water is expelled at intervals of two or three hours to the height of 50 ft, from a discharging orifice about spell=in 3 in diameter. The architectural features of the silicious sinter surrounding it, which is very massive and compact, indicating that at some former period the flow of water must have been much greater than at present, suggested its name. A vent near it is constantly discharging a large stream of boiling water, and when the geyser is in action the water in this vent boils and bubbles with great fierceness.</p><br>
<h2>Eruption</h2><br>
<p>The Castle Geyser has a 10- to 12-hour eruption cycle. The geyser erupts hot water for about 20 minutes in a vertical column that reaches a height of before changing to a noisy steam phase that issues for 30 to 40 minutes.</p><br>
<p>The sinter cone for Castle Geyser has been dated to around 1022 using carbon-14 dating. This date is much younger than the originally-presumed age of 5,000 to 15,000 years. A 3-D laser scan made of the cone reveals evidence that this geyser has evolved through four to five distinct stages to reach its current configuration.</p><br>
<p>In November 2002, the Denali earthquake in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska caused Castle Geyser, as well as other geysers in Yellowstone, to decrease in eruption frequency. The affected geysers have returned to their previous pattern since that time, however.</p><br>
<p>Nelder Grove is a Giant sequoia grove located in the western Sierra Nevada within the Sierra National Forest, in Madera County, California.</p><br>
<p>It was originally named the Fresno Grove when it was within a larger 19th-century Fresno County, before Madera County was established.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The grove is a 1,540 acre tract containing over 100 mature Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) trees. It also contains a number of sequoia stumps, remaining from when the grove&#39;s ancient trees were logged in the late 1870s to 1890s, before being protected by its United States Forest Service acquisition in 1928.</p><br>
<p>A Sierra National Forest campground is located at the Nelder Grove.</p><br>
<h2>Noteworthy trees</h2><br>
<p>Some of the trees and trails found in the grove that are worthy of special note are:</p><br>
<p>Bull Buck Tree: this tree reaches a height of 246 feet (75 m) and has a ground-level circumference of 100 feet (30 m) but only a volume of 27,383 cuft, thus not among the top 40 giant sequoias.</p><br>
<p>Graveyard of the Giants: an area which contains a number of large sequoias killed by a wildfire, a fate rarely encountered due to the sequoia&#39;s protective bark</p><br>
<p>Shadow of the Giants National Recreation Trail: a trail constructed in 1965 which was established as a National Recreation Trail in 1978</p><br>
<p>Remnants of the area&#39;s logging days: including two restored cabins and replicas of cross-log and two-pole log chutes.</p><br>
<p>Nelder Tree: The largest tree in the grove at 34,993 cuft; it is the 22nd largest giant sequoia in the world.</p><br>
<p>Old Grandad Tree: A tremendously rugged tree atop a hill, there is reason to believe this is a very old tree.</p><br>
<p>Old Forester Tree: This tree is the tallest in the Nelder Grove campground area (at 299 ft.). The tree is named after Walter Puhn, who is a former National Forest Supervisor.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The area was logged extensively from 1878 until the mid-1890s by the Madera Flume and Trading Company. They logged mostly sugar pines, ponderosa pines, white firs, and incense-cedars, but they did cut down some of the sequoias as well.</p><br>
<h3>John Muir</h3><br>
<p>The grove is named for John A. Nelder, who was called by John Muir the "Hermit of the Fresno Forest. Muir wrote about him and the area in 1878, and the description was later included in Chapter 9 of his book Our National Parks:</p><br>
<p>Tangkuban Perahu  is a stratovolcano 30 km north of the city of Bandung, the provincial capital of West Java, Indonesia. It erupted in 1826, 1829, 1842, 1846, 1896, 1910, 1926, 1929, 1952, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1983, and 2013. It is a popular tourist attraction where tourists can hike or ride to the edge of the crater to view the hot water springs and boiling mud up close, and buy eggs cooked on the hot surface. Together with Mount Burangrang and Bukit Tunggul, it is a remnant of the ancient Mount Sunda after the plinian eruption caused the Caldera to collapse.</p><br>
<p>In April 2005 the Directorate of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation raised an alert, forbidding visitors from going up the volcano. "Sensors on the slopes of the two mountains - Anak Krakatoa on the southern tip of Sumatra Island and Tangkuban Perahu in Java - picked up an increase in volcanic activity and a build up of gases, said government volcanologist Syamsul Rizal." On the mountain&#39;s northern flank is Death Valley, which derives its name from frequent accumulation of poisonous gases.</p><br>
<h2>Eruptive History</h2><br>
<p>A study conducted in 2001 determined that Tangkuban Perahu has erupted at least 30 times in the previous 40,750 years. Studies of the tephra layers within 3 km of the crater revealed that twenty one were minor eruptions and the remaining nine were major eruptions. The eruptions that occurred prior to approximately 10,000 years ago were magmatic/phreatomagmatic. The eruptions that occurred after 10,000 years ago were phreatic." The volcano erupted as recently as October 5, 2013.</p><br>
<h2>Legend</h2><br>
<p>The name translates roughly to "upturning of (a) boat" or "upturned boat" in Sundanese, referring to the local legend of its creation. The story tells of "Dayang Sumbi", a beauty who lived in West Java. She cast away her son "Sangkuriang" for disobedience, and in her sadness was granted the power of eternal youth by the gods. After many years in exile, Sangkuriang decided to return to his home, long after the two had forgotten and failed to recognize each other. Sangkuriang fell in love with Dayang Sumbi and planned to marry her, only for Dayang Sumbi to recognize his birthmark just as he was about to go hunting. In order to prevent the marriage from taking place, Dayang Sumbi asked Sangkuriang to build a dam on the river Citarum and to build a large boat to cross the river, both before the sunrise. Sangkuriang meditated and summoned mythical ogre-like creatures -buto ijo or green giant(s)- to do his bidding. Dayang Sumbi saw that the tasks were almost completed and called on her workers to spread red silk cloths east of the city, to give the impression of impending sunrise. Sangkuriang was fooled, and upon believing that he had failed, kicked the dam and the unfinished boat, resulting in severe flooding and the creation of Tangkuban Perahu from the hull of the boat.</p><br>
<p>Caral, or Caral-Chupacigarro, was a large settlement in the Supe Valley, near Supe, Barranca Province, Peru, some 200 km north of Lima. Caral is the most ancient city of the Americas and a well-studied site of the Norte Chico civilization.</p><br>
<p>Caral was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Caral was inhabited roughly between the 26th and 20th centuries BCE, enclosing an area of more than 60 hectare. Caral was described by its excavators as the oldest urban centre in the Americas, a claim that was later challenged as other ancient sites were found nearby, such as Bandurria, Peru. Accommodating more than 3,000 inhabitants, it is the best studied and one of the largest Norte Chico sites known.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeological findings</h2><br>
<p>Paul Kosok discovered Caral in 1948, but it received little attention at the time because it appeared to lack many typical artefacts that were sought at archaeological sites throughout the Andes at the time. In 1975, the Peruvian architect Carlos Williams made a detailed record of most of the archaeological sites of the valley of Supe, among which he recorded Caral, from which he made some observations about the development of architecture in the Andes.</p><br>
<p>Ruth Shady further explored the 4,000- to 4,600-year-old city of temples in the Peruvian desert, with its elaborate complex of temples, an amphitheatre and ordinary houses. The urban complex is spread out over 150 acres (607,000 m²) and contains plazas and residential buildings. Caral was a thriving metropolis at roughly the same time that Egypt&#39;s great pyramids were being built.</p><br>
<p>Caral is the largest recorded site in the Andean region with dates older than 2000 BCE and appears to be the model for the urban design adopted by Andean civilisations that rose and fell over the span of four millennia. It is believed that Caral may answer questions about the origins of the Andean civilisations and the development of the first cities.</p><br>
<p>Among the artefacts found at Caral are a knotted textile piece that the excavators have labelled a quipu. They argue that the artefact is evidence that the quipu record keeping system, a method involving knots tied in rope that was brought to perfection by the Inca Empire, was older than any archaeologist had previously guessed. Evidence has emerged that the quipu may also have recorded logographic information in the same way writing does. Gary Urton has suggested that the quipus used a binary system which could record phonological or logographic data.</p><br>
<h3>Main Temple</h3><br>
<p>The main temple complex (Templo Mayor) is 150 meters long, 110 meters wide and 28 meters high. The date of its construction is unknown.</p><br>
<h3>Lack of warfare</h3><br>
<p>No trace of warfare has been found at Caral: no battlements, no weapons, no mutilated bodies. Ruth Shady&#39;s findings suggest it was a gentle society, built on commerce and pleasure. In one of the temples, they uncovered 32 flutes made of condor and pelican bones and 37 cornetts of deer and llama bones. One find revealed the remains of a baby, wrapped and buried with a necklace made of stone beads.</p><br>
<h3>Scope of site</h3><br>
<p>Caral spawns 19 other temple complexes scattered across the 35 square miles area of the Supe Valley. The find of the quipu indicates that the later Inca Empire preserved some cultural continuity from the Caral civilisation.</p><br>
<p>The date of 2627 BCE is based on carbon dating reed and woven carrying bags that were found in situ. These bags were used to carry the stones that were used for the construction of the temples. The material is an excellent candidate for dating, thus allowing for a high precision. The site may date even earlier as samples from the oldest parts of the excavation have yet to be dated. The town had a population of approximately 3000 people.</p><br>
<p>However, there are 19 other sites in the area (posted at Caral), allowing for a possible total population of 20,000 people for the Supe Valley. All of these sites in the Supe valley share similarities with Caral. They had small platforms or stone circles. Shady (2001) believes that Caral was the focus of this civilisation, which itself was part of an even vaster complex, trading with the coastal communities and the regions further inland – as far as the Amazon, if the depiction of monkeys is any indication.</p><br>
<h3>Geoglyph</h3><br>
<p>In 2000, Marco Machacuay (the chief of excavations at the time) and his colleague, Rocío Aramburú, discovered a large shape etched on the ground in circular stone lines near Caral. This image, known as a geoglyph, is located on the desert floor just west of the main site at Caral. When traced out, the lines form the design of a human face with long, streaming hair and a gaping mouth.</p><br>
<p>This geoglyph is similar to the screaming, bleeding figures found etched onto the stone walls at a site called Cerro Sechín, in the Casma Valley 150 mi to the north. It is unclear what exactly this figure means, but it is believed to have been constructed around the same time as Caral and to have been associated with a nearby ceremonial site known as Chupacigarro.</p><br>
<h3>Musical instruments</h3><br>
<p>Another notable find on the site was a collection of musical instruments, including 37 cornetts made of deer and llama bones and 33 flutes of unusual construction. The flutes were radiocarbon dated to 2170±90 BCE.</p><br>
<p>The Eastern Market is a public market in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C., housed in a 19th-century brick building. It is located on 7th Street SE, a few blocks east of the USA Capitol between North Carolina Avenue SE and C Street SE. Eastern Market was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Badly damaged by an early-morning fire in 2007, the market building reopened in the summer of 2009 following an extensive renovation.</p><br>
<p>Eastern Market also marks a smaller community within the Capitol Hill neighborhood by serving as an anchor point for other nearby stores and restaurants. It is served by a nearby eponymous stop on the Washington Metro Blue, Orange, and Silver Lines.</p><br>
<h2>Overview</h2><br>
<p>Eastern Market is part of ward 6 of DC&#39;s 8 wards. Nestled in what is known as the Capitol Hill neighborhood, this is the area bounded by North and South Capitol Streets on the west, 15th street on the east and H street on the north and by the Southeast southwest Freeway. Working adults, singles and families with young children largely populate the neighborhood of town houses. This is an old fashioned neighborhood where residents can do their shopping on a daily basis. Currently managed under the guidance of interim manager Barry Margeson. The flea market of Eastern Market has one of the most diverse markets in the nation. It hosts up to 100 exhibitors from five continents.</p><br>
<p>The market participates in a host of holiday and seasonal events to attract visitors, award prices and offer certificates and include those who live in the area into the community. Presently Eastern Market is being met with proposals for renovation. The goal of the renovation plan is to link 8th Street&#39;s Barracks Row and Eastern Market in order to create a community gathering space.</p><br>
<p>Beyond the Flea Market, Eastern Market is also known for its cultural attractions, which include the Folger Shakespeare Library and theater and the Library of Congress. Eastern Market’s North Hall has been a premiere destination for hosting memorable events and can be rented for weddings and other occasions.</p><br>
<p>Eastern Market has been featured in scenes of movies including Body of Lies (2008) and Mercury Rising (1998).</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Original market</h3><br>
<p>The first Eastern Market was one of three public marketplaces included in Pierre LEnfants plan for the city, to supplement existing markets in Alexandria and Georgetown. The plan also called for a Central Market and a Western Market.</p><br>
<p>In 1805, Thomas Jefferson issued a proclamation calling for Eastern Market to be set up at 7th and L Streets SE, near the Navy Yard.</p><br>
<p>The original market received heavy fire damage during the British attack of 1814. It was repaired and remained active until the Civil War caused a disruption of supplies. During the war, farmers from southern Maryland set up their own marketplace on the opposite side of the Anacostia River.</p><br>
<p>The market fell into disrepair, and was nearly abandoned. An 1871 newspaper account called it a "disgraceful shed."</p><br>
<h3>1873 relocation</h3><br>
<p>The current Eastern Market was designed by Adolf Cluss and was in continuous operation as a public market from 1873 until April 30, 2007. It was the first in a larger city-owned public market system, initiated to urbanize Washington, make orderly provision for the distribution of goods to its residents, and serve as a magnet to draw residents. The Market was expanded in 1908 with the addition of the Center and North Halls designed by Snowden Ashford. At the start of the 20th century, the Eastern Market was recognized as the unofficial "town center" of Capitol Hill. It is the last of the city&#39;s public markets still in operation.</p><br>
<p>The market nearly closed because of competition from grocery store chains and a decline in neighborhood investment. Local residents fought to keep it open, and the area has since been revitalized. Eastern Market continues to host a thriving farmers&#39; market. Fresh meats, baked goods and cheeses are sold from indoor stalls, and fresh produce is sold outside along the tent-covered sidewalk. Artisans and antiques dealers also sell their goods outside the market on weekends, making Eastern Market a popular stop for locals as well as tourists. The Market 5 Gallery organizes art shows, music and theater performances, and craft sales at the Eastern Market.</p><br>
<h3>2007 fire and aftermath</h3><br>
<p>Eastern Market was badly damaged by an early-morning 3-alarm fire on April 30, 2007. The heaviest damage was in the South Hall of the market, the portion occupied by vendors&#39; stalls, where the roof suffered a partial collapse. The Washington Post has described the South Hall as "gutted so badly that birds can now fly in through the front windows and out the back ones." Following the fire, Washington D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty promised to rebuild the market. The outdoor weekend market was disrupted but never closed. Many of the food vendors re-opened for business within weeks of the fire, selling their products outside of the building. In August 2007, the city completed a temporary market annex, known as the "East Hall," on the opposite side of 7th Street, on the grounds of Hine Junior High School. This housed the vendors until the reopening of the market building, with a ribbon-cutting on June 26, 2009. The Washington, D.C., Fire and Emergency Services Department determined officially that the fire originated outside of the Eastern Market between a dumpster and the exterior of the west wall, and that the fire was caused by an electrical failure on the electric supply wire for a nearby trash compactor. However, former D.C. fire investigators Gerald Pennington and Greg Bowyer have suggested the fire was deliberately set by suspect Joel Ramos.</p><br>
<p>Eastern Market reopened its doors on June 26, 2009, after two years of reconstruction work. On March 9, 2010 the renovation of the market received the Outstanding Project Award from the Structural Engineering Association of Metropolitan Washington in April. The Market has already received an "Honor Award" in the design category and has been recognized as a National Finalist by the American Counsel of Engineering Companies of Metropolitan Washington. The restoration process was a detailed and challenging effort to re-purpose and salvage various components of the critically damaged building. Among many innovative improvements, the historic roof was restored and state of the art equipment was installed. The design allowed the previously hidden historic skylight to be reintroduced as a prominent architectural feature of the new Eastern Market South Hall. Renovation was overseen by the Department of Real Estate Services and coordinated with Robert Silman Associates and Quinn Evans Architects. Mayor Adrian Fenty moved to have 7th Street, in front of the market, closed to vehicle traffic on the weekends to function as a "pedestrian plaza."</p><br>
<p>The Miami and Erie Canal was a canal in Ohio that ran about 274 mi; it was constructed from Cincinnati to Toledo to create a water route from the Ohio River to Lake Erie. Construction on the canal began in 1825 and was completed in 1845 at a cost to the state government of $8,062,680.07. At its peak, it included 19 aqueducts, three guard locks, 103 canal locks, multiple feeder canals, and a few man-made water reservoirs. The canal climbed 395 ft above Lake Erie and 513 ft above the Ohio River to reach a topographical peak called the Loramie Summit, which extended 19 mi between New Bremen, Ohio to lock 1-S in Lockington, north of Piqua, Ohio. Boats up to 80 feet long were towed along the canal by mules, horses, or oxen walking on a prepared towpath along the bank, at a rate of four to five miles per hour.</p><br>
<p>Due to competition from railroads, which began to be built in the area in the 1850s, the commercial use of the canal gradually declined during the late 19th century. It was permanently abandoned for commercial use in 1913 after a historic flood in Ohio severely damaged it. Only a small fraction of the canal survives today, along with its towpath and locks.</p><br>
<h2>Background</h2><br>
<p>When Ohio became a state in 1803, few means of transportation existed within the region to move people and cargo from place to place. Settlers were dependent on rivers and Lake Erie. Most of the existing roads were of poor quality for carriage travel, and the railroads were not yet in common use. In addition, Ohio was geographically separated from the East Coast by the barrier of the Appalachian Mountains. This made life difficult for early citizens because goods from the Atlantic Coast and Europe were difficult to obtain and often very expensive due to transportation costs. For the same reasons, it was difficult for Ohio businessmen and farmers to sell their products to markets outside the state. Some entrepreneurs began to ship goods from Ohio down the Ohio River to New Orleans, by sailing ship and keelboats, but the journey was long and costly. It was difficult to return vessels upriver.</p><br>
<p>Even after invention of the steamships improved river transportation, it was more difficult to ship goods upriver. The cost of shipping freight was extremely high, severely limiting trade and population growth in the state; especially in areas that were far away from natural waterways such as Lake Erie or the Ohio River, which bounded the state on the north and south, respectively.</p><br>
<p>To overcome these obstacles, many people, including George Washington and several other politicians, expressed early support for a national canal system to connect many of the country&#39;s waterways. In 1807, Senator Thomas Worthington of Ohio (who later became governor) asked the Secretary of the Treasury for funds to improve roads and build canals in Ohio, yet did not have much success. At the time, many prominent leaders in the Democratic Republican party were against improvements being built by the national government and thought that they should be built by the individual states instead. The United States Congress approved national canal legislation in 1817, 1822, and 1830, but each bill was vetoed by the sitting president.</p><br>
<p>Consequently, the burden of building canals passed to the states. The Erie Canal in New York proved to be an early success after it was completed in 1825. The Ohio House and Senate had worked for two decades to pass legislation authorizing a canal, gaining success with the Act of February 4, 1825, which finally approved the construction of the Ohio canal system. The canal was largely state-funded, using money acquired from selling off land near where the canals were to be dug. The state government planned and built two canals in the state: the Miami and Erie Canal, from Cincinnati to Toledo, connecting the Ohio River and Lake Erie; and the Ohio and Erie Canal, which connected Cleveland, another lake port, to Portsmouth. This system provided the interior of Ohio with new travel routes that effectively extended to the major Atlantic port of New York City, as merchants could ship goods through Lake Erie, the Erie Canal and the Hudson River to New York.</p><br>
<h2>Construction</h2><br>
<p>Because Ohio is not entirely flat, the system of locks had to be designed to act as a staircase so boats could navigate the difference in elevation. To supply water for the canal, manmade reservoirs such as Grand Lake St. Marys and Lake Loramie in Shelby County were constructed, along with several feeder canals. Indian Lake in Logan County was greatly enlarged to provide a steadier supply of water for the Sidney feeder canal.</p><br>
<p>Branch canals were built to serve as extensions from the main canal. The Warren County Canal, was a branch canal constructed from the Miami and Erie Canal at Middletown to Lebanon. This branch was opened in 1840, but remained in operation less than 15 years before being abandoned. A short branch, the Sidney or Port Jefferson feeder canal ran up the Miami Valley from Lockington through Sidney to a dam just upstream from Port Jefferson.</p><br>
<p>The following list includes measurement standards for the canal, although these varied by region of the state.</p><br>
<p>4 ft water depth.</p><br>
<p>40 ft wide at water level.</p><br>
<p>10 ft wide towpath in addition to mandated outer slopes.</p><br>
<p>All slopes are 4.5 ft horizontal to 4 ft. perpendicular.</p><br>
<p>The canal could accommodate boats up to 90 ft long and 14 ft wide. &lt</p><br>
<h2>Decline and abandonment</h2><br>
<p>The Miami and Erie never proved to be as profitable as the state government had hoped, as within several years of being completed to Lake Erie it had to compete with railroads. These offered greater speed and capacity for both passengers and goods. Factors limiting the canals success included the lower population and level of economic development in Ohio, compared to that of New York when its canal was completed. Second, while New York had one canal that was located at the bottleneck of Great Lakes trade, Ohio had two canals, which spread usage too thinly. Third, was the expense of building and maintaining the canals. While the Erie Canal was 363 miles in length, with an elevation change of 700 feet, the combined length of Ohios canals was 557 miles, with an elevation change of 2,096 feet. Compared to operations of the Erie Canal, the Ohio canal system had less trade and fewer passengers, while it had to operate over a longer length, and at a greater expense.</p><br>
<p>The canal was completed just before most of the railroads in Ohio were built, and it had to compete directly with railroads for the remainder of its operation. Due to the canal freezing over in the winter, as well as the slowness of the boats, the canal was less practical than railroads, especially for perishable goods and passenger traffic. Although the canal services were often cheaper than the railroads, particularly for bulk cargoes such as grain and salted pork, the canal had largely ceased to operate by 1906. The catastrophic Great Dayton Flood of 1913 and the subsequent flood control measures constructed by the Miami Conservancy District destroyed much of the canal infrastructure along the southern portion of the route, where it paralleled the Great Miami River. The canal was permanently abandoned. What was not destroyed was no longer maintained, and slowly many of the remaining locks and sections of canal were destroyed, with the open canal filled in.</p><br>
<p>Much of the original towpath was redeveloped as the right-of-way for the Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad, an electric interurban streetcar that operated until 1938. Part of the right-of-way was converted to the Wright-Lockland Highway (now part of Interstate 75). From 1920 to 1925, six million dollars was spent to use the bed of the canal to build a downtown subway in Cincinnati. The surface was later paved over to form Central Parkway, as funds ran out before the Cincinnati Subway could be completed. In the central and northern regions, a large portion of the canal was destroyed when it was filled in to create I-75 and USA Route 24. Some smaller portions of right-of-way have been converted to bike trails for recreational and local commuting use.</p><br>
<h2>Legacy</h2><br>
<p>Although urban development has destroyed most vestiges of the canal, some locks and sections of the waterway have survived. One of the original locks (#17) is located in the Carillon Historical Park in Dayton. An unrestored but complete lock (#15) is located just off Main Street (State Route 571) in Tipp City. Remains of the Excello lock are located in the Butler County Excello Locks Park near the intersection of State Route 73 and South Hamilton Middletown Road in Lemon Township. The massive west abutment of the Old Nine-mile Aqueduct over the Great Miami River is still present approximately 400 ft upstream of the Taylorsville Dam east of Vandalia (Montgomery County). The abutment terminates a fairly intact canal segment that extends at least 5 mi north to Tipp City. This segment includes an intact concrete weir near the abandoned Vandalia water treatment plant (aka "Tadmore Station") and a ruined lock (#16, "Picayune") about halfway to Tipp City along Canal Road.</p><br>
<p>On the canals southern end, a drained section is located in St. Bernard, Ohios Ludlow Park, where the canal bed is still visible. The canal remains in water (and navigable for canoes or kayaks) in the rural region between Delphos and St. Marys, Ohio. South of St. Mary&#39;s, it has degraded to form a shallow ditch in most places, with some ruined locks remaining. From north to south along State Route 66, sections of the original canal are visible in Delphos, at a small historic park located at the Deep Cut in Spencerville, Lock Two (a hamlet mostly consisting of period brick buildings), New Bremen, Minster, Fort Loramie, and Piqua. The Miami and Erie Canal Deep Cut was designated in 1964 as a USA National Historic Landmark near Spencerville. The Piqua Historical Area features a replica canal boat and other related items.</p><br>
<p>Much of the canal corridor continues as a prosperous manufacturing area; today Interstate 75 and railroads provide the chief transportation means. An historical reenactment of the Miami-Erie canal days is held during summer and early fall months at Providence Metropark along the Maumee River just west of Toledo near Grand Rapids. Historical actors dress and act as if it is 1876 during the months of May–October. Two mules pull the canal boat titled The Volunteer, while workers man the tiller and provide commentary to the passengers. Providence Metroparks boasts using original lock 44 as part of the tour. That lock is the only working lock in the state of Ohio. The northern portion of the towpath (from Fort Loramie to Delphos and beyond) is used as a hiking trail.</p><br>
<h2>Cities and towns along the canal</h2><br>
<p>The following is a list of towns and cities within Ohio (arranged North to South) along the Miami and Erie Canal. The canal was constructed parallel to the Maumee River to Defiance, from where it was constructed in a southerly route to Cincinnati.</p><br>
<p>Toledo, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Maumee, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Waterville, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Providence, Ohio (defunct city across the Maumee River from Grand Rapids, Ohio)</p><br>
<p>Napoleon, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Florida, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Defiance, Ohio The canal turns here in a southerly route to Cincinnati.</p><br>
<p>Junction, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Melrose, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Ottoville, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Delphos, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Spencerville, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Kossuth, Ohio</p><br>
<p>St. Marys, Ohio</p><br>
<p>New Bremen, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Minster, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Fort Loramie, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Port Jefferson, Ohio (North end of the Sidney Feeder)</p><br>
<p>Sidney, Ohio (Middle section of the feeder)</p><br>
<p>Lockington, Ohio (Southern end junction of the Sidney Feeder)</p><br>
<p>Piqua, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Troy, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Tipp City, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Huber Heights, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Dayton, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Moraine, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Alexandersville, Ohio</p><br>
<p>West Carrollton, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Miamisburg, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Franklin, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Middletown, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Hamilton, Ohio</p><br>
<p>West Chester, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Sharonville, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Evendale, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Lockland, Ohio (Site of the first set of locks)</p><br>
<p>Elmwood Place, Ohio</p><br>
<p>St. Bernard, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Cincinnati, Ohio</p><br>
<p>Saint Patricks Church is a Catholic parish in the Archdiocese of Dubuque, and is located at 15th and Iowa Streets, Dubuque, Iowa, United States. The church and rectory were included as contributing properties in the Jackson Park Historic District that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. St. Patricks Church is located two blocks away from St. Marys Church. The reason for the close proximity of the two parishes was that St. Mary was originally built for service to German families of Dubuque, and St. Patricks provided services for the Irish settlers to Dubuque.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The parish was founded in 1852 as a mission of St. Raphael Cathedral. The parish buildings were built on land that Bishop Mathias Loras had purchased when it was offered for sale by the Federal government. Originally, a wood frame building was used as a church building, and was located at what is now the front of the rectory. The first church was dedicated by Bishop Loras in 1853. St. Patrick&#39;s became an independent parish five years later when the Rev. Patrick McCabe was assigned as the first resident pastor. The cornerstone of the present brick church was laid in 1877, and the building dedicated on August 15, 1878. In 1928, the Rev. J.J. Hanley remodeled and enlarged the church.</p><br>
<p>St. Patrick Church was originally built for service to the Irish settlers of Dubuque and while the parish has maintained a healthy respect for its Irish heritage over its many years of service, the parish now specializes in service to the Hispanic residents of Dubuque. The parish offers a Spanish Mass on Sundays, and the offices of Hispanic ministry are also located at the parish. From 1995 to 2008 a pastoral administrator led the St. Patricks congregation. During that same time, from 1999 to 2010, St. Patricks was clustered with St. Marys Parish. St. Marys closed in May 2010 and St. Patricks was clustered with St. Raphaels Cathedral at that time.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>St. Patrick&#39;s Church was designed by Dubuque architect John Keenan in the Gothic Revival style. It is a brick structure built on a Dubuque stone foundation. It features a central tower that is capped with a crown. The main entrance has been altered in subsequent years, but it fits in with the older structure. The church building is seven bays long with the seventh bay on the south end forming a sort of transept. The bays are divided by brick buttresses and each bay contains a paired lancet window. The interior is divided into three naves.</p><br>
<p>The rectory was built in the 1880s to the rear of the church. It is a three-story brick residence capped with a mansard roof. The original porch has been replaced with a single-story addition. Other additions have also been added on the west side of the house.</p><br>
<p>A school building, no longer extant, was built immediately west of the church. It was replaced by a three-story structure in 1951 on the corner of West 15th and Main Streets. The parish sold the building in 2006. It is not considered an historic structure.</p><br>
<p>The Miami Valley is the land area surrounding the Great Miami River in southwest Ohio, USA, and includes the Little Miami, Mad, and Stillwater rivers as well. Geographically, it includes Dayton, Springfield, Middletown, Hamilton, and other communities. The name is derived from the Miami Indians.</p><br>
<p>Commonly, however, it refers to the economic and cultural-social region centered on the Greater Dayton area. Middletown and Hamilton both fall under the economic and cultural-social influence of Cincinnati and thus are not commonly included in this sense. Institutions and enterprises in the Dayton area, such as Miami Valley Career Technology Center, Miami Valley Hospital, Miami Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America and Miami Valley Storytellers illustrate local usage.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>During the mid-twentieth century, among the largest employers in the Valley were Procter and Gamble in Cincinnati, Champion Paper and Fiber in Hamilton, Armco in Middletown, and National Cash Register in Dayton.</p><br>
<h2>Counties and cities</h2><br>
<p>Local television stations WDTN, Think (WPTD and WPTO), WHIO-TV, WKEF and WRGT include the following counties and cities in the cultural Miami Valley:</p><br>
<p>Montgomery County (Dayton)</p><br>
<p>Greene County (Xenia)</p><br>
<p>Preble County (Eaton)</p><br>
<p>Clark County (Springfield)</p><br>
<p>Miami County (Troy)</p><br>
<p>Darke County (Greenville)</p><br>
<p>Champaign County (Urbana)</p><br>
<p>Shelby County (Sidney)</p><br>
<p>Logan County (Bellefontaine)</p><br>
<p>Butler and Warren counties (Middletown)</p><br>
<p>Wayne County, Indiana (Richmond)</p><br>
<p>Mercer County (Celina)</p><br>
<p>Auglaize County (Wapakoneta)</p><br>
<p>Additionally, WHIO includes the following locations in its news and weather coverage:</p><br>
<p>Clinton County (Wilmington)</p><br>
<p>Union County, Indiana (Liberty)</p><br>
<p>Randolph County, Indiana (Winchester)</p><br>
<h2>Major highways</h2><br>
<p>Interstate 75 - Runs north to south along the valley and through downtown Dayton.</p><br>
<p>Interstate 70 - Traverses the valley from east to west.</p><br>
<p>Interstate 71 - Runs north to south along the eastern half of the Miami Valley.</p><br>
<p>Interstate 675 - Bypasses Dayton from I-75 south of the city to I-70 east of it.</p><br>
<p>USA Route 35 - Runs east to west through the Dayton metro area.</p><br>
<p>USA Route 68 - Runs north to south through farmlands in the eastern Miami Valley.</p><br>
<p>USA Route 127 - Runs north to south through several cities and rural communities in the western Miami Valley.</p><br>
<p>Ohio State Route 129 - Connects Hamilton to I-75.</p><br>
<p>Ohio State Route 49 - Forms a bypass west of Dayton and continues north into Darke County.</p><br>
<h2>Demographics</h2><br>
<p>As Greater Cincinnati grows northward through Butler County, it could conceivably merge with Greater Dayton by 2020, thereby virtually erasing any boundary between the two current Combined Statistical Areas (CSA). As a result, the US Census Bureau could begin reporting the Cincinnati and Dayton metropolitan areas as one by that time, though it would be up to the USA Office of Management and Budget to make the merger decision. The new Cincinnati–Dayton metropolitan area would be comparable in size to that of the Orlando–Deltona–Daytona Beach, FL CSA and place it within the top 20 most populous metros in the US, with a population of nearly 3.0 million.</p><br>
<p>Mount Timpanogos, sometimes informally referred to as Timp, is the second highest mountain in Utah&#39;s Wasatch Range. Timpanogos rises to an elevation of 11,752 ft above sea level in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. With 5,270 feet of topographic prominence, Timpanogos is the 47th-most prominent mountain in the contiguous United States.</p><br>
<p>The mountain towers about 7,000 feet over Utah Valley, including the cities of Lehi, Provo, Orem, Pleasant Grove, American Fork, Lindon and others. The exposed portion of the mountain is made up entirely of limestone and dolomite from the Pennsylvanian period, and is about 300 million years old. Heavy winter snowfall is characteristic of this portion of the Wasatch Range, and avalanche activity is common in winter and spring. The mountain is also home to Timpanogos Cave National Monument, a series of decorated caves in the north end of the mountain that have guided ranger tours open daily to the public during the warmer months.</p><br>
<p>The word Timpanogos comes from the Timpanogots tribe who lived in the surrounding valleys from AD 1400. The name translates as "rock" (tumpi-), and "water mouth" or "canyon" (panogos).</p><br>
<h2>Glacial activity</h2><br>
<p>Mount Timpanogos displays many examples of various glacial processes and the sculpting power of moving ice. Ice Age glaciers mantled the peak until relatively recently, and dramatically shaped the mountain into an Alpine tableau of knife-edge ridges and yawning, U-shaped amphitheaters. A remnant of these glaciers persists in the deeply recessed hanging valley below the main summit. Timpanogos Glacier is a rock-covered mass found on a long, north-facing slope, and usually has patches of snow the entire year. Although an above ground cirque glacier was present before the Dust Bowl Drought of the 1930s, no glacial ice is visible today. However, in 1994, a large crevasse opened up, revealing that there still is a glacier buried beneath the talus. Flowing water can occasionally be heard beneath the rocks. Emerald Lake, a small proglacial lake at the bottom of the cirque, often exhibits a blue color, indicating that the glacier is probably still moving, although perhaps too slowly to be noticeable. The locally unique ice is a relic of the region&#39;s formerly colder climate and has long been a major attraction to hikers and climbers on the mountain, who often slide down its permanent snowfield as a shorter descent route. Its precise classification remains the subject of spirited ongoing debate, whether "real" or not.</p><br>
<h2>Hiking</h2><br>
<p>Mount Timpanogos is one of Utah&#39;s most popular hiking/climbing destinations and is climbed year round. Winter climbing requires advanced mountaineering ability. In spring, undercutting of deeply drifted snow by streams creates a hazard that has proven fatal on several occasions. Climbers can fall through the undermined snow fifty feet or more into the icy stream underneath.</p><br>
<p>Although it is a 14-mile round-trip hike, with almost a mile of elevation gain, Timp&#39;s summit is one of the most-visited in the Rocky Mountains. There are two main trails to the top: the first starts at Aspen Grove with a trailhead elevation of 6,910 feet (2,106 meters), and the second starts at the Timpooneke campground in American Fork Canyon at 7,370 feet (2,185 meters). The two trails are nearly the same length. Hikers on the trails climb through montane forest, subalpine and alpine zones. The hike is marked by waterfalls, conifers, rocky slopes and ridges, mountain goats, and a small lake, Emerald Lake, at 10,380 feet (3,164 m). A short diversion will lead hikers past a World War II bomber crash site. Other climbing routes exist on the mountain, but they are more technically demanding and require special skills and mountaineering gear.</p><br>
<p>Prior to 1970, an annual Provo event called the "Timp Hike" sent thousands of people up the mountain&#39;s slopes. From 1911 to 1970 this one-day event (which took place generally on the third or fourth weekend in July) attracted thousands of people to the mountain. It also created the need for infrastructure, such as the stone shelter built in 1959 near Emerald Lake and a smaller metal shack on the summit (this was used as an observation deck complete with brass rods etched with notches aligned with various landmarks). The hike caused environmental damage to the mountain, and was finally canceled to help preserve the delicate mountain ecosystem. Despite the presence of the existing structures, the mountain was designated a wilderness area by the USA Congress in 1984.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The rock which forms the visible surface of Mount Timpanogos is primarily limestone composed of compacted sediment laid down onto an ancient seafloor over millions of years during the late Carboniferous Period (roughly 300 million years ago). Older rock exists beneath the limestone on the surface. The limestone was subsequently lifted high above sea level and the mountain itself became prominent as the Western valley sunk due to basin and range faulting. The most contemporary features of the mountain were formed through recent glacial and water erosion.</p><br>
<h2>Hazards</h2><br>
<p>Since 1982 the Timpanogos Emergency Response Team ("TERT") has been established on the mountain on weekends to provide first aid, rescue and communication.</p><br>
<p>The Timp Glacier is one of the major sources of injury or death to hikers on Timp, particularly when some attempt to "glissade" (or slide rapidly) down the snowfield&#39;s surface with the assistance of a shovel or other device to save time descending. There have been many cases of injuries from buried rocks under the snow as well. There have been numerous life flight rescues on the mountain, often caused by this activity. The frequency of these rescues, however, greatly diminished once TERT was established.</p><br>
<h2>Folklore</h2><br>
<p>In the early 1900s Eugene Lusk "Timp" Roberts, a professor at Brigham Young University, initiated an annual hike and pageant intended to "sell Timpanogos to the world." One way was to craft his take on native people&#39;s folklore. Some observers believe the ridgeline of Mount Timpanogos superficially resembles a sleeping woman. Roberts wrote his folk tale of the maiden Utahna and her sacrifice to her gods with this as the launch point, with one version the basis for a ballet.</p><br>
<p>Rosecliff, built 1898-1902, is one of the Gilded Age mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, now open to the public as a historic house museum. The house has also been known as the Hermann Oelrichs House or the J. Edgar Monroe House.</p><br>
<p>It was built by Theresa Fair Oelrichs, a silver heiress from Nevada, whose father James Graham Fair was one of the four partners in the Comstock Lode. She was the wife of Hermann Oelrichs, American agent for Norddeutscher Lloyd steamship line. She and her husband, together with her sister, Virginia Fair, bought the land in 1891 from the estate of George Bancroft and commissioned the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White to design a summer home suitable for entertaining on a grand scale. With little opportunity to channel her considerable energy elsewhere, she "threw herself into the social scene with tremendous gusto, becoming, with Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish and Mrs. O.H.P. Belmont (of nearby Belcourt), one of the three great hostesses of Newport."</p><br>
<p>The principal architect, Stanford White, modeled the mansion after the Grand Trianon of Versailles, but smaller and reduced to a basic "H" shape, while keeping Mansarts scheme of a glazed arcade of arched windows and paired Ionic pilasters, which increase to columns across the central loggia. Whites Rosecliff adds to the Grand Trianon a second storey with a balustraded roofline that conceals the set-back third storey, containing twenty small servants&#39; rooms and the pressing room for the laundry.</p><br>
<h2>Construction and interiors</h2><br>
<p>The commission was given to McKim, Mead, and White in 1898, and the New York branch of Jules Allard and Sons were engaged as interior decorators. Construction started in 1899, but the sharp winter slowed construction; Mrs. Oelrichs sister had married William K. Vanderbilt II that winter season, and the house was required for parties in the following Newport season; the eager Mrs. Oelrichs moved in July 1900, sending the workmen out in order to give a first party in August, a dinner for one hundred and twelve to outdo Mrs. Stuyvesant Fishs Harvest Festival Ball at Crossways. Ferns and floral arrangements concealed the unfinished areas. The house was not completed until 1902.</p><br>
<p>Rosecliffs brick construction is clad in white architectural terracotta tiles. Stanford Whites sophisticated spatial planning offered unexpected views en filade through aligned doorways centered on handsome monumental fireplaces with projecting overmantels.</p><br>
<p>The central corps de logis is entirely taken up with the ballroom as it appeared on Whites plans which, with the Louis XIV furniture removed, could serve as Newports largest ballroom at 40 by 80 feet. Its scheme of single and paired Corinthian pilasters alternating with arch-headed windows and recessed doorways echoes the articulation of the exterior. This is reached through the French doors on either side, to a plain terrace dropping by broad stairs to the lawn facing the ocean, or to a planted terrace garden with a central fountain.</p><br>
<p>In the northernmost of the wings that project from both sides of the central block, is a dining room and a billiard room separated by a marble anteroom backed, on the service side, by a butler&#39;s pantry with two dumbwaiters. These communicate with the all-but-subterranean kitchens below which were lit, invisibly, from the sunken service yard on the north side of the house. The main entrance, on the opposite south wing, is through a vestibule where the exterior Ionic order is carried inside, now suitably enriched, under an emphatic cornice that divides the height 2:3.</p><br>
<p>The vestibule is separated, by a tripartite screen with an arched central opening flanked above the cornice by bull&#39;s-eye openings in which baroque vases stand, from a grand Stair Hall. The Stair Hall projects from the south block to accommodate a grand staircase that sweeps forward through a heart-shaped opening into the floor space. This divides at a landing to return in matched recurving flights to the upper floor.</p><br>
<p>Beyond the Stair Hall is the Salon with the same proportions as the Dining Room (3:4, or 30 by 40 feet) and like it, originally hung with tapestry. Its ceiling is coffered. Its overscaled Gothic fireplace of Caen stone is the one eclectic anomaly in Rosecliff&#39;s interiors.</p><br>
<p>Upstairs, three grand bedrooms of equal importance and guest bedrooms of graduated sizes may be linked by opened doors or isolated by locked ones, in a flexible arrangement of rooms or suites, all with baths, and all separated from the wide corridor by intervening dressing closets for hermetic privacy from the staff, who moved up and down stairs by means of two small service stairs contrived in spaces smaller than the master bedrooms&#39; walk-in closets.</p><br>
<p>The most famous of Mrs. Oelrich&#39;s parties was the "Bal blanc" of 19 August 1904 to celebrate the Astor Cup Races, in which everything was white and silver.</p><br>
<h3>Monroe family</h3><br>
<p>Rosecliff stayed in the Oelrichs family until 1941, then went through several changes of ownership before being bought by Mr & Mrs J. Edgar Monroe of New Orleans in 1947. Mr. Monroe, a southern gentleman who had made his fortune in the ship building industry, came to Newport with his wife Louise every summer to escape the summer heat of the Deep South. The two became well known for the large parties they threw at Rosecliff; many of which had mardi gras theme, the Monroes loved dressing up in fancy costumes for these parties. Unlike Mrs. Oelrichs parties, which were stiff and formal, the Monroes parties were laid back and easy going. In fact, the Monroe&#39;s are responsible for the creation of the rose, used as the namesake for Rosecliff. Because Hermann Oelrichs Jr had sold off all the furnishings in 1941, nearly all the furnishings visitors see at Rosecliff today are from the Monroe period of occupation. In 1971, Mr. and Mrs. Monroe donated the entire estate with its contents and a $2 million operating endowment to the Preservation Society of Newport County, who opened it to the public for tours. Mr Monroe often would come back to the estate for charity events up until his death in 1991.</p><br>
<h2>In film</h2><br>
<p>The ballroom was used to film scenes for the 1974 version of The Great Gatsby, The Betsy, High Society, True Lies, and Amistad.</p><br>
<p>Sebago Lake is the deepest and second largest lake in the USA state of Maine. The lake is 316 ft deep at its deepest point, with a mean depth of 101 ft, covers about 45 square miles in surface area, has a length of 12 mi and a shoreline length of 105 mi. The surface is around 270 ft above sea level, so the deep bottom is below the present sea level. It is located in Cumberland County, Maine, and bordered by the towns of Casco, Naples, Raymond, Sebago, Standish and Windham. The seasonally occupied town of Frye Island is on an island in the lake.</p><br>
<h2>Transportation</h2><br>
<p>The lake is connected to Brandy Pond by the Songo River and eventually to Long Lake in Naples. The name comes from a local Native American tribe. The lake is drained primarily by the Presumpscot River. The lake and rivers were an early transportation corridor from the coast to the interior, and encouraged the first incorporated European settlement of interior Maine in 1762. Sebago Lake was linked to Portland harbor by the Cumberland and Oxford Canal in 1832. The outlet to the Presumpscot River was controlled for the canal by the Eel Weir Dam and the Head Dam, owned and operated by the Oriental Powder Company after the canal was replaced by a railroad and by the S. D. Warren Paper Mill after 1878.</p><br>
<p>The lake was a comparatively safe place for training military pilots from NAS Brunswick about flying over water; but several navy planes were lost over the lake during World War II. A Grumman TBF Avenger from the Lewiston Naval Auxiliary Air Facility ditched and sank near Raymond on 16 August 1943. Two low-flying British Vought Corsairs from Brunswick were lost after a mid-air collision over the lake near Raymond on 16 May 1944; and a third Corsair flew into the lake on July 16. In December 2014 the first Sebago Lake beach landing in the history of the world was made by a yellow Supercub.</p><br>
<h2>Water Supply</h2><br>
<p>Sebago Lake is the primary water supply for the Portland Water District, which serves the Greater Portland region and about 15% of Maines population. The lakes watershed is more than 50 mi long and covers parts of 24 Maine towns.</p><br>
<p>The lake holds roughly 995 e9USgal of water that on average resides 5.1 to 5.4 years in the lake. The direct watershed is about 171 square miles of land plus the 45 square miles of the lake, and the indirect watershed about 190 square miles of land plus about 28 square miles of other bodies of water. As of May 1990, roughly 86% of the watershed was forests and fallow fields, 2.5% in active timber operations, 9.3% in residential, agricultural, and commercial use, and 2.2% used for other purposes. Water inflow is estimated at 544 e6USgal per day and outflow at 498 e6USgal per day, of which 24 e6USgal/day are for the water district.</p><br>
<h2>Recreation</h2><br>
<p>In 1938, Maine opened Sebago Lake State Park as one of its original five state parks. The area was a recreation center even before this. The park is now 1,400 acre (mostly forested), open year-round, and has facilities including two public boat launches and a 250-site campground. There are also numerous private campgrounds (like in Casco which is 775 acre), cottages, and other recreational facilities in the area.</p><br>
<p>Sebago Lake also hosts a sailing instruction and charter service and is located in what the Maine tourism industry refers to as the Western Lakes and Mountains Region.</p><br>
<p>Efforts are underway to complete the Sebago to the Sea Trail, a trail running 28 miles from Sebago Lake to Casco Bay, mostly following the path of the Presumpscot River.</p><br>
<h3>Fishing</h3><br>
<p>The lake contains populations of land-locked salmon (Salmo salar sebago) and smelt. When the last major glaciers retreated, the entire watershed was under seawater, and populations of these marine animals became established as the land rose and seawaters retreated.</p><br>
<p>Other game fish that can be found in the lake include lake trout, brook trout, brown trout, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, and northern pike. Some of these are stocked by the state, either in the lake directly or in connected bodies of water, while others were introduced illegally. The state encourages anglers to kill, hold, and notify them of all northern pike taken in the lake because they were introduced illegally, are not native to the region, and could disrupt the lake ecosystem.</p><br>
<h2>Camp</h2><br>
<p>Center Day Camp, a day camp run by the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine, is located on the shores of Sebago Lake.</p><br>
<p>Camp O-At-Ka, founded in 1906, is located along a half mile of waterfront in the northwest corner of Sebago Lake.</p><br>
<p>Camp Sebago, a camp run by The Salvation Army is located on the south western corner of Sebago Lake.</p><br>
<p>Mount Olympus, at 7,980 feet, is the tallest and most prominent mountain in the Olympic Mountains of western Washington state. Located on the Olympic Peninsula, it is the central feature of Olympic National Park. Mount Olympus is the highest summit of the Olympic Mountains; however, peaks such as Mount Constance, on the eastern margin of the range, are more visible from the Seattle metropolitan area. With notable local relief, Mount Olympus ascends over 2,100 m from the 293 m elevation confluence of the Hoh River with Glacier Creek in only 8.8 km. Mount Olympus has 2,386 m of prominence, ranking 5th in the state of Washington.</p><br>
<p>Due to heavy winter snowfalls, Mount Olympus supports large glaciers, despite its modest elevation and relatively low latitude. These glaciers include Blue, Hoh, Humes, Jeffers, Hubert, Black Glacier, and White, the longest of which is the Hoh Glacier at 4.93 km. The largest is Blue with a volume of 0.57 km3 and area of 5.31 km&sup2;.</p><br>
<p>The local Native American name for the peak is Sunh-a-do, and upon sighting in 1774 by the Spanish explorer Juan Pérez, the mountain was named Cerro Nevado de Santa Rosalía ("Snowy Peak of Saint Rosalia"). This is said to be the first time a European named a geographic feature in what is now Washington state. In 1788, on July 4, the British explorer John Meares gave the mountain its present name.</p><br>
<p>On March 2, 1909, Mount Olympus National Monument was proclaimed by President Theodore Roosevelt. On June 28, 1938, it was designated a national park by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1976 the Olympic National Park became an International Biosphere Reserve. In 1981 it was designated a World Heritage Site. In 1988 Congress designated 95% of the park as the Olympic Wilderness.</p><br>
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<p>The River Shuttle is a small tributary of the River Cray in London, United Kingdom.</p><br>
<p>The river rises at two or more springs between Avery Hill and Eltham in the Royal Borough of Greenwich at the junction of the permeable Blackheath Beds and the denser Woolwich Beds. It flows east through the parkland of Avery Hill, then crosses into the London Borough of Bexley and continues through Parish Wood Park and Hollyoak Wood Park, Willersley Park, Marlborough Park and Sidcup Golf Course, where it feeds a lake in the grounds of Lamorbey Mansion (c. 1750) a house now within the Rose Bruford College campus. Continuing east, it flows through Bexley Woods and then follows the south side of the major A2 London-to-Dover road and through the grounds of Beths Grammar School until it flows into the River Cray just south of Hall Place.</p><br>
<p>A walk called the Shuttle Riverway follows the river for its entire length of five miles (about 8 km). The walk follows the river where possible but also uses woods, parks, alleyways and some linking roads.</p><br>
<p>A tributary, the Wyncham Stream, flows into the Shuttle in Hollyoak Wood Park. Its route from the Sports Grounds on the A20 to Holly Oak Park, takes it past Dulverton Primary School, under the Dartford to London via Sidcup railway line, the Old Farm Avenue allotments and under Halfway Street.</p><br>
