<p>Mount Berlin is the sixth highest volcano in Antarctica, located 16 km west of Mount Moulton in Marie Byrd Land near the eastern coast of the Ross Sea. It is composed of two coalesced shield volcanoes: Merrem Peak  and Berlin Crater . The volcanic structure is considered active, as steaming fumaroles have been observed near the rim of the northern and western calderas, producing fumarolic ice towers.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>Mount Berlin was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Leonard M. Berlin, leader of the United States Antarctic Program party which sledged to this mountain in December 1940.</p><br>
<h2>Geomorphology and geography</h2><br>
<p>Mount Berlin is 3,478 m high and lies in Marie Byrd Land. It is the highest volcano in the Flood Range and the most impressive as well. The volcano protrudes from the West Antarctic Ice Cap and is itself covered with ice in its summit area.</p><br>
<p>Mount Berlin belongs to a group of large volcanoes in West Antarctica, together with Mount Takahe. A number of other volcanoes may exist there as well but do not extend above the ice sheets.</p><br>
<p>Mount Berlin is a large stratovolcano. It has a summit crater 2 km wide, with pyroclastic materials exposed in its rims. A subsidiary crater is known as Merrem Crater, which is 2.5 x wide and lies 3.5 km west of the main summit. These two volcanoes coalesce together to form the Berlin volcano. Mafic volcanic rocks on the north flank may indicate that monogenetic cinder cones formed. An ignimbrite has been identified on the southeastern flank, a type of volcanic activity which is uncommon for Marie Byrd Land volcanoes. Older volcanics are exposed at Brandenburger Bluff, dates range around 2,738,000 ± 63,000 years ago. Brandenburger Bluff lies northwest of the main summit. Unlike the rest of Mount Berlin, which is formed by flow rocks, Brandenburger Bluff is formed by layered hyaloclastite tuffs. One interpretation is that Mount Berlin is formed by two trachytic volcanoes on top of a hydroclastic base. Incipient glacial cirques have been identified.</p><br>
<h2>Petrology</h2><br>
<p>Mount Berlin has erupted trachytes. These have a noticeable peralkaline composition. Additional rocks that were erupted from Berlin are basanite, hawaiite and mugearite.</p><br>
<p>Phonolithic and phonotephritic rocks are found at Brandenburger Bluff. Over time, the contents of iron in the rocks erupted by Mount Berlin increased and that of silica and potassium. This might indicate that eruptions of Mount Berlin were fed by a large magma chamber, but the more likely explanation is that different eruptions tapped different "batches" of magma which were progressively less evolved.</p><br>
<p>In the Mount Moulton tephra layers, Berlin rocks assume the form of obsidian and pumice. The pumice fragments can reach sizes of about 3 cm.</p><br>
<h2>Eruptive history</h2><br>
<p>Tephrochronology has been used to reconstruct the history of volcanic activity in Antarctica. Tephra from Mount Berlin has been identified in ice cores of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, in the Mount Moulton ice cap and Vostok ice core. Other rocks on Berlin have been dated directly. The oldest exposed ice in West Antarctica has been determined through tephrochronology data stemming from Mount Berlin tephra as being older than 492,000 years.</p><br>
<p>Volcanic activity commenced in the Pliocene. The oldest volcanic activity occurred 2.74 ± 0.06 million years ago at Brandenburger Bluff and involved subglacial and subaerial phreatomagmatic activity. Benmoreitic volcanism was active also at Wedemeyer Rocks south of the Berlin main edifice 2.58 ± 0.2 million years ago. Later, trachytic volcanism occurred at Mefford Knoll west of the main edifice 630,000 ± 30,000 and southwest at Kraut Rocks 620,000 ± 50,000 years ago. Volcanic activity then shifted to Merrem Peak, starting 571,000 ± 8,900 years ago. Activity on Merrem Peak was accompanied by flank eruptions forming ignimbrites. Activity finally shifted to Mount Berlin proper, raising the summit of the volcano. Mount Berlin had a phase of increased volcanic activity between 24,000 and 28,000 years ago, according to tephra data. Some eruptions at Berlin were large scale Plinian eruptions, forming eruption columns exceeding heights of 28 km and depositing volcanic ash over large areas.</p><br>
<p>Individual volcanic eruptions at Berlin occurred 135,600 ± 900 years ago, 118,100 ± 1,300 years ago, 92,100 ± 900 years ago, which was the origin of the so-called marine "Tephra A", 14,500 ± 3,800 and 10,300 ± 5,300 years ago. Two pyroclastic deposits in the Berlin crater wall are dated 25,500 ± 2,000 and 18,200 ± 5,800 years ago. Over time, volcanic activity migrated south-southwestward. Berlin further had volcanic activity in the Holocene, including a lava flow beneath an ice tower that is dated 10,300 ± 2,700 years ago. A tephra dated 7,756 BC is similar to a lava flow from Mount Berlin in terms of composition and may originate from an eruption there. Another similar tephra is dated 9,346 BCE.</p><br>
<p>LeMasurier in 1990 identified the volcano as "potentially active". Fumarolic activity has formed ice towers that emit steam, making it the only volcano in Marie Byrd Land with ongoing geothermal activity. One ice cave associated with an ice tower had rock temperatures measured at 12 &deg;C. These fumarolic phenomena all occur along the northern and western rims of the Berlin Crater. Volcano-tectonic earthquakes have been identified at Mount Berlin. They occur at depths of 15 -.</p><br>
<p>Mount Melbourne is a massive stratovolcano that makes up the projection of the coast between Wood Bay and Terra Nova Bay, in Victoria Land of Antarctica. It was discovered in 1841 by James Clark Ross, who named it for Lord Melbourne, British Prime Minister when the expedition was being planned.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>Mount Melbourne is an active volcano and is undissected by glaciation. Many young cones dot the flanks and the volcano may have erupted as recently as during the 18-19th Century. Fumarolic activity is found on the southern rim of the summit crater and along a NNE-SSW line cutting through the summit region.</p><br>
<h2>Antarctic Specially Protected Area</h2><br>
<p>A 6 km area on the summit of the mountain, including a feature known as Cryptogam Ridge, is protected under the Antarctic Treaty System as Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) No.118 because it contains geothermally heated soils with a diverse and unique biological community. The warmest areas of ground are created by fumaroles and support patches of moss, liverwort and algae as well as a species of protozoan. The site encompasses all land above the 2200 m contour surrounding the main crater.</p><br>
<p>Mount Murphy is a massive, snow-covered and highly eroded shield volcano with steep, rocky slopes. It is directly south of Bear Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. The mountain is bounded by the Smith, Pope and Haynes Glaciers.</p><br>
<p>Delineated from aerial photographs taken by US Navy Operation Highjump in January 1947. Named by US-ACAN for Robert Cushman Murphy of the American Museum of Natural History, noted authority on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic bird life. While serving on the whaler, he charted the Bay of Isles region of South Georgia.</p><br>
<h2>Features</h2><br>
<p>Bucher Peak (75&deg;20&prime;S latitude, 110&deg;52&prime;W longitude) at 2,445 m, is one of the highest peaks in the west-central summit area of the Mount Murphy massif.</p><br>
<p>Buettner Peak is a sharp peak rising midway along the north wall of Roos Glacier in the northwest part of the Mount Murphy massif</p><br>
<p>Akdamar Island , also known as Aghtamar  or Akhtamar , is the second largest of the four islands in Lake Van, in eastern Turkey. About 0.7 km² in size, it is situated about 3 km from the shoreline. At the western end of the island a hard, grey, limestone cliff rises 80 m above the lake&#39;s level . The island declines to the east to a level site where a spring provides ample water. It is home to the 10th century Armenian Holy Cross Cathedral, which was the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Catholicosate of Aghtamar from 1116 to 1895.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>The origin and meaning of the islands name is unknown, but a folk etymology explanation exists, based on an old Armenian legend. According to the tale, an Armenian princess named Tamara lived on the island and was in love with a commoner. This boy would swim from the shore to the island each night, guided by a light she lit for him. Her father learned of the boys visits. One night, as she waited for her lover to arrive, he smashed her light, leaving the boy in the middle of the lake without a guide to indicate which direction to swim. He drowned and his body washed ashore and, as the legend concludes, it appeared as if the words "Akh, Tamara" (Oh, Tamara) were frozen on his lips. The legend was the inspiration for a well-known 1891 poem by Hovhannes Tumanyan.</p><br>
<p>Akdamar (meaning "white vein" in Turkish) is the official name of the island.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>During his reign, King Gagik I Artsruni (r. 908-943/944) of the Armenian Kingdom of Vaspurakan chose the island as one of his residences. He founded a settlement and erected a large square palace richly decorated with frescoes, built a dock noted for its complex hydrotechnical engineering, laid out streets, gardens, and orchards, and planted trees and designed areas of recreation for himself and his court. The only surviving structure from that period is the Palatine Cathedral of the Holy Cross (Սուրբ Խաչ եկեղեցի Surb Khach yekeġetsi). It was built of pink volcanic tuff by the architect-monk Manuel during the years 915-921, with an interior measuring 14.80m × 11.5m and the dome reaching 20.40m above ground. In later centuries, and until 1915, it formed part of a monastic complex, the ruins of which can still be seen to the south of the church.</p><br>
<p>Between 1116 and 1895 the island was the location of the Catholicosate of Aghtamar of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Khachatur III, who died in 1895, was the last Catholicos of Aghtamar. In April 1915, during the Armenian Genocide, the monks on Aghtamar were massacred, the cathedral looted, and the monastic buildings destroyed.</p><br>
<p>On August 28, 2010, a small solar energy power plant was opened on the island, to provide local installations with electricity.</p><br>
<h2>Holy Cross Cathedral</h2><br>
<p>The architecture of the church is based on a form that had been developed in Armenia several centuries earlier; the best-known example being that of the seventh century St. Hripsime church in Echmiadzin, incorporating a dome with a conical roof.</p><br>
<p>The unique importance of the Cathedral Church of the Holy Cross comes from the extensive array of bas-relief carving of mostly biblical scenes that adorn its external walls. The meanings of these reliefs have been the subject of much and varied interpretation. Not all of this speculation has been produced in good faith - for example, Turkish sources illustrate Islamic and Turkic influences behind the content of some of the reliefs, such as the prominent depiction of a prince sitting cross-legged on a Turkic-style, low throne. Some scholars assert that the friezes parallel contemporary motifs found in Umayyad art - such as a turbaned prince, Arab styles of dress, wine imagery; allusions to royal Sassanian imagery are also present (griffins, for example).</p><br>
<h3>Vandalism</h3><br>
<p>After 1915, the church has been exposed to extensive vandalism. Before the restoration of the church, the reliefs on the church wall used as a shooting range. Zakarya Mildanoğlu, an architect who was involved in the restoration process of the church, explains the situation during an interview with Hrant Dink as "The facade of the church is full of bullet holes. Some of them are so big that they can not be covered during the renovation process." During many conferences related to the restoration of the Akhtamar church, the process of covering the bullet holes are identified as the hardest part of the restoration by academicians and architects. Some claim that the Armenian churches and gravestones have been exposed to vandalism as a part of the Turkish government policy which aims to destroy the Armenian heritage in Anatolia.</p><br>
<p>In 1951 an order was issued to demolish the church, but the writer Yasar Kemal managed to stop its destruction. He explained the situation to Alain Bosquet as "I was in a ship from Tatvan to Van. I met with a military officer Dr. Cavit Bey on board. I told him, in this city there is a church descended from Armenians. It is a masterpiece. These days, they are demolishing this church. I will take you there tomorrow. This church is a monument of Anatolia. Can you help me to stop the destruction? The next day we went there with the military officer. They have already demolished the small chapel next to the church. The military officer became angry and told the workers, "I am ordering you to stop working. I will meet with governor. There will be no movement until I return to the island again". The workers immediately stopped the demolition. We arrived at Van city center. I contacted the newspaper Cumhuriyet. They informed the Ministry of Education about the demolition. Two days later, Minister Avni Başman telegraphed the Van governor and ordered to stop the demolition permanently. June 25, 1951, the day when the order came, is the liberation day of the church."</p><br>
<h3>Restoration</h3><br>
<p>Between May 2005 and October 2006, the church underwent a controversial restoration program. The restoration had a stated budget of 2 million New Turkish Lira (approximately 1.4 million USD) and was financed by the Turkish Ministry of Culture. It officially re-opened as a museum on 29 March 2007 in a ceremony attended by the Turkish Minister of Culture, government officials, ambassadors of several countries, Patriarch Mesrob II (spiritual leader of the Armenian Orthodox community of Turkey), a delegation from the Republic of Armenia headed by the Deputy to the Armenian Minister of Culture, and a large group of invited journalists from many news organizations around the world.</p><br>
<p>Özdemir Çakacak, the Governor of Van, described the refurbishing of the church as "a show of Turkey&#39;s respect for history and culture". A Turkish state department museum official added, "We could not have ignored the artifacts of our Armenian citizens, and we did not."</p><br>
<p>According to Maximilian Hartmuth, an academician at Sabancı University, "the church was turned into a museum rather than re-opened as a place of worship following the restoration was, for example, claimed to be a wedge separating the monument from Turkey’s Armenian community. The critics, writing for media such as Radikal, Milliyet, or Turkish Daily News, furthermore lamented that permission to re-mount the cross on top of the church was not given. Moreover, they argued, the official name of the museum, the Turkish Akdamar (translating as “white vein”) rather than the original Armenian Ahtamar – the name of the island in Lake Van on which the church stands and Surp Haç (Holy Cross) for the church itself would suggest this to be a Turkish monument. At the same time only sparing use was made of the word “Armenian” in official statements. With Turkey’s Armenian community not granted the privilege to hold a service at least once a year - as had been requested - and a large Turkish flag flying over the island, it was suggested by some critics that this project really announced the “Turkification” of this monument, the initiative being no more than a media stunt."</p><br>
<h3>Controversies</h3><br>
<p>Armenian religious leaders invited to attend the opening ceremony opted to boycott the event, because the church was being reopened as a secular museum. Controversy surrounded the issue of whether the cross atop the dome until 1915 should be replaced. Some Armenians said that the renovation was unfinished until the cross was replaced, and that prayer should be allowed inside at least once a year. A cross had been prepared nearly a year before the opening, and Mesrob II petitioned the Prime Minister and Minister of Culture to place the cross on the dome of the cathedral. Turkish officials cited technical difficulties related to the structure of the restored building which may not be able to safely hold a heavy cross on top without further reinforcement.</p><br>
<p>The controversial cross was erected on the top of the church on October 2, 2010. The cross was sent by the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul to Van by plane. It is 2 meters high and weigh 110 kilograms. It was put on top of the church after being sanctified by Armenian clergymen. Since 2010, every year a mass is held in the church too.</p><br>
<p>The opening was controversial among some Turkish nationalist groups, who protested at the island and in a separate demonstration in Ankara. Police detained five Turkish nationals who carried a banner declaring "The Turkish people are noble. They would never commit genocide." Demonstrators outside the Ministry of the Interior in Ankara chanted slogans against the possibility of a cross being erected atop the church, declaring "You are all Armenians, we are all Turks and Muslims".</p><br>
<p>Hürriyet columnist Cengiz Çandar characterized the way the Turkish government handled the opening as an extension of an ongoing "cultural genocide" of the Armenians. He characterizes the renaming of the church from Armenian to Turkish as part of a broader program to rename Armenian historical sites in Turkey, and attributes the refusal to place a cross atop the church as symptomatic of religious intolerance in Turkish society. (This was written before the cross was placed at its place on top of the church in 2010)</p><br>
<p>In fact, Turkish deputy minister for culture, İsmet Yılmaz cited technical reasons not being able to place a cross atop the dome of the church:</p><br>
<p>Although this explanation from the government met with doubts, after the cross was erected on the dome of the church in 2010 (which weighed 110 kg - about half of what the Turkish deputy minister spoke about), after 2011 Van earthquake cracks appeared around the dome of the church.</p><br>
<p>Çandar notes that the Agos issue published on the day of the murder of Hrant Dink featured a Dink commentary on the Turkish government&#39;s handling of the Akdamar issue, which the late journalist characterized as "A real comedy... A real tragedy..." According to Dink,</p><br>
<p>Historian Ara Sarafian has answered some criticism of the Akdamar project, stating that, on the contrary, the project represents an answer to allegations of cultural genocide. He has stated that the revitalization of the site is "an important peace offering" from the Turkish government.</p><br>
<p>Ian Herbert, writing in The Independent, records his own experiences traveling in Turkey on an invitation from the Turkish government in the period of the opening of Akdamar:</p><br>
<p>Cengiz Aktar, an academic of Galatasaray University, also took a critical stance towards the loss of the island&#39;s original name in his article titled "White Vein church and others" (Akdamar means "white vein" in Turkish).</p><br>
<p>Not all the comments were negative of the restoration of the church by the Turkish government. British historian of Armenian descent, Ara Sarafian considered the opening of the church for service as "a positive step".</p><br>
<p>Mount Sidley is the highest dormant volcano in Antarctica, a member of the Volcanic Seven Summits, with a summit elevation of 4,181 -. It is a massive, mainly snow-covered shield volcano which is the highest and most imposing of the five volcanic mountains that comprise the Executive Committee Range of Marie Byrd Land. The feature is marked by a spectacular 5 km wide caldera on the southern side and stands NE of Mount Waesche in the southern part of the range.</p><br>
<p>The mountain was discovered by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd on an airplane flight, November 18, 1934, and named by him for Mabelle E. Sidley, the daughter of William Horlick who was a contributor to the 1933–35 Byrd Antarctic Expedition.</p><br>
<p>Despite its lofty status, the volcano languishes in obscurity due to its extremely remote location. It is little known even in the mountaineering world compared to the far more famous Mount Erebus, the second highest Antarctic volcano which is located near the USA and New Zealand bases on Ross Island.</p><br>
<p>The first recorded ascent of Mount Sidley was by New Zealander Bill Atkinson on January 11, 1990, whilst working in support of a United States Antarctic Program scientific field party.</p><br>
<p>Mount Takahe is a large, snow-covered shield volcano standing 64 km SE of Toney Mountain in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. It is roughly circular, about 29 km across, and has a caldera up to 8 km wide. At 780 cubic km, it is a massive volcano. The volcano may have last erupted during the Holocene, and thus it is probably a potentially active volcano.</p><br>
<p>Takahe was probably among those viewed from a distance by Admiral Byrd and other members of the USAS in plane flights from the ship Bear on Feb. 24 and 25, 1940. It was visited in December 1957 by members of the Marie Byrd Land Traverse Party, 1957–58, who applied the name. "Takahe," the Māori name for a flightless, almost extinct New Zealand bird, is the nickname of the USA Navy LC-47 aircraft whose crew resupplied the traverse party near this mountain and assisted by providing aerial reconnaissance to locate passable routes.</p><br>
<h2>Gill Bluff</h2><br>
<p>Gill Bluff ({{coord|76|14|S|112|33|W|}}) is a rock bluff on the northwest side of Mount Takahe, in Marie Byrd Land. Mapped by United States Geological Survey (USGS) from ground surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1959–66. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for Allan Gill, aurora researcher at Byrd Station in 1963.</p><br>
<p>Toney Mountain is an elongated snow-covered shield volcano, 60 km  long and rising to 3,595 m in Richmond Peak, located 56 km  SW of Kohler Range in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. A 3 km-wide summit caldera tops the volcano and a sample from there yielded a potassium-argon date of 500,000 years ago.</p><br>
<p>Toney Mountain was probably among those viewed from a distance by Admiral Byrd and others of the USAS in plane flights from the ship Bear in February 1940. It was mapped in December 1957 by the oversnow traverse party from Byrd Station to the Sentinel Range, 1957–58, led by C.R. Bentley who proposed the name. Named after George R. Toney, scientific leader at Byrd Station in 1957, a participant in several Antarctic and Arctic operations, serving in both field and administrative capacities.</p><br>
<p>Ta‘ū is the largest island in the Manu‘a Group and the easternmost volcanic island of the Samoan Islands. Ta‘ū is part of American Samoa. In the early 19th century, the island was sometimes called Opoun.</p><br>
<p>Ta‘ū is well-known as the site where the American anthropologist Margaret Mead conducted her dissertation research in Samoa in the 1920s, where she published her findings in Coming of Age in Samoa.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The island is the eroded remnant of a "hotspot" shield volcano with a caldera complex or collapse feature (Liu Bench) on the south face. The summit of the island, called Lata Mountain, is at an elevation of 931 m, making it the highest point in American Samoa. The last known volcanic eruption in the Manu‘a Islands was in 1866, on the submarine ridge that extends westnorthwest towards nearby Ofu-Olosega.</p><br>
<p>The largest airport in the Manu‘a Islands is on the northeast corner of Ta‘ū at Fiti‘uta. There is also a private airport. A boat harbor is located at Faleāsao at the northwestern corner of the island. A roadway along the north coast connects all of the several inhabited villages between Ta‘ū on the west and Fiti‘uta.</p><br>
<p>All of the southeastern half of Ta‘ū&mdash;including all of the rainforest on top of Lata Mountain and within the caldera&mdash;and southern shoreline and associated coral reefs are part of the National Park of American Samoa. The park includes the ancient, sacred site of Saua, considered to be the birthplace of the Polynesian people.</p><br>
<p>Administratively, the island is divided into three counties: Faleasao County, Fitiuta County, and Ta&#39;u County. Along with Ofu and Olosega islands, Tau Island comprises the Manua District of American Samoa. The land area of Tau Island is 44.31 km&sup2; and it had a population of 873 persons as of the 2000 census and of 790 persons in the 2010 census.</p><br>
<h2>Anthropological research</h2><br>
<p>Ta‘ū is where the 23-year-old anthropologist Margaret Mead conducted her dissertation research in Samoa in the 1920s, published in 1928 as Coming of Age in Samoa. In her work, she studied adolescent teenage girls and compared their experience to those of Western societies. She concluded that adolescence was a smooth transition, not marked by the emotional or psychological distress, anxiety, or confusion seen in the United States.</p><br>
<h2>Electricity</h2><br>
<p>Until 2016, being a small and isolated island, the populace relied on costly and environmentally unfriendly diesel generators to supply their energy. However, with the construction of a solar array, battery storage system and microgrid the island&#39;s power is provided virtually 100% from the sun. This solar array was constructed by SolarCity, and now includes sixty Tesla Powerpacks. The system should be a more reliable source of energy, and was designed to power the entire island for three days without sunlight and fully recharge in seven hours.</p><br>
<p>Ofu and Olosega are parts of a volcanic doublet in the Manu‘a Group of the Samoan Islands&mdash;part of American Samoa. The twin islands, formed from shield volcanoes, have a combined length of 6 km and an area of 12 km&sup2 their population is about 500 people. They are geographic volcanic remnants separated by the narrow 137 m Asaga strait, a natural bridge of shallow coral reef. Before 1970, one had to wade between the two islands at low tide; now a single-lane road bridge over the strait connects villages on Ofu island with those on Olosega.</p><br>
<p>The highest peak on Ofu is Mount Tumutumu (491 m, also referred to as Tumu) and the highest elevation on Olosega is Mount Piumafua (629 m). The most recent volcanic eruption took place in 1866, 3 km south east of Olosega.</p><br>
<p>Archaeology field work carried out in the 1980s yielded pre-historic evidence including ceramics, adzes, shell and bone which have been significant in furthering understanding of the ancient history of the Samoa Islands and Polynesia. This included samples of red-slipped plainware ceramics that appeared to be in the tradition of the Lapita culture. The work, carried out by a team that included Pacific archaeology specialist Patrick Vinton Kirch, focused on a site called To&#39;aga (site AS-13-1), a 2 km coastal stretch on the south coast of Ofu. The results showed continuous human habitation of about 3,000 years.</p><br>
<h2>Ofu</h2><br>
<p>Ofu is the western part of the volcanic outcrop of Ofu-Olosega Island. The main village of Ofu is located on the western shore, protected behind an offshore islet (eroded tuff cone) known as Nu&#39;utele. Ofu has a small airport and a boat harbor that serve the population on Ofu and Olosega. Before regular airline service was discontinued in 2009, the flight from Pago Pago took about half an hour.</p><br>
<p>Most of the southern shore and associated coral reef are part of the National Park of American Samoa. In 2005 the USA National Park Service was negotiating with village councils on Olosega to expand the park around that island.</p><br>
<p>The island forms the Ofu County subdivision of the Manua District. It has a land area of 7.215 km² (2.786 sq mi), and had an official population of 289 persons as of the 2000 census.</p><br>
<p>Situated on the south coast of the island is To&#39;aga lagoon which has a high diversity of corals and fishes. The marine site has been part of long term research and study on coral reefs and global climate change.</p><br>
<p>The island is also home to the Samoa Flying-fox (Pteropus samoensis), a species of bat threatened by habitat loss.</p><br>
<h2>Olosega</h2><br>
<p>Olosega Island is a remnant of the Sili shield volcano, the caldera of which may lie submerged off the north shore.</p><br>
<p>The volcanic eruption of 1866 was actually 3 km east of Olosega, on a submarine ridge that extends east southeast to nearby Ta‘ū.</p><br>
<p>The island forms the Olosega County subdivision of the Manua District. It has a land area of 5.163 km² (1.993 sq mi), and had an official population of 216 persons as of the 2000 census.</p><br>
<p>There are three villages on Olosega: Olosega, Lalomoana, Sili and Faiava</p><br>
<p>Antofalla is a large and very remote stratovolcano in Catamarca Province in northwestern Argentina. It is located on the northeastern edge of the Puna de Atacama, a high desert plateau east of the Atacama Desert. It lies just west of the Salar de Antofalla, a large playa over 140 km in length. Inca ruins can be found at the volcano&#39;s summit, offering definitive proof of numerous Pre-Columbian ascents.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Antofalla is located west of the Salar de Antofalla, near the village Antofalla, Catamarca. The salar basin largely predates the volcanic complex and lava flows are largely undisturbed. The volcano has a diameter of 35 km and covers a surface of 2,100 km&sup2;. The main Antofalla cone is surrounded by smaller stratocones (the highest is over 5,700 m high); beginning from the northeast clockwise around the main cone Conito de Antofalla, Cerro Bayo–Cerro Onas, Cerro de la Aguada, Cerro Cajeros, Cerro Lila, Cerro Patos and Cerro Onas.</p><br>
<p>Antofalla is located in an area of arid climate. Minimal precipitation primarily in the summit areas allows for some minimal glaciation on the main Antofalla summit since the Pliocene-Pleistocene. The rest of the complex is well preserved with little erosion other than gullying from spring thaw waters. Some ravines bear evidence of flash flood activity, possibly related to the melting of glacier caps at the end of ice ages. Today the snowline lies at about 5,750 m altitude.</p><br>
<p>Antofalla is situated above the Archibarca lineament, a northwest-southeast trending structure that also encompasses ore deposits and Galán caldera. This lineament may be responsible for the off-axis nature of volcanism in the area; the main arc is located 75 km west of Antofalla.</p><br>
<p>An old mine Los Jesuitas called (Ag-Pb-Zn) lies on the eastern flank of the volcano.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>Antofalla is constructed on Cenozoic sedimentary layers. Sedimentation began in the Eocene, first from Andean sediments. In the Oligocene sedimentation mostly provened from the Sierra de Calalaste south. In the late Miocene, the area became endorheic and deposition centres fragmented. During this time, halite deposits formed.</p><br>
<p>The volcanic complex is constructed from rhyolitic domes, thick pyroclastic layers and layered dacitic-andesitic lava flows. Lava flows cover some of the cones and extensive areas in the northeast are covered by flows. During the Pleistocene, the Quebrada de las Cuevas valley was filled and the flanking hills covered by pumice by an ignimbrite (1.59 mya) from the Cerro Bayo vent. Between Cerro Lila and Cerro Cajeros and Laguna de los Patos, Quaternary andesites and basaltic andesites of aphyric olivine composition formed small cones and flows. The Conito de las Lagunitas vent erupted andesites 6.07 mya.</p><br>
<p>Antofalla formed in three stages. In the first stage, basaltic andesites formed cones like Antofalla (13 mya), Cajero (13 mya) and Cerro de la Aguada (12.9 mya). Also, dacitic lava domes (Cerro Lila 10-9 mya), dacitic-rhyolitic ignimbrites (10.9-9.6 mya), andesitic-dacitic lavas (9-8 mya, Lacitic 7.8 mya and Aguas Blancas 9 mya) and basaltic-andesitic lavas were erupted. In the second phase (7-4 mya; Cerro Cajero 4.8-2.5 mya), basalts and basaltic andesites were erupted from flank vents, the margins of the salar and on the older centres. The third stage continued this effusive activity as well as rhyolitic domes like Cerro Botijuela and Las Cuevas (2.5-2.3 mya). Scoria cones and associated lava flows erupted during the Pleistocene (1.5-1.2 and 0.5-0.1 mya) on the margins of the salar.</p><br>
<p>The volcano is still fumarolically active. There are reports of volcanic activity in 1901 and 1911.</p><br>
<p>Epithermal deposits and deep hydrothermal porphyry deposits are found on the complex and are potentially of economic significance. On the southeast flank of the volcano, epithermal gold was found in the Quebrada de las Minas. Lower in the same valley, galena, quartz and sphalerite were found in hydrothermal veins. On the west flank, erosion has exposed another epithermally altered felsic rock layer with gold mineralization.</p><br>
<p>The Quebrada de las Minas and Quebrada del Volcán valleys bear traces of debris avalanche activities. A collapse amphitheatre is found in these valleys, possibly because the underlying country rock was destabilized by hydrothermal alteration. Such debris avalanches may have contributed to the formation of alluvial fans in the area, which is otherwise little eroded.</p><br>
<p>Great Dodd  is a mountain or fell in the English Lake District. It stands on the main ridge of the Helvellyn range, a line of mountains which runs in a north-south direction between the lakes of Thirlmere and Ullswater in the east of the Lake District. Great Dodd, with a height of 857 m is the highest of the fells in this range to the north of Sticks Pass.</p><br>
<p>Walkers may approach Great Dodd from either High Row near Dockray to the east, or from Legburthwaite to the west – or along the main ridge track from either north or south. Scramblers with climbing skills may be attracted to three gill climbs on the western side of the mountain.</p><br>
<p>The summit of Great Dodd is a smooth, grassy, rounded dome, like its two southern neighbours, Watson&#39;s Dodd and Stybarrow Dodd. Together, these three are sometimes called ‘The Three Dodds’. These three are made of volcanic rocks of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group, and the tops of all three are covered by the same sheet of rock, which was formed in a series of huge volcanic explosions accompanying the formation of a volcanic caldera about 450 million years ago.</p><br>
<p>Two attempts were made to mine mineral veins in the rocks of Great Dodd, but neither attempt was successful.</p><br>
<h2>Topography</h2><br>
<p>Three ridges lead from the rounded summit of Great Dodd.</p><br>
<p>The west ridge leads over the shoulder called Little Dodd, and then turns north-west to the rocky pinnacle of Calfhow Pike and to the col separating Great Dodd from Clough Head. Calfhow Pike would have little significance in more rugged areas of the Lake District, but here in the midst of smooth green slopes it is a conspicuous landmark visible for miles around. Although it has little prominence, it is a pleasant top giving good views of the surrounding grassy slopes and the valleys below.</p><br>
<p>A short south-west ridge leads to Watson&#39;s Dodd, where it merges with the north-west ridge of Stybarrow Dodd to drop into the valley at Legburthwaite.</p><br>
<p>To the north-east a long ridge leads to the subsidiary stony top of Randerside (729 m). From there it broadens into Matterdale Common, becoming steadily wetter underfoot, before splitting into two on either side of Groove Beck. The more southerly ridge heads over High Brow (575 m), fringed by Dowthwaite Crag which broods over the road-end settlement of Dowthwaitehead. The further tops of Low How (497 m) and Cockley Moor (455 m) are passed before this branch of the ridge peters out in extensive conifer plantations, and then the ground climbs again to Great Mell Fell. The northern branch of the ridge is edged by Wolf Crags above the Old Coach Road, beyond which a wide grassy moor sweeps north across Sandbeds Moss and Flaska to the A66 road and the dismantled Penrith to Keswick railway.</p><br>
<p>Great Dodd stands on the watershed between the Eden river system to the east and the Derwent river system to the west.</p><br>
<p>Its western slopes used to drain into St John’s Beck, a tributary of the River Greta, which in turn joins the River Derwent at Keswick. When Thirlmere Reservoir was constructed in the late 19th century, two of Great Dodd’s western streams, Ladknott Gill and Mill Gill, were captured by a water leat and diverted into the new reservoir.</p><br>
<p>The northern slopes of Great Dodd drain either into Mosedale and Mosedale Beck or into Trout Beck. These also flow into the River Greta (via the River Glenderamackin) and then to the Derwent.</p><br>
<p>However, the eastern and southern slopes of Great Dodd drain into Deepdale and Aira Beck, which flows into Ullswater. The lake drains into the River Eamont, which then joins the River Eden near Penrith.</p><br>
<p>The beck in Deepdale undergoes a number of name changes. Beginning as Browndale Beck as it flows through the hanging valley of Deepdale, it becomes Rush Gill as it drops to Dowthwaitehead, and is then called Aira Beck. This is the head stream for the famous waterfall of Aira Force, a popular tourist sight.</p><br>
<p>Similarly, Groove Beck, which rises on Matterdale Common, the north-east ridge of Great Dodd, becomes Thornsgill Beck and then Trout Beck, before joining the River Glenderamackin.</p><br>
<p>There are no tarns on Great Dodd, and very few exposures of rock. Small crags do line the lower western slopes above St John&#39;s in the Vale. Lad Knott is the most prominent of these, and the deep ravine of Mill Gill also exposes the rock. On the north-east ridge Randerside, Wolf Crags and Dowthwaite Crag all display the rocks.</p><br>
<h2>Routes</h2><br>
<p>Nearly all of Great Dodd (above the intake walls in the valleys) is Open Access land. The north-east ridge is part of Matterdale Common, owned by the National Trust.</p><br>
<p>Ascents of Great Dodd can begin either from Legburthwaite to the west, or from High Row (near Dockray) to the east. Parking is available at both places.</p><br>
<p>From Legburthwaite several routes are possible. A path above the ravine of Mill Gill, on its north side, leads to the cairn on Little Dodd. Ladknott Gill can be followed upwards. Or the old shepherds’ path leads from above Fornside to Calfhow Pike. There is no public access to this from Fornside, but it can be reached by following the intake wall north from Mill Gill.</p><br>
<p>For scramblers with climbing skills and a rope, three gills on the west side of Great Dodd are accessible: Mill Gill, Beckthorns Gill and the deeply recessed Sandbed Gill. Walkers should keep out of the gills themselves.</p><br>
<p>From High Row the direct route leads up the north-east ridge, over Low How, High Brow and Randerside. Alternative routes begin by following the Old Coach Road, either to the path alongside Groove Beck and up Randerside, or into Mosedale from near the Mariel Bridge and up to Calfhow Pike. This unsurfaced road provides a fine walking route from Dockray around the northern end of the Helvellyn range to the Vale of St John. The close up view of Wolf Crags is particularly good.</p><br>
<p>Great Dodd may also be included in a circular walk around Deepdale known as The Dodds. Or it may be included in a ridge walk, along the main Helvellyn ridge. The ridge path in either direction is broad and clear, with a shortcut contouring to the west of Great Dodd&#39;s summit which suggests that many ridge walkers bypass the summit.</p><br>
<h2>Summit</h2><br>
<p>The summit area of Great Dodd is a short rounded ridge, covered with grass but with many stones lying among it, and with the highest point at the north-west end where there is a cairn. This was not present in 1955 when Alfred Wainwright published his Pictorial Guide.</p><br>
<p>Confusingly, the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 scale Landranger map gives a spot height of 856 m at the south-eastern shelter cairn, while the 1:25,000 Explorer map gives a height of 857 m at the north-eastern cairn.</p><br>
<p>There is a good view all round, though this lacks foreground when seen from the summit because of the gently rounded nature of the fell. Better views may be had by walking a short distance from the summit in any direction. Much of the Lake District, the hills of south-west Scotland, the Eden Valley and the Pennine Hills may be seen on a clear day.</p><br>
<p>Another small cairn lies part way down the western slope on the path to Clough Head, marking the minor top of Little Dodd.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The rocks of Great Dodd are all part of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group, formed on the margin of an ancient continent during a period of intense volcanic activity, roughly 450 million years ago in the Ordovician Period.</p><br>
<p>Within that Group, the bulk of the rocks forming the fell belong to the Birker Fell Andesite Formation. These rocks are among the earliest of the volcanic rocks of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group, and are part of a thick succession of andesite sheets which now outcrop in a wide band around the western and northern sides of the Lake District, and probably underlie much of the other volcanic rocks. These sheets were formed by successive eruptions of mobile andesitic lava from shallow-sided volcanoes. The composition of the erupting magma varied from time to time, with domes of more viscous dacite occurring in a number of places. Calfhow Pike, Randerside and High Brow are all shown as dacite on the geological map.</p><br>
<p>Individual lava flows may be separated by beds of volcaniclastic sandstone, sedimentary deposits formed from the erosion of the volcanic rocks and deposited by streams, floods and possibly wind. The geological map shows a number of areas of volcaniclastic sandstone on the western slopes of Great Dodd, above Beckthorns and Fornside.</p><br>
<p>After the eruptions of the Birker Fell Formation, the composition of the erupting magma changed from largely andesitic to predominantly dacitic, and as a result the nature of the volcanism became more explosive.</p><br>
<p>A number of caldera volcanoes were formed. In the area to the north of Sticks Pass the Birker Fell andesites are overlain by the Lincomb Tarns Tuff Formation. This formation is one of the most widespread of the volcanic rocks of the Lake District; it seems that the whole district was buried beneath at least 150 m of densely welded ignimbrite, a rock formed from a pyroclastic flow of very hot gas and rock. This formation must represent a series of eruptions of truly exceptional magnitude, accompanying the formation of a volcanic caldera probably in the area around what is now Helvellyn.</p><br>
<p>On Great Dodd this formation is represented by rocks of the Thirlmere Tuff Member, which covers the top of the fell with a thick sheet of welded rhyo-dacitic lapilli-tuff in which the individual pieces of semi-molten lava were flattened under the weight of deposits above them. This rock weathers to a white or pink colour, but it is covered by the smooth grassy turf characteristic of Great Dodd, Watson&#39;s Dodd and Stybarrow Dodd, all of which are covered by the same sheet.</p><br>
<p>Towards the end of, or after the cessation of the volcanic activity, a large granite batholith was emplaced beneath the volcanic rocks of the Lake District. Associated with the granite batholith was the creation of numerous mineral veins.</p><br>
<p>There is evidence of historic mining activity in two locations on Great Dodd in efforts to exploit such mineral veins. Fornside Mine on the western slopes consisted of two levels, one of which shows signs of copper ore, the other was on a barren quartz vein. At the base of Wolf Crags there are the remains of a short level 30 m long on a poor quartz vein. There are no historical records of this level. It may be assumed that both mines were commercial failures.</p><br>
<h2>Names</h2><br>
<p>Great Dodd may originally have been Dodd Fell, the name shown on Donald’s map of 1771 and Ford’s map of 1839, though it is not known in pre-18th century sources. It did not need to be distinguished from its neighbours since Stybarrow Dodd seems to have been known in earlier times simply as Stybarrow, and Watson’s Dodd is probably only an 18th-century name.</p><br>
<p>Dod or dodd is a dialect word of unknown origin, but common in hill names in the Lake District and the Scottish Borders for bare rounded summits, either free standing or subsidiary shoulders to higher neighbours.</p><br>
<p>Calfhow Pike was referred to as Calfhou in a 13th-century source, and pyke of Cauvey in the 16th century. This appears to be ‘the peak of Calf Hill’, from Old English pīc, a peak, and how (from the Old Norse haugr), a hill. The name here probably refers to deer calving.</p><br>
<p>Randerside was first recorded by the Ordnance Survey in 1867. Without earlier sources it is unclear whether side here simply means ‘hillside’ or comes from an earlier Old Norse sætr, "shieling", or sæti, "seat". A different Randerside in Cumbria was Randolfsete in 1285, "Randolf’s shieling."</p><br>
<p>Fouta Djallon is a highland region in the centre of Guinea, a country in West Africa. The indigenous name in the Pular language is Fuuta-Jaloo. The origin of the name is from the Pular word for the region plus the name of the original inhabitants, the Yalunka or Jalonke , a Mande people closely related to the Susu.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Fouta-Djallon consists mainly of rolling grasslands, at an average elevation of about 900 m (3,000 ft). The highest point, Mount Loura, rises to 1,515 m (4,970 ft). The plateau consists of thick sandstone formations which overlie granitic basement rock. Erosion by rain and rivers has carved deep jungle canyons and valleys into the sandstone. The word Djallonke originated from the people who originally occupied the region.</p><br>
<p>It receives a great deal of rainfall, and the headwaters of four major rivers and medium ones :</p><br>
<p>Tinkisso River (major upriver tributary of the Niger)</p><br>
<p>Gambia River</p><br>
<p>Senegal River</p><br>
<p>Pongo River</p><br>
<p>Nunez River</p><br>
<p>Konkouré River</p><br>
<p>Rio Compony</p><br>
<p>Rio Cogon</p><br>
<p>Rio Kapatchez</p><br>
<p>Mellacorée River</p><br>
<p>It is, thus, sometimes called the watertower (chateau d&#39;eau in French literature) of West Africa. Some authors also refer to Fouta Jallon as the "Switzerland of West Africa." This is a common expression whose origin may be unknown.</p><br>
<h2>Population</h2><br>
<p>The population consists predominantly of Fulɓe, also known as Fula or Fulani, Peul in Maninka, Hausa, and Wolof). In Fuuta-Jaloo their language is called Pular, pronounced Pulaar in Senegal. It is part of the group of western dialects (Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso). The group of eastern dialects (Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan, CAR) is called Fulfulde. And the broader language area bears the name Pular/Fulfulde.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Since the 17th century, the Fouta Djallon region has been a stronghold of Islam. Early revolutionaries led by Karamokho Alfa and Ibrahim Sori set up a federation divided into nine provinces. Several succession crises weakened the central power located in Timbo until 1896, when the last Almamy, Bubakar Biro, was defeated by the French army in the battle of Poredaka.</p><br>
<p>The Fulɓe of Fouta Djallonke spearheaded the expansion of Islam in Guinea by war and subjugation, the conquered forced into slavery. Fulɓe Muslim scholars developed an indigenous literature using the Arabic alphabet. Known as Ajamiyya, this literary achievement is represented by such great poet-theologians as Tierno Muhammadu Samba Mombeya, Tierno Saadu Dalen, Tierno Aliou Boubha Ndyan, Tierno Jaawo Pellel etc. In its heyday, it was said that Fuuta-Jaloo was a magnet of learning, attracting students from Kankan to the Gambia, and featuring Jakhanke clerics at Tuba as well as Fulɓe teachers. It acted as the nerve centre for trading caravans heading in every direction. The more enterprising commercial lineages, of whatever ethnic origin, established colonies in the Futanke hills and along the principal routes. It served their interests to send their sons to Futanke schools, to support the graduates who came out to teach, and in general to extend the vast pattern of influence that radiated from Futa Jalon.</p><br>
<p>Amadou Hampâté Bâ has called Fuuta-Jaloo "the Tibet of West Africa" in homage to the spiritual and mystic (Sufi) tradition of its clerics.</p><br>
<h2>Economy</h2><br>
<p>Mainly rural the economy covers animal husbandry (cattle, sheep, goats), agriculture, gathering, trading, and marginal tourism.</p><br>
<h2>Rural economy</h2><br>
<p>The Fulɓe practice a form of natural farming that can be recognized today as biointensive agriculture. The region&#39;s main cash crops are bananas and other fruits. The main field crop is fonio, although rice is grown in richer soils. Most soils degrade quickly and are highly acidic with aluminum toxicity, which limits the kind of crops that can be grown without significant soil management.</p><br>
<h2>Biointensive agriculture</h2><br>
<p>Sometime in the late 18th century, the Fulɓe in Fouta Djallonke developed a type of biointensive agriculture, probably out of necessity, since the conquered indigenous women were taken into the households of their Islamic overlords whose livestock became their responsibility. Combining animal husbandry and sedentary agriculture into an efficient system of agropastoralism required a new way of organizing daily life. Livestock, which included horses and cattle, ate more and produced more waste than what the indigenous farmers were accustomed. Since the livestock had to be protected from wildlife at night, they were brought into the family compound, referred to by the French as a tapade, and locally as cuntuuje (sing. suntuure) in the Pular language.</p><br>
<p>Today, livestock graze in open areas during the day, but are sheltered in corrals during the night, except for goats, which are permitted to manage on their own within limits. A similar pattern must have developed by the latter part of the 18th into the 19th century. Nonetheless, the disposal of livestock waste, which became womans work, required a systematic way of disposing of it. And, over time, the women worked out a method for doing so. In organic gardening, their solution is called sheet composting or mulching. Over time, the women mixed a variety of other organic matter with the manure (kitchen scraps, harvest residues, and vegetative materials from a living fence or hedgerow) and piled it each day on their garden beds and trees to decompose and become nutritious humus. In the 20th century, livestock among the Fulɓe shifted from large animals to smaller types. Horses, perhaps due to the tsetse fly decreased, while goats, sheep, pigs, and poultry increased, and ndama cattle remain an integral asset.</p><br>
<p>The tapade gardens of Fouta Djallon have been highly researched by international scholars from various disciplines. This research has revealed that the cuntuuje system has a higher soil nutrient level than any other soil in the region. Almost all labor, except for the initial preparation, is performed and managed by women and children, in the past and now, within each family group. The gardens are important for both food and cash crops for their families. PLEC, a project of the United Nations University, measured yields on 6.5 ha from tapade fields at Misiide Heyre, Fouta Djallon and found that maize yielded up to 7 t/ha, cassava 21 t/ha, sweet potatoes 19 t/ha, and groundnuts (peanuts) about 8 t/ha.</p><br>
<p>Each suntuure is about 1-hectare (2.5 acres) on average, so referring to them as gardens is not accurate, neither for their size nor complexity. The cuntuuje represents a systems approach to food production, and is distinguished by their agrodiversity, as well as the way the people intensively use and maximize a limited amount of land. Today, the cuntuuje gardens continue to produce a significant quantity and variety of agricultural products.</p><br>
<p>The living fences that surround each suntuure are not just a barrier to keep out people, wild animals, and domestic livestock. In the permaculture vocabulary, the fence is a vegetative berm, and is instrumental in the process of nutrient cycling and nutrient retention within the suntuure. In other words, the cuntuuje represent a sustainable biointensive polyculture farm system and landscape architecture, housing one or more microclimate ecosystems and are examples of what we know today to be a permaculture design. The graphic in this section is a mind map of the internal zones and sectors found typically in a suntuure environment.</p><br>
<p>The interior of the suntuure, Zones 1-3 (internal gate, entryway, privacy screen, and residence) are reserved primarily for family members. It is in Zones 4 and 5 (the hoggo and suntuure living fence) where most activities of daily life occur. Here, visitors are greeted at a secondary shelter or pavilion, work on gardens (hoggos) is organized, children spend the day in play and work if of age, and afternoon prayers, naps, conversations, and meals occur until dark. Zone 6 is the outside world.</p><br>
<p>In 2003, the cuntuuje of Fuuta-Jalon were recognized by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) as one of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems.</p><br>
<h2>Urban</h2><br>
<p>The largest town in the region is Labé.</p><br>
<h2>Out-migration</h2><br>
<p>Fuuta-Jalon has historically had a high degree of emigration, usually short-term, and mainly to Senegal and Sierra Leone.</p><br>
<p>The Teesta River  is a 309 km long river flowing through the Indian states of West Bengal and Sikkim through Bangladesh before emptying to the Bay of Bengal. It carves out from the verdant Himalayas & Singalila in temperate and tropical river Valleys and forms the border between Sikkim and West Bengal. It flows through the cities of Rangpo, Jalpaiguri and Kalimpong and joins the Jamuna  in Bangladesh. It drains an area of 12,540 km&sup2;.</p><br>
<h2>Course</h2><br>
<p>The Teesta River originates from the Pahunri (or Teesta Kangse) glacier above 7,068 m, and flows southward through gorges and rapids in the Sikkim Himalaya.</p><br>
<p>It is fed by rivulets arising in the Thangu, Yumthang and Donkha mountain ranges. The river then flows past the town of Rangpo where the Rangpo River joins, and where it forms the border between Sikkim and West Bengal up to Teesta Bazaar. Just before the Teesta Bridge, where the roads from Kalimpong and Darjeeling join, the river is met by its main tributary, the Rangeet River. At this point, it changes course southwards flowing into West Bengal. The river hits the plains at Sevoke, 22 km northeast of Siliguri, where it is spanned by the Coronation Bridge linking the northeast states to the rest of India. The river then goes merging up with the Brahmaputra River after it bifurcates the city of Jalpaiguri and flows just touching Cooch Behar district at Mekhliganj and moves to Fulchori in Bangladesh.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Through its course, the Teesta river has carved out ravines and gorges in Sikkim meandering through the hills with the hill station of Kalimpong lying just off the river. Variegated vegetation can be seen along this route. At lower elevations, tropical deciduous trees and shrubs cover the surrounding hills; alpine vegetation is seen at the upper altitudes. The river is flanked by white sand which is used by the construction industry in the region. Large boulders in and around the waters make it ideal for rafting enthusiasts.</p><br>
<p>Between Rangpo town and the railway bridge (popularly called Lohapul or iron bridge) on it as it enters the plains at Sevoke, the Teesta flows with a very strong current, ideal for white river rafting. Towns like Teesta Bazaar and Melli have facilities for group rafting. Though the river looks innocuous, the underlying current is very strong. In 1915, G.P. Robertson, the then Municipal Engineer of Darjeeling, drowned after losing control of the boat in the turbulence while surveying the river. The boat struck a partially hidden boulder and was sucked in by a whirlpool, leaving no trace of the occupants.</p><br>
<p>During the monsoons, Teesta river distends its banks; both in size and turbulence. Landslides in this region often dam up parts of the river in this season.</p><br>
<h2>Changes in course of rivers</h2><br>
<p>Great changes have taken place in the course of some of the rivers in Bengal and the adjoining areas, during the period since 1500 CE. Although positive evidence is lacking, similar changes can be assumed in the remoter past. The Teesta River is one of the rivers that has changed over the years.</p><br>
<p>The Teesta earlier ran due south from Jalpaiguri in three channels, namely, the Karatoya to the east, the Punarbhaba in the west and the Atrai in the centre. The three channels possibly gave the name to the river as Trisrota "possessed of three streams" which has been shortened to Teesta. Of these three, the Punarbhaba joined the Mahananda. The Atrai passing through a vast marshy area known as Chalan Beel joined the Karatoya and the united stream joined the Padma (Ganges) near Jafarganj. In the destructive floods of 1787, the Teesta river forsook its old channel and rushing south-east it joined the Brahmaputra.</p><br>
<p>James Rennell made a survey between 1764 and 1777 and his maps are one of the earliest authentic maps of Bengal in existence. In these maps Teesta is shown as flowing through North Bengal in several branches—Punarbhaba, Atrai, Karatoya, etc. All these streams combined lower down with the Mahananda, now the westernmost river in North Bengal, and taking the name of Hoorsagar finally discharged into the Ganges at Jafarganj, near modern Goalundo. The Hoorsagar river still in existence, being the combined outfall of the Baral, a spill channel of the Ganges, the Atrai, the Jamuna or Jamuneswari (not the main Jamuna through which the Brahmaputra now flows), and the Karatoya, but instead of falling into the Ganges, it falls into the main Jamuna, a few miles above its confluence with the Padma at Goalundo.</p><br>
<h2>Hydroelectric projects</h2><br>
<p>India has an estimated total hydroelectric power potential of 84 GW (at 60% load factor). Of this, Sikkims potential share is 2.9%, or about 4.29 GW. As of 2010, 13.9% (594 MW) of Sikkims potential had been implemented and was under operation, 44.8% is under implementation (1919 MW), and another 41.3% (1773 MW) is yet to be examined from environment and engineering design perspective.</p><br>
<p>The successfully completed major projects and dams are:</p><br>
<p>Teesta -V dam, the largest project so far, was completed in 2007 on Teesta in Dikchu, District- East Sikkim. Its height is 87 m and its length is 176 m. It generates 510 MW hydroelectric power and assists flood control.</p><br>
<p>Rangit III hydroelectric project was completed in 2000 on Greater Rangit River which is a tributary of Teesta River. The catchment area of Rangit III dam is 979 km&sup2; and the dam is 47 m high. The project has 60 MW generation capacity, and is already online.</p><br>
<p>The other three completed projects are significantly smaller and minor—Lower Lagyap, Upper Rongni Chhu and Mayang Chhu projects.</p><br>
<h2>Other dams</h2><br>
<p>The Teesta Barrage is a major irrigation project in Bangladesh, in Lalmonirhat District. Construction started 1979 and was completed in 1997-98.</p><br>
<h2>Seismic concerns</h2><br>
<p>Teesta river area is in the seismically active Zone-V and has experienced micro-seismic activity. According to India&#39;s Ministry of Environment & Forests, the Teesta river dam projects have been approved with the requirement that they adopt suitable seismic coefficient in the design for the dam, tunnel, surge shaft and power house. The projects are cascaded over the length of the river, do not store large amounts water, have small reservoirs, and therefore the projects are expected to have very low risk from the reservoir induced seismicity in the area.</p><br>
<h2>Climate and tectonics</h2><br>
<p>The Teesta river has preserved good imprints of climatic and tectonics along its valleys and catchments.</p><br>
<p>The interrelationship between climate, erosion, deposition and tectonic activities is not properly understood to date. These are being studied.</p><br>
<p>Rutland Island is an island of the Andaman Islands. It belongs to the South Andaman administrative district, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.</p><br>
<p>the island is lying 20 km south from Port Blair.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The island used to be home to the Jangil, one of the indigenous Andamanese groups. The Jangil (also called "Rutland Jarawa" since they were thought to have been related to the Jarawa of South Andaman) occupied much of the interior of the island according to mid-19th century British accounts, however their interactions with outsiders were few and far between. Up to the early 20th century there are only a handful of documented encounters with Jangil individuals. The last documented encounter was in 1907, and when in the 1920s a more extensive expedition to the island&#39;s interior was conducted, no traces of their active habitation were found; the Jangil had become extinct.</p><br>
<p>From time to time other indigenous Andamanese, such as the Onge from Little Andaman Island to the south and Great Andamanese tribes to the north had also set up fishing communities on Rutland. However, with the great reduction in numbers of these peoples, and their (enforced) relocation to more restricted areas, the island no longer has any permanent indigenous settlement.</p><br>
<p>There is a lighthouse at the slopes of the hill on the north of the island, about 2 km from the landing point.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The island belongs to the Rutland Archipelago and is located across the Macpherson Strait from South Andaman Island.</p><br>
<p>It is separated from Little Andaman by the Duncan Passage, and from North Clinque Island by Manner Strait.</p><br>
<p>Mount Ford, 433m high, lies in the N part of the island; Mount Mayo, 227m high, lies in the S part.</p><br>
<h2>Administration</h2><br>
<p>Politically, Rutland Island, along neighboring Rutland Archipelago, are part of Port Blair Taluk.</p><br>
<h2>Demographics</h2><br>
<p>There are 6 villages on the island: Rutland village, R.M.Point village, Bamboo Nallaha, Kichad Nallaha, and east jetty (Dani Nallah).</p><br>
<p>According to the 2011 census of India, the Island has 119 households, with 347 inhabitants, speaking Hindi, Bengali, Tamil. The effective literacy rate (i.e. the literacy rate of population excluding children aged 6 and below) is 64%.</p><br>
<p>The island has 53 hectares of cultivated land, 237 cattle heads, 157 goats.</p><br>
<h2>Flora & Fauna</h2><br>
<p>Rutland Island is rich in marine life with the shallow waters near the island having a good representation of smaller fish and coral.</p><br>
<p>The vegetation of Rutland Island is similar to that of North Sentinel Island with dry sandy soils. Although hilly, the island is overgrown with fairly open jungle and brush.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>Rutland Island offers an ideal base for training open water divers.</p><br>
<p>Prominent tourist spots on the island include Jahaji Beach, Bada Balu, Manner Strait, Photo Nallah and Dani Nallah.</p><br>
<h2>Rutland Water Project</h2><br>
<p>As of 2012, the Andaman Public Works Department was planning to bring water from Rutland Island to Port Blair by underwater pipeline across Mac Pherson Strait, from R. M. Point to Phongibalu in South Andaman. The pipeline would be about 1.2 km long; the maximum depth of the strait at the planned location is 55 m. The pipeline was estimated to cost about 140 million rupees.</p><br>
<h2>Image gallery</h2><br>
<p>Kranidi  is a town and a former municipality in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Ermionida, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 252.938 km. Some say the name is derived from the word Koronida, while others claim it is from the word Kranaos, which means "rocky trough". It is situated in the eastern part of Argolis, on the easternmost "finger" of the Peloponnese peninsula. It is 8 km west of Ermioni, 28 km south of Epidaurus and 38 km southeast of Nafplio.</p><br>
<p>Kranidi is known for being the location of second homes of several prominent celebrities, including Sean Connery and the Dutch royal couple king Willem-Alexander and queen Máxima.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The area around Kranidi consists of low hills, covered with olive groves and small forests. The town itself is about 4 km from the coast. Several villages of the municipal unit Kranidi are on the Aegean Sea coast, including Koilada, Portocheli and the small beach settlement Doroufi.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The place of Kranidi has been inhabited for thousands of years. Very close to town is located the Phrancthi Cave that was the dwelling of prehistoric man. During the Homeric era, in this place there were two cities, Hermion (in place of modern Ermioni) and Masis (in place of the modern village of Koilada). In the classical era, a few kilometers south, the city of Halieis was built, in place of modern Porto Heli. Kranidi is first mentioned in the 16th century after the Turkish name Kato Nahagie, which means low province. Kranidi was one of the centers of the Greek uprising of 1777. After the failure of the rebellion, however, many locals abandoned the area in order to avoid persecution by the Muslim Ottomans. Many of them sought refuge away from the Peloponnese, in Europe and Russia. Many also migrated to Cyprus. The modern name derives either from ancient the Greek name Kranaos or from the name of the nearby islet of Koronida. This name was corrupted to Kranida and after Kranidi. The residents of Kranidi took part in the Greek War of Independence. One local guerilla was the priest Arsenios Krestas. In 1823, before breaking the first Greek Civil War, Kranidi became the seat of the legislature part of Greek government. After the independence Kranidi was appointed the seat of Ermionida province. Nowadays Kranidi is a flourishing small town with a rich nautical tradition and developed touristic services.</p><br>
<h2>Historical population</h2><br>
<p>Lake Monona is a freshwater drainage lake in Dane County, Wisconsin, surrounded on three sides by the city of Madison, Wisconsin, and on the south side by the city of Monona, Wisconsin. It is the second-largest of a chain of four lakes along the Yahara River  in the area and forms the south shore of the isthmus that forms downtown Madison. The name Monona is a Chippewa word believed to mean beautiful, although the lake was originally named by the Ho-Chunk  Tchee-ho-bo-kee-xa-te-la or Teepee Lake.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>Lake Monona rests at 43&deg;4&prime;9&Prime;N latitude, 89&deg;21&prime;34&Prime;W longitude. It measures 3,274 acres (13.2 km²), has a mean depth of 27 ft (8.3 m) and a maximum depth of 74 ft (22.6 m). Its volume is approximately 28 billion US gallons (110,000,000 m³) and it has 13 miles (21 km) of shoreline, about 40% of which is publicly owned. The elevation of the lake is 845&#39;, regulated by locks at the mouth of the Yahara River at Lake Mendota. Monona is fed by three tributaries; The Yahara River (from Lake Mendota), Starkweather Creek, and Wingra Creek. Lake Monona is typically frozen for 107 days a year, give or take 10 days depending on the season. Access to the lake is by boat ramp.</p><br>
<p>Monona is home to many species of fish and is a popular lake for fishing. Sport fish species include bluegill, lake sturgeon, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, muskellunge (muskie), northern pike, and walleye.</p><br>
<p>26-year-old soul singer Otis Redding died when his plane crashed in Lake Monona on December 10, 1967 during a storm en route to a concert in Madison. The pilot, Reddings manager, and four out of the five members of the Bar-Kays (then Otiss backup band) who were on the plane also died; with the sole-survivor being trumpeter Ben Cauley.</p><br>
<p>Antofagasta de la Sierra is a volcanic field in Argentina. The main type of volcanic edifice in the area are scoria cones, it is formed by the La Laguna, Jote and Alumbrera volcanoes. The first and last of these form a sub-group which is better researched. Various dating methods have yielded ages from several million to several hundred thousand years ago, but some vents appear to be of Holocene age.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<h3>Regional</h3><br>
<p>Volcanic activity in the Andes occurs in four regions, the Northern Volcanic Zone, the Central Volcanic Zone, the Southern Volcanic Zone and the Austral Volcanic Zone. The first three of these are found where the Nazca Plate subducts beneath the South America Plate, while the last zone occurs at the subduction zone of the Antarctic Plate. The Andean Central Volcanic Zone runs along the Western Cordillera of the Andes and along the Altiplano. During the Neogene, the position of this volcanic arc moved eastward and the arc became broader, probably due to a change in the tilt of the slab of the Nazca Plate. Volcanic activity during this time was heavily influenced by local strike-slip faults which acted to channel the magma flows. About 7 million years ago, tectonics and volcanic activity changed in the region probably in response to the delamination of the crust beneath the region: Large scale ignimbrites were erupted at Galán and small back-arc volcanoes erupted mafic basaltic andesite lavas. These small volcanic centres consist of lava domes, lava flows, maars, scoria cones and tuff rings.</p><br>
<h3>Local</h3><br>
<p>The Antofagasta de la Sierra volcanic field lies within the north-south trending tectonic depression of the same name, Of the individual vents the La Laguna and Alumbrera cones are the best studied ones, they lie about 5-7 km south of Antofagasta de la Sierra. These volcanoes are associated with black lava flow fields.</p><br>
<p>Alumbrera cone is 164 m high and has an elliptical shape with a maximum length of 1.3 km, probably due to wind influencing the growth of the cone. The cone shows signs of having been gravitationally unstable, including a sector collapse on its northwestern flank. The cone has a 50 m wide crater and a few fissure vents. Alumbrera has a volume of 0.12 km3 and is the source of a 0.29 km3 large lava flow field which covers a surface of 41.3 km&sup2;.</p><br>
<p>La Laguna is smaller than Alumbrera: The cone is only 153 m high and 1.1 km3 wide, with a 23.5 m deep crater. As with Alumbrera La Laguna features one fissure vent and a lava flow field, with a smaller volume of 0.12 km3 and surface area of 6.8 km&sup2;.</p><br>
<p>Both La Laguna and Alumbrera were fed by northwest-striking fissures, which is unusual as most lineaments in the area strike northeastwards or north-south. The surfaces of erupted rocks have been subject to various degrees of wind-driven erosion which has left grooves in the most altered units.</p><br>
<h3>Composition</h3><br>
<p>Alumbrera and La Laguna has erupted alkaline to sub-alkaline basaltic trachyandesite to trachybasalt with a porphyritic texture. Phenocrysts within the rock include olivine and plagioclase or clinopyroxene, which form also the bulk of the matrix.</p><br>
<h2>Eruptive history</h2><br>
<p>Eruptions at Alumbrera occurred in two phases, the first formed toothpaste lava and aa lava and the second in addition to lava small pyroclastic flows and a tephra blanket. A scoria fallout is found as far as 15 km east of Alumbrera. During this second phase, the sector collapse at Alumbrera occurred and was followed by the emission of lava bombs during Strombolian eruptions. Later during a second phase of activity lava bombs and scoria formed a newer cone and two lava flow fields. At both volcanoes, phreatomagmatic activity may have occurred after the magma pressure dropped so far that water could enter the conduit. The eruptions probably lasted several weeks to several years.</p><br>
<p>A lava flow at La Laguna cone has been dated to 340,000 ± 60,000 years before present, A large-scale research project in the Puna yielded a number of Ar-Ar and K-Ar dates, including 3.2 and 4.5 million years ago for Jote and 0.3 and 7.3 million years ago for Alumbrera and La Laguna. The older age appears to refer to a mesa just west of the Alumbrera lava field.</p><br>
<p>Historical activity is unknown, but the field may have had eruptions during the Holocene; the young appearance of Alumbrera suggests a Holocene age for this cone. Renewed activity in the field could cause ash to fall over hundreds of square kilometres of adjoining land and generate dangerous pyroclastic density currents close to the vent.</p><br>
<h2>Other</h2><br>
<p>Between the Antofagasta and Alumbrera volcanoes lies the Antofagasta lake. The vegetation in the area is shrub steppe, and fairly sunny and dry. The Antofagasta River coming from the north forms a large wetland before the relatively deep Antofagasta lake; the Alumbrera volcano borders the lake in the south.</p><br>
<p>Gilbert Hill is a 200 ft monolith column of black basalt rock at Andheri, in Mumbai, India. The rock has a sheer vertical face and was formed when molten lava was squeezed out of the Earth&#39;s clefts during the Mesozoic Era about 66 million years ago. During that era, molten lava had spread around most of the Indian states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, covering an area of 50,000 km&sup2;. The volcanic eruptions were also responsible for the destruction of plant and animal life during that era.</p><br>
<p>According to experts, this rare geological phenomenon was the remnants of a ridge and had clusters of vertical columns in nearby Jogeshwari which were quarried off two decades ago. These vertical columns are similar to the Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming, and the Devils Postpile National Monument in eastern California, USA.</p><br>
<p>Gilbert Hill was declared a National Park in 1952 by the Central Government under the Forest Act. In 2007, after years of lobbying by geologists, the hill was declared a Grade II heritage structure by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), and all quarrying and other activities around the monument were prohibited. Over the period of time, Gilbert Hill has faced severe erosion problems too.</p><br>
<p>Atop the rock column, two Hindu temples, the Gaodevi and Durgamata temples, set in a small garden, are accessed by a steep staircase carved into the rock. The hill offers a panoramic view of suburban Mumbai.</p><br>
<p>Efforts are being made to convert Gilbert Hill into a tourist attraction and include it as stop on tour of Mumbai by Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation.</p><br>
<p>Waikanae River is located on the Kapiti Coast in the North Island of New Zealand.</p><br>
<p>The river drains the western flanks of the Tararua Ranges around Reikorangi and the Akatarawa Valley, then passes to the south of the town of Waikanae before entering the Tasman Sea at Waikanae Beach. Tributaries include the Maungakotukutuku Stream, Ngatiawa River, and Reikorangi Stream. The estuary of the river is a significant reserve providing shelter and habitat for local and migratory seabirds. It also provides a major recreational location, both for residents and tourists.</p><br>
<p>Water up to a maximum amount is taken out of the river as water supply for Waikanae and Paraparaumu. This sometimes leads to water restrictions if the river runs low, however in January 2005 the river burst its banks after heavy rain. The river has good water quality and high aquatic biodiversity, but there are occasional blooms of toxic cyanobacteria after prolonged periods of low flow during hot,dry weather.</p><br>
<p>The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is a museum and art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1805 and is the first and oldest art museum and art school in the United States. The academy&#39;s museum is internationally known for its collections of 19th- and 20th-century American paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. Its archives house important materials for the study of American art history, museums, and art training.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) was founded in 1805 by painter and scientist Charles Willson Peale, sculptor William Rush, and other artists and business leaders. The growth of the Academy of Fine Arts was slow. For many years it held its exhibitions in an 1806 building, designed by John Dorsey with pillars of the Ionic order. It stood on the site of the later American Theater at Chestnut and 10th streets. The academy opened as a museum in 1807 and held its first exhibition in 1811, where more than 500 paintings and statues were displayed. The first school classes held in the building were with the Society of Artists in 1810.</p><br>
<p>The Academy had to be reconstructed after the fire of 1845. Some 23 years later, leaders of the academy raised funds to construct a building more worthy of its treasures. They commissioned the current Furness-Hewitt building, which was constructed from 1871. It opened as part of the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition.</p><br>
<p>In 1876, former Academy student and artist Thomas Eakins returned to teach as a volunteer. Fairman Rogers, chairman of the Committee on Instruction from 1878 to 1883, made him a faculty member in 1878, and promoted him to director in 1882. Eakins revamped the certificate curriculum to what it remains today. Students in the certificate program learn fundamentals of drawing, painting, sculpture, and printmaking (relief, intaglio, and lithography) for two years. For the next two years, they conduct independent study, guided by frequent critiques from faculty, students, and visiting artists.</p><br>
<p>From 1811 to 1969, the Academy organized important annual art exhibitions, from which the museum made significant acquisitions. Harrison S. Morris, Managing Director from 1892 to 1905, collected contemporary American art for the institution. Among the many masterpieces acquired during his tenure were works by Cecilia Beaux, William Merritt Chase, Frank Duveneck, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, and Edmund Tarbell. Work by The Eight, which included former Academy students Robert Henri and John Sloan, is well represented in the collection. It provides a transition between 19th- and 20th- century art movements.</p><br>
<p>From 1890 to 1906, Edward Hornor Coates served as the tenth president of the Academy. In 1915, Coates was awarded the Academy&#39;s gold medal. Painter John McLure Hamilton, who began his art education at the Academy under Thomas Eakins, in 1921 described the contributions Coates made during his tenure:</p><br>
<p>The reign of Mr. Coates at the Academy marked the period of its greatest prosperity. Rich endowments were made to the schools, a gallery of national portraiture was formed, and some of the best examples of Gilbert Stuarts work acquired. The annual exhibitions attained a brilliancy and éclat hitherto unknown... Mr. Coates wisely established the schools upon a conservative basis, building almost unconsciously the dykes high against the oncoming flow of insane novelties in art patterns... In this last struggle against modernism the President was ably supported by Eakins, Anschutz, Grafly, Thouron, Vonnoh, and Chase... His unfailing courtesy, his disinterested thoughtfulness, his tactfulness, and his modesty endeared him to scholars and masters alike. No sacrifice of time or of means was too great, if he thought he could accomplish the end he always had in view—the honour and the glory of the Academy. It was under Mr. Coates enlightened direction that was fulfilled the expressed wish of Benjamin West, the first honorary Academician, that "Philadelphia may be as much celebrated for her galleries of paintings by the native genius of the country, as she is distinguished by the virtues of her people; and that she may be looked up to as the Athens of the Western World in all that can give polish to the human mind."</p><br>
<p>During World War I, Academy students were actively involved in war work. "About sixty percent of the young men enlisted or entered Government service, and probably all of the young women and all the rest of the young men were directly or indirectly engaged in war work." A war service club was formed by students and a monthly publication, The Academy Fling, was sent to service members. George Harding, a former PAFA student, was commissioned captain during the war and created official combat sketches for the American Expeditionary Forces.</p><br>
<h3>Women at the Academy</h3><br>
<p>The 1844 Board of Directors&#39; declaration that women artists "would have exclusive use of the statue gallery for professional purposes" and study time in the museum on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings signified a significant advance towards formal training in art for women. Prior to the founding of the Academy, there were limited opportunities for women to receive professional art training in the United States. This period between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries shows a remarkable growth of formally trained women artists.</p><br>
<p>By 1860 female students were allowed to take anatomy and antique courses, drawing from antique casts. In addition, women enjoyed their newly acquired library and gallery access. Life classes, the study of the nude body, were available to women in the spring of 1868 with female models; male models were added for study six years later. This came after much debate on whether it was appropriate for women to view the nude male form.</p><br>
<p>It took 24 years before women could take full advantage of all aspects of training at the prestigious institution. After 1868 women took more active leadership roles and achieved influential positions. For example, in 1878 Catherine Drinker, at the age of 27, became the first woman to teach at the academy. One of her pupils, her younger cousin Cecilia Beaux, would leave a lasting legacy at the academy as the first female faculty member to instruct painting and drawing, beginning in 1895. By the 1880s women artists competed with men for top accolades and recognition. Not until much later, however, did the academy gain its first woman on the Board of Directors in 1950.</p><br>
<p>Even as women artists were making progress in the United States, they had difficulty studying in Europe. Women who chose to travel overseas typically studied the works of master artists in the galleries, not in classes. In this regard, the USA was more progressive than Europe at the time.</p><br>
<p>In 2010, The Academy acquired the Linda Lee Alter Collection of Art by Women, nearly 500 works by female artists, from collector Linda Lee Alter. Artists in the collection include those of international renown, such as Louise Bourgeois, Judy Chicago, Louise Nevelson, Kiki Smith and Kara Walker, as well renowned Philadelphia artists including Elizabeth Osborne. In 2012, The Academy featured the collection in the exhibition The Female Gaze: Women Artists Making Their World.</p><br>
<h2>The Academy today</h2><br>
<h3>The Museum</h3><br>
<p>Since its founding, the Academy has collected works by leading American artists, as well as works by distinguished alumni and faculty of its school. Today, the Academy maintains its collecting tradition with the inclusion of works by modern and contemporary American artists. Acquisitions and exhibition programs are balanced between historical and contemporary art, and the museum continues to show works by contemporary regional artists and features annual displays of work by Academy students. The collection is installed in a chronological and thematic format, exploring the history of American art from the 1760s to the present.</p><br>
<h3>The School</h3><br>
<p>The Academy is well known for its longstanding 4-year Certificate Program. Since 1929, qualified students may apply for and receive a coordinated Bachelor of Fine Arts program at the University of Pennsylvania. Another BFA degree program is offered exclusively in-house (a recent addition) its Master of Fine Arts program, a Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Graduate Studies, and extensive continuing education offerings, as well as programs for children and families.</p><br>
<p>Starting in Summer 2015, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) will offer a low-residency Master of Fine Arts program.</p><br>
<p>PAFA is also offering a new major in the Certificate and the Bachelor of Fine Arts Program. Starting in Fall 2015, student will be able to study fine arts illustration, which complements the present offerings in painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture.</p><br>
<p>In 2013, PAFA received Middle States Commission for Higher Education (MSCHED) accreditation.</p><br>
<p>In January 2009, PAFA signed a historic transfer agreement with Camden County College, New Jersey. The "Camden Connection" allows for the transfer of liberal arts and studio classes as well as providing, on a competitive basis, for partial merit scholarships specifically for Camden County College students. Other transfer agreements are now in place with the following community college art departments: Community College of Philadelphia, Montgomery County Community College, Atlantic Cape Community College, and Northampton Community College.</p><br>
<p>In January 2007, the Academy, in association with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, purchased Thomas Eakins&#39;s work The Gross Clinic from the Jefferson Medical School. This seminal American work will be displayed at both institutions on a rotating basis.</p><br>
<p>In 2005, the Academy received the National Medal of Arts recognizing it as a leader in fine arts education.</p><br>
<h2>Buildings</h2><br>
<h3>The Furness-Hewitt building</h3><br>
<p>The current museum building began construction in 1871 and opened in 1876 in connection with the Philadelphia Centennial. Designed by the American architects Frank Furness and George Hewitt, it has been called "ne of the most magnificent Victorian buildings in the country." The buildings facade draws from a number of different historical styles, including Second Empire, Renaissance Revival and Gothic Revival, amalgamated in an "aggressively personal manner". The buildings exterior coloration combines "rusticated brownstone, dressed sandstone, polished pink granite, red pressed brick, and purplish terra-cotta."</p><br>
<p>The inside of the building is equally varied, combining "gilt floral patterns incised on a field of Venetian red;... cerulean blue ceiling sprinkled with silver stars", and plum, ochre, sand and olive green gallery walls. The building&#39;s structure combines brick, stone and iron; because of fire-proofing concerns, some of the iron i-beams were left uncovered.</p><br>
<p>The newly Academy of Fine Arts will bear comparison with any institution of its kind in America. It has a front of one hundred feet on Broad Street and a depth of two hundred and fifty-eight feet on Cherry Street. Its situation, with a street on each of its three sides, and an open space along a considerable portion of the fourth, is very advantageous as regards lighting, and freedom from risk by fire.It is built of brick, the principal entrance, which is two stories high, being augmented with encaustic tiles, terra-cotta statuary, and light stone dressings. The walls are laid in patterns of red and white brick. Over the main entrance on Broad Street there is a large Gothic window with stone tracery. The Cherry Street front is relieved by a colonnade supporting arched windows, back of which is the transept and pointed gable.Beyond the entrance vestibule is the main staircase, which starts from a wide hall and leads to the galleries on the second floor. Along the Cherry Street side of the Academy are five galleries arranged for casts from the antique; and, further on, are rooms for drapery painting, and the life class. These have a clear north light which can never be obstructed.On the south side, there is a large lecture room, with retiring rooms, and back of these are the modeling rooms and rooms devoted to the use of students and professors.On the second floor is the main hall, which extends across the building, and is intended for the exhibition of large works of art. This story is divided into galleries, which are lighted from the top. Through the center runs a hall which is set apart for the exhibition of statuary, busts, small statues, bas-reliefs, etc. On each side of this hall are picture galleries, which are so arranged in size and form as to admit of classification of pictures, and which can be divided into suits where separate exhibitions may be held at the same time.The art collections of the gallery are considered the most valuable in America. They comprise the masterpieces of Stuart, Sully, Allston, West, and others of our early artists, the Gilpin gallery, fine marbles, and facsimiles of famous statues, as well as a magnificent gallery from the antique.</p><br>
<p>The Academy building is Furnesss best known work, and served to establish him as one of the countrys top architects. Despite being initially praised by critics, by the turn of the century, tastes had changed and the building was not considered appealing. Eventually, steps were taken to obscure its ornamentation to "modernize" it.</p><br>
<p>In the post-World War II era, the building was newly appreciated again, with the growth in the historic preservation movement making people more aware of treasures from the past. The building is now considered a masterpiece, one of the greatest buildings in Philadelphia and arguably Furness&#39;s greatest work. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975. In 1976 the building was fully restored, both its interiors and exteriors, to coincide with its centennial and with the United States bicentennial. The restoration work was conducted through Day and Zimmerman Associates, and headed by Human Myers.</p><br>
<h3>Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building</h3><br>
<p>In 2002, Dorrance H. Hamilton made a large donation to the Academy for its expansion. It purchased the former automobile factory at 128 N. Broad Street, immediately adjacent to the original building. This had also been adapted for use as a federal office building for some years.</p><br>
<p>The structure was renamed in memory of her husband, Samuel M.V. Hamilton. It was renovated and the School of Fine Arts of the Academy completed its move there in September 2006. The building also contains a special exhibition space called the Fisher Brooks Gallery, named after James R. Fisher, an artist who attended PAFA in the late 1880s, and Leonie Brooks. They are the grandfather and mother, respectively, of Marguerite Lenfest, a philanthropist and PAFA board member. The Hamilton building also houses Portfolio, the museum&#39;s gift shop.</p><br>
<h2>Notable people</h2><br>
<p>Notable Academy students, faculty and leaders include:</p><br>
<p>Linda Lee Alter</p><br>
<p>Charles Andes</p><br>
<p>Thomas Pollock Anshutz</p><br>
<p>Thomas N. Armstrong III</p><br>
<p>Elizabeth Gowdy Baker</p><br>
<p>Will Barnet</p><br>
<p>Cornelia Barns</p><br>
<p>Bo Bartlett</p><br>
<p>Walter Emerson Baum</p><br>
<p>Anna Whelan Betts</p><br>
<p>Ethel Franklin Betts</p><br>
<p>Cecilia Beaux</p><br>
<p>Brett Bigbee</p><br>
<p>Alexander Stirling Calder</p><br>
<p>Al Capp (attended briefly)</p><br>
<p>Arthur B. Carles</p><br>
<p>Mary Cassatt</p><br>
<p>Margaret Covey Chisholm</p><br>
<p>Edward Hornor Coates</p><br>
<p>Rachel Constantine</p><br>
<p>Colin Campbell Cooper</p><br>
<p>John Rogers Cox</p><br>
<p>Ralston Crawford</p><br>
<p>Jack Delano</p><br>
<p>Vincent Desiderio</p><br>
<p>Blanche Dillaye</p><br>
<p>Thomas Eakins</p><br>
<p>David Em</p><br>
<p>Wharton Esherick</p><br>
<p>Stephen Etnier</p><br>
<p>Louise Fishman</p><br>
<p>A. B. Frost</p><br>
<p>Frank Furness</p><br>
<p>Daniel Garber</p><br>
<p>William Glackens</p><br>
<p>Charles Grafly</p><br>
<p>Walker Hancock</p><br>
<p>James Havard</p><br>
<p>A. G. Heaton</p><br>
<p>Barkley Hendricks</p><br>
<p>Robert Henri</p><br>
<p>Edward Lamson Henry</p><br>
<p>George Hewitt</p><br>
<p>Thomas Hovenden</p><br>
<p>Frances Tipton Hunter</p><br>
<p>Karl Itschner</p><br>
<p>Elsa Jemne</p><br>
<p>William Sergent Kendall</p><br>
<p>Sara Larkin</p><br>
<p>Dorothy P. Lathrop</p><br>
<p>Frank B. A. Linton</p><br>
<p>Adelia Armstrong Lutz</p><br>
<p>David Lynch</p><br>
<p>Paul Manship</p><br>
<p>John Marin</p><br>
<p>Don Martin</p><br>
<p>Donald Martiny</p><br>
<p>Elise Mercur, architect</p><br>
<p>James Metcalf</p><br>
<p>Alme Meyvis</p><br>
<p>Katherine Milhous</p><br>
<p>Abram Molarsky</p><br>
<p>Edward Percy Moran</p><br>
<p>Alphonse Mucha</p><br>
<p>Taras Mychalewych</p><br>
<p>John Neagle</p><br>
<p>Alice Neel</p><br>
<p>Brad Neely</p><br>
<p>Roy Cleveland Nuse</p><br>
<p>Violet Oakley</p><br>
<p>Elizabeth Osborne</p><br>
<p>Maxfield Parrish</p><br>
<p>Charles Willson Peale</p><br>
<p>Rembrandt Peale</p><br>
<p>Clara Elsene Peck</p><br>
<p>Jane Piper</p><br>
<p>Albin Polasek</p><br>
<p>Howard Pyle</p><br>
<p>Jacques Reich</p><br>
<p>Seymour Remenick</p><br>
<p>Fairman Rogers</p><br>
<p>Peter F. Rothermel</p><br>
<p>William Rush</p><br>
<p>Lawrence Saint</p><br>
<p>Mary B. Schuenemann</p><br>
<p>Leopold Seyffert</p><br>
<p>Michael H. Shamberg</p><br>
<p>David Sherman</p><br>
<p>Everett Shinn</p><br>
<p>John French Sloan</p><br>
<p>Owen Staples</p><br>
<p>LeConte Stewart</p><br>
<p>Frank Wilbert Stokes</p><br>
<p>Henry O. Tanner</p><br>
<p>Ellen Powell Tiberino</p><br>
<p>William B. T. Trego</p><br>
<p>Orlando Gray Wales</p><br>
<p>Philip Fishbourne Wharton</p><br>
<p>Benjamin West</p><br>
<p>Anita Willets-Burnham</p><br>
<h2>Awards</h2><br>
<h3>Beck Gold Medal (defunct)</h3><br>
<p>The Carol H. Beck Gold Medal was awarded to the best portrait by an American artist exhibited at PAFA&#39;s annual exhibition. It was awarded from 1909 to 1968.</p><br>
<h3>Mary Smith Prize (defunct)</h3><br>
<p>The Mary Smith Prize was awarded to "the Painter of the best painting (not excluding portraits) exhibiting at the Academy, painted by a resident woman Artist." It was awarded from 1879 to 1968.</p><br>
<h3>Temple Gold Medal (defunct)</h3><br>
<p>The Joseph E. Temple Fund Gold Medal was awarded to the best oil painting by an American artist exhibited at PAFA&#39;s annual exhibition. It was awarded from 1883 to 1968.</p><br>
<h3>Widener Gold Medal</h3><br>
<p>The Academy established the George D. Widener Gold Medal for sculpture in 1912. Widener was a businessman and director of the Academy who died on the RMS Titanic. The award recognizes the "most meritorious work of Sculpture modeled by an American citizen and shown in the Annual Exhibition".</p><br>
<h2>Deaccessioning</h2><br>
<p>In 2013, the Academy put up for sale East Wind Over Weehawken (1934), one of two Edward Hopper paintings in its collection, to start an endowment fund to buy contemporary art. About 25 percent of the endowment will be dedicated to filling gaps in the collection of historic art, but approximately three quarters of new investments are planned to be in contemporary art of undetermined value with hopes for dramatic increases in the future. The painting was sold at auction for $40,485,000. This added significantly to the museums then-current endowment of approximately $23.5 million, but raised new questions about the museums mission and whether such deaccessionings are in the public interest.</p><br>
<p>The National Conservation Centre, formerly the Midland Railway Goods Warehouse, is located in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It stands in a block surrounded by Victoria Street, Crosshall Street, Whitechapel, and Peter Street. After it closed as a warehouse it was converted into a conservation centre for National Museums Liverpool in the 1990s. Initially its exhibition area was open to the public, but this closed in 2010. The centre is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The warehouse was built as a depot for the storage of railway freight in 1872 for the Midland Railway. It was designed by the local architect Henry Sumners of Culshaw and Sumners. The building was extended along Peter Street in 1878 in a similar architectural style. Between 1995 and 1996 it was converted by another local architect, Ken Martin, into the Conservation Centre for National Museums Liverpool. In addition to its conservation work, the centre had an exhibition area open to the public to demonstrate the techniques of conservation, which attracted 60,000 visitors a year. In September 2005 the centre closed for refurbishment, and re-opened in June 2006 as the National Conservation Centre. Because of government cuts in funding, the visitor centre closed in 2010, but conservation work continues in the building.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The centre is constructed in red brick on a rusticated stone plinth, with stone dressings and bands, and some decoration in blue brick. The exterior of the building is expressed as three or four storeys, and around the top of the building is a cornice with modillions. The hipped roof is in slate.</p><br>
<p>The Yereance–Berry House is a stone house built in the early 19th century in what is now Rutherford, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 10, 1983 and is currently home to the Meadowlands Museum.</p><br>
<p>The house, 91 Crane Avenue at the corner of Meadow Road at the edge of the New Jersey Meadowlands, was inventoried by the Historic American Buildings Survey of the Library of Congress in 1938. At that time, the house was believed to have been built in 1804 and was known variously as the John W. Berry House or the Juria Jurianson House. The Yereance name came from the Yereance family, which at one time owned much of the property in the vicinity of the house. (There is a now-decommissioned Yereance Avenue two blocks north of the house.) However, Rutherford historian Frederick Bunker, in a 1979 report to the Meadowlands Museum, indicated that there was no evidence that a Yereance had ever owned the house.</p><br>
<p>The Historic American Buildings Survey report (#6-468) said that the house was built by John W. Berry, a direct descendant of Major John Berry, who obtained land grants from Governor of New Jersey Philip Carteret in 1668. Berry had previously lived in Barbados and named his grants New Barbadoes, a name that remained in official use until 1826. Berrys Creek is also named after Major Berry.</p><br>
<p>Bunker undertook a deed search of the property at the museums request. While Bunker was unable to determine an actual construction date, he concluded that the house was likely built in 1818 by Brant Van Blarcom and his wife, the former Getty Van Riper, a daughter of the previous landowner Jacob Van Riper, who died on or about July 8, 1807. The Van Riper homestead was near the Passaic River, across a ridge from Meadow Road. Getty Van Blarcom received the property in 1817 as the result of an orphans court proceeding that divided Jacob&#39;s property.</p><br>
<p>William Berry, who was a direct descendant of John Berry, purchased the property in 1867 for his son Stephen and his wife Margaret. Stephen died in 1872 and Margaret died in 1882; the house was sold at auction in 1891 and was owned by Charles Smithson at the time of the Historic American Buildings Survey. By that time, a new kitchen had been built on the west side of the house, replacing a kitchen that was removed because it was in the right of way of Crane Avenue, which was officially extended east to Meadow Road in the 1930s.</p><br>
<p>The house was purchased by the Rutherford Museum (now the Meadowlands Museum) in 1974, and the museum has maintained the house in addition to commissioning research on its provenance. In 1983, the house was re-surveyed for the Bergen County Stone House Survey (#0256-1), through which it achieved its placement on the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>The structure is composed of a brownstone foundation, with brownstone extending up to the water table and brick above it. The interior walls are brick, covered with plaster, and there are interior chimneys made of brick. The house has a gambrel roof.</p><br>
<p>Yereance-Berry house 1938.jpgThe Yereance–Berry House in 1938</p><br>
<p>Pipestone National Monument is located in southwestern Minnesota, just north of the city of Pipestone, Minnesota. It is located along the highways of USA Route 75, Minnesota State Highway 23 and Minnesota State Highway 30.</p><br>
<p>The catlinite, or "pipestone", has been traditionally used to make ceremonial pipes, vitally important to traditional Plains Indian religious practices. The quarries are sacred to most of the tribe of North America, Dakota, Lakota, and other tribes of Native Americans, and were neutral territory where all Nations could quarry stone for ceremonial pipes. The Sioux tribes may have taken control of the quarries around 1700, but the Minnesota pipestone has been found inside North American burial mounds dating from long before that, and ancient Indian trails leading to the area suggest pipestone may have been quarried there for many centuries.</p><br>
<p>As the United States grew westward in the 19th century, pipes found their way into white society through trade. To protect their source, the Yankton Sioux secured free and unrestricted access via The Treaty With The Yankton Sioux, which was signed on April 19, 1858.</p><br>
<p>The land was acquired by the federal government in 1893. In 1928, the Yankton Sioux, then resettled on a reservation 150 mi away, sold their claim to the federal government. The National Monument was established by an act of Congress on August 25, 1937, and the establishing legislation restored quarrying rights to the Indians. Today only people of Native American ancestry are allowed to quarry the pipestone. A boundary change occurred on June 18, 1956. As an historic area under the National Park Service it was administratively listed on the National Register of Historic Places under the heading "Cannomok&#39;e—Pipestone National Monument". The Red Pipestone Quarries within the monument comprise a Minnesota State Historic Site.</p><br>
<p>During the summer months, there are cultural demonstrations at the monument. The Upper Midwest Indian Cultural Center, located inside the visitor center, sponsors demonstrations of pipemaking by native craftworkers using the stone from the quarries. Local Native Americans carve the stones using techniques passed down from their ancestors. Many of the demonstrators are third or fourth generation pipe makers.</p><br>
<p>Visitors can also walk along a three-quarter mile (1.2 km) self-guided trail to view the pipestone quarries and a waterfall. A trail guide is available at the visitor center. About 260 acre of the national monument has been restored to native tallgrass prairie. Monument staff burn prairie parcels on a rotating basis to control weeds and stimulate growth of native grasses. A larger area of restored tallgrass prairie and a small Bison herd are maintained by the Minnesota DNR at Blue Mounds State Park, 20 mi to the south.</p><br>
<p>The visitor center features exhibits about the natural and cultural history of the site, including a petroglyph display. There is also an orientation video about the history of the pipestone quarries.</p><br>
<p>Jerimoth Hill  is the highest point in the USA state of Rhode Island. Located in the town of Foster near Providence, the site is used as an observatory. It is also a popular destination for highpointers, and prior to 2005 was known for being difficult to access due to a local landowner who prohibited entry.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>The hill is located on Route 101 in Foster, a half mile from the Connecticut line. To ascend the summit, for which there is a sign, there is a.3 mi long trail that has a mere 10 ft elevation gain. The mountain is 812 ft high and is located 15 mi west of Providence, Rhode Island, and 35 mi east of Willimantic, Connecticut.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The hill was named after Jerimoth Brown, an early settler.</p><br>
<p>The high point was donated to Brown University by Walter Raymond Turner, a Brown alumnus of the class of 1911. In 1938 he purchased the saltbox house to the west and the surrounding 360 acre. Turner provided a right of way, straight north from the high point to Route 101, though eventually it became overgrown.</p><br>
<p>As the highest point in Rhode Island, Jerimoth Hill is a destination for highpointers—hikers who try to reach the highest peak in various areas. For many years, hikers could not access the hill, because the only path to the summit crossed the driveway of a private property owner, Henry Richardson, who prohibited entry. Richardson posted "no trespassing" signs and installed a security system that alerted him whenever people entered his property. Richardsons belligerence toward hikers made him something of a legend in the community. Eventually, Richardsons son worked out a plan to allow access to the path four times a year. After Richardson&#39;s death, his property was purchased in 2005 by the Mosby family, who permitted daily access and eventually ceded the land to the state. In 2014, Brown sold the summit itself to the state, though the university reserves the right to build an observatory there in the future.</p><br>
<p>Puijo is a 150 m hill, the famous landmark of city of Kuopio in Finland and a tourist attraction.</p><br>
<h2>Puijo Ridge</h2><br>
<p>The ridge of Puijo is a well-known and popular recreation area. A 75 m observation tower, Puijo tower, is atop the hill, near the city centre of Kuopio. The tower affords a memorable mosaic of blue lakes and green islands and a large primeval forest. A revolving panoramic restaurant is located at the top of tower, featuring local specialities.</p><br>
<p>Many paths and a large track network are located on the ridge, including two nature trails. People can move freely on most of Puijo ridge, but are restricted to the paths in the nature conservation area and in some areas less resistant to use. Gathering of plants is allowed.</p><br>
<p>Puijo and nearby resort town of Tahkovuori have some co-operative programs to promote sports and tourism.</p><br>
<h2>Conservation area</h2><br>
<p>In Puijo area there is one of the first nature conservation areas of Finland, it was established in 1928. The size of the area is currently about 2.08 square kilometres.</p><br>
<h2>Sports infrastructure</h2><br>
<p>Puijo is a diversified winter sports centre and has annually winter sports events, including cross-country skiing, ski jumping and downhill skiing. It is a training centre of many international ski jumpers. Puijo is an internationally known as a venue for Nordic Ski Jumping World Cup events and its ski jumpers. Puijo has two downhill skiing runs, one of which is for beginners.</p><br>
<p>Puijo is integral to Kuopio&#39;s bid for the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics.</p><br>
<p>Dasht-e Kavir , and dasht , flatland), also known as Kavir-e Namak  and the Great Salt Desert, is a large desert lying in the middle of the Iranian plateau. It is about 800 km by 320 km with a total surface area of about 77,600 km&sup2, making it the Earth&#39;s 26th largest desert. The area of this desert stretches from the Alborz mountain range in the north-west to the Dasht-e Lut in the south-east and is partitioned between the Iranian provinces of Khorasan, Semnan, Tehran, Isfahan and Yazd</p><br>
<h2>Features</h2><br>
<p>Central in the desert lies the Kavir Buzurg (Great Kavir), which is about 320 km long and 160 km wide. In the west lies the Daryahcheh-e Namak ("salt lake"), of 1,800 km&sup2;. It contains some large salt plates in a mosaic-like shape. It is part of a 4,000 km&sup2; protected ecological zone, the Kavir National Park. One of the most desolate places of Dasht-e Kavir is the Rig-e Jenn ("devil&#39;s dunes).</p><br>
<h2>Climate and structure</h2><br>
<p>The Dasht-e Kavir&#39;s climate is arid and receives little rain and snow each year. However, the surrounding mountains on all sides provide plenty of runoff to create vast seasonal lakes, marshlands and playas. Temperatures can reach 50 &deg;C in summer, and the average temperature in January is 22 &deg;C. Day and night temperatures during a year can differ up to 70 &deg;C. Rain usually falls in winter.</p><br>
<p>The desert soil is covered with sand and pebbles; there are marshes, seasonal lakes and seasonal river beds. The hot temperatures cause extreme vaporization, which leaves the marshes and mud grounds with large crusts of salt. Heavy storms frequently occur and they can cause sand hills reaching up to 40 m in height. Some parts of Dasht- e Kavir have a more steppe-like appearance.</p><br>
<h2>Post-Glacial lake system</h2><br>
<p>The Kavir was a series of vast lakes in the immediate post-glacial time, stretching to about 3,000 years ago. The Asian monsoon rain reached deep into central Iran at the time, bringing heavy summer rain that formed numerous lakes in the closed basins of central Iranian Plateau that form the Kavir and other deserts in the area. There are inscriptions at teppeh Sialk noting a visit by the local queen to the ruler of town, identified as Tell-i Bakun, southeast of Yazd, by "sailing the sea"! Copious shorelines at various elevations still extant in the Kavir are telltales of these post-galacial, monsoonal lakes in central Iran where the deserts now dominate</p><br>
<h2>Wildlife</h2><br>
<p>Vegetation in the Dasht-e Kavir is adapted to the hot and arid climate as well as to the saline soil in which it is rooted. Common plant species like shrubs and grasses can only be found in some valleys and on mountain tops. The most widespread plant is mugwort.</p><br>
<p>The Persian ground jay is a bird species living in some parts of the desert plateaus, along with Houbara bustards, larks and sandgrouses.</p><br>
<p>Persian gazelles live in parts of steppe and desert areas of the central plateau. Wild sheep (Ovis orientalis), camels, goats (Capra aegagrus) and Persian leopards are common in mountainous areas. Night life brings on wild cats, wolves, foxes, and other carnivores. In some parts of the desert, the Persian onager (gur in Persian) and sometimes even the Asiatic cheetah can be seen. Lizards and snakes live in different places in the central plateau.</p><br>
<h2>Cultivation</h2><br>
<p>The extreme heat and many storms in Dasht-e Kavir cause extensive erosion, which makes it almost impossible to cultivate the lands. The desert is almost uninhabited and knows little exploitation. Camel and sheep breeding and agriculture are the sources of living to the few people living on its soil. Human settling is restricted to some oases, where wind-blocking housing constructions are raised to deal with the harsh weather conditions. For irrigation, Iranians developed a sophisticated system of water-wells known as qanats. These are still in use, and modern globally used water-revenue systems are based on their techniques.</p><br>
<p>Baintha Brakk  or The Ogre is a steep, craggy mountain, 7,285 m high, in the Panmah Muztagh, a subrange of the Karakoram mountain range. It is located in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. It is famous for being one of the hardest peaks in the world to climb: twenty-four years elapsed between the first ascent in 1977 and the second in 2001.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>Baintha Brakk rises above the north side of the Biafo Glacier, one of the major glaciers of the central Karakoram. It lies about 75 km north of Skardu, the major town of the region, and about 30 km north of the roadhead at Askole.Orographical Sketch Map of the Karakoram by Jerzy Wala, 1990. Published by the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research.</p><br>
<h2>Notable features</h2><br>
<p>Baintha Brakk is exceptional in its combination of altitude, height above local terrain, and steepness. It is a complex granite tower, steeper and rockier than most other Karakoram peaks. (The Latok peaks next to Baintha Brakk are similar, however.) For example, its South Face rises over 3,000 m above the Uzun Brakk Glacier in only 2 km (1.24 mi) of horizontal distance.</p><br>
<p>It is because of this steep, rocky nature that Baintha Brakk has been both so difficult to climb and so attractive a target for extremely high-level mountaineers.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing history</h2><br>
<p>Following two unsuccessful attempts in 1971 and 1976, the peak was first climbed by two Britons, Doug Scott and Chris Bonington, in 1977. (The other members of the party were Mo Anthoine, Clive Rowland, Nick Estcourt, and Tut Braithwaite. Estcourt, Anthoine, and Rowland all reached the lower West Summit, while Braithwaite was injured early on by rockfall.) They climbed via the Southwest Spur to the West Ridge, and over the West Summit to the Main Summit. The ascent of the summit block required difficult rock climbing that extended the boundaries of what had been done at over 7,000 m.</p><br>
<p>The descent proved more dangerous still: On the first rappel from the summit, Scott broke both legs.</p><br>
<p>Later, Bonington broke two ribs and contracted pneumonia. Also, much of the week-long descent to base camp was in a major storm. However, they were all able to reach base camp, where they had a long wait for assistance.</p><br>
<p>The second ascent of Baintha Brakk was made by Urs Stöcker, Iwan Wolf, and Thomas Huber, on 21 July 2001, via the South Pillar route, following their first ascent of the subsidiary peak Ogre III (circa 6,800 m). They note that there were more than 20 unsuccessful expeditions in the interim. Mountain INFO magazine characterized their ascent as "arguably the most notable mountaineering achievement during the entire 2001 season."</p><br>
<p>A third ascent by a new line on the peak&#39;s South Face was made by Americans Kyle Dempster and Hayden Kennedy on August 21, 2012. Compatriot Josh Wharton had also accompanied them on the climb but had to abandon the attempt at approximately 6800 meters (approximately 22,310 feet) due to altitude sickness. Earlier in their trip the two had made another first ascent (along with Slovenian Urban Novak) of a new line on the massive east face of K7 (6,934 meters, 22,749 feet).</p><br>
<p>Ampelakia  is a town and a former municipality of Salamis Island, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Salamis, of which it is a municipal unit.</p><br>
<p>It lies on the central east coast of the island and has a land area of 15.169 km², comprising about one-sixth of the island&#39;s area (with the balance belonging to the city of Salamina). It has a population of 7,507 inhabitants (2011 census). Its largest town is also named Ampelakia, and has a population of 4,710. The other significant town is Selínia (pop. 2,509). The only other settlements are Kynosoúra (pop. 152) and Spithári (136).</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The city of Ampelakia has a long history. It was at Ampelakia Bay where the famous Battle of Salamis occurred in 480 BC, during which the Greek ships defeated the Persian fleet of Xerxes. Moreover, there are many remnants of the ancient town of Salamina which was a significant economic power between 350 and 318 BC when the town minted coins bearing the shield of the legendary hero Ajax. There are also churches which date back to the 16th century, for example the churches of St. John and St. Peter. Today Ambelakia is a nice city for a walk. The majority of the citizens are sailors. However, excavations are taking place at the ancient port, which is full of shipwrecks of old ships from the last 20 years. There are also a couple of large ship repair yards at Ambelakia. There is an effort by the Greek government to clean up the port and continue the excavations but the shipyard owners are against it because they would have to move. The biggest supermarket in the area is .</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Much of the area is made up of rocky landscapes with a few bushes, while some farmlands lie within the sea. The rest of the area is made up of residential areas. A panorama of the Attica peninsula including the Piraeus part of Athens can be seen during clear days.</p><br>
<h2>Historical population</h2><br>
<h2>Subdivisions</h2><br>
<p>The municipal unit Ampelakia is subdivided into the following communities (constituent villages in brackets):</p><br>
<p>Ampelakia (Ampelakia, Kynosoura, Spithari)</p><br>
<p>Selinia</p><br>
<p>Crossroads of the World has been called America&#39;s first outdoor shopping mall. Located on Sunset Boulevard and Las Palmas in Los Angeles, the mall features a central building designed to resemble an ocean liner surrounded by a small village of cottage-style bungalows. It was designed by Robert V. Derrah and built in 1936.</p><br>
<p>Once a busy shopping center, the Crossroads now hosts private offices, primarily for the entertainment industry. It has been used for location shooting in many films, including L.A. Confidential, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, and Café Society, in TV shows, including Dragnet and Remington Steele, and in commercials by McDonalds, Ford, and Mattel. A reproduction of Crossroads iconic tower and spinning globe can be seen just inside the entrance to Disney&#39;s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida.</p><br>
<p>Today, Crossroads is the creative home of a variety of music publishers and producers, television and film script writers, film and recording companies, novelists, costume designers, publicists, and casting agencies.</p><br>
<p>Mount Meru is a dormant stratovolcano located 70 km west of Mount Kilimanjaro in the country of Tanzania. At a height of 4,562.13 m, it is visible from Mount Kilimanjaro on a clear day, and is the fifth-highest mountain in Africa, dependent on definition.</p><br>
<p>Mount Meru is located just north of the city of Arusha, in the Arusha Region of Tanzania. It is the second-highest mountain in Tanzania, after Mount Kilimanjaro. The Momella route - which starts at Momella gate, on the eastern side of the mountain - is used to climb Mount Meru.</p><br>
<p>Much of its bulk was lost about 8,000 years ago due to an eastward volcanic blast, similar to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in the USA state of Washington. Mount Meru most recently had a minor eruption in 1910. The several small cones and craters seen in the vicinity probably reflect numerous episodes of volcanic activity.</p><br>
<p>Mount Meru is the topographic centerpiece of Arusha National Park. Its fertile slopes rise above the surrounding savanna and support a forest that hosts diverse wildlife, including nearly 400 species of birds, and also monkeys and leopards.</p><br>
<p>Mont Méru vue sur Ash Cone.JPGAsh cone</p><br>
<p>Look at Mt. Meru Arusha Tanzania.jpgOverlooking Arusha</p><br>
<p>Little Meru Peak 3,820 metres.jpgLittle Meru Peak (3,820m)</p><br>
<p>Volcan Mont Méru socialist peak.JPGSocialist Peak (4,562m)</p><br>
<p>mount_meru_topography.jpgTopography of Mount Meru</p><br>
<p>mount_meru_sat_photo.jpgMount Meru and Ngurdoto Crater (image top) from space</p><br>
<p>Mt Meru from Momella gate 2006-02-12.jpegMt Meru from Momella gate</p><br>
<p>Sunrise on Mt Kili from the summit of Mt Meru in 2006.jpegSunrise on Mt Kili from the summit of Mt Meru</p><br>
<p>Mount Rinjani or Gunung Rinjani is an active volcano in Indonesia on the island of Lombok. Administratively the mountain is in the Regency of North Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara . It rises to 3,726 m, making it the second highest volcano in Indonesia.</p><br>
<p>On the top of the volcano is a 6 by caldera, which is filled partially by the crater lake known as Segara Anak or Anak Laut (Child of the Sea), due to the color of its water, as blue as the sea (laut). This lake is approximately 2,000 m above sea level and estimated to be about 200 m deep; the caldera also contains hot springs. Sasak tribe and Hindu people assume the lake and the mount are sacred and some religious activities are occasionally done in the two areas.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Lombok is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a small archipelago which, from west to east, consists of Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba and the Timor islands; all are located at the edge of the Australian continental shelf. Volcanoes in the area are formed due to the action of oceanic crusts and the movement of the shelf itself. Rinjani is one of at least 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, four of which belong to the volcanoes of the Sunda Arc trench system forming part of the Pacific Ring of Fire – a section of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and South East Asia.</p><br>
<p>The islands of Lombok and Sumbawa lie in the central portion of the Sunda Arc. The Sunda Arc is home to some of the world&#39;s most dangerous and explosive volcanoes. The eruption of nearby Mount Tambora on Sumbawa is known for the most violent eruption in recorded history on 15 April 1815, with a scale 7 on the VEI.</p><br>
<p>The highlands are forest clad and mostly undeveloped. The lowlands are highly cultivated. Rice, soybeans, coffee, tobacco, cotton, cinnamon, cacao, cloves, cassava, corn, coconuts, copra, bananas and vanilla are the major crops grown in the fertile soils of the island. The slopes are populated by the indigenous Sasak population. There are also some basic tourist related activities established on Rinjani primarily in or about the village of Senaru.</p><br>
<p>Rinjani volcano on the island of Lombok rises to 3,726 m, second in height among Indonesian volcanoes only to Sumatra&#39;s Kerinci volcano. Rinjani has a steep-sided conical profile when viewed from the east, but the western side of the compound volcano is truncated by the 6 x 8.5 km, oval-shaped Segara Anak caldera. The western half of the caldera contains a 230-metre-deep lake whose crescentic form results from growth of the post-caldera cone Barujari at the eastern end of the caldera.</p><br>
<h3>Geologic summary</h3><br>
<p>On the basis of plate tectonics theory, Rinjani is one of the series of volcanoes built in the Lesser Sunda Islands due to the subduction of Indo-Australian oceanic crust beneath the Lesser Sunda Islands, and it is interpreted that the source of melted magma is about 165 - depth.</p><br>
<p>The geology and tectonic setting of Lombok (and nearby Sumbawa) are described as being in the central portion of the Sunda Arc. The oldest exposed rocks are Miocene, suggesting that subduction and volcanism began considerably later than in Java and Sumatra to the west, where there are abundant volcanic and intrusive rocks of Late Mesozoic age. The islands are located on the eastern edge of the Sunda shelf, in a zone where crustal thickness is apparently rapidly diminishing, from west to east.</p><br>
<p>The seismic velocity structure of the crust in this region is transitional between typical oceanic and continental profiles and the Mohorovičić discontinuity (Moho) appears to lie at about 20 km depth. These factors tend to suggest that there has been limited opportunity for crustal contamination of magmas erupted on the islands of Lombok and Sumbawa. In addition, these islands lie to the west of those parts of the eastern-most Sunda and west Banda arcs where collision with the Australian plate is apparently progressing.</p><br>
<p>The volcano of Rinjani is 165 to 190 km above the Benioff Zone. There is a marked offset in the line of active volcanoes between the most easterly Sumbawa volcano (Sangeang Api) and the line of active volcanoes in Flores. This suggests that a major transcurrent fault cut across the arc between Sumbawa Island and Flores. This is considered to be a feature representing a major tectonic discontinuity between the east and west Sunda Arcs (the Sumba Fracture). Further, a marked absence of shallow and intermediate earthquake activity in the region to the south of Lombok and Sumbawa is a feature interpreted to represent a marked break in the Sunda Arc Zone.</p><br>
<h2>Volcanology</h2><br>
<p>The Rinjani caldera-forming eruption is thought to have occurred in the 13th century. Dated to "late spring or summer of 1257," this 1257 Samalas eruption is now considered the likely source of high concentrations of sulfur found in widely dispersed ice core samples and may have been "the most powerful volcanic blast since humans learned to write." Before this eruption, the Segara Anak caldera was a volcanic mountaiun named Samalas, which was higher than Rinjani.</p><br>
<p>Eruption rate, eruption sites, eruption type and magma composition have changed during the last 10,000 years before the caldera forming eruption. The eruptions of 1994 and 1995 have presented at Gunung Baru (or New Mountain – approximately 2,300 m above sea level) in the center of this caldera and lava flows from subsequent eruptions have entered the lake. This cone has since been renamed Gunung Barujari (or Gunung Baru Jari in Indonesian).</p><br>
<p>The first historical eruption occurred in September 1847. The most recent eruption of Mount Rinjani was in May 2010 and the most recent significant eruptions occurred during a spate of activity from 1994 to 1995 which resulted in the further development of Gunung Barujari. Historical eruptions at Rinjani dating back to 1847 have been restricted to Barujari cone and the Rombongan dome (in 1944) and consist of moderate explosive activity and occasional lava flows that have entered Segara Anak lake. The eruptive history of Rinjani prior to 1847 is not available as the island of Lombok is in a location that remained very remote to the record keeping of the era.</p><br>
<p>On 3 November 1994, a cold lahar (volcanic mudflow) from the summit area of Rinjani volcano traveled down the Kokok Jenggak River killing thirty people from the village of Aikmel who were caught by surprise when collecting water from the river in the path of the flow.</p><br>
<p>In connection with the eruption of the cone Gunung Barujari the status for Gunung Rinjani has been raised from Normal (VEI Level 1) to be vigilant (VEI Level 2) since May 2, 2009. In May 2010 Gunung Rinjani was placed in the standby status by Center for Volcanology & Geological Hazard Mitigation, Indonesia with a recommendation that there be no activity within a radius of 4 km from the eruption at Gunung Barujari.</p><br>
<h3>Volcanic composition</h3><br>
<p>In Lombok, Rinjani volcano lies approximately 300 km north of the Sunda Trench (also known as Java trench) and is situated about 170 km above the active north dipping Benioff zone. Based on the composition of andesites which have very low Ni concentrations and low Mg/Mg+Fe It is suggested that the Rinjani suite is of mantle origin, but that all the andesites and dacites as well as many of the basalts have probably been modified by fractional crystallization processes. It is concluded that the Rinjani calc-alkaline suite, which in many respects is typical of many suites erupted by circum-pacific volcanoes, probably originated by partial melting of the peridotite mantle-wedge overlying the active Benioff Zone beneath Lombok Island. The Pleistocene-Recent calcalkaline suite from the active volcano, Rinjani is composed of a diverse range of lavas. These include: ankaramite, high-Al basalt, andesite, high-K andesite and dacite. Sr-isotopic and geochemical constraints suggest that this suite was derived from the sub-arc mantle. Geochemical models suggest that fractional crystallization is an important process in the suite&#39;s differentiation, although the series: ankaramite-high-Al basalt-andesite-dacite does not represent a continuously evolving spectrum of liquids.</p><br>
<h3>Activity since 2009</h3><br>
<p>Rinjani erupted three times on May 22, 2010 with activity continuing until early on May 23. According to the volcano&#39;s official monitoring agency, ash from Mount Rinjani was reported as rising up to two km into the atmosphere and damaged crops. The volcano did not threaten villagers at that time. Lava flowed into the caldera lake, pushing its temperature up from 21 to 35 C, while smoke spread 12 km.</p><br>
<p>In February 2010 observers at the Gunung Rinjani Observation Post located 1.25 km northeast of G. Rinjani saw one whitish-colored plume that rose 100 m from the volcano. Dense whitish plumes (and possibly brown) rose 500 to 900 m in March 2010 on 26 occasions and as high as 1,500 m in April 2010 on 41 occasions. Plumes seen on 1 and 2 May 2010 were "chocolate" in color and rose a maximum height of 1,600 m. From February 2010 through April 2010 seismicity decreased, although the maximum amplitude of earthquakes increased. CVGHM (Center of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation) also noted that ash eruptions and ejected incandescent material fell within Rinjani caldera, but some ash was blown out of the caldera.</p><br>
<p>The activity in early 2010 centred about Gunung Barujari, a post-caldera cone that lies within the Rinjani&#39;s caldera lake of Segara Anak. The Volcanological Survey of Indonesia reported on 1 May 2010, that a column of smoke was observed rising from G. Rinjani "issuing eruptions 1300–1600 metres tall with thick brown color and strong pressure". Their report Evaluasi Kegiatan G. Rinjani of 4 May also stated that on 1 May 2010 at 10:00 four events of explosive earthquake were recorded with a maximum amplitude of 6–53 mm and 110 seconds long earthquake, earthquake tremor events with a maximum amplitude of 1 mm and 55 second long duration, 15 Local Tectonic earthquake events and two events of tectonic earthquake.</p><br>
<p>The Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) Alert Level was raised to 2 (on a scale of 1–4) on 2 May 2010.</p><br>
<p>On 27 April 2009 Gunung Barujari became active, with activity continuing through to May 2009. The mountain was closed at that time as the eruptions intensified with plumes of smoke and ash as high as 8,000 m. A Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI):2 rating was issued for the activity between 2 May 2009 and 20 December 2009. The activity during this period was described as having the characteristics of central vent eruption, flank (excentric) vent, explosive eruption and lava flow(s).</p><br>
<p>On 31 October 2015, Mount Rinjani started erupting again.</p><br>
<p>See table below for #Eruption history of Rinjani.</p><br>
<h3>Activity from 1944 to 2004</h3><br>
<p>On 27 September 2004 a DVGHM (Directorate of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation) report noted the decision to increase Rinjani&#39;s hazard status to Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) Alert Level 2 (Yellow). During the last third of 2004, the number of volcanic and tectonic earthquakes had increased. Their increase followed a rise in the number of tectonic earthquakes that began 18 August 2004. Tremor registered on 23, 24, 25, and 26 September 2004. Tremor amplitudes ranged between 12 and 13.5 mm, and the duration of the tremor stood between 94 and 290 seconds.</p><br>
<p>In September 1995 an aviation report was issued concerning an unconfirmed ash cloud from Rinjani. A NOTAM about volcanic activity from Rinjani was issued by the Bali Flight Information Region on the morning of 12 September. An ash cloud was reportedly drifting to the south west with the cloud top around 4 km altitude.</p><br>
<p>On 3 November 1994, a cold lahar (volcanic mudflow) from the summit area of Rinjani volcano traveled down the Kokok Jenggak River killing thirty people from the village of Aikmel who were caught by surprise when collecting water from the river in the path of the flow. One person remained missing as of 9 November 1994. No damage to the village was reported. Local volcanologists noted that additional</p><br>
<p>lahars could be triggered by heavy rainfall.</p><br>
<p>During 4 June 1994 – January 1995 the DVGHM (Directorate of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation) noted that explosions occurred on Rinjani. Those explosions came from the Barujari volcano.</p><br>
<p>At 05:30 on 1 October 2004 Rinjani erupted. The eruption caused authorities to immediately raise the hazard status to Alert Level 3 (Orange). Details regarding the initial 1 October 2004 eruption are indistinct. During 2–5 October 2004 explosions sent ash columns 300 to 800 m above the summit. Gray, thick ash columns drifted to the north and detonation sounds accompanied every explosion. Successive explosions occurred at intervals of 5 to 160 minutes. Explosions vented on the north eastern slope of Barujari volcano. Some material also vented from Barujari&#39;s peak and fell down around its edifice. A press report in the Jakarta Post indicated that evacuations were not considered necessary. A Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI):2 rating was issued for the activity between 1 May 2004 through to (on or after) 5 October 2004.</p><br>
<p>Between 3 June 1994 and 21 November 1994 records of Rinjani&#39;s eruptive history indicate activity accorded Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) with a rating of 3(?) with the area of activity described as Gunung Barujari. Eruptive characteristics documented for the events of that time are described as, central vent eruption with an explosive eruption, with pyroclastic flow(s), lava flow(s), fatalities and mudflow(s) (lahars).</p><br>
<p>In May 1994 a glow was noticed on the crater floor of Barujari cone, which at this time had undergone no significant activity since August 1966. A portable seismograph (PS-2) and telemetry seismograph (Teledyne) were put into operation on 27 May and 9 June, respectively. One volcanic earthquake event/day was recorded on 27, 28, 30, and 31 May. After 4 June, however, volcanic tremor with a maximum amplitude of 35 mm was recorded, presumably associated with the upward movement of magma.</p><br>
<p>At 0200 on 3 June1994, Barujari cone began erupting by sending an ash plume 500 m high. One 8 June 1994 press report described emission of "smoldering lava" and "thick smoke," as well as ashfall in nearby villages from an ash cloud rising 1,500 m above the summit. Between 3 and 10 June 1994, up to 172 explosions could be heard each day from the Sembalun Lawang volcano observatory (about 15 km NE). During this period, seismic data indicated a dramatic increase in the number of explosions per day, from 68 to 18,720. Eruptions were continuous at least through 19 June 1994, with maximum ash plume heights of 2,000 m on 9–11 June 1994.</p><br>
<p>Between 28 March 1966 and 8 August 1966 records of Rinjani&#39;s eruptive history indicate activity accorded a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) rating of 1.</p><br>
<p>Lava volume of 6.6 e6m3 and a tephra volume of 20,000 m&sup3; was recorded. The area of activity described was the east side of Barujari at 2,250 m. Eruptive characteristics were documented as a central vent eruption, explosive eruption and lava flow(s).</p><br>
<p>In December 1944 Rinjani appears to have had a significant event. Between December 25, 1944 and 1(?) January 1945 eruptive activity is rated 2 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) The event has been listed in the historical records of the Global Volcanism Program indicating a lava volume: of 74 e6m3 occurring in an area of activity on the north west flank of Barujari (Rombongan). The eruptive characteristics are described a central vent eruption on the flank (excentric) vent, a crater lake eruption, explosive eruption, lava flow(s) and a lava dome extrusion with associated damage to land, property.</p><br>
<p>See table below for #Eruption history of Rinjani.</p><br>
<h3>Monitoring program</h3><br>
<p>Gunung Rinjani Observation Post Rinjani Sembalun is located in the village of Lawang, Sub Sembalun 12.5 km (4000 feet) northeast of G. Rinjani) in the Regency of East Lombok. Observers at this post monitor G.Rinjani, G.Barujari/G.Tenga within the Segara Anak Caldera.</p><br>
<h2>Rinjani National Park</h2><br>
<p>The volcano and the caldera are protected by the Gunung Rinjani National Park established in 1997. Tourism is increasingly popular with trekkers able to visit the rim, make their way into the caldera or even to make the more arduous climb to the highest point; fatalities, however, are not unheard of. In July 2009 the summit route was closed due to volcanic activity at that time and subsequently reopened when the activity decreased. During early 2010 up to and including May 2010 access to Rinjani was at times again restricted due to volcanic activity.</p><br>
<p>The park is popular for mountain climbs and trekking and represents an important nature reserve and water catchement area. The park is officially 41,330 hectare within the park boundaries and includes a further 66,000 hectare of protected forest outside. The mountain and its satellites form the Mount Rinjani National Park (Taman Nasional Gunung Rinjani). In 2008, the Indonesian government proposed to UNESCO that Mount Rinjani be one of the world&#39;s official geoparks. If this was approved by UNESCO, Mount Rinjani would become the first such geological park in Indonesia.</p><br>
<p>It has been claimed that the preliminary documentation required for UNESCO registration has not received sufficient support from the Nusa Teggara Barat government offices. Among the requirements to become a geo-park sufficient information must be supplied to show that the location has sufficient and appropriate management, information services, access to educational instruction to facilitate "knowledge-based geotourism", the implementation of a sustainable regional economy, biodiversity conservation, and to have established public access to the park area.</p><br>
<p>Mount Rinjani has obtained the World Legacy Award from Conservation International and Traveller (2004), and was a finalist for Tourism for Tomorrow Awards (2005 and 2008) from the World Travel Tourism Council (WTTC).</p><br>
<p>Rinjani owl was found in 2003 and after 10 years evidence research is recognized as a new endemic owl (before it, in the 19th century is recognized as Mollucas owl).</p><br>
<h2>Eruption history of Rinjani</h2><br>
<p>In December 2010, a photo of eruption of Rinjani won 2010 National Geographic Photography Contest. The photo, taken by Singaporean photographer Aaron Lim Boon Teck won the contest, and described by the judge as "best represented the craft of photography. Not only is the light subtle and beautiful, and not only is it a lovely scene, but there&#39;s a volcanic eruption going on in the background."</p><br>
<p>The Caroni River is the second most important river of Venezuela, the second in flow, and one of the longest, 952 km from the Tepui Kuquenan, where it originates with the same name Kuquenan, up to its confluence with the River Orinoco to which it belongs. The name "Caroni" is applied starting from the confluence of the Kuquenan with the Yuruani, at 182 km from the source of the Kuquenan and 770 km from its discharge in the Orinoco. The meeting takes place in the south of Venezuela, in Bolivar State, being the most important tributary of the Orinoco, mostly because of the high discharge rate.</p><br>
<p>The higher basin of the Caroni is situated in the Gran Sabana (Canaima National Park) close to the border with Brazil.</p><br>
<h2>Hydraulic regime</h2><br>
<p>The Caroni is one of the rivers with the highest discharge rates in the world, with respect to the area of its basin. The average discharge is 4,850 m3/s, with variations caused by the wet/dry seasons. The average maximum discharge is 6,260 m3/s, and the average minimum is 3,570 m3/s. Among the historic extremes are 17,576 m3/s. The Caroni supplies 15.5 percent of the discharge of the Orinoco river. One of the characteristics of Caroni&#39;s water is the dark color, caused by the high amount of humic acids due to the incomplete decomposition of the phenol content of the vegetation. The Caroni therefore belongs to the blackwater rivers, as does the Negro River, or Rio Negro in Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia. In the late 1940s diamonds were found in the Caroni basin near the famous Lost World Region which then was accessible only by aircraft and four wheel drive vehicles.</p><br>
<h2>Basin</h2><br>
<p>The river drains the Guayanan Highlands moist forests ecoregion.</p><br>
<p>The Caroni basin covers 95,000 km&sup2; and is part of the Orinoco basin, the most important river of Venezuela. This means for the two big rivers that they have very similar hydrographic characteristics. The Caroni itself and its tributary the Paragua are rivers with a staircase, in the sense that many falls and rapids are alternated with stretches with gentle slopes, with many meanders and oxbow lakes (naturally cut off meanders). Among the most important falls of these rivers and their tributaries may be mentioned the Angel Falls, with the highest free fall of the world, almost 1,000 m, and the Cuquenan Falls, the tenth on the world scale with a 610 m free fall. Others are falls with less height but with a high volume of water, like the Aponwao Falls and the Caruay Falls, and rivers with these names: the Toron River, the Eutobarima River, the falls of the Llovizna River and the Cachamay River, these last three in the Caroni itself and the last just before its discharge into the Orinoco.</p><br>
<h2>Hydroelectric power</h2><br>
<p>Because of its high discharge rate, with a yearly average of 4,850 m3/s and a steep slope, the Caroni ideally suited for the generation of hydroelectric energy with four plants along its course (Macagua I, II and III), near its mouth, the Caruachi, some 30 km aback, and lastly the plant of Guri, in the middle of Necoima or Necuima, some 80 km from Puerto Ordaz. This plant has its reservoir, with an area of 4,000 km&sup2, in the middle of the river, and has a power of 10,000 MW, and is now the third biggest in the world, after the Three Gorges dam in China (22,500 MW) and the Itaipu Dam in Paraguay and Brazil (14,000 MW)</p><br>
<h2>National Parks</h2><br>
<p>In the high basin of the rivers that form the Caroni (Aponguao, Cuquenán and Yuruaní) the Gran Sabana is spread out, partly belonging to the Canaima National Park.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>The basin of the Caroni is one of the most spectacular and beautiful of the world, ideal for adventure tourism: a landscape of forests and savannah, innumerable waterfalls and cataracts, deep canyons and high plateaux, fast running streams with very clean water (darkly tinted, almost black when deep, blackwater river, beaches with pink sand, etc. Among the most notable of the basin of the Caroni, speaking for tourists, are the waterfalls of the Aponguao, of the Kama (Kama Meru in the Caribbean language) pemon, Eutobarima (in the Caroni itself, although not easily accessible), the lake and the plant of Guri, the parks of the waterfall and of the gorge of Kavak, the table mountains (tepuis) of the Roraima and the Kuquenan.</p><br>
<h2>Mining</h2><br>
<p>Along the Caroní River between the confluence with the Icabarú River and San Salvador de Paúl, there are several artisanal gold mines, mainly on the left hand side of the river outside the national park, but a few can also be found on the right hand side inside the Canaima National Park. Besides the devastating effects of logging and deforestation to clear the site for the mines, the far greater danger is the use of mercury which poisons the Caroní river, its fauna and inhabitants living along its shore. High levels of mercury have been found not only in the Caroní river but also in Lake Guri and further downstream. The current government of Venezuela has pledged to reduce illegal mining activities with the sustainable development plan for mining 2016-2018. Illegal mining surged under the government of Hugo Chávez, due to the nationalization of mines run by international mining companies and this had the negative consequence of an increase of mercury use as other processes are more difficult and costly to use for illegal, artisanal mining. The fact that a river that is partly flowing through a national park is affected by this development is particularly troubling.</p><br>
<p>Round Lake National Natural Landmark lies within Green Lakes State Park, which lies a few miles east of the city of Syracuse, New York and adjoining the village of Fayetteville. Round Lake itself and the adjoining 59 acre of old-growth forest were designated a National Natural Landmark in 1973 by the USA Department of the Interior.</p><br>
<p>entry in registry of National Natural Landmarks. National Park Service website. Retrieved December 11, 2006. Hubert W. Vogelmann, a professor of botany at the University of Vermont, wrote the evaluation to the National Park Service that concurred with the recommendation of National Natural Landmark status for the region around Round Lake. Vogelmanns evaluation noted the "outstanding virgin mesophytic forest" adjoining Round Lake on its southwestern side; this text became part of the citation when the landmark was created. Vogelmann also noted Round Lakes importance as an extremely rare, "meromictic" lake. It shares this distinction with Green Lake, which lies a few hundred meters to the east.</p><br>
<h2>Preservation of the old-growth forest</h2><br>
<p>The virgin quality of the forest near Round Lake was already considered unusual by 1855, when Ledyard Lincklaen noted that this "dense body of woodland had hardly felt the axe." The region of Upstate New York in which Round Lake lies was heavily forested through the 18th Century, but by 1855 the region had largely been deforested to create farmland. In the early 19th Century, Upstate New York was rapidly being settled by European-Americans. Soldiers who had fought in the Revolutionary War had often received land grants in this former Indian territory. Essentially the first act of most settlers was to cut down the primeval forest and to burn the hardwood logs to make potash, which was quite profitable in that era.</p><br>
<p>The land near Round Lake was settled in 1817 by David Collin III. It lies within one mile (1.6 km) of the Erie Canal, which was completed in 1825. It is remarkable that a forest so close to a major transportation route remained nearly untouched throughout the 19th Century. However, for the entire interval between 1817 and the purchase of the land for Green Lakes State Park, most of it was owned by Collin or by his descendants. One of these descendants, Betsy Knapp, wrote a memoir Rocks, Fields and Beauty Forever: One Familys Memories of Fayettevilles Green Lakes in 1989. Her memoir makes clear that the land was never clearcut either for lumber or for potash. In essence, the forest was preserved by the Collin family until its purchase for the park in 1928.</p><br>
<p>The old-growth forestlands throughout Green Lakes State Park were extensively surveyed in 2001-2002 by members of the Wildwood Ancient Forest Alliance. The surveys found that there are about 800 acre of old-growth forest within the park. The surveyors speculated that the paucity of hemlock trees in some areas indicates selective cutting of this species, perhaps for log roads in the mid 19th Century. They nonetheless conclude that "Green Lakes State Park is likely the finest old growth forest in central New York."</p><br>
<p>Green Lakes State Park contains particularly old and large examples of tuliptrees, sugar maples, beech, basswood, hemlocks, and white cedars. One particularly impressive grove of trees, lying just southwest of Round Lake, was renamed the Tuliptree Cathedral following the 2001-2002 old-growth surveys. A survey of the heights of especially large trees was reported in 2011; the tallest was 147 ft.</p><br>
<h2>Limnology of Round Lake and Green Lake</h2><br>
<p>The lake is 180 ft deep, which is remarkable given its diameter of 700 ft. Both Round Lake and Green Lake are meromictic, which means that the bottom waters of the lake are not mixed annually with the surface waters. For both lakes, the waters deeper than 55 ft are unmixed and essentially devoid of oxygen. Meromictic lakes are quite rare; nearly all lakes undergo mixing of their deep and shallow waters at least once each year. Green Lake in particular has been the subject of a great deal of limnological research. The lakes are meromictic both because of their depth (relative to their diameters) and because there is an influx of mineral-laden groundwater into them; to some extent the lakes are giant mineral springs. The mineral content also accounts for the lakes&#39; greenish appearance at certain times of year, when small particles of calcium carbonate and other minerals precipitate out of the water; these "whitings" cause the white coating of the lake bottoms that is readily observable at the shoreline.</p><br>
<p>In addition to the strictly limnological research on the lakes, the sediments at their bottoms are being used to explore the history of the plant and animal life and of the climate around the lake over the last several thousand years (i.e. its paleoclimatology). Because the deep, oxygen-depleted bottoms of the lakes are undisturbed either by annual mixing or by "bioturbation" (plant growth or movement of worms and other animals), each year&#39;s sediments are preserved as distinguishable layers (or varves) that can be dated back in time from the present.</p><br>
<p>Hilfinger, Martin F., Mullins, Henry T., Burnett, Adam, and Kirby, Matthew E. (2001). "A 2500 year sediment record from Fayetteville Green Lake, New York: evidence for anthropogenic impacts and historic isotope shift," Journal of Paleolimnology, Vol. 26, pp. 293-305. There is a distinct change in the color of the varves that occurred around 1800; the lower, older varves are dark brown, and the higher, younger varves are grey. The varves thus record the change in the lakes&#39; environment around 1800, when the primeval forests in the region were replaced by open fields and farmland. The Round Lake National Natural Landmark offers a glimpse of the original forest.</p><br>
<p>Green Lake is the larger of the two lakes in Green Lakes State Park, which lies about 9 mi east of downtown Syracuse in Onondaga County, New York. Round Lake is the smaller lake located west of Green Lake. Both lakes are meromictic, which means no seasonal mixing of surface and bottom waters occurs. Meromictic lakes are fairly rare; they have been extensively studied, in part because their sediments can preserve an historical record extending back thousands of years, and because of the euxinic  conditions which can form in the deep water.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>Green Lake reaches a maximum depth of 195 feet. Deep lakes tend to appear bluish because the wavelengths of light that can penetrate (and be dispersed at) great depths are those closer to the blue end of the spectrum. Because of its depth and the high salinity of the basin waters, the lake is meromictic and does not turn over and intermix waters like many other lakes in this region do. Green Lake&#39;s cold and dense bottom waters tend to stay separate from the shallower, warmer waters. Because of this, sediment sinks and collects in the bottom and virtually does not decay. Since the sediment is not kicked up by mixing, the lake does not take on a muddy, turbid appearance like other lakes do. Meromictic lakes also have still, mirror-like waters. Green Lake is no exception, as its tranquil, reflective water makes for great photography. The lake is glacial in origin, likely developed by glacial meltwater during the most recent North American glaciation, and its calcium and sulfate-rich waters are due to groundwater percolating through marine shale with a high gypsum content. The lake, which resembles a large river in shape, is unusually deep for its size and was regarded as being sacred by the native Onondaga tribe, which originally settled in the area.</p><br>
<h2>Fishing</h2><br>
<p>Fish species present in the lake include rainbow trout, pumpkinseed sunfish, and brook trout. There is access only by rental boats or shore fishing.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Fayetteville Green Lake (FGL) was the first lake in North America identified as meromictic,Eggleton, Frank E. (1956).</p><br>
<p>Transactions of the American Microscopical Society, Vol. 75, No. 3. (Jul., 1956), pp. 334-378. and is the best-studied meromictic lake in the world, with records dating back to 1839. Green Lake was referred to as Lake Sodom by Lardner Vanuxem, who was the first to study Green Lake in 1839, and the presence of sulfide in the deeper waters of the lake was known by 1849. FGL is currently located in Green Lakes State Park, and since 1933, large quantities of sand have been dumped on the shore of the north end to create a swimming area.</p><br>
<h2>Biogeochemistry</h2><br>
<p>Fayetteville Green Lake is located in the Oswego River-Lake Ontario drainage system, and receives surface water from Round Lake. The difference in the dissolved solids (Ca, Mg, SO4) between the water input to the surface and water input to the deep creates the permanent stratification observed. FGL has a sulfate concentration around 13.5 mmol/l (about half that of modern seawater) which is derived from groundwater input to the deep portion of the lake. A well-developed separation in a body of water due to differing chemistries is present between 18 and 20 m depth. The water below the chemocline is anoxic and sulfidic, and at the chemocline is a dense layer of purple sulfur bacteria which makes the water appear pink. The purple sulfur bacteria thrive in the anoxic waters and use the sulfide from the deeper water in their chemosynthesis.</p><br>
<p>The color of the lake is created by the total dissolved solids (from the groundwater input) which disperse the sunlight creating a greenish color. Annual whiting events occur in FGL, due to the large Synechococcus population in the lake. Calcite precipitates in microenvironments surrounding the Synechococcus and this is believed to dominate the whiting events. Calcite precipitation is common year round at FGL, and this leads to the carbonate crust that surrounds most of the lake, and covers branches and other material that falls below the surface. Dead Man&#39;s Point is a notable example of this, and is classified as a thrombolitic bioherm.</p><br>
<h2>Geologic significance</h2><br>
<p>The meromictic character of FGL is believed to represent a possible analog to ancient ocean environments during the Precambrian and during times of environmental stress. (i.e. mass extinction events). During these times, the oceans may have become anoxic and possibly sulfidic in the deep water. Information about past environments can be gained through studying isotopic, chemical, and biological compositions of modern FGL. FGL is the subject of multiple scientific studies per year. Recent work by Lee Kump at Penn State University has been featured on the television shows Nova: scienceNOW and National Geographic, relating FGL to the end-Permian mass extinction.</p><br>
<p>Errigal  is a 751 m mountain near Gweedore in County Donegal, Ireland. It is the tallest peak of the Derryveagh Mountains and the tallest peak in County Donegal. Errigal is also the most southern, steepest and highest of the mountain chain, called the "Seven Sisters" by locals. The Seven Sisters includes Muckish, Crocknalaragagh, Aghla Beg, Ardloughnabrackbaddy, Aghla More, Mackoght and Errigal. The nearest peak is Mackoght, which is also known as Little Errigal or Wee Errigal.</p><br>
<p>Errigal is well known for the pinkish glow of its quartzite in the setting sun. Another noted quality is the ever-changing shape of the mountain depending on what direction you view it from. Errigal was voted Irelands Most Iconic Mountain&#39; by Walking & Hiking Ireland in 2009.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing Errigal</h2><br>
<p>The mountain is most often climbed from the carpark off the R251 road. The route initially starts off by crossing heavily eroded and boggy land towards a visible track through the shiny scree from where the ascent proper starts. After reaching the summit, people usually walk</p><br>
<p>the short but exposed walk along ‘One Man’s Pass’ which leads across to the second and lower of the twin summits. No special equipment is needed to climb the mountain, but caution is advised.</p><br>
<h2>In popular culture</h2><br>
<p>In the 2008 film Hunger, the main protagonist Bobby Sands describes Errigal as a "beautiful sight".</p><br>
<p>Images of a misty Errigal were used in the music video for In A Lifetime by Clannad and Bono in 1985. It has also appeared in numerous music videos by local singer Enya, most notably in the video for "How Can I Keep From Singing?".</p><br>
<p>Several scenes from the 2011 movie Your Highness were shot on Errigal.</p><br>
<p>The Goats Don&#39;t Shave song "Las Vegas (In the Hills of Donegal)" contains the line, "To stand on top of Errigal, would give me such a thrill".</p><br>
<p>The Irish composer Vincent Kennedy set the mountain to music in 2012 as part of his music for The Happy Prince in a piece entitled "Snowfall on Errigal"</p><br>
<p>Mount Errigal features prominently in the music video for New Zealand indie rock band The Chills&#39; song Heavenly Pop Hit.</p><br>
<p>The Sognefjord or Sognefjorden, nicknamed the King of the Fjords, is the largest and deepest fjord in Norway. Located in Sogn og Fjordane county in Western Norway, it stretches 205 km inland from the ocean to the small village of Skjolden in the municipality of Luster. The fjord takes its name from the traditional district of Sogn, which covers the southern part of the county.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The fjord runs through many municipalities: Solund, Gulen, Hyllestad, Høyanger, Vik, Balestrand, Leikanger, Sogndal, Lærdal, Aurland, Årdal, and Luster. The fjord reaches a maximum depth of 1,308 m below sea level, and the greatest depths are found in the central parts of the fjord near Høyanger. Sognefjord is more than 1,000 m deep for about 100 km of its length, from Rutledal og Leikanger. Near its mouth, the bottom rises abruptly to a sill about 100 m below sea level. The seabed in Sognefjord is covered by some 200 m thick sediments such that the bedrock is some 1,500 m below sea level. The fjord is up to 6 km wide. The average width of the main branch of the Sognefjord is about 4.5 km. Cliffs surrounding the fjord rise almost sheer from the water to heights of 1,000 m and more.</p><br>
<p>The inner end of the Sognefjord is localized southeast of a mountain range rising to about 2,000 m above sea level and covered by the Jostedalsbreen, continental Europe&#39;s largest glacier. Thus the climate of the inner end of Sognefjorden and its branches are not as wet as on the outer coastline. Hurrungane range at the eastern end of the fjord reaches 2400 m. The greatest elevation from sea bed to summit is at Sogndal. Several rivers pour fresh water into the fjord with an annual "spring" flood in June. The mouth of the fjord is surrounded by many islands including Sula, Losna, and Hiserøyna.</p><br>
<p>The volume of Sognefjorden with branches is about 500 km, while the total volume of rock eroded by glaciers from the entire Sognefjord system and adjacent valleys is about 4000 km.</p><br>
<h3>Branches</h3><br>
<p>There are many smaller fjords which branch off the main fjord.</p><br>
<p>Sognesjøen (mouth) (35 km)</p><br>
<p>Lifjorden (6 km)</p><br>
<p>Høyangsfjord (8 km)</p><br>
<p>Arnafjord (8 km)</p><br>
<p>Esefjord (4 km)</p><br>
<p>Fjærlandsfjord (27 km)</p><br>
<p>Sogndalsfjord (21 km)</p><br>
<p>Aurlandsfjord (29 km)</p><br>
<p>Nærøyfjord (a World Heritage Site)</p><br>
<p>Lærdalsfjord (9 km)</p><br>
<p>Årdalsfjord (16 km)</p><br>
<p>Lustrafjord (innermost) (42 km)</p><br>
<h3>Lustrafjorden</h3><br>
<p>The innermost arm of the Sognefjorden is called the Lustrafjord, located in the municipality of Luster. At its end, there is the village of Skjolden, which is an access point to Jotunheimen National Park. In earlier times, transport between Bergen and the Scandinavian inland was by boat between Bergen and Skjolden and from there on a simple road over the highlands (today Norwegian County Road 55), or by boat to Lærdal and through the mountain pass to Valdres (now European route E16).</p><br>
<h2>Origin and geology</h2><br>
<p>The valley of Sognefjord is one of various valleys of western Norway that certainly predates the Quaternary glaciations. It existed already as part of the ancient Paleic surface but had at the time much gentler slopes. An estimate of 7610 km of rock has been eroded from the Sognefjord drainage basin since the Paleic surface formed. The fluvial and glacial erosion that made the fjords has followed structural weaknesses in the crust.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>Boats connect settlements along the fjord and its sidearms. Larger villages on the fjord and its branches include Leirvik, Ytre Oppedal, Vadheim, Høyanger, Vikøyri, Balestrand, Hermansverk, Sogndalsfjøra, Gudvangen, Flåm, Aurlandsvangen, Lærdalsøyri, Årdalstangen, Gaupne, and Solvorn. Gudvangen is situated by the Nærøyfjord, a branch of the Sognefjord particularly noted for its unspoiled nature and dramatic scenery, and only 300 m across at its narrowest point. The Nærøyfjord is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From the village of Flåm, the Flåm Railway climbs 864 m up to Myrdal Station in a distance of only 20 km&mdash;the steepest unassisted railway climb in the world.</p><br>
<p>Around the inner end of the fjord, three of Norway&#39;s famous stave churches have survived: Kaupanger and Urnes (along the shoreline) and Borgund (30 km into the Lærdal valley).</p><br>
<p>The Sognefjord Span (power lines) crosses the fjord with a span of 4,597 m. This is the second largest span of power lines in the world. The fjord has become a tourist attraction with summer tourists being an important part of the local economy.</p><br>
<h2>Other</h2><br>
<p>On 24 November 1972, the submarine KNM Sklinna of the Royal Norwegian Navy had "contact" with what they presumed was a Whiskey-class submarine, after 14 days of "hunt" in the Sognefjorden. Newly released military documents confirms this episode.</p><br>
<p>Brean Down is a promontory off the coast of Somerset, England, standing 318 ft high and extending 1.5 mi into the Bristol Channel at the eastern end of Bridgwater Bay between Weston-super-Mare and Burnham-on-Sea.</p><br>
<p>Made of Carboniferous Limestone, it is a continuation of the Mendip Hills. Two further continuations are the small islands of Steep Holm and Flat Holm. The cliffs on the northern and southern flanks of Brean Down have large quantities of fossils laid down in the marine deposits about 320–350 million years ago. The site has been occupied by humans since the late Bronze Age and includes the remains of a Romano-Celtic Temple. At the seaward end is Brean Down Fort which was built in 1865 and then re-armed in the Second World War.</p><br>
<p>Brean Down is now owned by the National Trust, and is rich in wildlife, history and archaeology. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest due to both the geology and presence of nationally rare plants including the white rock-rose. It has also been scheduled as an ancient monument.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The Mendip Hills, of which Brean Down forms the most westerly part, are the most southerly Carboniferous Limestone upland in Britain. These rock strata were laid down during the early Carboniferous period, about 320–350 million years ago. Subsequently, much of northwestern Europe underwent continental collision throughout the late Paleozoic era, culminating in the final phases of the Variscan orogeny near the end of the Carboniferous period, 300 million years ago. This tectonic activity produced a complex suite of mountain and hill ranges across what is now southern Ireland, south-western England, Brittany, and elsewhere in western Europe. As a result of the Variscan mountain-building, the Mendip area now comprises at least four anticlinal fold structures, with an east-west trend, each with a core of older Devonian sandstone and Silurian volcanic rocks. West of the main Mendip plateau the Carboniferous Limestone continues in Bleadon Hill and Brean Down, and on the islands of Steep Holm and Flat Holm.</p><br>
<p>Brean Down is just over 2 km long and runs in an east-west direction near the mouth of the River Axe opposite Uphill Cliff. The flat area on the top of the peninsula may represent a raised bench laid down when the sea level was much higher than it is today, as the highest point of the promontory is approximately 97 m above sea level. The cliffs on the north and south faces are rich in fossils that include corals, seashells and crinoids, which supports the theory of the marine deposition of the rocks. 13 separate layers have been identified in the sand cliff on the south side, the lowest five dating to the millennia of the last glaciation.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Human occupation dates back to the Beaker culture of the late Bronze Age. There is also evidence of an Iron Age hill fort and prehistoric barrows and field systems. There is evidence of a shrine dating from pre-Roman times, which was re-established as a Romano-Celtic Temple in the mid-4th century. According to at least one source, it is extremely likely this was succeeded by a small late-4th-century Christian oratory. Several Roman finds including gold coins of Augustus, Nero, and Drusus, two silver denarii of Vespasian and a Roman carnelian ring were found at the site during quarrying.</p><br>
<p>Brean Down Fort was built on the headland between 1864 and 1871 on the recommendations of the 1859 Royal Commission. It was the most southerly of a chain of defences across the Bristol Channel, protecting the access to Bristol and Cardiff. Four acres of land at the end of Brean Down were requisitioned in 1862, with construction beginning in 1864 and completed in 1871.</p><br>
<p>In the 1860s plans were laid for a deep-water harbour on the northern shore of Brean Down. It was intended that this harbour would replace Bristol as a port on embarkation for transatlantic crossings and the export of minerals and agricultural produce from the Mendip Hills and the rest of Somerset.</p><br>
<p>The foundation stones of the pier were laid, but the project was later abandoned after a large storm destroyed the foundations. In 1897, following wireless transmissions from Lavernock Point in Wales and Flat Holm, Guglielmo Marconi moved his equipment to Brean Down and set a new distance record of 14 km for wireless transmission over open sea. In 1912 Brean Down was leased by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds as a bird sanctuary, acquiring the shooting rights to stop others shooting on the promontory.</p><br>
<p>On the outbreak of World War II, the fort was rearmed with two 6-inch (15-centimetre) ex-naval guns, and machine gun posts were built on the Down. Birnbeck Pier was taken over by the Admiralty in 1941 as an outpost of the Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development (DMWD). It was commissioned as HMS Birnbeck, and was used for secret weapons development and storage with testing. The "Bouncing bomb" was tested at the Brean Down Fort on the opposite side of Weston Bay.</p><br>
<p>In 1954 the former Axbridge Rural District Council gave 59.685 hectare of the down to the National Trust to celebrate the Festival of Britain. The Major Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of Weston-Super Mare gave 1.494 hectare in 1963, and a further 1.371 hectare at Brean Down Cove was acquired from M.D. and M Matthews in 2000. After restoring the fort, which covers 1.606 hectare, Sedgemoor District Council gave this to the trust as well in 2002.</p><br>
<p>Various proposals have been put forward to construct a Severn Barrage for tidal electricity production from Brean Down to Lavernock Point in south Wales. The proposals, which go back over 100 years, have never been successful so far, however Peter Hain and others are still working on further proposals and trying to persuade the government to fund either the barrage or tidal lagoons.</p><br>
<h2>Ecology</h2><br>
<p>In addition to the geological interest of the site, the range of plants growing on Brean Down has led to it being designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The nationally rare white rock-rose (Helianthemum appenninum) is a common species at the site, occurring in abundance on the upper reaches of the grassy south-facing slopes. Some of the broomrapes growing here, which were originally thought to be oxtongue broomrape (Orobanche artemisiae-campestriae), are now no longer believed to be this species, but atypical specimens of ivy broomrape (Orobanche hederae). Other plants on the southern slopes include the Somerset hair grass, wild thyme, horseshoe vetch and birds-foot-trefoil. The northern side is dominated by bracken, bramble, privet, hawthorn, cowslips and bell heather.</p><br>
<p>The birds seen on Brean Down include peregrine falcon, jackdaw, kestrel, collared and stock doves, common whitethroat, common linnet, stonechat, dunnock, rock pipit and – in 2007 – Britain&#39;s first and only Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross. There are also several species of butterfly, including chalkhill blue, dark green fritillary, meadow brown, marbled white, small heath, and common blue.</p><br>
<p>Towneley Park is owned and managed by Burnley Borough Council and is the largest and most popular park in Burnley, Lancashire, England.</p><br>
<p>The main entrance to the park is within a mile of the town centre and the park extends to the south east, covering an area of some 180 hectare. At the southern end of the park is Towneley Hall, Burnley&#39;s art gallery and museum. To the north are golf courses and playing fields and to the south 24 acres of broadleaved woodland. On the southern boundary is a working farm called Towneley Farm with pastures and plantations extending eastwards into Cliviger.</p><br>
<p>The main entrance to the park is at Todmorden Road. The River Calder flows through the grounds. The local high school, Unity College, formerly Towneley High School, opened in September 2010, moving from its site on Towneley Holmes close to the main entrance to a new site on the east bank of the river. In order to provide a suitable vehicular access into the new school, the course of the Calder was slightly diverted.</p><br>
<p>Deer Pond in Towneley Park is a Local Nature Reserve.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Towneley family were an important Catholic family and once owned extensive estates in and around Burnley, the West Riding of Yorkshire, and County Durham.</p><br>
<p>Towneley Hall not only contains the 15th-century Whalley Abbey vestments, but also has its own chapel – with a finely carved altarpiece made in Antwerp around 1525. The hall was the home of the Towneley family for more than 500 years. The male line of the family died out in 1878 and in 1901 one of the daughters, Lady O&#39;Hagan, sold the house together with 62 acre of land to Burnley Corporation. The family departed in March 1902, leaving behind a building almost completely empty except for a couple of tables and a few pictures in the chapel. The park was opened to the public in June 1902, and in May 1903 the Great Hall and the south wing of the house were opened for a temporary art exhibition.</p><br>
<h2>Towneley Hall</h2><br>
<p>Today, Towneley Hall is a museum that houses a variety of displays, encompassing natural history, Egyptology, local history, textiles, decorative art and regional furniture, together with an art gallery.</p><br>
<p>The art gallery includes a large collection of paintings, focusing on romantic Victorian and pre-Raphaelite art, with some earlier paintings. Of note are the gallerys Waterhouse paintings (including the original Destiny), works by Poynter and Zoffany, and the ovine-themed paintings of Frozen Mutton&#39; Farquharson.</p><br>
<p>In July 2005 the Heritage Lottery Fund granted £2 million to help fund a major programme of restoration of the Park that is still on-going. A previous Heritage Lottery Fund helped to build a museum shop, lecture theatre and offices in the footprint of the old servants&#39; quarters. This new building was opened in 2002.</p><br>
<h2>Events</h2><br>
<p>Many annual events in Burnley are held at Towneley Park owing to its size and central location, including a Balloon Festival and a classic cars show.</p><br>
<h2>Traditions</h2><br>
<p>According to folklore, the hall was said to have been haunted by a boggart. This spirit appeared once every seven years, just prior to the death of one of the residents. The boggart was linked to Sir John Towneley, who in life supposedly oppressed the poor of the district. According to writer Daniel Codd, there are later stories of a strange ghostly white apparition that appears by the River Calder.</p><br>
<p>Panorama  is an affluent suburb and a former municipality in the Thessaloniki regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Pylaia-Chortiatis, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. Panorama has a population of 18,000 and is located at the foot of Mount Chortiatis. The municipal unit has an area of 21.321 km.</p><br>
<p>The Thessaloniki Beltway is located to the west. In Panorama there are some of the most expensive and luxurious properties in northern Greece. Best known are the areas of N751 and Villa Ritz. Panorama is connected to the villages of Chortiatis and Asvestochori in the north and with the districts of Pylaia and Charilaou in the south.</p><br>
<h2>Historical population</h2><br>
<p>Laguna Verde  is a salt lake in an endorheic basin, in the southwestern Altiplano in Bolivia. It is located in the Sur Lípez Province of the Potosí Department. It is close to the Chilean border, at the foot of the volcano Licancabur.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The Laguna Verde covers an area of 1700 ha, and a narrow causeway divides it into two parts. It is at the southwestern extremity of the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve and Bolivia itself. It has mineral suspensions of arsenic and other minerals which renders colour to the lake waters. Its color varies from turquoise to dark emerald depending on the disturbance caused to sediments in the lake by winds.</p><br>
<p>In the backdrop of the lake there is the inactive volcano Licancabur of 5,868 m in elevation, which is a nearly perfect cone. It is believed that an ancient crypt used to be at its peak.</p><br>
<p>Icy winds are a common phenomenon here and lake waters can attain temperatures as low as -56 degree C but because of its chemical composition its waters still remain in a liquid state. It is 30 km far from Palques Lake.</p><br>
<p>The Clinton Valley Center , originally called the Eastern Michigan Asylum for the Insane, was a psychiatric hospital located at 140 Elizabeth Lake Road in Pontiac, Michigan. The facility was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1974</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>In 1873, to alleviate the overcrowding at the Kalamazoo psychiatric hospital, the Michigan state legislature appropriated $400,000 for the construction of a second hospital in eastern Michigan. Cities in the area were requested to bid for the project, and Pontiac won out over Detroit and other cities. The architect for the original main hospital was Elijah E. Myers, who also served as the architect for the current Michigan State Capitol in Lansing. The asylum opened its doors five years later, on August 1, 1878, and began treating 222 patients. The original superintendent, Henry Mills Hurd, introduced muiltiple innovations in psychiatric care, including discouraging restraints, occupational therapy, and recreational activities.</p><br>
<p>Both the campus size and number of patients slowly grew, as the hospital was repeatedly enlarged between 1882 and 1895 (also designed by Myers), with more additions in 1906, 1914, and 1938. In 1911, the hospital changed its name to Pontiac State Hospital. During the 1950s, the hospital experienced its peak of approximately 3,100 residing patients. The facility was renamed the Clinton Valley Center in 1973, and by the later 1970s the number of patients had declined to around 800.</p><br>
<p>Due to a decreasing number of patients, the facility was closed in 1997 by the State of Michigan with only 200 patients. The facility was demolished in 2000; a subdivision now stands on the site of the old hospital.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The campus of the Clinton Valley Center contained 44 structures, many of which were extensions of the original 1878 hospital.</p><br>
<p>The 1878 structure was a 3-1/2 story red brick structure with a center building for offices and staff, and two wings for male and female patients. The building had a steeply pitched slate roof with multiple towers, and wood and metal cornices. The building resembled a typical Kirkbride model. The 1882 additions were designed by Charles Anderson to match the original construction. The 1906 and 1914 additions were brick hipped-roof structures, and the 1938 construction added a Tudor designed building onto the front of the structure.</p><br>
<p>Apart from the main hospital, other structures on the campus included the Vinton Building (1893), the Sawyer Building (1917), the Italian Renaissance (1907) designed by the Detroit firm of Smith, Hinchman and Grylls.</p><br>
<p>Lake Albert is a notionally fresh water lake near the mouth of the Murray River in South Australia. It is filled by water flowing in from the larger Lake Alexandrina at its mouth near Narrung. It is separated on the south by the Narrung Peninsula from the salt-water Coorong. The only major town on the lake is Meningie. Lakes Alexandrina and Albert are together known as the Lower Lakes.</p><br>
<h2>Naming of lake and associated features</h2><br>
<p>The lake was named after Prince Albert, the Consort of Queen Victoria, by the Governor, George Gawler.</p><br>
<p>The full extent of Lake Albert was gazetted as a ‘rural locality’ along with Lake Alexandrina in May 2014. The boundary of the locality of ‘Lake Albert’ with the rural locality of Lake Alexandrina occurs at the alignment of Poltalloch Road within the locality of Poltalloch on the northern side of the Albert Channel which connects both lakes.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>Lake Albert is visited regularly by people traveling to and from Melbourne, the Limestone Coast, the Coorong National Park, Tailem Bend, Murray Bridge, and Adelaide.</p><br>
<p>Visitors enjoy fishing, camping, bushwalking, 4WD tracks, bird watching, water sports, and many land-based sporting clubs such as lawn bowls, cricket, football, netball, tennis, croquet, shooting, motorcycling, karate, pony riding, and golf in the Township of Meningie.</p><br>
<h2>Water problems</h2><br>
<p>Because there are no significant tributaries and a high evaporation rate, Lake Albert is saltier than Lake Alexandrina. It is also smaller and not as deep, but it is more protected from the elements. In 2008, water levels in Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert became so low that large quantities of acid sulphate soils started to form. The possibility of flooding the lake with seawater to prevent acidification was raised, and tension remains between South Australia and the upstream states over how to share the dwindling supply of water.</p><br>
<p>To this day the lake remains at significant risk of water loss and high salinity.</p><br>
<h2>Flora and fauna</h2><br>
<h3>Birds</h3><br>
<p>Lake Albert supports critically endangered orange-bellied parrots, endangered Australasian bitterns, vulnerable fairy terns, as well as over 1% of the world populations of Cape Barren geese, Australian shelducks, great cormorants and sharp-tailed sandpipers.</p><br>
<h2>Protected area status</h2><br>
<h3>Australian government</h3><br>
<p>Lake Albert is part of the wetland complex known as the Coorong and Lakes Alexandrina and Albert Wetland which is listed as a Ramsar site. The wetland is also appears in the non-statutory list known as A Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia.</p><br>
<h3>Non-statutory arrangements</h3><br>
<p>Lake Albert is included within the boundary of the Lakes Alexandrina and Albert Important Bird Area which is an area considered by BirdLife International to be a place of ‘international significance for the conservation of birds and other biodiversity.’</p><br>
<p>Kilwa Kisiwani is a community on an Indian Ocean island off the southern coast of present-day Tanzania in eastern Africa. Historically, it was the center of the Kilwa Sultanate, a medieval sultanate whose authority at its height in the 13th-15th centuries AD stretched the entire length of the Swahili Coast. Kilwa Kisiwani has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site along with the nearby stonetown Songo Mnara.</p><br>
<h2>History and archaeology</h2><br>
<p>Kilwa Kisiwani is an archaeological city-state site located along the Swahili Coast on the Kilwa archipelago. It was occupied from at least the 8th century AD and became one of the most powerful settlements along the coast. The seasonal wind reversals would affect trade circulations. Trade connections with the Arabian Peninsula as well as India and China influenced the growth and development of Kilwa, and, though there are Islamic words and customs that have been adapted into the culture, the origins are African. An important city for trade, around the 13th century there were increased fortifications and a greater flow of goods. For these to take place, there would need to be a form of political administration overseeing the city, controlling the movement of goods. Much of the trade networks were with the Arabian peninsula. Kilwa Kisiwani reached its highest point in wealth and commerce between 13th and 15th centuries AD.</p><br>
<p>Evidence of growth in wealth can be seen with the appearance of stone buildings around the 13th century AD, before which all of the buildings were wattle-and-daub. The socio-economic status of the individuals residing there could be clearly seen in the type of structure they were living in. Among Kilwa&#39;s exports were spices, tortoise shell, coconut oil, ivory, and aromatic gums, as well as gold and slaves. For approximately 500 years, Kilwa was minting coins. This lasted from about A.D 1100-1600 and the coins have been found across the region, including Great Zimbabwe.</p><br>
<p>Marine resources were abundant and utilized for food. Food sources would also come from the surrounding land. But because of the huge impact the sea, with all of the resources and trade opportunities, had on Kilwa, the archaeological investigation of the harbors and ports is considered to be quite important. The soil at Kilwa that was found over the limestone was of poor quality, so the land food sources came from the areas of higher ground. However, the soil in the Kilwa region would have been suitable for growing cotton, which could be used in sail manufacture. 12th century spindle whorls have been found, indicating that cotton was used and processed in this area.</p><br>
<h3>Ceramics</h3><br>
<p>At first, most of the focus was placed on the archaeology of Kilwas ports and harbors, however, more and more emphasis is being placed on Kilwas hinterlands.</p><br>
<p>Ceramic artifacts are plentiful at the site and can be divided into two groups: regional and coastal. All of the ceramics with regional distribution were locally produced, but the area of distribution is limited. These unglazed ceramics were referred to as Kitchen Wares, though their uses were not necessarily just as cooking vessels. It is important to note that all of the varieties of locally produced pottery found in the region were also uncovered at the site of Kilwa itself.</p><br>
<p>While the Kitchen Wares could be seen throughout the region, there were ceramics that were mostly seen within Kilwa itself. These included modeled forms and red-burnished wares. The distribution pattern of the red-burnished wares was coastal. Other ceramic types that were seemingly restricted to town were the imported ceramic vessels from the Arabian peninsula and China. Imported ceramic materials are not found in rural areas. They were used as a sign of social status by the elite. They were kept in wall niches made just for the purpose of displaying them. These imported ceramics played important symbolic roles along the Swahili Coast. The symbolism attached to the imported ceramics was so strong that it carried on to modern Swahili culture. The lack of imported goods in the hinterlands indicates that, while Kilwa was undergoing a process of urbanization, the local communities did not undergo dramatic transformation.</p><br>
<h3>Preservation</h3><br>
<p>In 2004, Kilwa Kisiwani was inscribed on UNESCO&#39;s List of World Heritage in Danger. There is a serious rapid deterioration of the archaeological and monumental heritage of these two islands due to various agents like erosion and vegetation. The eastern section of the Palace of Husuni Kubwa, for example, is progressively disappearing. The damage to the soil caused by rainwater wash is accentuating the risks of collapse of the remaining structures on the edge of the cliff. The vegetation that proliferates on the cliff has limited the progression of the rain-wash effect, but causes the break-up of the masonry structures. The World Monuments Fund included Kilwa on its 2008 Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites, and since 2008 has been supporting conservation work on various buildings.</p><br>
<h2>Notable features</h2><br>
<h3>Great Mosque</h3><br>
<p>The Great Mosque of Kilwa is a congregational mosque on the island of Kilwa Kisiwani, in Tanzania. It was likely founded in the tenth century, but the two major stages of construction date to the eleventh or twelfth and thirteenth century, respectively. It is one of the earliest surviving mosques on the Swahili Coast.</p><br>
<p>The smaller northern prayer hall dates to the first phase of construction. It contained a total of 16 bays supported by nine pillars, which were originally carved from coral but later replaced by timber. The structure was entirely roofed, and was perhaps one of the first mosques in the area to have been built without a courtyard.</p><br>
<p>In the early fourteenth century, Sultan al-Hasan ibn Sulaiman, who also built the nearby Palace of Husuni Kubwa, added a southern extension which included a great dome. This dome was described by Ibn Battuta after he visited Kilwa in 1331.</p><br>
<h3>Palace of Husuni Kubwa</h3><br>
<p>Husuni Kubwa (the "Great Fort"), situated outside the town, was an early 14th-century sultan&#39;s palace and emporium. Other defining features include causeways and platforms at the entrance of the Harbour made from blocks of reef and coral nearly a meter high. These act as breakwaters, allowing mangroves to grow which is one of the ways the breakwater can be spotted from a distance. Some parts of the causeway are made from the bedrock, but usually the bedrock was used as a base. Coral stone was used to build up the causeways with sand and lime being used to cement the cobbles together. Some of the stones were left loose.</p><br>
<p>The Palace of Husuni Kubwa is a ruined structure on the island of Kilwa Kisiwani, in Tanzania. The majority of the palace was erected in the 14th century by Sultan al-Hasan ibn Sulaiman, who also built an extension to the nearby Great Mosque of Kilwa, although portions may date back to the 13th century. The palace was inhabited only for a brief period of time, and abandoned before its completion.</p><br>
<p>The structure was built out of coral stone on a high bluff overlooking the Indian Ocean. It consists of three major elements: a south court, used primarily for commerce; a residential complex including over one hundred individual rooms; and a wide stairway leading down a mosque that was situated on the beach. Other notable features include pavilion, which likely served as a reception hall, and an octagonal swimming pool. All of Husuni Kubwa spans across approximately two acres. The coral rag was set in limestone mortar and cut stone was used for decorative pieces, door jams, and vaults. The rooms were about 3 meters tall. The roof was made from cut limestone blocks laid across cut timbers and the floors were white plaster. The main entrance to Husuni Kubwa is from the shore. Most of the imported glazed pottery recovered at the site was Chinese celadon, though there were a few Ying Ch&#39;ing stoneware sherds present. A Yuan dynasty flask dated to about A.D. 1300. It is interesting to note that neither the Kilwa Chronicle nor any Portuguese accounts describe a building comparable to Husuni Kubwa.</p><br>
<h3>Husuni Ndogo</h3><br>
<p>Husuni Ndogo ("Little Fort") is built from coral rubble and limestone mortar. The rectangular enclosure wall surrounds the complex and at each corner stands a tower. The foundations extend two meters below ground level. It appears to have been built as a fort, but the exact purposes and uses are somewhat unknown. There is some evidence that it, for at least a time, was used as a mosque. Architecturally, it appears to be different from other buildings along the coast, resembling buildings constructed under the Caliphs of the Umayyad at around A.D. 661-750. However, whether or not the structure is related or even dates to the Arabic buildings remains uncertain, though it seems unlikely.</p><br>
<h2>Outside influence</h2><br>
<p>A document written around AD 1200 called al-Maqama al Kilwiyya, discovered in Oman, gives details of a mission to reconvert Kilwa to Ibadism, as it had recently been affected by the Ghurabiyya Shia doctrine from southern Iraq.</p><br>
<p>According to local oral tradition, in the 11th century the island of Kilwa Kisiwani was sold to Ali bin Hasan, son of the "King" of Shiraz, in Persia. Another tradition relates that his mother was Abyssinian (Habesha). Ali bin Al-Hasan is credited with founding the island city and with marrying the daughter of the local king. Though he was credited with the founding, he had arrived at an already inhabited area. He did, however, come to power and is credited with fortifying the city and increasing trade. Tradition also relates that it was the child of this union who founded the Kilwa Sultanate. Archaeological and documentary research has revealed that over the next few centuries, Kilwa grew to be a substantial city and the leading commercial entrepôt on the southern half of the Swahili Coast (roughly from the present Tanzanian-Kenya border southward to the mouth of the Zambezi River), trading extensively with states of the Southeast African hinterland as far as Zimbabwe. Trade was mainly in gold, iron, ivory and other animal products of the interior for beads, textiles, jewelry, porcelain and spices from Asia.</p><br>
<p>By the 12th century, under the rule of the Abu&#39;-Mawahib dynasty, Kilwa had become the most powerful city on the Swahili Coast. At the zenith of its power in the 15th century, the Kilwa Sultanate claimed authority over the city-states of Malindi, Mvita (Mombasa), Pemba Island, Zanzibar, Mafia Island, Comoro, Sofala and the trading posts across the channel on Madagascar.</p><br>
<p>Ibn Battuta recorded his visit to the city around 1331, and commented favorably on the humility and religion of its ruler, Sultan al-Hasan ibn Sulaiman. He was particularly impressed by the planning of the city and believed that it was the reason for Kilwa&#39;s success along the coast. From this period date the construction of the Palace of Husuni Kubwa and a significant extension to the Great Mosque of Kilwa, which was made of coral stones—the largest mosque of its kind.</p><br>
<p>In the early 16th century, Vasco da Gama extorted tribute from the wealthy Islamic state. In 1505 another Portuguese force commanded by D. Francisco de Almeida took control of the island after besieging it. It remained in Portuguese hands until 1512, when an Arab mercenary captured Kilwa after the Portuguese abandoned their outpost. The city regained some of its earlier prosperity, but in 1784 was conquered by the Omani rulers of Zanzibar. After the Omani conquest, the French built and manned a fort at the northern tip of the island, but the city itself was abandoned in the 1840s. It was later part of the colony of German East Africa from 1886 to 1918.</p><br>
<h2>Tourism</h2><br>
<p>The town is located within the Kilwa District of the Lindi Region.</p><br>
<p>It is possible to visit the island of Kilwa Kisiwani and most people base themselves in Kilwa Masoko. The town Kilwa Masoko can be reached by bus from Dar es Salaam (leaving Mbagala bus stop), and is served by Coastal Aviation. There are numerous basic guesthouses and a handful of tourist hotels, mostly spread along Jimbiza beach and the beautiful and highly regarded Masoko Pwani.</p><br>
<p>A permit is needed to visit the ruins of Kisiwani itself, and can be easily obtained from the local government building on the main road in Kilwa Masoko. Once the permit has been obtained it is easy to arrange dhow transport over the narrow channel to Kisiwani.</p><br>
<p>La Soufrière   or Soufrière Saint Vincent is an active volcano on the island of Saint Vincent in the Windward Islands of the Caribbean. Many volcanoes in the Caribbean are named Soufrière . These include Soufrière Hills on Montserrat and La Grande Soufrière on Guadeloupe, the subject of Werner Herzog&#39;s 1977 film La Soufrière.</p><br>
<h2>Geography and structure</h2><br>
<p>At 1,234 m, La Soufrière is the highest peak on Saint Vincent as well as the highest point in the island country of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Soufrière is a stratovolcano with a crater lake and is the island&#39;s youngest and northernmost volcano.</p><br>
<h2>Eruptive history</h2><br>
<p>La Soufrière violently erupted in 1718, 1812, 1902, 1971, and 1979. On February 8, 1843 an earthquake caused La Grande Soufriere volcano to erupt on the Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe and kill over 5000 people.The Saint Vincent eruption of 6 May 1902, just hours before the eruption of Mount Pelée on Martinique, killed 1,680 people. The death zone, where almost all persons were killed, was close to entirely Carib. This last large remnant of Carib culture was destroyed, the island of Dominica&#39;s Carib Territory being much smaller in comparison at that time.</p><br>
<p>The last recorded eruption was in April 1979; due to advance warning there were no casualties.</p><br>
<p>A famous painting by J. M. W. Turner of the eruption on 13 April 1812 belongs to the Victoria Gallery & Museum, University of Liverpool.</p><br>
<p>The Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies  at the University of Pennsylvania is the world&#39;s first and only institution exclusively dedicated to post-doctoral research on Jewish Civilization. It is located at 420 Walnut Street between S. 4th and S. 5th Streets in the Old City, Philadelphia neighborhood of Philadelphia. The center is directed by Professor Steven Weitzman.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Dropsie College</h3><br>
<p>The institution now known as the Katz Center was founded in 1907 as the Dropsie College of Hebrew and Cognate Learning and finally as Dropsie University. It was named after its benefactor, Moses Aaron Dropsie (1821–1905), a wealthy man whose father was Jewish and mother was Christian but who self-identified as Jewish from the age of 14. Dropsie willed his entire fortune to "the promotion of and instruction in the Hebrew and cognate languages and their respective literatures."</p><br>
<p>Dropsie granted more than 200 Ph.D.s between its inception and its closing as a degree-granting institution in 1986. Dropsie was also the publisher of the Jewish Quarterly Review, which was at the time the most respected journal on the subject.</p><br>
<p>The faculty during the Dropsie era included scholars from outside the United States, including Benzion Netanyahu, who came from Jerusalem with his young sons, Yonatan (Yoni) and Benjamin (Bibi), who there had their first true exposures to American culture, which would become a touchstone for later interactions with the American public for Bibi.</p><br>
<h3>Recent history</h3><br>
<p>Although no longer a degree-granting college, it became the Annenberg Research Institute after its 1986 closing and turned into one of the country&#39;s most noted interdisciplinary post-doctoral fellowship programs. It merged with the University of Pennsylvania in 1993, after which the institution was renamed the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. It continues to publish the Jewish Quarterly Review, the oldest continuously published Judaic studies journal in English.</p><br>
<h2>Fellowships</h2><br>
<p>Today, CAJS supports approximately 24 fellows each year who conduct their research at the University of Pennsylvania. Each fellow is given their own downtown Philadelphia office and meets with the others at weekly seminars. The papers they produce are published by the University of Pennsylvania Press at the conclusion of their term in the program.</p><br>
<p>Each year has a specific theme; scholars apply if their current research fits the annual theme. For example, for the 2005-2006 academic year, the theme was "The Jewish Book: Materials Texts and Comparative Contexts." For 2006-2007, fellows studied "Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Life under Caliphs and Sultans."</p><br>
<h2>Library</h2><br>
<p>The combination of the Dropsie/Annenberg library along with the University of Pennsylvania&#39;s resulted in a 350,000-volume collection on Judaica, including more than 8,000 rare books and an assortment of cuneiform tablets. Texts are available to scholars in Hebrew, English, German, Yiddish, Ladino, Arabic, and Latin.</p><br>
<p>There are also 451 codices in eleven alphabets and 24 languages and dialects. Some of the languages and dialects represented, in addition to those already listed, include Judeo-Arabic, Armenian, Telugu, and Syriac. Fragments from the Cairo Genizah and others written in Coptic and Demotic on papyrus round out the collection.</p><br>
<p>The library also holds the personal letters of more than 50 Jewish-American leaders from the 1800s and 1900s, including Isaac Leeser, Sabato Morais, & Abraham Neuman (three ministers of Congregation Mikveh Israel (Philadelphia)), Cyrus Adler (president: Dropsie College, Mikveh Israel, American Jewish Committee, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, librarian: Smithsonian Institution), Charles Cohen (president: Mikveh Israel, Fairmount Park Commission), his journalist sister Mary M. Cohen, Yiddish journalist Ben Zion Goldberg, and the benefactor Dropsie.</p><br>
<h2>Notable people</h2><br>
<p>Many notable people in Judaic studies have been affiliated with CAJS or Dropsie in some capacity. Some include:</p><br>
<p>Dropsie College students</p><br>
<p>Philip Birnbaum (1904–1988), Polish-American author and translator, best known for his translation of the siddur</p><br>
<p>Raymond B. Dillard (1944–1993), American Old Testament scholar</p><br>
<p>Iris Habib Elmasry (1910–1994), Coptic historian and scholar</p><br>
<p>Ronald F. Youngblood (1931-2014), American biblical scholar and Professor of Old Testament</p><br>
<p>Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001), Near East scholar - did not graduate</p><br>
<p>R. Laird Harris (1911–2008), American Presbyterian minister and Old Testament scholar</p><br>
<p>Louis L. Kaplan (1902-2001), President of Baltimore Hebrew University 1930-1970, Acting Chancellor of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County 1976-1977</p><br>
<p>Meredith G. Kline (1922–2007), American theologian and Old Testament scholar – Ph.D. in Assyriology and Egyptology</p><br>
<p>Samuel Noah Kramer (1897–1990), Ukrainian-American Assyriologist and Sumeriologist – did not graduate; transferred to Penn</p><br>
<p>Albert L. Lewis (1917–2008), Congregational rabbi and professor of homiletics at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America</p><br>
<p>Benzion Netanyahu (1910-2012), Zionist, scholar of Jewish history, and father of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu</p><br>
<p>Bernard Revel (1885–1940), future head of RIETS yeshiva and founder/President of Yeshiva College. 1911 doctoral thesis on Karaite Judaism</p><br>
<p>Ephraim Speiser (1902-1965) Near East scholar and archaeologist, excavator of Tepe Gawra</p><br>
<p>Edward J. Young (1907–1968), American Old Testament scholar and commentator</p><br>
<p>Dropsie College faculty</p><br>
<p>Cyrus Adler, Jewish religious leader and scholar - president</p><br>
<p>William Chomsky, noted Hebrew scholar and father of Noam Chomsky</p><br>
<p>Benzion Netanyahu, historian of Jews in medieval Spain and father of Binyamin Netanyahu and Yonatan Netanyahu</p><br>
<p>Raphael Patai, ethnographer and anthropologist - professor of anthropology, 1948–1957</p><br>
<p>Stefan Reif, Jewish researcher - assistant professor of Hebrew, 1972–1973</p><br>
<p>Solomon Zeitlin, historian of the second Jewish commonwealth and early Christianity.</p><br>
<p>Spicers Peak  is a mountain in Australia. It lies roughly 120 km west of Brisbane in the middle of the Main Range National Park. It is just south of Cunninghams Gap and Mount Mitchell. Its summit height is approximately 1,205 metres .</p><br>
<p>The only known track to the summit is through private land, although there is easy access across country through the national park from Spicers Gap Road. You can gain access with that provides a guided walk to the summit. The upper section of the Peak displays views as far back as Brisbane and encompasses a world heritage listed rainforest.</p><br>
<p>The local Uragapul people call this mountain, Binkinjoora, meaning a turtle with its head sticking up. The name, Spicer&#39;s Gap, was given to the mountain by Allan Cunningham after Peter Spicer who was the Superintendent of convicts. Spicer had noted the peak while searching for escaped convicts.</p><br>
<p>The peak is located just to the south of Spicers Gap which was once the main route between Brisbane and the Darling Downs.</p><br>
<p>Mount Barney is a mountain within the Scenic Rim Region in south-east Queensland, Australia. It lies approximately 130 km south-west of Brisbane, not far from the Queensland - New South Wales border, and forms part of the McPherson Range. It is a popular destination for bushwalkers and campers. Mount Barney is the sixth or seventh highest mountain in Queensland and is often regarded as one of the most impressive parts of the Scenic Rim. The mountain consists of two main peaks, , and smaller subsidiary peaks. East Peak is probably the most popular destination for bushwalkers.</p><br>
<p>The closest town is Rathdowney. Mount Barney is surrounded by other mountains including Mount Ballow, Mount May, Mount Ernest, Mount Maroon and Mount Lindesay. Logan River has its headwaters on the mountain.</p><br>
<h2>Geology</h2><br>
<p>The dome-shaped mass is composed of granophyre that formed below the surface and subsequently intruded into the overlaying sandstone. Erosion has stripped away the sandstone leaving the mountain&#39;s twin peaks.</p><br>
<p>Mount Barney is the remnants of the central complex of the Focal Peak Volcano which together with the Tweed Volcano covered much of South East Queensland and North East New South Wales with lavas referred to as the Lamington Volcanics</p><br>
<h2>Natural heritage</h2><br>
<p>In 1947, the Mount Barney National Park was established to protect the natural heritage surrounding the peak. Mount Barney was included in the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves in 1994. The Antarctic beech can be found of the upper slopes of adjacent Mount Nothafagus and in the rainforest of nearby Mount Ballow. Important animal species found on the mountain include platypus, rock wallabies and Coxen&#39;s fig parrot. Heath vegetation on the mountain provides habitat for a colony of the endangered eastern bristlebird.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Mount Barney has held a special significance for local Aboriginal people for millennia, and it features prominently in a number of their stories. For Aboriginal people the peak has traditionally been regarded as a place to avoid.</p><br>
<p>On 3 August 1828, explorer Allan Cunningham named the mountain Mount Lindesay. However, the New South Wales Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell is believed to have renamed it in the 1840s to Mount Barney, after George Barney, a colonial engineer. Mitchell is believed to have assigned the name Mount Lindesay to the current Mount Lindesay (which Cunningham had originally named Mount Hooker).</p><br>
<p>The first European to climb Mount Barney was Captain Patrick Logan, who reached the East Peak summit via the now named Logan&#39;s Ridge, during an exploring expedition in 1828. Accounts of the climb were written by botanists Charles Fraser and Allan Cunningham, who accompanied Logan for part of the ascent.</p><br>
<p>Historical records suggest that Europeans probably began bushwalking at Mount Barney for recreation in about the 1880s, when the region became more closely settled. During the first decade or so of the 20th century, the peak became popular with a small number of self-styled mountaineers, such as Boonah school teachers Harry Johns (1877–1943) and William Gaylard (1880–1930), Ipswich Technical College Principal R.A. Wearne (1870–1932), and some of the selectors who lived close by, such as the Doherty family at Lilydale. However it was probably not until the early 1930s, with the formation of groups such as the National Parks Association, and the appearance of a new breed of outdoor adventurers such as Bert Salmon (1899–1982), who made the first recorded ascent of Leaning Peak in 1932, Cliff Wilson (who was probably the first European to climb all of the Mount Barney peaks and lesser pinnacles) and Arthur Groom (1904–1953), and also botanists such as Cyril White (1890–1950) and Lindsay Smith (1917–1970), that bushwalkers began visiting the peak in numbers, and even then, much of Mount Barney remained unexplored until the late 1940s and early 1950s, when groups such as the University of Queensland Bushwalking Club, and the Brisbane Bushwalkers began making regular bushwalking and camping trips to the peak.</p><br>
<h2>Bushwalking</h2><br>
<p>There are a dozen or so established bushwalking routes up Mount Barney, however none of them are easy. All the routes require a reasonable level of fitness, and many require advanced route-finding and rock-scrambling skills. Only South Ridge ("Peasants Ridge") can be recommended to less experienced walkers. Whilst the steep route up Logans Ridge to the East Peak summit is often considered to be the most spectacular, all the routes have their attractions. As a rough guide, a trip to East Peak via one of the more direct routes will generally take 8–9 hours return when carrying a day pack. There is usually a flow of drinkable water in the creek at the saddle between East and West Peak, but elsewhere on the mountain, away from the creeks, water is often difficult to find. In addition to the mountain itself, Mount Barney Creek (to the West) and Cronans Creek (to the South-East), the two main creek systems which ring Mount Barney, offer plenty of scope for walking and camping, particularly in the warmer months. Note though that the creeks are prone to flash flooding after heavy rainfall, and that they are potentially quite dangerous at times of high flow.</p><br>
<p>There are a few Class 4 hiking trails around the base of the mountain, including the Lower Portals, and Cronan Creek Trails.</p><br>
<p>A free iPhone GPS App is available to aid hikers in keeping to hiking trails within Mt Barney National Park.</p><br>
<p>To date, Mount Barney has attracted only a relatively small number of rock climbers, perhaps due to the long walk in times and access difficulties. So far, local climbers have generally agreed that the peak should remain "traditional only" (no bolts). The spectacular East Face was first climbed in 1966, and over the years a number of other routes have been put up in the vicinity of Leaning Peak and Isolated Peak. More recently, bouldering (ground-level climbing) has become popular in Mount Barney Creek upstream from the Lower Portals camping area.</p><br>
<p>Mount Lindesay is a mountain and locality within the Scenic Rim Region, Queensland, Australia.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>The mountain lies on the Queensland-New South Wales border, approximately 140 km south west of Brisbane, Australia. It is one of a number of peaks in the McPherson Range, and is remarkable for its tiered summit, the eroded remnant of lava flows from the nearby Focal Peak shield volcano. Mount Lindesay is situated within the Mount Barney National Park in Queensland and the Border Ranges National Park in New South Wales. Apart from the northern slopes, the rest of the peak is covered in dense rainforest, and the summit is frequently in cloud and mist. The Mount Lindesay Highway passes to the western side of Mount Lindesay.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>On 6 July 1828, the botanist and explorer Allan Cunningham originally named this mountain Mount Hooker after botanist William Hooker and called another mountain (now Mount Barney) by the name Mount Lindesay after Colonel Patrick Lindesay, the Commandant of Troops in New South Wales 1827-1836. Later, the New South Wales Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell is believed to have changed the names to be Mount Lindesay and Mount Barney (after Lieutenant-Colonel George Barney) respectively.</p><br>
<p>The first recorded ascent of Mount Lindesay by Europeans was made in May 1872, by Thomas de Montmorency Murray-Prior (1848-1902) and Phillip Walter Pears (1846-1924). At the time of the 1872 ascent, an Aboriginal elder at nearby Unumgar station informed Pears that his father had once climbed the peak, which suggests that Aboriginal people have made occasional ascents of Mount Lindesay for thousands of years.</p><br>
<p>The second recorded ascent of Mount Lindesay by Europeans was made in July 1890, by the Norwegian naturalist and explorer Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink (1864-1934), then working in the district as a surveyor&#39;s labourer, and Edwin Villiers-Brown, of Beaudesert. There were a further eight recorded ascents by the late 1920s, when pioneering climbers such as Bert Salmon (1899-1982) started visiting the peak regularly. The first women to climb Mount Lindesay were Brisbane climbers Jean Easton and Nora Dimes, who made the ascent with Bert Salmon in March 1931.</p><br>
<p>In December 1928 Mount Lindesay was the site of the first known recreational climbing fatality in Australia, when Lyle Vidler fell to his death whilst attempting a solo ascent of Vidler&#39;s Chimney. He is buried in a grave in the rainforest, not far from where he fell. On 19 June 2011, Ross Miller, one of a party of six, fell to his death while climbing in a designated area.</p><br>
<p>Mount Lindesay has been part of a successful native title claim made by the Trevor Close on behalf of the Githabul people, for whom the peak holds a special significance.</p><br>
<h2>Climbing</h2><br>
<p>Despite appearances, Mount Lindesay offers few opportunities for rock-climbers, due to the unsound nature of the rock (decaying rhyolite). There is one steep and exposed scrambling route to the summit, rated at approximately grade 6-7, which starts at the south east corner of the upper cliffs. However, this is not a bushwalking route as such, and anyone making an ascent should have basic rock-climbing and abseiling skills, or be under the guidance of experienced rock-climbers.</p><br>
<p>Mount French is a mountain in South East Queensland, Australia. The mountain rises 579 m above sea level and is part of the Moogerah Peaks National Park. It lies approximately 100 km west of Brisbane in the locality of Mount French west of the town Boonah in the Scenic Rim Region. Other prominent peaks in the Scenic Rim group of mountains includes Mount Edwards, Mount Moon and Mount Greville.</p><br>
<p>In 1827, Patrick Logan named the peak Mount Dumaresq. The name was changed after Allan Cunningham named another mountain with the same name, coincidentally on the same day.</p><br>
<p>It is best known as a popular destination for rockclimbers and is the home of Frog Buttress. It was first developed by Rick White and company during the late 1960s and 1970s. There are also some easy walks around the top of the cliffs from the picnic area. One track leads to the constructed lookout called Logans Lookout which overlooks the Fassifern Valley.</p><br>
<p>Access to the mountain top is via sealed road. There are numerous self-registration camping sites, barbecues places, picnic tables, a single block of toilets, a car park and tap water is provided.</p><br>
<p>Tell Ta&#39;yinat is a low-lying ancient tell on the east bank at the bend of the ancient Orontes river, in the Hatay province of southeastern Turkey about 25 kilometers south east of Antakya . It is located along the southwestern edge of the Amuq valley. The site lies some 800 meters from Tell Atchana, the site of the ancient city of Alalakh. It is a possible site of the city of Calneh mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The site was a major urban centre in two separate phases, during the Early Bronze Age and Early Iron Age.</p><br>
<p>The red-black burnished ware (Karaz ware) is recovered in large quantities from the Early Bronze Age (EBA) II and IIIa levels. It is among the most commonly used pottery on the site. This type of pottery diminishes through the end of the last phase of EBA. This pottery is believed to be influenced by the Kura-Araxes culture, arriving into this area around 3000 BCE.</p><br>
<p>During the Early Iron Age, this is thought likely to be the site of ancient Kinalua, the capital of one of the Neo-Hittite/Aramean city-kingdoms of Walistin (Aramaic) or Palistin (neo-Hittite). Among the culturally diverse Syro-Hittite states in the north Syrian river-plain the rulers of Kinalua continued to bear royal Hittite names in the 8th century BCE. At the first Assyrian conquest in the 870s BCE, the victors carried away from Kinalua silver and gold, 100 talents of tin, essential for making bronze, and 100 talents of iron, 1000 oxen and 10,000 sheep, linen robes and decorated couches and beds of boxwood, as well as "10 female singers, the kings brothers daughter with a rich dowry, a large female monkey and ducks". At a later campaign the Assyrians forced its king Tutammu to submit.</p><br>
<h2>Archaeology</h2><br>
<p>Archaeological excavations were conducted at the site by the University of Chicagos Oriental Institute from 1935 to 1938, led by Robert Braidwood. One of the key finds made at the site was a temple reminiscent in plan to the descriptions of King Solomons Temple in the Old Testament. Several large palaces in the style known as Bit-hilani were also excavated. In 1999, the Oriental Institute returned to the site to conduct a survey and to examine the original excavations.</p><br>
<p>A lecture by James Osborne, on "The Syro-Anatolian City States: A Neglected Iron Age Culture" addresses aspects of the site.</p><br>
<p>New excavations at the site were begun by a team from the University of Toronto in 2004, after a survey in 2003. Timothy Harrison,</p><br>
<p>The Tayinat Geomagnetic Survey 2003, University of Toronto, 2003 Timothy Harrison,</p><br>
<p>Tayinat Archaeological Project 2004 Seasonal Report, University of Toronto, 2004</p><br>
<p>Continued excavations in the summer of 2005 exposed more of the Iron Age temple as well as part of one of the early Iron Age II bit-hilanis. A significant amount of earlier Iron Age I material was also uncovered as well as small amounts of Early Bronze Age material. Timothy Harrison,</p><br>
<p>Tayinat Archaeological Project 2005 Seasonal Report, University of Toronto, 2005</p><br>
<p>Excavations have continued now for a total of 6 seasons, through 2009. Timothy Harrison,</p><br>
<p>Tayinat Archaeological Project 2006 Seasonal Report, University of Toronto, 2006 Timothy Harrison,</p><br>
<p>Tayinat Archaeological Project 2007 Seasonal Report, University of Toronto, 2007 Timothy Harrison,</p><br>
<p>Tayinat Archaeological Project 2008 Seasonal Report, University of Toronto, 2008 Timothy Harrison,</p><br>
<p>Tayinat Archaeological Project 2009 Seasonal Report, University of Toronto, 2009</p><br>
<p>Findings have included a significant Iron Age temple, a number of 1st millennium</p><br>
<p>BC cuneiform tablets, and initial structures from the earlier Bronze Age</p><br>
<p>settlement.</p><br>
<p>In August 2012, a team from the University of Toronto announced they had uncovered the head and torso of a human figure, intact to just above its waist. The remains of the figure stand approximately 1.5 meters in height, suggesting a total height of 3.5 to 4 meters. The figure is bearded with eyes made of black and white stone. The figures hair has been styled in an elaborate series of curls arranged in rows. The arms of the figure extend forward from the elbow. Each arm has two arm bracelets adorned with lion heads. The figure’s left hand holds a shaft of wheat and its right hand holds a spear. The figures chest is adorned with a crescent-shaped pectoral. A lengthy carved, raised relief inscription in Hieroglyphic Luwian runs across the figure&#39;s back. The inscription records the accomplishments and campaigns of King Suppiluliuma. He is likely the same king who as part of a Syrian-Hittite coalition in 858 BC fought against the Neo-Assyrian invasion of Shalmaneser III.</p><br>
