Phenomenal Wonders Of The Natural WORLD...

Phenomenal Wonders Of The Natural World WebEcoist and Environmental Oddities Sailing Stones The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley have been a center of scientific controversy for decades. Rocks weighing up to hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a time. Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds and surface ice account for these movements. However, this theory does not explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at different rates and in disparate directions. Moreover, the physics calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of hundreds of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones. Columnar Basalt When a thick lava flow cools, it contracts vertically but cracks perpendicular to its directional flow with remarkable geometric regularity - in most cases forming a regular grid of remarkable hexagonal extrusions that almost appear to be made by man. One of the most famous such examples is the Giant's Causeway on the coast of Ireland (shown above), though the largest and most widely recognized would be Devil's Tower in Wyoming. Basalt also forms different but equally fascinating ways when eruptions are exposed to air or water. Blue Holes Blue holes are giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation that get their name from the dark and foreboding blue tone they exhibit when viewed from above in relationship to surrounding waters. They can be hundreds of feet deep and while divers are able to explore some of them they are largely devoid of oxygen that would support sea life due to poor water circulation - leaving them eerily empty. Some blue holes, however, contain ancient fossil remains that have been discovered, preserved in their depths. Red Tides Red tides are also known as algal blooms - sudden influxes of massive amounts of colored single-cell algae that can convert entire areas of an ocean or beach into a blood red color. While some of these can be relatively harmless, others can be harbingers of deadly toxins that cause the deaths of fish, birds and marine mammals. In some cases, even humans have been harmed by red tides though no human exposure are known to have been fatal. While they can be fatal, the constituent phytoplankton in ride tides are not harmful in small numbers. Ice Circles While many see these apparently perfect ice circles as worthy of conspiracy theorizing, scientists generally accept that they are formed by eddies in the water that spin a sizable piece of ice in a circular motion. As a result of this rotation, other pieces of ice and flotsam wear relatively evenly at the edges of the ice until it slowly forms into an essentially ideal circle. Ice circles have been seen with diameters of over 500 feet and can also at times be found in clusters and groups of different sizes as shown above. Mammatus Clouds True to their ominous appearance, mammatus clouds are often harbingers of a coming storm or other extreme weather system. Typically composed primarily of ice, they can extend for hundreds of miles in each direction and individual formations can remain visibly static for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. While they may appear foreboding they are merely the messengers - appearing around, before or even after severe weather. Fire Rainbows A circumhorizontal fire rainbow arc occurs at a rare confluence of right time and right place for the sun and certain clouds. Crystals within the clouds refract light into the various visible waves of the spectrum but only if they are arrayed correctly relative to the ground below. Due to the rarity with which all of these events happen in conjunction with one another, there are relatively few remarkable photos of this phenomena. Sinkholes Sinkholes are one of the world's scariest natural phenomena. Over time, water erodes the soil under the planet's surface until in some cases, quite suddenly, the land above gives way and collapses into the earth. Many sinkholes occur naturally while others are the result of human intervention. Displacing groundwater can open cavities while broken pipes can erode otherwise stable subterranean sediments. Urban sinkholes, up to hundreds of feet deep have formed and consumed parts of city blocks, sidewalks and even entire buildings. Penitentes Named after peak-hooded New Mexican monks (lower right above), penitentes are dazzling naturally-forming ice blades that stick up at sharp angles toward the sun. Rarely found except at high altitudes, they can grow up taller than a human and form in vast fields. As ice melts in particular patterns, 'valleys' formed by initial melts leave 'mountains' in their wake. Strangely, these formations ultimately slow the melting process as the peaks cast shadows on the deeper surfaces below and allow for winds to blow over the peaks, cooling them. Lenticular Clouds Ever wonder the truth about UFOs? Avoided by traditional pilots but loved by sailplane aviators, lenticular clouds are masses of cloud with strong internal uplift that can drive a motorless flyer to high elevations. Their shape is quite often mistaken for a mysterious flying object or the artificial cover for one. Generally, lenticular clouds are formed as wind speeds up while moving around a large land object such as a mountain. Light Pillars Light pillars appear as eerily upright luminous columns in the sky, beacons cast into the air above without an apparent source.. These are visible when light reflects just right off of ice crystals from either the sun (as in the two top images above) or from artificial ground sources such as street or park lights. Despite their appearance as near-solid columns of light, the effect is entirely created by our own relative viewpoint. Sundogs Like light pillars, sundogs are the product of light passing through crystals. The particular shape and orientation of the crystals can have a drastic visual impact for the viewer, producing a longer tail and changing the range of colors one sees. The relative height of the sun in the sky shifts the distance the sundogs appear to be on either side of the sun. Varying climactic conditions on other planets in our solar system produce halos with up to four sundogs from those planets' perspectives. Sundogs have been speculated about and discussed since ancient times and written records describing the various attributes of our sun date back the Egyptians and Greeks. Fire Whirls Fire whirls (also known as fire devils or tornadoes) appear in or around raging fires when the right combination of climactic conditions is present. Fire whirls can be spawned by other natural events such as earthquakes and thunderstorms, and can be incredibly dangerous, in some cases spinning well out of the zone of a fire itself to cause devastation and death in a radius not even reached by heat or flame. Fire whirls have been known to be nearly a mile high, have wind speeds of over 100 miles per hour and to last for 20 or more minutes. Orange Moons This last phenomena is something most people have seen before - beautiful orange moon hanging low in the sky. But what causes this phenomena - and, for that matter, does the moon have a color at all? When the moon appears lower on the horizon, rays of light bouncing off it have to pass through a great deal more of our atmosphere which slowly strips away everything but yellows, oranges and reds. The bottommost image above is true to the hues of the moon but has enhanced colors to more clearly show the differences in shade that illustrate the mixed topography and minerology that tell the story of the moon's surface. Looking at the colors in combination with the craters one can start to trace the history of impacts and consequent material movements across the face of our mysterious moon.

TREASURES OF EGYPT

Egypt - a country being in which you can not just plunge into the grand millennial history and mystery, but also get a lot of wonderful impressions of an unforgettable vacation. How? Each defines for himself. After all, Egypt is rich not only in their sights and antiquities. Tourists can choose from a large abundance of entertainment. Beach vacation, diving, go-karting, horse riding and camel riding, jeep tours in the desert, visits to museums, golf courses, the famous Egyptian shopping, restaurants, water rides. All this can be found in this ancient country. As the Seven Wonders of Egypt: the Nile, Red Sea, the Pyramids of Giza, Luxor, the temples at Abu Simbel, the ancient culture of the pharaohs and the Bedouins.

1) Tourists on horses and camels, visiting the historical monument - the pyramids of Giza, located not far from Cairo. The pyramids are the only one of the ancient seven wonders of the world that has survived to this day. In addition, they entered the list of new seven world wonders, drawn up in 2008.

2) The Sphinx of Giza - a huge figure of the creature with the body of a lion and a human head is located on the west bank of the Nile near Cairo. The picture in the background we see the pyramid of Khufu. The Great Sphinx - is the biggest stone statue on the ground. Believed that it was created ancient Egyptians in the third millennium BC, between approximately 2520 and 2494 years. BC

3) Attraction of Cairo - the ensemble of the mosque-madrasa of Sultan Hassan. The mosque was built between 1356 and 1363 years. AD during the reign of the Mamelukes. It is believed that the stones for its construction were taken from one of the great pyramids of Giza.

Mohamed Ali mosque is located in the citadel of Cairo and was built on his order between 1830 and 1848. This Turkish mosque has become the largest mosque built in the middle of the first 19. It was erected in honor of Tuzuna, son of Mohammed, who died in 1816.

5) The Egyptian Museum, located in Cairo, which contains the largest collection of Egyptian antiquities.

6) The golfer who plays on the field for the game of golf at the hotel «Oberoi House», overlooking the pyramids of Giza.

7) Khan al-Khalili is considered the biggest shopping area in Cairo.

8) Pyramid Meyduma located on the edge of the desert 70 kilometers south of Cairo and is the first Egyptian pyramid with aboveground burial. Ancient Egyptians believed that the higher the buried person, the closer he becomes to the god of the sun. At the foot of the huge building covered with crumbling stones.

9) Fortress Kite beat the 15 th century building is situated on the Mediterranean coast of Alexandria.

10) The famous Alexandrian science library - top beauty and splendor.

11) The steamer "Sudan" flies on the Nile River in the direction of the Egyptian city of Aswan.

12) Hotel «The Old Cataract» (old threshold) in the city of Aswan situated on a hilltop, so the windows overlooking the River Nile.

13) Temple of Horus in Edhu second largest temple in Egypt after the Temple of Karnak, and one of the best preserved. This temple is dedicated to mountain - God with the head of a falcon.

14) Tourists visiting the columns, decorated with hieroglyphs in Karnak temple in Luxor. Few sights can compare with the Egyptian Karnak complex in the greatness of columns, obelisks, stelae and decorated stones.

15) The walls of the Temple of Karnak in Luxor decorated with images of the pharaohs. During the 40 years the temple complex has been studied and restored the Franco-Egyptian team of archaeologists.

16) Tourists visiting the Colossi of Memnon - two huge stone statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III.

17) Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, located in Luxor, built of limestone. She became a 5-m pharaoh of the 18 th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt and the rules for longer than any other woman of the Egyptian dynasties.

18) Temple of Abu Simbel was erected 20 years: from 1244 to 1224 years. BC Temple made by UNESCO's World Heritage List, is part of the Monuments of Nubia, which run from Abu Simbel to fillet (near Aswan).

19) According to UNESCO, the monastery of St. Catherine is the oldest active Christian monastery in the world.

20) Tourist climbed on a huge limestone, formed as a result of sandstorms in the white desert, Egypt.

21) Camels on the Red Sea on the beach Canyon in Dahab. Camel Safari - one of the most popular attractions in Southern Sinai.

22) In the Red Sea is home to over a thousand species of invertebrates and 200 different species of corals, in addition, it is the most northern tropical sea. Red Sea - a popular place for divers and lovers of swimming Snorkelling.

23) Tourists relax on the terrace on the street King of the Kingdom of Bahrain (King of Barhein Kingdom street). It is considered the main street of Sharm El-Sheikh.

24) A man admires the view of volcanic peaks of the Black Desert.

Amul Hits of 2010 - 2011

Management of a Gymkhana in Mumbai, evicted a transgender activist from a dinner party hosted by one of its member- April'10

Taxpayers receive erroneous recovery notice from the I.T. Department due to an error in software. - April'10

U.S. President Obama assures Indian P.M. Manmohan Singh of access to American Jihadi - Headley - April'10

Controversy over the newly formed Kochi team for Indian Premier League 4 - April'10

Volcanic ash from Iceland leads to closure of European airspace disrupting flights world-wide - April'10

Controversy surounding the IPL Commissioner- April'10

Victory of 'Chennai Super Kings' over 'Mumbai Indians' in the finals of IPL3 championship - April '10

Celebrating 50 years of Gujarat - April '10

Golden jubilee celebration of Gujarat - April '10

Celebration of Maharashtra Day - May'10

Judge pronounces terrorist Ajmal Kasab guilty - May'10

Forthcoming Bollywood release 'Kites'- May'10

Based on a popular male deodorant TVC - May'10

A group of Indian cricketers involved in a squabble at a local pub in West Indies - May'10

Actress Mallika Sherawat chooses a snake to promote her forthcoming movie 'Hisss' at the ongoing 63rd Cannes film festival - May'10

Heat wave sweeps across the country - May'10

Top industrialist brother's bury their differences and call for a truce - June'10

Recent judgement on the Bhopal Gas tragedy - June'10