The Lotus Eaters were a race of people living on an island dominated by lotus plants. The lotus fruits and flowers were the primary food of the island and were narcotic, causing the people to sleep in peaceful apathy.
An apathetic individual has an absence of interest in or concern about emotional, social, spiritual, philosophical and/or physical life and the world, lacking a sense of purpose and meaning in their life. The challenge was irrelevant to them. It is a way to forget negative feelings.
The Lotus Tree is mentioned in Homer's Odyssey chapter IX, as bearing a fruit that caused a pleasant drowsiness, and which was said to be the only food of an island people called the Lotus Eaters. When they ate of the Lotus Tree they forgot their friends and homes and the desire to return to their native lands was lost in favor lo living in idleness.
Odysseus tells how adverse North Winds blew him and his men off course as they were rounding Cape Malea, a peninsula known for its treacherous weather, in the Southern most tip of the Peloponnesus in Greece, headed Westward for Ithaca: "I was driven by Foul Winds for a space of 9 days upon the sea, but on the 10th day we reached the Land of the Lotus-Eaters, who live on a food that comes from a kind of flower. Here we landed to take in fresh water, and our crew got their mid-day meal on the shore near the ships. When they had eaten and drunk I sent two of my company to see what manner of men the people of the place might be, and they had a third man under them. They started at once, and went about among the Lotus-Eaters, who did them no hurt, but gave them to eat of the Lotus, which was so delicious that those who ate it left off caring about home, and did not even want to go back and say what happened to them. Nevertheless, though they wept bitterly i forced them back to the ships and made them fast under the benches. Then I told the rest to go on board at once, so they took their places and smote the grey sea with their oars."
Herodotus, in the 5th century BC, was sure that the Lotus-Eaters still existed in his day in coastal Libya, the region West of the Nile. Its people were the ancestors of the modern Berbers, known in the Hellenistic period as Libyans.
The name Libya also appeared in the Hebrew language, written in the Bible as Lebahim and Lubim, indicating the ethnic population and the geographic territory as well.
Homer also names Libya, in Odyssey chapter IX. Menelaus had travelled there on his way home from Troy. It was a land of wonderful richness, where the lambs have horns as soon as they were born, where ewes lamb three times a year and no shepherd ever went short of milk, meat or cheese. Homer used the name in a geographical sense, while he also called its inhabitants "Lotus-Eaters."
In the narrative poem 'The Metamorphoses' by the Roman poet Ovid, chronicling the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar, mention the beautiful daughter of Neptune, the god of water and the sea. In order to flee the violent and lustful attention of the sexual impotent Pri-Apus, a rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia, she invoked the assistance of the gods, who answered her prayers by turning her into a lotus tree.
Pri-Apus is described as the son of Aphrodite by Dionysus, or father or son of Hermes, or the son of Zeus or Pan, depending on the source. According to the legend, Hera cursed him with impotence, ugliness and foul-mindedness while he was still in Aphrodite's womb, in revenge for the hero Paris having the temerity to judge Aphrodite more beautiful than Hera. The other gods refused to allow him to live on Mount Olympus and threw him to Earth, leaving him on a hillside. Then he joined Pan and the satyrs as a spirit of fertility and growth, though he was perennially frustrated by his impotence.
In the Scriptures in the Book of Job, there are two lines in the chapter 40, with the Hebrew word meaning the 'Lotus Tree' which appears nowhere else in the Scriptures. The Book addresses the theme of God's justice in the face of human suffering, or more simply, 'Why do the righteous suffer?' When God finally speaks He neither explains the reason for Job's suffering nor defends His justice. The first speech focuses on his role in maintaining Order in the universe: the list of things that God does and Job cannot do demonstrates divine wisdom because Order is the Heart of Wisdom. Job confesses his lack of wisdom, meaning his lack of understanding of the workings of the cosmos and of the ability to maintain it. The second speech concerns God's role in controlling Behemoth and Leviathan, two powerful primeval cosmic forces or entities, in either case demonstrating God's wisdom and power. In the concluding part of the narrative God restores and increases his prosperity, indicating that the divine policy of retributive Justice remains unchanged.
The name Behemoth has come to be used for an extremely large and powerful entity created together with the human being. It represents the dust from which the divine body of the first man was made of.
Then the sea-monster Leviathan, representing another powerful entity that govern the cosmic mind.
God mention both to demonstrate Job the futility of questioning God, who alone has created these beings and who alone can capture them.
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
THE URAL AND CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS.
The Ural Mountains are a mountain range that runs from North to South through Western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River originating in the Southern Urals and flowing through Russia and North Western Kazakh-Stan and ending at the Caspian Sea. The Ural River (2,428km / 1,509mi) is the 3rd longest River in Europe after the Volga and the Danube and considered together with the mountain range, the Northern boundary between the continents of Europe and Asia. Its highest peak is Mount Narod-Naya, approximately 1,895m / 6,217 ft in elevation.
The Caucasus Mountains are a mountain system in the combined continental land-mass of Europe and Asia. They include the Greater Caucasus which extends from the Caucasian Natural Reserve on the North Eastern shore of the Black Sea to Mount Elbrus, then aligned West- North West to East-South East and reaching nearly to Baku on the Caspian Sea; and the Lesser Caucasus, which runs parallel to the greater range, at a distance averaging about 100 km / 62mi South. the highest peak in the Caucasus range is Mount El-Brus in the Greater Caucasus, which rises to a height of 5,642 m / 18,510 ft above the sea level.
The Caucasus Mountains formed largely as the result of a tectonic plate collision between the Arabian plate moving Northwards with respect to the Eurasian plate. As the Tethys Sea was closed (India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Indian Ocean now cover the area) and the Arabian plate collided with the Iranian plate and was pushed against it and with the clockwise movement of the Eurasian plate towards the Iranian plate and their final collision, the Iranian plate was pressed against the Eurasian plate. As this happened, the entire rocks that had been deposited in this basin from the Jurassic to the Miocene eras were folded to form the Greater Caucasus mountains. The entire region is regularly subjected to strong earthquakes from this activity. While the Greater Caucasus have a mainly folded sedimentary structure, the Lesser Caucasus are largely of volcanic origin.
The concepts of Europe and Asia as distinct continents date back to antiquity and their borders are geological arbitrary, with the Ural and Caucasus ranges being the main delimiters between the two.
Physiographically, Eurasia is a single continent and is connected to Africa at the Suez Canal, and sometimes is combined with Africa as the super continent Afro-Eurasia.
Eurasia has been the host of many civilizations, including those based in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and China. In the mid-1st millennium BC a continuous belt of civilizations stretched through the Eurasian subtropical zone from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This belt became the mainstream of world history for over two millennia.
The Caucasus Mountains are a mountain system in the combined continental land-mass of Europe and Asia. They include the Greater Caucasus which extends from the Caucasian Natural Reserve on the North Eastern shore of the Black Sea to Mount Elbrus, then aligned West- North West to East-South East and reaching nearly to Baku on the Caspian Sea; and the Lesser Caucasus, which runs parallel to the greater range, at a distance averaging about 100 km / 62mi South. the highest peak in the Caucasus range is Mount El-Brus in the Greater Caucasus, which rises to a height of 5,642 m / 18,510 ft above the sea level.
The Caucasus Mountains formed largely as the result of a tectonic plate collision between the Arabian plate moving Northwards with respect to the Eurasian plate. As the Tethys Sea was closed (India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Indian Ocean now cover the area) and the Arabian plate collided with the Iranian plate and was pushed against it and with the clockwise movement of the Eurasian plate towards the Iranian plate and their final collision, the Iranian plate was pressed against the Eurasian plate. As this happened, the entire rocks that had been deposited in this basin from the Jurassic to the Miocene eras were folded to form the Greater Caucasus mountains. The entire region is regularly subjected to strong earthquakes from this activity. While the Greater Caucasus have a mainly folded sedimentary structure, the Lesser Caucasus are largely of volcanic origin.
The concepts of Europe and Asia as distinct continents date back to antiquity and their borders are geological arbitrary, with the Ural and Caucasus ranges being the main delimiters between the two.
Physiographically, Eurasia is a single continent and is connected to Africa at the Suez Canal, and sometimes is combined with Africa as the super continent Afro-Eurasia.
Eurasia has been the host of many civilizations, including those based in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and China. In the mid-1st millennium BC a continuous belt of civilizations stretched through the Eurasian subtropical zone from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This belt became the mainstream of world history for over two millennia.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
THE SPIRIT OF THE COLCA CANYON, PERU
The Colca Canyon is an amazing geological formation created by erosion from the Colca River over thousands of years in which the abrasive effect of the water that flows through the mountains carved the rock and gradually turned into one of the deepest (4,160m) natural canyons on the planet.
Peru is especially characterized by the presence of the Volcanic chain of the Western Mountain Range of the Andes which are made up by a spectacular views of the combination of impressive mountains and volcanoes such as Hualca Hualca, Ampato, and Sabancaya (still active), that reach over 6,000 m in heights, making the Colca Canyon part of it.
Ampato is known to be the final resting place of an Inca mummy, surprisingly conserved. Ampato means 'frog' in Quechua, the language of the Andean people, referring to the characteristic form of the Volcano seen from the surrounding areas. The ancient inhabitants worshiped this mountain with offerings because they considered it a divine spirit living in the form of the Volcano together with the Mountain Chain in which the Volcano rested. The spirits of the mountains helped them to improve their agricultural techniques and farm animal production.
The Canyon is located on the right side of the Chila Mountain Range formed by the glaciers Bomboya, Serpregina, Mismi, Queshihua, and on the other side by the Volcanoes that are part of the Ampato Mountain Range, in the North Eastern side of Arequipa, Peru, about 4 hours North of the city of Arequipa. At a distance you are able to observe two high mountains accompanying the deepest Canyon in the planet, the Coropuna (6,305m), the highest peak in Arequipa, and the Solimana (6,323 m).
The Coca Canyon reaches depths of 4,160 m in the region of Canco of the district of Huambo on the North side and 3,600 m on the South side. It is more than 120 km long.
Canco is a small Valley that is located between the crosses of the Colca and Huambo Rivers. Due to its high location (1820m) the weather is nice and a variety of subtropical fruits and crops grow there. Also you can see several condors flying around this area.
The Colca Valley that goes by the same name as the canyon is a colorful Andean valley with pre-Inca roots, still inhabited by people of the Collagua and the Cabana cultures, who moved to the area from the Lake Titicaca region. They maintain their ancestral traditions and continue to cultivate the pre-Inca stepped terraces. The Valley begins in the surroundings of Chivay, the main town of the area, continuing in a North West direction for more than 60 km towards the area known as the Condor Cross (la Cruz del Condor) in the Town of Cabana-Conde.
The Colca River originates in the Andes, in the high Condor-Ama Cruise and descends to the Town of Chivay located at 3,600m above sea level and it is the location where the Canyon starts. Then it pass through the Old River Town of Maca. From this point the flow of the River increases dramatically and spills into the depth of the Valley reaching a greater depth at the Condor Cross (la Cruz del Condor) viewpoint in the town of Cabana-Conde. It then flows down about 40 km and converges with the River Anda-Mayo, marking the end of the Canyon and the beginning of the Majes Valley and before flowing into the Pacific Ocean it becomes the Camana River. Thus the Colca River change its name as it passess through these different territories, Colca, in the hills; Majes, in the middle; and Camana, in the coastal desert.
Peru is especially characterized by the presence of the Volcanic chain of the Western Mountain Range of the Andes which are made up by a spectacular views of the combination of impressive mountains and volcanoes such as Hualca Hualca, Ampato, and Sabancaya (still active), that reach over 6,000 m in heights, making the Colca Canyon part of it.
Ampato is known to be the final resting place of an Inca mummy, surprisingly conserved. Ampato means 'frog' in Quechua, the language of the Andean people, referring to the characteristic form of the Volcano seen from the surrounding areas. The ancient inhabitants worshiped this mountain with offerings because they considered it a divine spirit living in the form of the Volcano together with the Mountain Chain in which the Volcano rested. The spirits of the mountains helped them to improve their agricultural techniques and farm animal production.
The Canyon is located on the right side of the Chila Mountain Range formed by the glaciers Bomboya, Serpregina, Mismi, Queshihua, and on the other side by the Volcanoes that are part of the Ampato Mountain Range, in the North Eastern side of Arequipa, Peru, about 4 hours North of the city of Arequipa. At a distance you are able to observe two high mountains accompanying the deepest Canyon in the planet, the Coropuna (6,305m), the highest peak in Arequipa, and the Solimana (6,323 m).
The Coca Canyon reaches depths of 4,160 m in the region of Canco of the district of Huambo on the North side and 3,600 m on the South side. It is more than 120 km long.
Canco is a small Valley that is located between the crosses of the Colca and Huambo Rivers. Due to its high location (1820m) the weather is nice and a variety of subtropical fruits and crops grow there. Also you can see several condors flying around this area.
The Colca Valley that goes by the same name as the canyon is a colorful Andean valley with pre-Inca roots, still inhabited by people of the Collagua and the Cabana cultures, who moved to the area from the Lake Titicaca region. They maintain their ancestral traditions and continue to cultivate the pre-Inca stepped terraces. The Valley begins in the surroundings of Chivay, the main town of the area, continuing in a North West direction for more than 60 km towards the area known as the Condor Cross (la Cruz del Condor) in the Town of Cabana-Conde.
The Colca River originates in the Andes, in the high Condor-Ama Cruise and descends to the Town of Chivay located at 3,600m above sea level and it is the location where the Canyon starts. Then it pass through the Old River Town of Maca. From this point the flow of the River increases dramatically and spills into the depth of the Valley reaching a greater depth at the Condor Cross (la Cruz del Condor) viewpoint in the town of Cabana-Conde. It then flows down about 40 km and converges with the River Anda-Mayo, marking the end of the Canyon and the beginning of the Majes Valley and before flowing into the Pacific Ocean it becomes the Camana River. Thus the Colca River change its name as it passess through these different territories, Colca, in the hills; Majes, in the middle; and Camana, in the coastal desert.
Monday, August 1, 2016
THE MYTH OF THE CASPIAN SEA.
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed inland body of water on Earth by area. It is a closed drainage basin that retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water. It is located between Europe and Asia, to the East of the Caucasus Mountains and the the West of the vast steppe of Central Asia. Its Northern part, the Caspian Depression, is one of the lowest points on Earth.
The Caucasus Mountains are a mountain system in Eurasia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the Caucasus region at the border of Europe and Asia. The region was inhabited since the Paleolithic Era. In 1991, early human fossils of 1.8 million years of age were found in the Southern Caucasus.
The Caspian Sea has a surface area of 371,000 km2 /143,200 sq mi, not included its detach lagoon of Garabo-Gazkol Aylagy, and a volume of 78,200 km3 /18,800 cu mi. It has a salinity of approximately 1.2% (12g/l) about a third of the salinity of most sea water.
The Caspian is divided into 3 distinct physical regions: the Northen, the Middle, and Southern Caspian.
Differences between the regions are dramatic. The Northern Caspian only includes the Caspian shelf, and is very shallow; it accounts for less than 1% of the total water volume with an average depth of only 5-6 m /16-20 ft. The Sea noticeably drops off towards the Middle Caspian, where the average depth is 190 m/620 ft. The Southern Caspian is the deepest, with oceanic depths of over 1,000 m/3,300 ft, greatly exceeding the depth of other regional seas, such as the Persian Gulf.
During warm and dry climatic periods, the landlock Sea almost dried up, depositing water-soluble mineral sediment like halite (common for homeowners in cold climates to melt the ice) that were covered by wind-blown deposits and were sealed off as an crystallized sediment when cool, and wet climates refilled the basin. Comparable crystallized beds underlie the Mediterranean Sea. Due to the current inflow of fresh water, the Caspian Sea is a freshwater lake in its Northern portions. It is more saline in its Iranian shore, where the catchment basin contributes little flow.
The Caspian Sea is bounded to the North East by Kazakh-Stan, to the North West by Russia, to the West by Azer-Baijan, to the South by Iran, and the South West by Turk-Meni-Stan.
The word Caspian is derived from the name of the Caspi, an ancient people who lived South West of the Sea in Trans-Caucasia. Strabo (64/63BC- 24 CE), a Greek geographer, philosopher, and historian, wrote that "to the country of the Albanians belongs also the territory called Casp-Iane, which was named after the Caspian Tribe, as was also the Sea; but the tribe has now disappeared." The Caspians have been generally regarded as a pre-Indo-European people. Ernst Emill Herzfeld (23July1879-20January1948), a German archaeologist and Iranian-logist, identified them with the Kassites, who spoke a language without an identified relationship to any other known language and whose origins have long been the subject of debate. However onomastic evidence bearing on this point has been discovered in Aramaic papyri from Egypt in which several of the Caspian names that are mentioned and identified as 'Kaspai' are in part, etymologically Iranic. The Caspians of the Egyptian papyri must therefore be considered either an Iranian people or strongly under Iranic cultural influence.
The Caspian Gates, a region in Iran's Tehran province, indicates that they migrated to the South of the Sea.
The name Caspian Gates applied to the narrow region at the Southern corner of the Caspian Sea, through which, during the time of Alexander the Great, he actually marched in the pursuit of Artaxexes V, a prominent Persian Satrap of Bactria in Persia, and self-proclaimed King of Kings of Persia.
According to classical sources, he killed his predecessor and relative, Darius III, after the Persian army had been defeated by Alexander. He was executed by the hand of Alexander in 329 BC.
Under Ashur-Banipal (669-627BC) the boundaries of the Assyrian Empire reached as far as the Caucasus Mountains
The Gates were a legendary barrier built by Alexander in the Caucasus to keep Gog and Magog, uncivilized barbarians of the North from invading the land of the South.
Gog and Magog appear in the Hebrew Scriptures as individual persons or entities, or as peoples, or as lands. The Book of Ezekiel, Gog is the name of an individual and Magog the name of his land paints them as the enemies of God at the end of time. In Genesis 10 Magog is an entity and no Gog is mentioned, and in Revelation both Gog and Magog appear together as the hostile nations of the world.
The Caspian Sea, like the Aral Sea, Black Sea, and Lake Urmia, is a remnant of the ancient Para-Tethys Sea. It became landlocked about 5.5 million years ago due to tectonic uplift and a fall of sea level.
The Caucasus Mountains are a mountain system in Eurasia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the Caucasus region at the border of Europe and Asia. The region was inhabited since the Paleolithic Era. In 1991, early human fossils of 1.8 million years of age were found in the Southern Caucasus.
The Caspian Sea has a surface area of 371,000 km2 /143,200 sq mi, not included its detach lagoon of Garabo-Gazkol Aylagy, and a volume of 78,200 km3 /18,800 cu mi. It has a salinity of approximately 1.2% (12g/l) about a third of the salinity of most sea water.
The Caspian is divided into 3 distinct physical regions: the Northen, the Middle, and Southern Caspian.
Differences between the regions are dramatic. The Northern Caspian only includes the Caspian shelf, and is very shallow; it accounts for less than 1% of the total water volume with an average depth of only 5-6 m /16-20 ft. The Sea noticeably drops off towards the Middle Caspian, where the average depth is 190 m/620 ft. The Southern Caspian is the deepest, with oceanic depths of over 1,000 m/3,300 ft, greatly exceeding the depth of other regional seas, such as the Persian Gulf.
During warm and dry climatic periods, the landlock Sea almost dried up, depositing water-soluble mineral sediment like halite (common for homeowners in cold climates to melt the ice) that were covered by wind-blown deposits and were sealed off as an crystallized sediment when cool, and wet climates refilled the basin. Comparable crystallized beds underlie the Mediterranean Sea. Due to the current inflow of fresh water, the Caspian Sea is a freshwater lake in its Northern portions. It is more saline in its Iranian shore, where the catchment basin contributes little flow.
The Caspian Sea is bounded to the North East by Kazakh-Stan, to the North West by Russia, to the West by Azer-Baijan, to the South by Iran, and the South West by Turk-Meni-Stan.
The word Caspian is derived from the name of the Caspi, an ancient people who lived South West of the Sea in Trans-Caucasia. Strabo (64/63BC- 24 CE), a Greek geographer, philosopher, and historian, wrote that "to the country of the Albanians belongs also the territory called Casp-Iane, which was named after the Caspian Tribe, as was also the Sea; but the tribe has now disappeared." The Caspians have been generally regarded as a pre-Indo-European people. Ernst Emill Herzfeld (23July1879-20January1948), a German archaeologist and Iranian-logist, identified them with the Kassites, who spoke a language without an identified relationship to any other known language and whose origins have long been the subject of debate. However onomastic evidence bearing on this point has been discovered in Aramaic papyri from Egypt in which several of the Caspian names that are mentioned and identified as 'Kaspai' are in part, etymologically Iranic. The Caspians of the Egyptian papyri must therefore be considered either an Iranian people or strongly under Iranic cultural influence.
The Caspian Gates, a region in Iran's Tehran province, indicates that they migrated to the South of the Sea.
The name Caspian Gates applied to the narrow region at the Southern corner of the Caspian Sea, through which, during the time of Alexander the Great, he actually marched in the pursuit of Artaxexes V, a prominent Persian Satrap of Bactria in Persia, and self-proclaimed King of Kings of Persia.
According to classical sources, he killed his predecessor and relative, Darius III, after the Persian army had been defeated by Alexander. He was executed by the hand of Alexander in 329 BC.
Under Ashur-Banipal (669-627BC) the boundaries of the Assyrian Empire reached as far as the Caucasus Mountains
The Gates were a legendary barrier built by Alexander in the Caucasus to keep Gog and Magog, uncivilized barbarians of the North from invading the land of the South.
Gog and Magog appear in the Hebrew Scriptures as individual persons or entities, or as peoples, or as lands. The Book of Ezekiel, Gog is the name of an individual and Magog the name of his land paints them as the enemies of God at the end of time. In Genesis 10 Magog is an entity and no Gog is mentioned, and in Revelation both Gog and Magog appear together as the hostile nations of the world.
The Caspian Sea, like the Aral Sea, Black Sea, and Lake Urmia, is a remnant of the ancient Para-Tethys Sea. It became landlocked about 5.5 million years ago due to tectonic uplift and a fall of sea level.
Friday, July 29, 2016
THE AURORA BOREALIS.
Aurora Borealis is a phenomenon made by nature that is vibrant and colorful. Researchers discovered that the auroral activity is cyclic, peaking roughly every 11 years. Nothing that man has created comes even close to these mind blowing lights that every person who is aware of it wants to see its magnificent at least once in their life time.
The bright dancing lights of the aurora are actually collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth's atmosphere with electrically charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere that enter and spark as a result of it. Variation in color are due to the type of gas particles that are colliding. The most common auroral color is a pale yellowish-green produced by high-altitude oxygen, at heights up to 200 miles. Nitrogen produces blue or purplish-red aurora.
The temperature above the surface of the sun is millions of degrees Celsius. At this temperature, collisions between gas molecules are frequent and explosive. Free electrons and protons are thrown from the sun's atmosphere by the rotation of the sun and escape through holes in the magnetic field. Being blown towards the earth by the solar wind, the charged particles are largely deflected by the earth's magnetic field. However, the earth's magnetic field is weaker at either pole and therefore many particles enter the earth's atmosphere through that points and collide with gas particles in it, emitting lights that we perceive as the dancing light of the aurora.
The lights are seen above the magnetic poles of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. They are known as Aurora Borealis in the North, meaning "dawn of the north," and Arora Australis in the South, meaning "dawn of the south." In Roman myths, Aurora was the goddess of the dawn and mother of winds, who announced the arrival of the sun each morning by racing her chariot across the sky. The people who live in the North of the Arctic Circle has its own explanation. They said that the lights were energies created by the soul of the departed and whoever disrespected them would experience bad fortune, such as sickness or even death. Also they said that the sparks had magical effects and by using shaman drums they could harness the effect of the spark's energy.
The lights appear in many forms from patches or scattered clouds of light to streamers, arcs, rippling curtains or shooting rays that light up the sky with an eerie glow, and generally extend from 80 km (50 mi) to as high as 640 km (400 mi) above the earth's surface in east-west direction.
Areas that are not subject to light pollution are the best places to watch the aurora. Winter in the North is generally a good season to view the lights. The long period of darkness an the frequency of clear nights provide many good opportunities to watch the auroral displays. Yukon, Northwest Territories and Alaska are the best spots in the North, while the southern auroras are concentrated in a ring around Antarctica and the southern Indian Ocean.
An historical significance had an event that occurred due to the great geomagnetism storm occurred on both August 28 and September 2nd of 1859. It was the most spectacular ever witnessed throughout that specific generation of people. It was the result of an exceptionally intense white light solar flare produced by an aurora so wide spread and extraordinary brilliant that they were seen and reported in published scientific measurements, ship's logs and newspapers throughout the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia. It was said in the New York Times' newspaper that "ordinary print could be read by the light of the aurora." The aurora is thought to have been produced by one of the most intense coronal mass ejections during that time, very near to the maximum intensity that the sun is thought to be capable of producing according to human mind estimation of its power. This was the first time that the people in power over the earth at that time got the first lesson of the connection where the phenomena of auroral activity and electricity were linked. The insight was made possible not only due to scientific magnetometer measurements of the era but also as a result of a significant portion of the 125,000 miles of telegraph lines then in service being significantly disrupted for so many hours throughout the storm.
Some telegraph lines however, seem to have been of the appropriate length and orientation which allowed a geo-magnetically induced current to be induced in them due to Earth's severely fluctuating magnetosphere and actually be used for communication. Two operators of the Telegraph Line were able to maintain a conversation for around two hours using no battery power at all and working solely with the current induced by the aurora, giving them, for the first time in their life, a lesson from Nature, many words were transmitted by the power of it and not by the human power.
The bright dancing lights of the aurora are actually collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth's atmosphere with electrically charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere that enter and spark as a result of it. Variation in color are due to the type of gas particles that are colliding. The most common auroral color is a pale yellowish-green produced by high-altitude oxygen, at heights up to 200 miles. Nitrogen produces blue or purplish-red aurora.
The temperature above the surface of the sun is millions of degrees Celsius. At this temperature, collisions between gas molecules are frequent and explosive. Free electrons and protons are thrown from the sun's atmosphere by the rotation of the sun and escape through holes in the magnetic field. Being blown towards the earth by the solar wind, the charged particles are largely deflected by the earth's magnetic field. However, the earth's magnetic field is weaker at either pole and therefore many particles enter the earth's atmosphere through that points and collide with gas particles in it, emitting lights that we perceive as the dancing light of the aurora.
The lights are seen above the magnetic poles of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. They are known as Aurora Borealis in the North, meaning "dawn of the north," and Arora Australis in the South, meaning "dawn of the south." In Roman myths, Aurora was the goddess of the dawn and mother of winds, who announced the arrival of the sun each morning by racing her chariot across the sky. The people who live in the North of the Arctic Circle has its own explanation. They said that the lights were energies created by the soul of the departed and whoever disrespected them would experience bad fortune, such as sickness or even death. Also they said that the sparks had magical effects and by using shaman drums they could harness the effect of the spark's energy.
The lights appear in many forms from patches or scattered clouds of light to streamers, arcs, rippling curtains or shooting rays that light up the sky with an eerie glow, and generally extend from 80 km (50 mi) to as high as 640 km (400 mi) above the earth's surface in east-west direction.
Areas that are not subject to light pollution are the best places to watch the aurora. Winter in the North is generally a good season to view the lights. The long period of darkness an the frequency of clear nights provide many good opportunities to watch the auroral displays. Yukon, Northwest Territories and Alaska are the best spots in the North, while the southern auroras are concentrated in a ring around Antarctica and the southern Indian Ocean.
An historical significance had an event that occurred due to the great geomagnetism storm occurred on both August 28 and September 2nd of 1859. It was the most spectacular ever witnessed throughout that specific generation of people. It was the result of an exceptionally intense white light solar flare produced by an aurora so wide spread and extraordinary brilliant that they were seen and reported in published scientific measurements, ship's logs and newspapers throughout the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia. It was said in the New York Times' newspaper that "ordinary print could be read by the light of the aurora." The aurora is thought to have been produced by one of the most intense coronal mass ejections during that time, very near to the maximum intensity that the sun is thought to be capable of producing according to human mind estimation of its power. This was the first time that the people in power over the earth at that time got the first lesson of the connection where the phenomena of auroral activity and electricity were linked. The insight was made possible not only due to scientific magnetometer measurements of the era but also as a result of a significant portion of the 125,000 miles of telegraph lines then in service being significantly disrupted for so many hours throughout the storm.
Some telegraph lines however, seem to have been of the appropriate length and orientation which allowed a geo-magnetically induced current to be induced in them due to Earth's severely fluctuating magnetosphere and actually be used for communication. Two operators of the Telegraph Line were able to maintain a conversation for around two hours using no battery power at all and working solely with the current induced by the aurora, giving them, for the first time in their life, a lesson from Nature, many words were transmitted by the power of it and not by the human power.
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
HUMAN PRESENCE EFFECT IN THE ATA-PUERCA MOUNTAINS
The Ata-Puerca Mountains is an ancient landscape Region of Spain, formed by the dissolution of Soluble Rocks such as Lime-Stone, Dolomite, and Gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage system with Sink-holes, Dolines, and Caves. The Region belongs to the Province of Burgos, Castille and Leon and near Ata-Puerca and Ibeas de Juarros.
It contains several Caves, where fossils and stone tools of the earliest known Humans in Western Europe have been found. They have been dated as being up to 1.2 million and 600 thousand years old, respectively. The Caves are known collectively as the "Archaeological Site of Ata-Puerca."
Larger Brain cases with a cranial volume of 1100-1400 cm3 overlapping the 1350 cm3 average of modern humans, were found in the caves belonging to that specific Region.
Numerous fossil bones indicate that some of them were giants (2.13m/7ft tall). Recent findings in a pit in Ata-Puerca suggest they were the 1st species of humans who bury its dead. They acquired a pre-linguistic system of communication. No form of art have been uncovered, although red ochre (mineral used to mix red pigment useful as a paint) were found in other Caves of the Region.
The morphology of the outer and middle ear suggest they had an extraordinary auditory sensitivity. They were able to differentiate between many different sounds.
In antiquity, the Ebro was used as the dividing line between Roman (North) and Carthaginian (South) expansions after the 1st Punic War (264-241 BC). When Rome, fearful of Hannibal's growing influence in The Iberian Peninsula, made the City of Saguntum (South of Ebro) a Protectorate of Rome. Hannibal viewed it as a Treaty Violation and as an aggressive action by Rome and used the event as the catalyst to the Second Punic War.
The Ebro is the most important River in Spain in terms of length, 928 km (577mi). The flow decreased notably by about 29 per cent during the 20th century due to the construction of Dams, low rain fall, increasing demands for irrigation due to high sunshine and strong and dry winds, and the evaporation from reservoirs in the river basin. Dams and hydraulic canalization altered the dynamic of the River forever. This situation had a direct impact on the deltaic system at the mouth of the river because its hydrological dynamics are mainly controlled by the River discharge. The decrease in River discharge has meant introduction of the Salt Wedge. Fresh water floats on top of the sea-water in a layer that gradually thins as it moves Seaward. The denser Sea Water moves landward along the bottom of the estuary. As a velocity difference develops between the two layers, shear forces generate internal waves at the interface, mixing the Sea-Water upward with the Fresh-Water. The sediment load was reduced by more than 99 per cent during the last century. The drastic reduction in sediment transport implies a sediment deficit in the Delta, which is causing the erosion of the Coast-Line and lack of sediment replenish. Due to this changes almost entire forested area were cleared for crops or for pulp-wood forest plantation. Numerous plant and animal species have disappeared.
The traditional local Administrative Division (Comarca) named La Bureva is located in the NorthEast of the Province of Burgos in the autonomous community of Castilla and Leon.
La Bureba Pass connects the Ebro River Valley leading to the Mediterranean Sea and the duero Valley leading to that River's outlet at the Atlantic Ocean. This conjunction results in a transition area between two Biomes that is a gradual blending of two communities rich in species derived from both ecosystems. The Pass was part of a Roman Cause-Way of the pilgrimage route known as Pilgrim Ways (Camino Frances) to the shrine of the Apostle James the Great in the catedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in North-Western Spain, where tradition said that the remains of the Apostle are buried in there. Many take up this route as a form of Spiritual Path or retreat for their spiritual growth.
The location of the Archaeological Site of Ata-Puerca between 2 major Water-Sheds and its importance Mountain Pass explain the intensity and continuity of human habitation found there.
The Sites in this Region were found during the construction of Railway cuts through Grand Dolina, Galery, and Elephant, and the cut through the Cave of the "Bone Hill"(Sima de los Huesos).
Because of its importance, in 2000, the Archaeological Site of Ata-Puerca was added to the Unesco list of World Heritage Sites.
The World's largest Landscape made of Soluble Rocks is Australia's Nul-Arbor Plain. Slovenia has the World's highest risk of Sink-Holes, while the Western High-Land Rim in the Eastern United States is at the second-highest risk of Soluble Rocks Sink-Holes.
It contains several Caves, where fossils and stone tools of the earliest known Humans in Western Europe have been found. They have been dated as being up to 1.2 million and 600 thousand years old, respectively. The Caves are known collectively as the "Archaeological Site of Ata-Puerca."
Larger Brain cases with a cranial volume of 1100-1400 cm3 overlapping the 1350 cm3 average of modern humans, were found in the caves belonging to that specific Region.
Numerous fossil bones indicate that some of them were giants (2.13m/7ft tall). Recent findings in a pit in Ata-Puerca suggest they were the 1st species of humans who bury its dead. They acquired a pre-linguistic system of communication. No form of art have been uncovered, although red ochre (mineral used to mix red pigment useful as a paint) were found in other Caves of the Region.
The morphology of the outer and middle ear suggest they had an extraordinary auditory sensitivity. They were able to differentiate between many different sounds.
In antiquity, the Ebro was used as the dividing line between Roman (North) and Carthaginian (South) expansions after the 1st Punic War (264-241 BC). When Rome, fearful of Hannibal's growing influence in The Iberian Peninsula, made the City of Saguntum (South of Ebro) a Protectorate of Rome. Hannibal viewed it as a Treaty Violation and as an aggressive action by Rome and used the event as the catalyst to the Second Punic War.
The Ebro is the most important River in Spain in terms of length, 928 km (577mi). The flow decreased notably by about 29 per cent during the 20th century due to the construction of Dams, low rain fall, increasing demands for irrigation due to high sunshine and strong and dry winds, and the evaporation from reservoirs in the river basin. Dams and hydraulic canalization altered the dynamic of the River forever. This situation had a direct impact on the deltaic system at the mouth of the river because its hydrological dynamics are mainly controlled by the River discharge. The decrease in River discharge has meant introduction of the Salt Wedge. Fresh water floats on top of the sea-water in a layer that gradually thins as it moves Seaward. The denser Sea Water moves landward along the bottom of the estuary. As a velocity difference develops between the two layers, shear forces generate internal waves at the interface, mixing the Sea-Water upward with the Fresh-Water. The sediment load was reduced by more than 99 per cent during the last century. The drastic reduction in sediment transport implies a sediment deficit in the Delta, which is causing the erosion of the Coast-Line and lack of sediment replenish. Due to this changes almost entire forested area were cleared for crops or for pulp-wood forest plantation. Numerous plant and animal species have disappeared.
The traditional local Administrative Division (Comarca) named La Bureva is located in the NorthEast of the Province of Burgos in the autonomous community of Castilla and Leon.
La Bureba Pass connects the Ebro River Valley leading to the Mediterranean Sea and the duero Valley leading to that River's outlet at the Atlantic Ocean. This conjunction results in a transition area between two Biomes that is a gradual blending of two communities rich in species derived from both ecosystems. The Pass was part of a Roman Cause-Way of the pilgrimage route known as Pilgrim Ways (Camino Frances) to the shrine of the Apostle James the Great in the catedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in North-Western Spain, where tradition said that the remains of the Apostle are buried in there. Many take up this route as a form of Spiritual Path or retreat for their spiritual growth.
The location of the Archaeological Site of Ata-Puerca between 2 major Water-Sheds and its importance Mountain Pass explain the intensity and continuity of human habitation found there.
The Sites in this Region were found during the construction of Railway cuts through Grand Dolina, Galery, and Elephant, and the cut through the Cave of the "Bone Hill"(Sima de los Huesos).
Because of its importance, in 2000, the Archaeological Site of Ata-Puerca was added to the Unesco list of World Heritage Sites.
The World's largest Landscape made of Soluble Rocks is Australia's Nul-Arbor Plain. Slovenia has the World's highest risk of Sink-Holes, while the Western High-Land Rim in the Eastern United States is at the second-highest risk of Soluble Rocks Sink-Holes.
WHY ASTEROIDS IMPACT THE EARTH?
For millennia people have wondered about the unpredictable behaviour of Comets, Meteors and Asteroids in the Sky. As far as we know, the German Mathematician and Geographer Peter Apian (Petrus Apianus) was the 1st to postulate, in 1540, that a Cometary Tail always point away from the Sun. In 1619 Kepler suggested that this is because the light of the Sun exerts a Repulsive Force on the particles of the Cometary Tail. Keppler was the first to speculate on this "light pressure."
The depression named Nord-Linger Ries is a large circular depression in Western Bavaria, Germany, located North of the Danube in the now District of Donau-Ries.
The depression is interpreted as a major Meteor Impact Crater formed about 14 million years ago. The original crater rim had an estimated diameter of 24 km (15mi). The present floor of the depression is about 100 to 150m (330 to 490ft) below the eroded remains of the rim. The key evidence was the presence of Coesite, which, in none metamorphosed rocks, can only be formed by the shock pressures associated with meteorite impact.
Another impact crater, the much smaller (3.8km diameter) crater, is located about 42km(26mi) West-Southwest from the centre of Ries. The two craters are believed to have formed nearly simultaneously by the impact of a binary asteroid.
A binary asteroid is a system of two asteroids orbiting their common center of mass or the point around which they both orbit. Recent work suggests that most of them have a significant macro-porosity (a "rubble-pile" interior), and may have formed by disruption of a parent body after an oblique impact or fission.
Recent computer modelling of the Impact Event indicated that the impactors had diameters of about 1.5km (4900ft) (Larger One) and 150m (490ft) (Smaller One). They had a pre-impact separation of some tens of kilometers, and impacted the targeting area at an angle around 30 to 50 degrees from the surface in a West-SouthWest to East-NorthEast direction. The impact velocity is thought to have been about 20km/s (45000mph). The resulting explosion had he power of 1.8 million Hiroshima Bombs, an energy of roughly 2.4x10(x21) Joules.
Ivan Osipo-Vich Yarkov-Sky (24 May 1844-22 January 1902) was a Polish civil engineer working in Russia. By day, he was employed by the Alexand-Rovsk Railway company Moscow-Brest. He was obscure in his own time. In his spare time, he went deeply into the Physical Sciences and searched for a "Grand Theory" of the Physical World. In1888 he described a subtle Thermal Effect that he believed would act on planets and smaller objects orbiting the Sun. Writing in a pamphlet around the year 1900, he noted that the Diurnal Heating of a Rotating Object in Space would cause it to experience a Force that, while tiny, could lead to large long-term effects in the Orbits of Small Bodies, especially meteoroids and asteroids. This effect fell into oblivion. In 1950, longer after his death, his work on the Effects of Thermal Radiation on small objects in the Solar System (Asteroids) was re-discovered and now is so-called Yarkov-Sky Effect in Planetary Astronomy.
The effect is a consequence of the Fact that change in the temperature of an object warmed by radiation (and therefore the intensity of Thermal Radiation from the Object) lags behind changes in the incoming radiation. The surface of the object takes time to become warm when first illuminated; and takes time to cool down when illumination stops.
The Diurnal Effect on a rotating body illuminated by the Sun (e.g. an asteroid or the Earth) is that the surface is warmed by Solar Radiation during the day, and cools at night. Due to the Thermal Properties of the Surface, there is a lag between the absorption of Radiation from the sun, and the Emission of that same Radiation as Heat, so the warmest point on a rotating body occurs around 2 PM site on the surface, or slightly at Noon. This results in a difference between the directions of Absorption and Re-emission of Radiation, which yield a Net Force along the Direction of Motion of the Orbit. If the Object is a pro-grade rotator, the Force is in the direction of motion of the orbit, and causes the Semi-Major Axis of the Orbit to increase steadily; the Object spirals away from the Sun. A retro-grade rotator spirals inward. The Diurnal Effect is the component for Bodies with diameter greater than about 100 m.
The Seasonal Effect is the easiest to understand for the case of a non-rotating orbiting the Sun, for which Each Year consists of exactly One Day. As it travels around its orbit, the "Dusk" Hemisphere which has been heated over a long preceding time period is invariable in the direction of Orbital Motion. The excess of Thermal Radiation in this direction causes a Breaking Force which always causes Spiraling Inward toward the Sun.
In practice, for Rotating Bodies, the Seasonal Effect increases along with the Axial Tilt. It dominates only if the Diurnal Effect is small enough. This may occur because of very rapid Rotation (no time to cool off on the Night Side, hence an almost uniform longitudinal temperature distribution), small size (the whole body is heated throughout) or an Axial Tilt close to 90 degrees.
The Seasonal Effect is more important for smaller Asteroid Fragments (from a few metres up to about 100m), provided their surfaces are not covered by an insulating layer of loose, heterogeneous superficial material, and they do not have exceedingly slow Rotations. Additionally, on very long time-scales over which the Spin Axis of the Body may be repeatedly changed due to collisions (and hence also the direction of the Diurnal Effect changes), the Seasonal Effect will also tend to dominate.
In general, the effect is size dependent, and will affect the semi-major Axis of smaller asteroids, while leaving large asteroids practically unaffected.
The depression named Nord-Linger Ries is a large circular depression in Western Bavaria, Germany, located North of the Danube in the now District of Donau-Ries.
The depression is interpreted as a major Meteor Impact Crater formed about 14 million years ago. The original crater rim had an estimated diameter of 24 km (15mi). The present floor of the depression is about 100 to 150m (330 to 490ft) below the eroded remains of the rim. The key evidence was the presence of Coesite, which, in none metamorphosed rocks, can only be formed by the shock pressures associated with meteorite impact.
Another impact crater, the much smaller (3.8km diameter) crater, is located about 42km(26mi) West-Southwest from the centre of Ries. The two craters are believed to have formed nearly simultaneously by the impact of a binary asteroid.
A binary asteroid is a system of two asteroids orbiting their common center of mass or the point around which they both orbit. Recent work suggests that most of them have a significant macro-porosity (a "rubble-pile" interior), and may have formed by disruption of a parent body after an oblique impact or fission.
Recent computer modelling of the Impact Event indicated that the impactors had diameters of about 1.5km (4900ft) (Larger One) and 150m (490ft) (Smaller One). They had a pre-impact separation of some tens of kilometers, and impacted the targeting area at an angle around 30 to 50 degrees from the surface in a West-SouthWest to East-NorthEast direction. The impact velocity is thought to have been about 20km/s (45000mph). The resulting explosion had he power of 1.8 million Hiroshima Bombs, an energy of roughly 2.4x10(x21) Joules.
Ivan Osipo-Vich Yarkov-Sky (24 May 1844-22 January 1902) was a Polish civil engineer working in Russia. By day, he was employed by the Alexand-Rovsk Railway company Moscow-Brest. He was obscure in his own time. In his spare time, he went deeply into the Physical Sciences and searched for a "Grand Theory" of the Physical World. In1888 he described a subtle Thermal Effect that he believed would act on planets and smaller objects orbiting the Sun. Writing in a pamphlet around the year 1900, he noted that the Diurnal Heating of a Rotating Object in Space would cause it to experience a Force that, while tiny, could lead to large long-term effects in the Orbits of Small Bodies, especially meteoroids and asteroids. This effect fell into oblivion. In 1950, longer after his death, his work on the Effects of Thermal Radiation on small objects in the Solar System (Asteroids) was re-discovered and now is so-called Yarkov-Sky Effect in Planetary Astronomy.
The effect is a consequence of the Fact that change in the temperature of an object warmed by radiation (and therefore the intensity of Thermal Radiation from the Object) lags behind changes in the incoming radiation. The surface of the object takes time to become warm when first illuminated; and takes time to cool down when illumination stops.
The Diurnal Effect on a rotating body illuminated by the Sun (e.g. an asteroid or the Earth) is that the surface is warmed by Solar Radiation during the day, and cools at night. Due to the Thermal Properties of the Surface, there is a lag between the absorption of Radiation from the sun, and the Emission of that same Radiation as Heat, so the warmest point on a rotating body occurs around 2 PM site on the surface, or slightly at Noon. This results in a difference between the directions of Absorption and Re-emission of Radiation, which yield a Net Force along the Direction of Motion of the Orbit. If the Object is a pro-grade rotator, the Force is in the direction of motion of the orbit, and causes the Semi-Major Axis of the Orbit to increase steadily; the Object spirals away from the Sun. A retro-grade rotator spirals inward. The Diurnal Effect is the component for Bodies with diameter greater than about 100 m.
The Seasonal Effect is the easiest to understand for the case of a non-rotating orbiting the Sun, for which Each Year consists of exactly One Day. As it travels around its orbit, the "Dusk" Hemisphere which has been heated over a long preceding time period is invariable in the direction of Orbital Motion. The excess of Thermal Radiation in this direction causes a Breaking Force which always causes Spiraling Inward toward the Sun.
In practice, for Rotating Bodies, the Seasonal Effect increases along with the Axial Tilt. It dominates only if the Diurnal Effect is small enough. This may occur because of very rapid Rotation (no time to cool off on the Night Side, hence an almost uniform longitudinal temperature distribution), small size (the whole body is heated throughout) or an Axial Tilt close to 90 degrees.
The Seasonal Effect is more important for smaller Asteroid Fragments (from a few metres up to about 100m), provided their surfaces are not covered by an insulating layer of loose, heterogeneous superficial material, and they do not have exceedingly slow Rotations. Additionally, on very long time-scales over which the Spin Axis of the Body may be repeatedly changed due to collisions (and hence also the direction of the Diurnal Effect changes), the Seasonal Effect will also tend to dominate.
In general, the effect is size dependent, and will affect the semi-major Axis of smaller asteroids, while leaving large asteroids practically unaffected.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)