Blue Holes & Cenotes Typically, the matter beneath our feet is a matter of no concern. It’s literally rock solid, and we move about our lives without paying it much attention. Not all Earth is equal, though. Some soils make fantastic bedrock, while others are subject to dissolution and erosion. Sometimes, when chemical processes or […]
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Karamazov Walk “From the house of my childhood I have brought nothing but precious memories, for there are no memories more precious than those of early childhood in one’s first home. And that is almost always so if there is any love and harmony in the family at all. Indeed, precious memories may remain even
The Great Basin Most Americans, at some point during primary schooling, learn about an important hydrological boundary known as the Continental Divide. This imaginary line follows the mountains from Alaska, through Canada, down the Rockies, and into Mexico. Technically, the divide does not stop at the edge of North America but splits South America, too. We
Adam’s Bridge One of the gorgeous macro-elements of the globe is the island of Sri Lanka, which seems to fall like a teardrop from the southern tip of India. About the size of West Virginia and home to 22 million people, Sri Lanka features interesting tectonics and geography. Madagascar, for the sake of comparison, sits somewhat
The Biscuit Basin Explosion The world’s first national park – Yellowstone – contains over half of Earth’s geysers. Powering this incredible fact is the Yellowstone Caldera, an underground supervolcano. Though currently dormant in terms of overground eruption, the system isn’t extinct and still heats the region, creating Old Faithful and the other gushers inside the park. Worrywarts across
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Fossilized Lightning Lightning must hover near the top of any list of the most ephemeral phenomena. The discharge of static electricity during storms is so fast we use it in one of our most cliched idioms: lightning quick. On the other end of the spectrum are entities that persist for long durations, such as rocks or
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Bimini Road In the works Timaeus and Critias, the Greek philosopher Plato briefly mentioned an island as an allegory for excessive self-confidence. The people on this landmass sported a massive navy, which attempted to destroy Plato’s version of an ideal state, Athens. The gods did not smile upon these people, so the deities inundated the island with so
Bowling Ball Beach Among the splendor of coastal California lies a unique stretch of beach. Approximately 100 miles north of San Francisco and 170 miles south of Redwood National Park, bizarre spheres dot the coarse sand below picturesque sea cliffs. One might wonder if the colossus from Giant’s Causeway in Ireland had dropped into the Golden State
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The Ring of Fire Close your eyes and picture a real-world volcano. Where are you on the globe? You might be at one of Italy’s famous spewers, Etna or Vesuvius. You might be in Hawaii on Mauna Kea or Mauna Loa. Maybe you went to Africa’s High Point, Kilimanjaro. Or, likely, you’re in one of many spots where continental
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The Messinian Salinity Crisis & the Zanclean Flood The Mediterranean Sea is massive, covering 2.5 million square kilometers (970,000 square miles). It contains 3.75 cubic kilometers of water, enough to fill more than 310 copies of Lake Superior. The body has nourished some of the planet’s greatest civilizations, from the Phoenicians to the Greeks to
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