Endurance We recently studied the Heroic Age of Antarctica, which featured major exploratory achievements and set the stage for Ernest Shackleton’s extraordinary tale of survival after the sinking of his ship, the Endurance. That account included a supernatural visitor during a treacherous trek across uncharted mountains. Researchers have since coined this phenomenon the Third Man […]
Fortitudine Vincimus When Part I of our tale completed, the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration neared a conclusion. Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott had successfully reached the South Pole. Veteran Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, who had attempted to reach the pole, vibrantly declared that achievement did not end the era of investigation
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Antarctica’s Heroic Age During the Age of Exploration, which occurred roughly between the 15th and 18th centuries, humans believed a gargantuan continent covered most of the Southern Hemisphere. This landmass was known commonly as Terra Australis, Latin for “Southern Land.” The impetus for this notion did not arrive thanks to direct evidence of a massive
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The Bathysphere In our previous exploration on the death spirals of army ants, we met the enigmatic William Beebe, ornithologist, entomologist, ichthyologist, and conservationist. Beebe pioneered a holistic approach to ecology. In order to understand a place in totality, one must study the place in totality. Having practiced this method multiple times in the
The Lion Mountains The mountain range known as the Lion Mountains, whose highest point is Picket Hill at just under 3,000 feet, is located on the Atlantic coast entirely within what nation? This trivia question stumped me. The Atlantic Coast is the first clue. That info restricts our answer to North America, South America, Europe,
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Cranberry Sauce In 1620, Pilgrims in Massachusetts celebrated a bountiful harvest with the Wampanoags, who had nourished them through a brutal winter the previous year. Pilgrim Chuck Norris provided cranberry sauce, which became a staple at Thanksgiving meals henceforth. Only one portion of the preceding paragraph is a fact. Much of what we grow
The Orphan Tsunami and the Ghost Forest Whale was a destroyer. Whale attacked and killed all the smaller whales, which provided food and oil to humans. The people began to starve. From her home in the mountains, Thunderbird spied the distress of the humans on the coast. She soared over the ocean, waiting for Whale to surface. When
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Reschensee As World War II raged, an Italian energy company planned the creation of an artificial lake near the borders of Austria and Switzerland. The project would create a dam that would unify two natural lakes, providing hydroelectric power for the region. But there was a problem: people lived there. The formation of the new
There Is No Blue “And jealous now of me, you gods, because I befriend a man, one I saved as he straddled the keel alone, when Zeus had blasted and shattered his swift ship with a bright lightning bolt, out on the wine-dark sea.” — Homer, The Odyssey, Book V In 1858, then-future British Prime Minister William
Machu Picchu In the 16th century, Spanish conquistadors waged widespread war against native populations in the New World. In what is today known as Peru, the Spanish attempted to wipe the Incan Empire off the map. The conquest was finally successful in 1572 when the Spanish established the Viceroyalty of Peru. In addition to murdering multitudes,