Hey, see around you . . .

Blizzards

2009-01-19T21:34:00.000-08:00

A blizzard is a heavy snowstorm with very cold temperatures, sustained winds of at least 35mph, and visibility of less than 0.25 miles. When a mass of polar air and warm air meet, the polar air pushes the warm air up and settles in the atmosphere where the water vapor forms snow clouds. Then winds and low temperatures combine with the snow to create a blizzard. During blizzards it can be difficult to see or breathe. Blizzards can kill people, cause traffic accidents, and bring cities to a halt.

New York City Street Caught in the Blizzard, 1888

The Central Canada and the Mid Western U.S are often referred to as the "Blizzard Country". People in these countries often experience the dangers of snowstorm. To overcome, these dangers they build houses with steeping roofs, so that the snow does pile up.

The Great Blizzard of 1888, paralysed the Northeastern United States, killing more than 400 people The snowdrifts towered from 15 to 50 feet and more than 200 ships were sunk.

Park Place in Brooklyn

The Schoolhouse Blizzard also known as School Children's Blizzard of Children's Blizzard hit the great plains of the U.S unexpectedly on a warm day, that more than 500 people including school children were killed due to hypothermia.

The Arimistice Day Blizzard or Armistice Day Storm hit the Mid West region of the United States on the 11 November and 12 November, 1940. The temperature dropped sharply, followed by fierce wind, heavy rain, sleet and the snow began to fall. A total of 154 deaths have been recorded in that storm.

The Storm Track of the Arimistice Day Blizzard

Also known as 93 SuperStorm, No-Name Huricane, the White Hurricane, or the Great Blizzard of 1993 is one of the large cyclonic storm that hit the East Coast of North America on March 12-13th, 1993. This storm complex was massive, affecting nearly 26 states of U.S and much of eastern Canada.

A tree falls under the weight of the snow in Ashville, North Carolina

Satellite imagery of the Storm of the Century on March 13, 1993.

2009-01-09T22:45:00.000-08:00

Earthquakes are tremors or vibrations caused by the movement beneath the earth surface or by the movement of tectonic plates beneath the earth's surface. The tectonic waves can jolt upon each other, sending a shock of waves.The majority of tectonic earthquakes originate at the ring of fire in depths not exceeding tens of kilometers.

The earthquakes can cause great destruction.The point from the earth where the vibrations originate is called the seismic focus. The term epicenter refers to the point at ground level directly above the seismic focus.The intensity of the earthquake is maximum near the the epicenter.

Although earthquake occurs anywhere, they are more frequent in earthquake zones.The earthquake can cause landslides and volcanic eruptions. A earthquake can trigger tsunami and disturbs the ground water level. It can also change the course of the river causing floods.

The intensity of a earthquake is measured with a instrument called seismograph on the Richter scale. it has a range of 1 to 10. A major earthquake is usually followed by a number of after shocks. Attempts at predicting when and where earthquakes will occur have met with some success in recent years.

Geysers

2009-01-03T05:11:00.000-08:00

Geysers are jets of hot water that erupt from beneath the ground accompanied by steam. Geyser gets its name from the erupting spring called geysir at Haukadalur, Iceland. The word geysir in Icelandic means 'to gush up'.The formation of geysers requires three factors: water supply, a source of heat and a proper underground circulatory system.

Geysers are not permanent features of land surface. They are formed due to volcanic activities and thousands of them exists world wide. They are about 500 active geysers in Yellowstone National Park at Wyoming, USA. They are also spread all over the island of Iceland. They have been many geysers in New Zealand which have been destroyed due to human activity.
They are two types of geysers- fountain geysers and cone geysers.

Old faithful geyser

Surface water goes down to a depth of 2000m approximately. Due to the extreme heat below the earth's surface, the water turns into steam and pressure increases. This pressure makes the water eject through the vents or cracks on earth's surface.The white stone around the base of the geyser is from dissolved minerals in the water.

Castle Geyser, in Yellowstone National Park.

Although there are many places in the world where hot springs can be found, geysers are extremely rare, largely due to the three specific requirements for their formation.Some geysers stop erupting when the volcanic heat gradually dies down.It may also cease due to earthquake influences and human intervention.

Extinct dinosaurs

2008-12-31T04:43:00.000-08:00

Dinosaurs are animals that lived on earth several million years ago. They lived during the mesozoic era which is also known the age of dinosaurs. Some are herbivores while others ate flesh of other dinosaurs. But the question is how did they become extinct?

About 65 million years ago, at the end of Cretaceous period, all the dinosaurs had become extinct. There are many theories about the extinction of dinosaurs. It is believed that a massive asteroid may have crashed into the earth. This caused an enormous explosion that formed a huge cloud of dust.This blocked the sun's rays. Because of it the temperature got lowered and the plants died. The herbivores that fed on them also died. The carnivore have fed on there flesh but they may have also perished.

There is also another theory that a massive volcano that erupted, blasting lava into the atmosphere. These theories where developed from the layer of iridium in late cretaceous period. This metal is only present in the core of earth and in asteroids. Hence the theories.

But the disappearance of the dinosaurs gave an opportunity for mammals to became dominant on land and for the birds to rule the air supreme.

Remains of dinosaurs were first discovered in England in the 1820. Then they where discovered in many parts of the world.The name dinosaur was suggested by Richard Owen which means terrible reptiles!!!!

What causes Hail?

2008-12-24T00:43:00.000-08:00

One of the unusual weather conditions we can experience is a hailstorm. It is quite a thing to see and hear hailstones coming down, sometimes with such force that great damage is done. Animals, and even men, have been killed by hail!

A hailstorm usually occurs during the warm weather and is accompanied in many cases by thunder, lightning and rain. Hail is formed when raindrops freeze while passing through a belt of cold air on their way to earth.

Hailstorm lashes Lismore

Single raindrops form very small hailstones. It is interesting to note when a raindrop falls as a hailstone, it may meet with a strong rising current of air. so, it is carried up again to the level where the raindrops are falling. New drops begin to cling to the hailstone. And as it falls once more through the cold belt, these new drops spread into a layer around it and freeze, and now we have larger hailstones.

Hailstones, in size of a tennis-ball

This rising and falling of the hailstone may be repeated time after time until it has added so many layers that its weight is heavy enough to overcome the force of the rising current of air. Now it falls to the ground.

A field littered with large hailstones right after a summer hailstorm.

Hailstones measuring three or four inches in diameter and weighing as much as a pound are sometimes built up. Snow too freezes around hailstones when they are carried into regions where it is forming. Thus, the hailstones are frequently made up of layers of ice and snow.

Largest Hailstone ever measured (17.8 cm in diameter and a 47.6 cm in circumference)

Hailstorm in Bogota, Colombia

On 20 April 1888 in Moradabad, India, 246 people (along with more than 1,600 sheep and goats) were killed by hailstones, some as big as cricket balls. Hailstones can be a dangerous hazard, especially if they get very large. They can do tremendous damage to property and have even been know to kill cattle!

A larger hailstone has broken the win shield

Stalactites and Stalagmites

2008-12-19T21:01:00.000-08:00

A stalactite or dripstone, is a type of speleothem that hangs from the ceiling or wall of limestone caves.

Stalactites come in a variety of forms, some of which have their own classification, such as deflected stalactites. Another much rarer form is the elephant's foot stalactite, which is flat, rather than pointed, on the bottom. An image of these is in the lower table, second image from the left

Stalactites appear in many caves or caverns. The Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, is made up of limestone, which is a fairly soft rock that can be dissolved by a weak acid. The acid that dissolves limestone comes from the rainwater. These raindrops combine with the carbondioxide from the air and the soil, and thus changes into carbonic acid.

About one million years ago, the rainwater dripped into the ceiling of the caves, they formed, tiny rings of lime, which crystallized in the ceiling. As time passed, these rings of lime formed a little stone "icicle". It kept on growing. As the time passed, thousands of drops fell on the same spot. The specks of lime formed, looked like a stubby stone candle. The "candle" kept on growing.

The icicle of stone on the ceiling is called a stalactite. The stubby candle on the floor is a stalagmite. Each stalactite and stalagmite grows at a different rate, depending on the wetness of the cave, the temperature of the room, and the thickness of the limestone bed above it.

Stalagmites take on a variety of forms, from tall, spindly "broomsticks" to ornate, multi-tiered towers.

Shape is determined largely by drip rate, ceiling height, cave atmosphere conditions, and the carbonate chemistry of the drip water solution.

Ice Stalagmites

Mumbai Terror Attack

2008-12-11T01:36:00.000-08:00

The Mumbai Terror attack on November 2008 were a series of coordinated terrorists attack across Mumbai, the financial capital of India. The attacks were carried over by the armed men using automated weapons and grenades. The attacks started on 26 November and ended on 29 November, when the Indian security forces, in Operation Black Tornado, brought under control all the attack sites.

Locations of the attack

More than eight attacks took place in the site of South Mumbai: the Chhatrapati Sivaji Terminus, the Oberoi Trident, the TajMahal Palace and Tower, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital, the Jewish centre Nariman House, the Metro Cinema, and the lane behind the Times of India Building behind St. Xavier's College. There were also explosions heard around the Mumbai's port area and a taxi blast at Vile Parle.

The attackers traveled by sea from Karachi, Pakistan, across the Arabian Sea to Mumbai. They entered via speed boats that were on board trawlers. The trawlers left Pakistan and stopped at Porbandar, India, before landing in Mumbai.

Some people trapped in the hotels were forced to climb down using curtains or jump to safety.

Mumbai's main railway station was also hit. People fled the huge terminus leaving their luggage when gunmen opened fire.

Security forces managed to free some people from the hotels, but the stand-off continued throughout the day. The attacks were condemned by governments around the world, including the US and UK, whose citizens were among those apparently targeted by the gunmen.

Relatives of victims of the attacks grieved as they waited to pick up bodies from a hospital.

The ten attackers and their home towns in Pakistan have been identified by Mumbai police: Ajmal Amir from Fardikot, Ismail Khan from Dera Ismail Khan, Hafiz Arshad and Babr Imran from Multan, Javed from Okara, Shoaib from Narowal, Nazih and Nasr from Faisalabad, Abdul Rahman from Arifwalla, and Fahad Ullah from Dipalpur Taluka, Ismail Khan is in the North West Frontier Province, the rest of the towns are in Pakistani Punjab.

Ajmal Amir is the only gunman captured alive by police and is currently in Indian custody.

Mount Everest

2008-12-10T03:38:00.000-08:00

People used to think that Kangchenjunga was the world's highest mountains. Then, in 1852, the Great Trigonometrical Survey, of India, was completed, which measured all the countries land features. The Survey showed that Mount Everest(then called Peak XV) was the world's highest mountain. The mountains name was suggested in 1865, as a tribute to the Surveyor General of India at that time, that is, Sir George Everest, who led the Survey.

The height of Mount Everest reckoned to be 8840 metre, which has since been adjusted as improved measuring methods have been used.

Mt. Everest is a part of the Great Himalayan Range, and forms a natural border, between China and Nepal. It is believed that the mountain rises its height 4 metre every year.

The mountain range is young-fold mountain range. It is formed when the Eurasian and Indian techtonic plates collided 30 to 50 million years ago.

Mount Everest is also called as a Mountain of Junk. The people and their teams who have climbed Mt. Everest have dropped more than 50 tonnes of rubbish. In 2001, local guides collected more than 6 tonnes of paper bags, tents, ropes, clothes, aluminium ladders, batteries, oxygen bottles and plastic cans. Nepal, now charges 3,000 euros deposit which is returned only if they remove all their rubbish.

Hillary, Sir Edmund Percival, mountain climber and Antarctic explorer, who, with the Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norkay, was the first to reach the summit of Mount, the world’s highest peak.

Mount Everest is Southern Tibet

More than 1,000 people have climbed Mount Everest, since it was conquered in 1953.

Climbing activity continues to increase, however, and the environmental future of the Mount Everest area remains uncertain.

Lightning and Thunderstorms

2008-12-08T04:13:00.000-08:00

Clouds are made up of water droplets together with the dust in the atmosphere at an altitude of 1 to 16 km. These droplets move downward while the air currents upwards. These movements cause different charges. Lightning occurs when the oppositely charged clouds collide with each other. Lightning can be seen as a streak of bright light and sound. There are of very high voltage(minimum 2 million) and they rush towards the ground through the moisture filled air.

Lightning strike could destroy life and property. It is therefore necessary to take measures to protect ourselves. During lightning and thunderstorm a house or a building is safe place. If you are travelling by car or by bus, you are safe inside with windows and doors of the vehicle shut.
Lightning can strike telephone cords, electric wires and metal pipes. Avoid bathing suring thunderstorms so that you can avoidcontact with the running water.

Lightning Strikes the Capitol Building in Washington

Perhaps 90 percent of the lightning flashes are said to be negative and the remaining, positive. The average interval between successive lightning strokes is 0.02 sec and the average flash lasts 0.25 sec.

It is said that lightning flashes consist of multiple events.There are 42 flashes which are preceded by a leader stroke.Ball lightning is a rare phenomenon in which the discharge takes the form of a slowly moving, luminous ball that sometimes explodes.

The lightning surges in there own path towards the earth, can strike power lines and antenna and pass through wires to the terminal equipments such as TV.the huge voltage current, even through of short life,can damage the electrical components and electronic circuits which are usually designed for low power.

Nearly 40 percent of all farm fires and 75,000 forest fires are started due to lightning. However, lightning enriches the soil. This is by forming nitrogen-dioxide which dissolves in rain water and forms nitric acid, which is and essential nutrient for plant growth.

Meteorites

2008-12-06T23:27:00.000-08:00

Meteors are tiny meteoroids that burn up as they travel through the earth's atmosphere producing tiny streaks of light. Meteorites are meteoroids that reach the surface of earth without being fully burnt. The meteoroid material is left by comets as they pass close to the Sun.

More than 3,000 meteorites land on Earth every year. Most fall in the sea, but a handful are seen to fall on the land.

The fragmentation of the meteorite causes a visual effect called a shooting star.

Willamette Meteorite

Meteorites from mars

Atleast eight meteorites have fallen on theEarth from the Mars. The Nakhla meteorite fell in Egypt in 1911. Those meteorites tell us that the Mars had once running water.

There are atleast three main types of meteorites: stony, iron, or stony-iron.
The stony meteorites contain silicate minerals.They are subdivided into Chondrites and Achondrites meteorites

Chondrite meteorite

Achondrite Meteorite

The Iron meteorites contain a high percentage of iron and nickel. They are created in the rupture of asteroids.

Iron meteorite

Stony-iron meteorite

Gao Meteorite

The Hoba meteorite, the largest in the world was found in Nambia in 1920. It measures 2.73x 2.43 and is 82 percent iron and 16 percent nickel. It weighs more than 60 tonnes.

Hoba Meteorite

The Tent, found in Greenland in 1894, originally known by its Eskimos name, as Ahnighito. This meteorite weighs about 57.3 tonnes. One can view this meteorite, it the New York Museum of Natural History.

Ahnighito

Large meteorites can form a crater when they strike the Earth.

Vredefort, South Africa

Chicxulub, Yucatan, Mexico

The collisionof the meteorite compresses and excavates the ground, leaving a crater.

The Popigai crater in Siberia, Russia is the fourth largest impact crater on the earth.

Popigai, Russia

Today about 150 impact craters can be identified including the Wolfe Crater of Australia.

Hurricane

2008-12-05T03:46:00.000-08:00

Hurricanes are tropical cyclones that originate near the equator, that is near the doldrums. The word hurricane comes from Mayan word Hurakan, which means the evil god. Hurricane have left many notorious marks in history.

Hurricanes are huge storms, which can measure about 650 km in diameter. These violent winds cause most damage by flattening whole buildings and uprooting trees. Hurricanes develop as clusters of thunderstorms over warm tropical seas. Ice crystals form on the top of the clouds. They tighten into a spiral with calm central ring of low pressure called a hurricane's eye. Air descends into the calm eye, leaving it free of the cloud.

The fastest sustained winds in a hurricane in the USA measured 322km/h, with 338km/h gust, on 17-18 August 1969, when Hurricane Camille hit the Mississippi.

Hurricane Gordon Taken from the Space Shuttle

Improved system of predication and communication have reduced the loss of lives due to hurricanes. But the damage of properties still continues.

Hurricanes generally move in a path resembling the curve of a parabola. In the areas where the hurricanes travel in the same direction of the storm, the destruction is very high.
As hurricane pass over cool water or land, their intensity lessens.

In 1970 a tropical hurricane whipped up huge waves that suged over the low-lying mouth of river ganges in Bangladesh. Upto half a million people lost their lives. The hurricane moves along 25 to 50 km per hour as warmed air rises and swirls most powerful near its centre. Hurricanes speed generally varies.

The worst hurricanes of the 21st century are Hurricane Jeanne of 2004 which killed over 3,000 in Haiti, and Hurricane Karina of 2005 which left 1,417 dead in Louisiana, USA and neighbouring states.

Icebergs

2008-11-30T22:34:00.000-08:00

An iceberg is a large piece of ice that floats in water. It may have been broken away from a glaciers or ice-shelf. The word iceberg probably means ice-hill. The tallest iceberg ever measured was 168 mts high.

Floating Icebergs

Icebergs seen in the Arctic

Small icebergs are known as growlers, because of the noise they make.

Icebergs of Greenland

Icebergs on Baffin Bay, the arm of the North Atlantic Ocean

Icebergs in the North-Atlantic mostly comes glaciers on greenland, and those in the South-Atlantic from the Antarctic.

Penguins seen on icebergs

Icebergs seen on the Antarctica

One of the biggest icebergs known as B-15 broke away from the ross ice-shelf, Antarctica in March 2000. It had an average length of 295 km and width of 37 km giving it a total area about the size of Jamaica!

About 10,000 to 15,000 new icebergs are formed every year. The process of breaking away is called "Calving".

Seven eights of an iceberg is below the surface of the sea.

Icebergs float because, they are made of fresh water which is less dense than the sea water.

Happy To Be Back Again

2008-11-23T23:40:00.000-08:00

Hi friends, it's long since i have posted to my blog. I had to spend time on my children's education and their health. Here, I am back again. My next post would be something different. Wait and Watch!
Until then, view these real cakes. They are not made of plastics nor artificial things. It can be eaten as a whole.
Enjoy Eating These Cakes!!!!

To enjoy eating those cakes, you need this,

2008-03-13T17:05:00.000-07:00

Interesting facts - atmosphere

Gravity holds the atmosphere close to the Earth like a blanket in our body. About 99% of the atmosphere is made up of oxygen and nitrogen. The remainder is made up of argon, carbon dioxide and very small amounts of hydrogen, ozone, methane, carbon monoxide, helium, neon, krypton and xenon. The mixture of gases in the atmosphere has taken over 4.5 billion years to evolve. The thin blanket of atmosphere that surrounds the Earth contains all of the essential ingredients needed to sustain life on our planet—air, water, nutrients, and heat.

Visualized phenomenon that happen in atmosphere

Auroras.

The dancing fluorescent ribbons that light up the night sky

Aurora Borealis(in north) /Aurora Australis(in south), a luminous atmospheric phenomenon that generally appear as bright colorful bands of light commonly referred to as the southern and northern lights, occur in the ionosphere. Auroras are often visible in the night sky in both the northern and southern regions of the Earth. The aurora was named after the Roman goddess of dawn, and was long thought to be produced by sunlight reflected from polar snow and ice, or refracted light much like rainbows. Auroras are caused by high energy particles from the solar wind that is trapped in the Earth's magnetic field . As these particles spiral back and forth along the magnetic field lines, they come down into the atmosphere near the north and south magnetic poles where the magnetic field lines disappear into the body of the Earth. The delicate colors are caused by energetic electrons colliding with oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere. This excites the molecules, and when they decay from the excited states they emit the light that we see in the aurora.

Alaska is by far the best place in the USA to see northern lights that too in the months of September and March, as the Earth is in the zone of maximum solar activity during that period. The aurora is most active late at night or early in the morning, when the sky is clear and the air chilly.

A meteor shower

One wonder in the clear night sky about the sudden flashing of light on the move in the horizon. It is a celestial event where a large number of meteors are seen within a very short period of time.

The upper air burst into life!
And a hundred fire-flags sheen,
To and fro they were hurried about!
And to and fro, and in and out,
The wan stars danced between

These meteors are small fragments of cosmic debris entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speed, leaving a streak of light. Most of the small fragments of cosmic debris are smaller than a grain of sand, so almost all fragments are burnt up and never hit the earth's surface. The intense heat vaporizes most meteors while entering atmosphere, the visibility of such event occurred at around 60 miles up is called “shooting stars”. Some large meteors splatter, causing a brighter flash like a fireball with an explosion, which can often be heard up to 30 miles, with the falling of debris is called “meteor storm”. Fragments from these explosions which do contact earth's surface are called meteorites.

Rainbow

When sun shines at behind and rain falling in front, here one find the rainbow.

“Play with Rainbow, wear the Rainbow
Ride the Rainbow high and low
Spread the color of Rainbow wherever you go”

The spectacular color show of curved white light spectrum that forms when light is reflected and refracted by the rain drops in the sky. Here the rain drops act as a tiny prism splits the light into separate colors of spectrum.

These kinds of drama in the atmosphere as a stage show which lit up even soar spirits, is certainly a gift of nature.

RUPTURED EARTH

2008-03-11T17:12:00.000-07:00

Earth is ruptured when pieces of earth’s crust called tectonic plates hit each other. One of the plates goes under the other. This is where the earth heats and melts the rock into magma and gases. Volcanoes can also be formed when the plates go away from each other. The magma pushes up and lava forms. These types of volcanoes are found on the ocean floor.

An explosion shook a volcano in western Mexico on 30^th may 2005

Fantastic things related to Volcano activity.

Geyser

A geyser is a type of hot spring that erupts periodically, ejecting a column of hot water and steam through small vents into the air.

“Geyser” in the Haukadalur valley, Iceland, is the oldest known natural geyser in the world.

Cone

A cone shaped mountain is built up by lava which is poured out from the vent and then covered by ash.

Volcanic Cone, Monument Valley, Utah

Calderas

Saucer shaped craters at the tops of volcanic cones, created by the collapse of the cone during huge explosion.

Aniakchak Caldera formed during an enormous explosive eruption that expelled more than 50 km³ of magma about 3,450 years ago.

Giant’s Causeway

Hexagonal basaltic columns that are formed of cooled lava from ancient volcanic activity.

The Giant's Causeway on the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland.

Like wounds in human body, the aftereffects of the volcano activity on the earth surface stands testimony to the ruptures that nature causes to the earth.

CRYING EARTH

2008-03-09T00:30:00.000-08:00

Have you got a bi-cycle. Use it more frequently or use public transport than take the car out. It is not an crazy idea. Observe the pictures while read through my subject.

Have you seen the factories in your locality doing unethical practice of releasing factory exhausts or untreated sewers. Do organize a forum to fight against such activities. Boycott the products that are produced without adhering to environment safety norms.

Switch off the fan, light, Air conditioner, room heaters and other electrical appliances, if such are running unnecessarily. It is also not a crazy idea considering the fact that to produce the quantum of such wasted electricity so much coal is being burned.

Gases naturally present in the atmosphere, particularly Carbon-di-oxide (CO2) help to keep earth warm by trapping heat from the sun, that would otherwise radiate or get reflected back out into space. This is called GREEN HOUSE EFFECT.

The burning of fuel such as oil in motor vehicles, coal and wood in factories and homes produce excessive amount of carbon-di-oxide thereby retaining excess heat. The atmospheric Concentration of CO2 is leads to warming up the world. Rising levels of these green house gases (carbon-di-oxide and others) leads to Global Warming. If the rate of this is going on it is predicted that Earth would warm up by 4 degree celcius over the next 50 years.

This will results in the melting of glacier, increasing sea level thereby shrinking the human habitats.

See the shrinking caps in Antarctica

Mind it. No other planet in the universe is still found that suits the conditions similar to our mother earth, except the running of the rumor mills. Hence, let us do a bit on our part to save the environment.

Burning Earth

2008-03-07T17:51:00.000-08:00

Wildfire, natures fury or man made?

Wildfires are a growing natural hazard in most regions of the world, posing a threat to life and property, particularly where native ecosystems meet developed areas. In addition, the secondary effects of wildfires, including erosion, landslides, introduction of invasive species, and changes in water quality, are often more disastrous than the fire itself. It is researched and found that the most cause of forest fire are mainly due to the deliberate human action. The after effects of wild fire can be classified as adverse and beneficial

The adverse effects are

The immediate impact of forest fires can be devastating to human communities and forest ecosystems such as the loss and degradation of forested land,
opening up areas to invasion by fast-colonizing alien species and threaten biological diversity.
Consequences on biodiversity, health as life-threatening levels of pollutants. and the economy, among others.

On the positive side,

Fire is sometimes essential for forest regeneration,
The leftover fertile the soil and thereby provides tangible benefits for local communities.

As the ill effects of wildfires are on the higher side than the benefits and escalated wildfires are dreadful to imagine.

The preventive actions

Prevent the firing of dry grasses, bush, slash and other debris nearby the forest area
Avoiding the carelessly lit campfire, cooking fire or bonfire in the forest area
Do away the habit of smoking while moving from one place to another in forest area.
On using power saws, keep muffler and fire extinguishers in handy
To see that cars and other vehicles that operated in the forest are having a proper exhaust system.

On the effects of GLOBAL WARMING,

Wildfires add an estimated 3.5 × 10¹⁵ g to atmospheric carbon emissions each year, or roughly 40% of fossil fuel carbon emissions. And these suggest that the new sources of carbon emissions will accelerate the buildup of greenhouse gases and could provide a feed-forward acceleration of global warming.

See a sample of the monster's face here

This happened in the mountain region of central Idaho. On August 13th, 2007, the Cascade Complex wildfires - overran a fire camp where several hundred firefighters and support personnel were camped. The fire that threatened the camp had been burning with similar intensity in the woods for over 2 weeks before it touched the camp.

Guys, are you hearing ?

Guess the GLOBE's age

2008-03-04T08:48:00.000-08:00

Have you ever felt yourself as larger than life figure at any moment? If yes, just a second….

Of the earth’s 4600 million years life history, human part of living period is just less than a million. See the fact in the following interesting way. The eras are split into periods which are shown below.

EARTH’S PERIODIC TABLE

Million Years Age	QUATERNARY	First Modern Humans
1.8	TERTIARY	Dinosaurs Extinct First Flowering Plants
65	CRETACEOUS	Dinosaurs Extinct First Flowering Plants
144	JURASSIC	First Birds
208	TRIASSIC	First Mammals First Dinosaurs
250	PERMIAN	First Archosaurs
286	CARBONIFEROUS	First Mammal Like Repitles First Reptiles
360	DEVONIAN	First Amphibians First Lobefin Fish First Insects
408	SILURIAN	First Fishes With Jaws
438	ORDOVICIAN	First Land Plants First Jawless Fishes
505	CAMBRIAN	First Shellfish
530	PRE CAMBRIAN	First Shellfish
3500		Oldest Fossil Formation Of Earth
4600		Oldest Fossil Formation Of Earth

Take earth life as 12 hour period in which, the part of human life span makes up the very last second. Hope the pie chart will certainly depicts the modern human’s miniscule life span, here termed as quaternary.

Actually, the fossilized layers on earth reveals the above various geological period.

“Our life span as a dot within a dot of a big blotting sheet, that very thought will make everybody humble, isn’t.”

Fossils

2008-03-02T03:18:00.000-08:00

The traces and remains of ancient lifeforms are called fossils. The study of fossils is called palaeontology. Studying of fossils helps us to understand the evolution of environment and natural communities. Fossils are preserved in different ways. They are fossilized through amber, ammonites, volcanic ash, petrification etc. Corals are the most popular fossils. They have hard skeleton. Soft-bodied animals such as jelly-fish and sea anemone would have lived in the same community. Fossils range from microscopic animals and plants to huge bones of dinosaurs.

Amber: The fossilized resin of gymnosperms called amber often contains bodies of insects and other small animals and plants.
The above image is a 15-20 years old stingless old bee preserved in amber. The stuff on its back are pollinia and represent the only known piece of fossilized orchid ever discovered.

Ammonites: They are mollusics which were in the seas of Mesozoic era. Their shells were made from the mineral aragonite

Volcanic ash: It is very rare type of fossilization. When the volcanoes spreads, the ash turns the body of the animal or plant into a rock quickly. Buried animals or plants may rot away to leave a hollow.

Petrification: It is also a rare type fossilization. This happens when silica-rich water crystallizes within the cell of the cones.

Fossil Dating: Some fossils such as graptolites and conodonts evolved and become extinct over a short period of time. This makes them useful for dating the rock in which they are formed.

Fossils

2008-03-02T03:09:00.000-08:00

A kind of man-made rain - Acid Rain

2008-02-28T07:48:00.000-08:00

We heard and termed rains as tropical rain, summer rain, winter rain, monsoon rain, etc. These are bounty by nature for mankind when it falls at right time, right place and right quantity (which happened till the arrival of “EL NINO”). But certain activities of the human beings, unmindful of its impact on the environment, cause the rain to pollute.

The above image shown here is the giant industrial complex at Norilsk, in Russia’s remote Arctic region, is accused of being world’s largest producer of acid rain.

Please take note that, our living comforts shouldn’t make the earth as dangerous place to live with, “for the generations to com”.

Acid Rain

2008-02-28T06:42:00.000-08:00

The above image is a Spruce forest damaged by acid rain.

Burning fossil fuel results in the formation of air pollutants like

nitrogen dioxide,
carbon dioxide, and
sulphurous oxides.

These gases dissolve in water and clouds forming "nitric oxide" and "sulphuric acid". These water falls down as "acid rain". It is very harmful. When it falls on buildings and statutes they damage them extensively. Some lakes too have become acidic due to dissolved acidic vapors thereby fish and birds which relied on it have died. The acid rain speeds up the rusting of iron, erodes marble, limestone and even concrete. It kills plants and reduces soil fertility.

These kinds of rain is prominent near the east coast of America and near Europe.

EARTHQUAKES

2008-02-12T20:35:00.000-08:00

Earthquakes are tremors in the ground, created by the sudden movement of tectonic plates-huge slabs of rock that make up the Earth's crust. Tectonic plates usually slide past each other, but sometimes get stuck together. The stress on the rocks accumulates until they crack. The tectonic plates then jolt pass each other, sending shock waves through the ground. These vibrations are known as seismic waves, thus causing the earth to quake. The majority of earthquakes are so gentle that no one notices them, but some are very violent that they can destroy a whole city or a town. One of the famous earthquakes in Europe took place in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1755. The city was destroyed and at least thirty thousand people were killed. In 1908, in Calabria and Sicily, a quake killed more than seventy-five thousand people. Two great earthquakes caused enormous damage took place in Tokyo, Japan, and in the Kansu Province in China.

Epicenter of the earthquake

The point at which the earthquake occurs is known as the focus, and above the focus is the epicenter. The epicenter is the point at which the effects of the earthquake is more devastating in the earth's surface. The focus may be more than the 700 km(approximately 185 miles) below the epicenter.

Earthquake zones

Earthquakes can occur anywhere, but they are more frequent in the earthquake zones. The earthquake zones such as California and Japan lies near the margins of the tectonic plates called the fault lines.

Seismometer

These show seismic waves and measure an earthquake's location and intensity on the Richter scale. The height of each line shows the wave's force.

Unidentified Flying objects(UFO's)

2008-02-07T00:41:00.001-08:00

This is the Photo of a purported UFO over New Hampshire in 1870; known as the mystery airship.

A triangular ufo seen in the black country

The popular name for them is "flying saucers". Studies of the saucer report show that UFO's are ver different from one another. Some people report they have seen flat saucers; and the others saucers shaped like spheres, cigars or doughnuts. The colours of saucers seem to be different as their sizes. Some seem to change colour as they are being watched.Saucers have been seen to move in every direction and varying speeds. They move straight up or down, turn at right angles, or travel in a zigzag path. They can hang motionless in the air, and make either a hissing noise or a roar. When the investigation was undertaken by the United States Air Force of the flying saucers report,it discovered that people weren't "imaging" what they saw. Everyone who reported a flying saucer had seen something. But what? It may be a weather ballon, a satellite, a cloud, a meteor, a star, a bird, a comet, a planet, or fireworks. It was also called as sun dogs. They are images of the sun reflected through ice crystals. If saucers were really spaceships, there would be a certain pattern in the reports about them. But there is no such pattern. So scientists believe that there is no evidence that we are being visited, watched, or invaded by intelligent beings from other worlds

Hey, see around you . . .

Blizzards

Geysers

Extinct dinosaurs

What causes Hail?

Stalactites and Stalagmites

Mumbai Terror Attack

Mount Everest

Lightning and Thunderstorms

Meteorites

Hurricane

Icebergs

Happy To Be Back Again

The dancing fluorescent ribbons that light up the night sky

RUPTURED EARTH

CRYING EARTH

Burning Earth

The immediate impact of forest fires can be devastating to human communities and forest ecosystems such as the loss and degradation of forested land,

opening up areas to invasion by fast-colonizing alien species and threaten biological diversity.

Guess the GLOBE's age

Fossils

Fossils

A kind of man-made rain - Acid Rain

Acid Rain

EARTHQUAKES

Unidentified Flying objects(UFO's)