Category: Planet Earth

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Hồ Thuỷ Tiên, an abandoned water park in Vietnam

The dragon of Hồ Thuỷ Tiên abandoned water park (featured image)
Upon entering to the Hồ Thuỷ Tiên water park, visitors were greeted by the guardian of the park: a full-bodied dragon perched on a spaceship-type aquarium. On all sides of the dragon's bowels were aquarium tanks full of living fish and crocodiles. Now, this three-story building is still there but is now covered in rust, peeling paint and graffiti. The body of the dragon body forms a staircase, and today, still, visitors can walk up to a spectacular viewing area and take in the stunning view of the Thuỷ Tiên Lake from inside the mouth of the fire-breathing creature, which is actually a balcony.

Hồ Thuỷ Tiên is an abandoned water park in Vietnam. It was built in 2004 in an edge of the Vietnamese city of Huế, to the tune of approximately $3 million dollars. The idea was to create a family water park with amusement rides, slides, pools, shows, and an aquarium. But when the park opened its gates to the public, it was only partially completed.

After its opening, an excited population of park-goers began flocking to the park. But, somehow, it wasn’t enough. Within just a few years after its opening, the business started to experience financial problems. It closed not too long afterward and everything that had been built on the site had just been left as it was.

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Planet Earth Earth from Space Oceans Space Exploration

NASA Has Published Statistics About the World’s Sandy Beaches

Sandy beaches of the world
About 31 percent of the world’s coastlines are sandy. Africa has the highest proportion of sandy beaches (66%) and Europe has the lowest (22%).

NASA has published some interesting statistics about the world’s sandy beaches on the Earth Observatory website. According to the images taken by Landsat satellites (see notes 1) (Landsat 5 and Landsat 8, see notes 2 and 3), about 31 percent of the world’s coastlines are sandy. Africa has the highest proportion of sandy beaches (66 percent) and Europe has the lowest (22 percent).

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Life on Earth

Extinction is forever: de-extinction can’t save what we had

Landscape with Birds by Roelant Savery, 1628
Landscape with Birds, (showing a dodo in the lower right corner) by Roelant Savery, 1628. Image Courtesy Wikimedia Roelant Savery (or Roeland(t) Maertensz Saverij, or de Savery, or many variants) (1576 - buried 25 February 1639), was a Flanders-born Dutch Golden Age painter. He primarily painted landscapes, often embellished with many meticulously painted animals and plants, regularly with a mythological or biblical theme as background. Among his best-known works are several depictions of the now-extinct dodo painted between 1611 and 1628.

When I hike up into the hills around Salt Lake City, above the Bonneville Shoreline Trail where the sagebrush gives way to the shade of the forest, mastodons are on my mind. Immense bones pulled from a sinkhole on the nearby Wasatch Plateau placed Mammut americanum in the area about 7,500 years ago – practically yesterday from the perspective of Deep Time. It might sound strange to say that I miss creatures I wasn’t around to see in the first place. But still, I mourn their loss as I plod through the woods, imagining their low rumbles and the splintering crashes as they browsed among the trees.

A small but growing number of scientists say that they could reverse that loss through de-extinction – genetic resuscitation in the style of the sci-fi yarn Jurassic Park. The idea is also now being marketed as conservation’s great hope to forestall the loss of biodiversity caused by humans. Biological Xeroxing was held up as one of the possibilities for species resuscitation at a National Geographic TEDx event on de-extinction in 2013. That same year, the discovery of a particularly juicy mammoth carcass, dripping with what appeared to be blood, sparked a flurry of reports assuring readers that the return of the mammoth is nigh. For if there’s blood, there’s DNA, and if there’s DNA, then we can have the Ice Age beast back, right?

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Geography Climate Earth from Space Global Warming

18 Largest Islands on Earth

Australia, New Guinea, Borneo, Sumatra and Java
Australia, New Guinea, Borneo, Sumatra and Java. New Guinea is a large island off the continent of Australia. The eastern half of the island is the major land mass of the independent state of Papua New Guinea. The western half, referred to as Western New Guinea or West Papua or simply Papua, formerly a Dutch colony, was annexed by Indonesia in 1962 and has been administered by it since then. The western half of the island of New Guinea contains the highest mountains in Oceania, rising up to 4,884 meters (16,024 ft) high (Puncak Jaya). The highest peaks contain permanent equatorial glaciers, which have been retreating since at least 1936 due to the global warming. Except in high elevations, most areas possess a warm humid climate throughout the year, with some seasonal variation associated with the northeast monsoon season. New Guinea has an immense biodiversity. A high percentage of New Guinea's species are endemic, and thousands are still unknown to science. Borneo, a giant, rugged island (the largest in Asia) in Southeast Asia's Malay Archipelago, is shared by the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, Indonesian Kalimantan and the tiny nation of Brunei. It is known for its beaches and ancient, biodiverse rainforest, home to wildlife including orangutans and clouded leopards. AntipodalNotes 2 to an area of Amazon rainforest, Borneo is itself home to one of the oldest rainforests in the world. Sumatra is a large Indonesian island in Southeast Asia that is part of the Sunda Islands. It is known for its rugged tropical terrain, wildlife and smoldering volcanoes. The island has a wide range of plant and animal species but has lost almost 50% of its tropical rainforest in the last 35 years. Java is famous for its volcanoes, which run through the island’s center like a spine. Many are active, intermittently spewing plumes of ash into the atmosphere. But the white areas surrounding the volcanoes in the top image do not have a fiery origin: they are clouds. However, they were influenced by the volcanic topography.

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. It is believed that there are over 100,000 islands in the world. It’s difficult to put a figure to the exact number as there are different kinds of them in various water bodies including oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers. There is even an island within a lake that is situated on an island located in a lake on an island. Only 322 of them are larger than 1000 km2 (386 sq mi). Here are the top 18 largest islands on Earth. Why 18? Because this is the number of islands that have a land area of greater than 100,000 square kilometers (38,610 square miles).

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Planet Earth

The Timeline Of Earth

The Blue Marble
In December 1972, Apollo 17 spacecraft took a photo of Earth from space, at a distance of about 45,000 kilometers (28,000 miles). This image, with the official NASA designation AS17-148-22727, became known as "The Blue Marble", one of the most iconic photos of Earth from space. In fact, it was not the first clear image of Earth taken from space - similar photos had already been taken as early as 1967. But, the 1970s were the scene of a big surge in environmental activism. For example, on April 22, 1970, the first "Earth Day" was organized by Gaylord Nelson, former senator of Wisconsin, and Denis Hayes, a Harvard graduate student. Millions of people gather in the United States for the event. So, in today's terms, image AS17-148-22727 went "viral" and became a symbol of the environmental movement, as a depiction of Earth's frailty, vulnerability, and isolation amid the vast expanse of space. According to NASA archivist Mike Gentry, it is among the most widely distributed images in human history.

We’ve evolved here on Earth, and for tens of thousands of years, we just thought the Earth is also the universe, or at least the most important and the biggest part of it. Our brains have been adapted to the basic survival needs.

So we can deal with the moderately sized objects which have moderate velocity, and we can conceptualize small numbers like 1, 2, 50. But when the numbers get bigger than that, the problem begins: our puny brains cannot conceptualize them anymore.

The larger a number grows, the harder it becomes to deal with.

Take the age of the Earth, which is almost 4.6 billion years. We don’t have an intuitive sense of what this number means. But, visualization can help: we can better understand things if we visualize them. Author Andy Bergmann just did that. He created a Timeline of Earth to get a better sense of how key events relate in time over our planet’s 4.6 billion year history. It’s hard to get a sense of how vast it is until you can see it laid out visually.

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Life on Earth

The Lost Rainforest of Mount Mabu

The Lost Forest of Mount Mabu
Using Google Earth, Dr. Julian Bayliss discovered a hidden rainforest and more than a dozen new plant and animal species in Northern Mozambique. But for Dr. Bayliss, and Flora and Fauna International (FFI), the journey is far from over. The team is currently working together with the government in Mozambique to create a long term conservation strategy that will protect Mount Mabu and benefit the local community. To learn more, visit Dr. Bayliss' website. Image: "The Lost Forest of Mount Mabu" on Youtube

One day back in 2005, Dr. Julian Bayliss was sitting at his laptop looking at Google Earth in 2005, to look for potential unknown wildlife hotspots in Africa. He was working on an isolated mountain in Malawi, then he noticed that there were similar mountains over the border in Mozambique. There was nothing written about these mountains. As he zoomed in, he saw a dark green patch suddenly emerge, which looked like a rainforest. An expedition was scheduled, and it turned out to be just that: a rainforest, which was unknown to plant and animal scientists. Today, Mount Mabu forest is frequently referred to as the “Google Forest”.

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Planet Earth Astronomy Solar System

Moon Illusion: here’s why the Moon looks larger when it’s near the horizon

A Harvest Moon
A Harvest Moon. This image was taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III on February 14, 2017 with 600.0mm, f/8.0s, 1/500s, ISO 200. Image source: pxhere If you go out on a clear night when it's full moon, you may notice how gigantic the Earth's satellite looks when it's near the horizon. But, in fact, that moon is the exact same size as every other time as you've ever seen it in the sky. You can test this by holding your thumbnail at arm's length and comparing it to the size of the Moon when it is near the horizon and high in the sky, and you'll see it doesn't change size. Photographs of the Moon at different elevations also show that its size remains the same. In fact, it plays a trick on your brain which called the "Moon Illusion". This illusion has been known since the ancient times, and an explanation of this optical phenomenon is still debated.

The moon illusion: if you go out on a clear night when it’s a full moon, you may notice how gigantic the Earth’s satellite looks when it’s near the horizon. But, in fact, that moon is the exact same size as every other time you’ve ever seen it in the sky. You can test this by holding your thumbnail at arm’s length and comparing it to the size of the Moon when it is near the horizon and high in the sky, and you’ll see it doesn’t change size.

Photographs of the Moon at different elevations also show that its size remains the same. In fact, it plays a trick on your brain which is called the “Moon Illusion”. This illusion has been known since ancient times, and an explanation of this optical phenomenon is still debated.

The moon illusion is subtle for some and dramatic for others (including me). A small fraction of people even don’t see it.

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Planet Earth Environment People

World’s Water Inequality Crisis

Water inequality: digging for drinking water in a dry riverbed
A woman scoops water in a dry riverbed near Kataboi village in remote Turkana in northern Kenya. In 40°C heat and with no access to clean water, she resorts to collecting unfiltered water for her family in containers. The lack of rain in the arid years across the Horn of Africa results in failed crops, lack of water and death of livestock. Picture: Marisol Grandon/Department for International Development. Image source: Wikimedia

Despite today people are living longer, healthier, and happier lives than ever before, there are still many problems that humanity should address. One of the most important of them is water inequality. While people in First World countries can very easily take fresh, clean water for granted, more than 800 million others in impoverished areas have no access to any clean water source. It is a common occurrence in some regions for people to defecate openly, walk more than 30 minutes to access clean water, and share toilets with other humans. In 2018, is this really something that we should just accept as an inevitable way of the world?

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Solar System Astronomy Planet Earth

Distance from Earth to Moon: How far is the Moon from Earth?

The distance between the Earth and the Moon
The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft captured this remarkable infrared portrait of Earth and its companion Moon on April 19, 2001. Taken from a distance of 3,563,735 kilometers (more than 2.2 million miles), the image offers a rare perspective on the Earth-Moon system, showcasing their true separation. The average distance between the Earth and the Moon, approximately 384,400 kilometers (238,855 miles), equates to about 30 Earth diameters-emphasizing just how vast this space truly is. In the image, the Earth's diameter of 12,750 kilometers (7,917 miles) is dwarfed by the immense gap to its satellite. The dark area on Earth represents the frigid south pole, with temperatures reaching minus 50°C (minus 58°F), while the bright spot above marks warm Australia. Captured using a 9.1 µm infrared filter, each pixel of the image corresponds to a region 900 by 900 kilometers (559 by 559 miles, about the size of Texas). Once Odyssey reaches Mars, the resolution of its imaging system was sharpened significantly, with each pixel covering only 100 by 100 meters-comparable to the size of a baseball field. This incredible photo not only highlights the vastness of space within our Earth-Moon neighborhood but also demonstrates the precision of instruments like THEMIS, which are used to map planetary surfaces in unprecedented detail.Credit: NASA/JPL/Arizona State University Image source: NASA (PIA Number: PIA00559)

The average distance between the Earth and the Moon is 384,400 km (238,855 miles). It’s a vast number that’s difficult to truly comprehend, leading many people to believe the Moon is much closer to Earth than it actually is. Astronomical distances are often hard to grasp. While planets and stars are massive, the spaces between them are far greater—beyond the reach of our imagination.

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Prehistoric Animals Climate Global Warming Life on Earth

Dinosaur Killer Asteroid Triggered a Global Warming [And It Lasted 100,000 Years!]

Chicxulub impact
The Chicxulub impactor was an asteroid or comet at least 10 kilometers (6 miles) in diameter. Around 66 million years ago, it impacted a few miles from the present-day town of Chicxulub in Mexico, at around 64,000 kilometers per hour (40,000 mph). The impact has created a crater (Chicxulub crater) more than 180 km (110 miles) in diameter, making it the third largest known impact crater on Earth. Image credit: Joe Tucciarone/Science Photo Library

Around 66 million years ago, an asteroid or comet at least 10 kilometers (6 miles) in diameter impacted a few miles from the present-day town of Chicxulub in Mexico (hence it is dubbed as the “Chicxulub impactor”, the “dinosaur-killer”), at around 64,000 kilometers per hour (40,000 mph). The impact has created a crater (Chicxulub crater) more than 180 km (110 miles) in diameter. But, what’s more, the energy of the impact (which is equivalent of about ten billion Hiroshima atom bombs) vaporized the rock which was rich in sulfur compounds, filling the air with a thick cloud of dust, similar to that created by a catastrophic volcanic eruption.

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