|
Loch Sionascaig
Loch Sionascaig is a large irregular shaped, freshwater loch in the remote Coigach area of northern Wester Ross. It is located 5.5 miles southeast of the village of Lochinver and is situated within the Inverpolly Forest. Geography Loch Sionascaig is an area of outstanding natural beauty, that lies at the centre of the Inverpolly National Nature Reserve. It is surrounded by many other lochs with the large forested areas of Inverpolly Forest and Loch Lurgainn to the south. Also directly south is Loch an Doire Dhuibh which is connected by a narrow channel to Loch Sionascaig. To the southeast is the imposing peak of Cùl Beag and Drumrunie Forest. To the east is the large Loch Veyatie, to the northeast is the mountain of Stac Pollaidh and Canisp behind it. To the north west is Loch Ùidh Tarraigean and Loch na Dàil that Loch Sionasgaig drains through, reaching the River Polly that drains into Polly Bay. To the west are the large lochs of Loch Bad A' Ghaill and Loch Osgaig. Loch Si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stac Pollaidh
Stac Pollaidh (IPA: s̪t̪ʰaʰkˈpʰɔɫ̪ais a mountain in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The peak displays a rocky crest of Torridonian sandstone, with many pinnacles and steep gullies. The ridge was exposed to weathering as a nunatak above the ice sheet during the last Ice Age, while the ice flow carved and scoured the smooth sides of the mountain. The modern Gaelic name is a recent invention. The peak is named on the first edition Ordnance Survey maps simply as "An Stac" (the pinnacle) and on later maps as "Stac Polly". The "Polly" element is of Norse origin, derived from "Pollå" meaning "pool river". Due to its relatively low height of just over 2000 feet, fine views and ease of access from a road it has become a very popular peak to climb. It also provides some fine scrambling in the traverse of the summit ridge, including one ''bad step'' near the final summit. Consequentially it has suffered from a great deal of erosion, leading to Scottish Natural Heritage co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holocene
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene together form the Quaternary period. The Holocene has been identified with the current warm period, known as MIS 1. It is considered by some to be an interglacial period within the Pleistocene Epoch, called the Flandrian interglacial.Oxford University Press – Why Geography Matters: More Than Ever (book) – "Holocene Humanity" section https://books.google.com/books?id=7P0_sWIcBNsC The Holocene corresponds with the rapid proliferation, growth and impacts of the human species worldwide, including all of its written history, technological revolutions, development of major civilizations, and overall significant transition towards urban living in the present. The human impact on modern-era Earth and its ecosystems may be considered of global si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freshwater Lochs Of Scotland
Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include non- salty mineral-rich waters such as chalybeate springs. Fresh water may encompass frozen and meltwater in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, snowfields and icebergs, natural precipitations such as rainfall, snowfall, hail/ sleet and graupel, and surface runoffs that form inland bodies of water such as wetlands, ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, as well as groundwater contained in aquifers, subterranean rivers and lakes. Fresh water is the water resource that is of the most and immediate use to humans. Water is critical to the survival of all living organisms. Many organisms can thrive on salt water, but the great majority of higher plants and most insects, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds need fresh water to survive. Fresh water ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radiocarbon Dating
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was developed in the late 1940s at the University of Chicago by Willard Libby. It is based on the fact that radiocarbon () is constantly being created in the Earth's atmosphere by the interaction of cosmic rays with atmospheric nitrogen. The resulting combines with atmospheric oxygen to form radioactive carbon dioxide, which is incorporated into plants by photosynthesis; animals then acquire by eating the plants. When the animal or plant dies, it stops exchanging carbon with its environment, and thereafter the amount of it contains begins to decrease as the undergoes radioactive decay. Measuring the amount of in a sample from a dead plant or animal, such as a piece of wood or a fragment of bone, provides information that can be used to calc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geochemistry
Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the entire Solar System, and has made important contributions to the understanding of a number of processes including mantle convection, the formation of planets and the origins of granite and basalt. It is an integrated field of chemistry and geology. History The term ''geochemistry'' was first used by the Swiss-German chemist Christian Friedrich Schönbein in 1838: "a comparative geochemistry ought to be launched, before geognosy can become geology, and before the mystery of the genesis of our planets and their inorganic matter may be revealed." However, for the rest of the century the more common term was "chemical geology", and there was little contact between geologists and chemists. Geochemistry emerged as a separate discipline after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sediment
Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand and silt can be carried in suspension in river water and on reaching the sea bed deposited by sedimentation; if buried, they may eventually become sandstone and siltstone (sedimentary rocks) through lithification. Sediments are most often transported by water (fluvial processes), but also wind (aeolian processes) and glaciers. Beach sands and river channel deposits are examples of fluvial transport and deposition, though sediment also often settles out of slow-moving or standing water in lakes and oceans. Desert sand dunes and loess are examples of aeolian transport and deposition. Glacial moraine deposits and till are ice-transported sediments. Classification Sediment can be classified based on its grain size, grain shape, and c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diatom
A diatom (Neo-Latin ''diatoma''), "a cutting through, a severance", from el, διάτομος, diátomos, "cut in half, divided equally" from el, διατέμνω, diatémno, "to cut in twain". is any member of a large group comprising several genera of algae, specifically microalgae, found in the oceans, waterways and soils of the world. Living diatoms make up a significant portion of the Earth's biomass: they generate about 20 to 50 percent of the oxygen produced on the planet each year, take in over 6.7 billion metric tons of silicon each year from the waters in which they live, and constitute nearly half of the organic material found in the oceans. The shells of dead diatoms can reach as much as a half-mile (800 m) deep on the ocean floor, and the entire Amazon basin is fertilized annually by 27 million tons of diatom shell dust transported by transatlantic winds from the African Sahara, much of it from the Bodélé Depression, which was once made up of a system of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palynology
Palynology is the "study of dust" (from grc-gre, παλύνω, palynō, "strew, sprinkle" and '' -logy'') or of "particles that are strewn". A classic palynologist analyses particulate samples collected from the air, from water, or from deposits including sediments of any age. The condition and identification of those particles, organic and inorganic, give the palynologist clues to the life, environment, and energetic conditions that produced them. The term is commonly used to refer to a subset of the discipline, which is defined as "the study of microscopic objects of macromolecular organic composition (i.e., compounds of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen), not capable of dissolution in hydrochloric or hydrofluoric acids". It is the science that studies contemporary and fossil palynomorphs (paleopalynology), including pollen, spores, orbicules, dinocysts, acritarchs, chitinozoans and scolecodonts, together with particulate organic matter (POM) and kerogen found in sedimen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cùl Mòr
Cùl Mòr is a shapely, twin summited mountain in the far north west of Scotland whose higher summit is the highest point of Inverpolly. It is almost completely separated from its southern neighbour, Cùl Beag. Despite its higher altitude, it is less well known than two of its other neighbours, Suilven and Stac Pollaidh, but being higher, it commands views over these and other neighbours. Ascents Cùl Mòr is best approached from Knockan Crag, at NC189095, where there is parking space and from where a stalker's path leads to the foot of the Meallan Diomhain ridge. The route up this ridge is marked by cairns. From the top of this ridge, the most popular route bears right, over a broad saddle, before approaching the summit from the north east. The last part of the ascent is quite steep and involves scrambling Scrambling is a mountaineering term for ascending steep terrain using one's hands to assist in holds and balance.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. It is also used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coigach
Coigach () is a peninsula north of Ullapool, in Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The area consists of a traditional crofting and fishing community of a couple of hundred houses located between mountain and shore on a peninsula looking over the Summer Isles and the sea. The main settlement is Achiltibuie. Like its northerly neighbour, Assynt in Sutherland, Coigach has mountains which rise sharply from quiet, lochan-studded moorland, and a highly indented rocky coast with many islands, bays and headlands. The highest summit is Ben Mor Coigach at 743 metres; the distinctive profile of Stac Pollaidh is the other main peak within Coigach. The scenic qualities of Coigach, along with neighbouring Assynt, have led to the area being designated as the ''Assynt-Coigach National Scenic Area'', one of 40 such areas in Scotland. The name is derived from the Gaelic for "five" or "fifths", and refers to the five townships of Achduart, Achnacarinan, Acheninver, Achnahaird an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suilven
Suilven ( gd, Sùilebheinn) is a mountain in Scotland. Lying in a remote area in the west of Sutherland, it rises from a wilderness landscape of moorland, bogs, and lochans known as Inverpolly National Nature Reserve. Suilven forms a steep-sided ridge some in length. The highest point, Caisteal Liath ("Grey Castle" in Scottish Gaelic), lies at the northwest end of this ridge. There are two other summits: Meall Meadhonach ("Middle Round Hill") at the central point of the ridge is high, whilst Meall Beag ("Little Round Hill") lies at the southeastern end. Geology Geologically, Suilven is formed of Torridonian sandstone, sitting on a landscape of Lewisian gneiss. The surrounding rocks were eroded during an episode of glaciation. Suilven was covered by the last British and Irish Ice Sheet. Prior research described Suilven and many other mountains in Northwest Scotland as nunataks, but cosmogenic isotope dating of mountaintop erratics has since disproved this hypothesis. The flow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canisp
Canisp (Scottish Gaelic: ''Canasp'') is a mountain in the far north west of Scotland. It is situated in the parish of Assynt, in the county of Sutherland, north of the town of Ullapool. Canisp reaches a height of and qualifies as a Corbett and Marilyn hill. The mountain's name translates from the Old Norse language as ''“White Mountain”''. Geography and geology Canisp is an isolated mountain that stands in the Glencanisp Forest, a large rock and water wilderness. It has a topographic prominence of . Canisp has little vegetation, even on its lower slopes large areas of Gneiss (one of the oldest rocks in the world) are visible on the surface. Canisp stands in a geologically important area. It is part of the Moine Thrust Belt and is typical of many of the Assynt hills in that it rises from a base of Lewisian Gneiss and is composed of Torridonian sandstone capped by Cambrian quartzite giving the hill a distinctive light grey crown.Canisp was formed when surrounding rocks ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
