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Nightingale Island
Nightingale Island is an active volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean, in area, part of the Tristan da Cunha group of islands. They are administered by the United Kingdom as part of the British overseas territory, overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. Nightingale Island is part of the Nightingale Islands, which also includes islets Middle Island, Tristan da Cunha, Middle Island and Stoltenhoff Island. All three are uninhabited, but are regularly visited for scientific purposes and research. Geography Nightingale has two peaks on its north end. One is high while the other is high. The rest of the island is ringed by cliffs. However, these cliffs are not nearly as high as those surrounding Nightingale's neighbour Inaccessible Island, Tristan da Cunha, Inaccessible Island, which is approximately 16 km away and has cliffs approximately 300m high. Thus human access is much easier on Nightingale than on Inaccessible. The island is a volcano, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tristan Map
Tristan (Latin/ Brythonic: ''Drustanus''; cy, Trystan), also known as Tristram or Tristain and similar names, is the hero of the legend of Tristan and Iseult. In the legend, he is tasked with escorting the Irish princess Iseult to wed Tristan's uncle, King Mark of Cornwall. Tristan and Iseult accidentally drink a love potion during the journey and fall in love, beginning an adulterous relationship that eventually leads to Tristan's banishment and death. The character's first recorded appearance is in retellings of British mythology from the 12th century by Thomas of Britain and Gottfried von Strassburg, and later in the Prose ''Tristan''. He is featured in Arthurian legends, including the seminal text ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', as a skilled knight and a friend of Lancelot. The historical roots of Tristan are unclear; his association with Cornwall may originate from the Tristan Stone, a 6th-century granite pillar in Cornwall inscribed with the name ''Drustanus'' (a variant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gamaliel Nightingale
Captain Sir Gamaliel Nightingale, 9th Baronet (15 February 1731 – January 1791) was an English landowner and Royal Navy officer. Early life and family Sir Gamaliel was born at Kneesworth Hall, his family seat. He was the son of Sir Edward Nightingale, the 7th baronet, and Eleanora Ethelston. His older brother Edward succeeded to the Nightingale baronetcy on the death of their father in 1750. Sir Gamaliel succeeded his brother in 1782. Naval career Nightingale's first command was HMS ''Badger'' in 1757. From 1758, he commanded HMS ''Vengeance''. In 1759, the ''Vengeance'' and its 200 men and 28 guns saw action off Quiberon Bay. On 13 March 1761, while still commanding the ''Vengeance'', he captured the 44-gun French privateer ''Entreprenant'' by Land's End. He later took command of HMS ''Flora''. He was a member of the Honourable East India Company. Nightingale Island Sir Gamaliel is also known for exploring a small volcanic island near Tristan da Cunha, which in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edinburgh Of The Seven Seas
Edinburgh of the Seven Seas is the main settlement of the island of Tristan da Cunha, in Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom, in the South Atlantic Ocean. Locally, it is referred to as The Settlement or The Village. Edinburgh of the Seven Seas is regarded as the most remote permanent settlement on Earth, located over 1,500 miles (2400 kilometres) from the nearest human settlement, on Saint Helena. History The settlement was founded on the island of Tristan da Cunha in 1816 by a Sergeant William Glass from Kelso, Scottish Borders after the UK annexed Tristan da Cunha. A military garrison was maintained on the islands as a guard against any French attempts to rescue Napoleon, who was imprisoned on Saint Helena. The military garrison remained until the end of World War II. It is named after Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Queen Victoria, in honour of his visit to the island in 1867. Edinburgh of the Sev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oil Spill
An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters, but spills may also occur on land. Oil spills may be due to releases of crude oil from tankers, offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells, as well as spills of refined petroleum products (such as gasoline, diesel) and their by-products, heavier fuels used by large ships such as bunker fuel, or the spill of any oily refuse or waste oil. Oil spills penetrate into the structure of the plumage of birds and the fur of mammals, reducing its insulating ability, and making them more vulnerable to temperature fluctuations and much less buoyant in the water. Cleanup and recovery from an oil spill is difficult and depends upon many factors, including the type of oil spilled, the temperature of the water (affecting evapor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MS Oliva
The MS ''Oliva'' was a bulk carrier launched in 2009. On 16 March 2011, due to the risky navigation of trying to achieve the minimal allowed clearance of Nightingale Island of 10 nmi, and due to human error in navigation reducing the actual clearance to zero, the ship went aground off Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, in the South Atlantic, at 4 am while on a voyage from Santos, Brazil to China with a cargo of soya beans. The ship broke in two and was a total loss. All 22 crew were rescued. More than 800 tons of fuel oil leaked from the ship and coated some 20,000 northern rockhopper penguins. The remains of the ship have been left to be claimed by the ocean. There is an area of soya bean deposits and reduced sealife around the wreck due to the cargo of soya bean removing the oxygen from the water. Lifeboat In February 2013, a lifeboat from the ''Oliva'' washed up on a beach in the Coorong National Park in south-east South Australia. The lifeboat was later put o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pumice
Pumice (), called pumicite in its powdered or dust form, is a volcanic rock that consists of highly vesicular rough-textured volcanic glass, which may or may not contain crystals. It is typically light-colored. Scoria is another vesicular volcanic rock that differs from pumice in having larger vesicles, thicker vesicle walls, and being dark colored and denser.Jackson, J.A., J. Mehl, and K. Neuendorf (2005) ''Glossary of Geology'' American Geological Institute, Alexandria, Virginia. 800 pp. McPhie, J., M. Doyle, and R. Allen (1993) ''Volcanic Textures A guide to the interpretation of textures in volcanic rocks'' Centre for Ore Deposit and Exploration Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania..198 pp. Pumice is created when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano. The unusual foamy configuration of pumice happens because of simultaneous rapid cooling and rapid depressurization. The depressurization creates bubbles by lowering the solubi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phonolite
Phonolite is an uncommon extrusive rock, of intermediate chemical composition between felsic and mafic, with texture ranging from aphanitic (fine-grained) to porphyritic (mixed fine- and coarse-grained). Phonolite is a variation of the igneous rock trachyte that contains nepheline or leucite rather than quartz. Its intrusive equivalent is nepheline syenite. Phonolite is typically fine grained and compact. The name ''phonolite'' comes from the Ancient Greek meaning "sounding stone" due to the metallic sound it produces if an unfractured plate is hit; hence, the English name ''clinkstone'' is given as a synonym. Formation Unusually, phonolite forms from magma with a relatively low silica content, generated by low degrees of partial melting (less than 10%) of highly aluminous rocks of the lower crust such as tonalite, monzonite and metamorphic rocks. Melting of such rocks to a very low degree promotes the liberation of aluminium, potassium, sodium and calcium by melting of f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earthquake Swarm
In seismology, an earthquake swarm is a sequence of seismic events occurring in a local area within a relatively short period. The time span used to define a swarm varies, but may be days, months, or years. Such an energy release is different from the situation when a major earthquake (main shock) is followed by a series of aftershocks: in earthquake swarms, no single earthquake in the sequence is obviously the main shock. In particular, a cluster of aftershocks occurring after a mainshock ''is not'' a swarm. History and generalities In the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge), which form the border between the Czech Republic and Germany, western Bohemia and the Vogtland region, have been known since the 16th century as prone to frequent earthquake swarms, which typically last a few weeks to a few months. Austrian geologist Josef Knett, while studying in 1899 a swarm of about a hundred events felt in western Bohemia/Vogtland in January-February 1824, coined the noun ''Schwarmbeben'', ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extratropical Cyclone
Extratropical cyclones, sometimes called mid-latitude cyclones or wave cyclones, are low-pressure areas which, along with the anticyclones of high-pressure areas, drive the weather over much of the Earth. Extratropical cyclones are capable of producing anything from cloudiness and mild showers to severe gales, thunderstorms, blizzards, and tornadoes. These types of cyclones are defined as large scale (synoptic) low pressure weather systems that occur in the middle latitudes of the Earth. In contrast with tropical cyclones, extratropical cyclones produce rapid changes in temperature and dew point along broad lines, called weather fronts, about the center of the cyclone. Terminology The term " cyclone" applies to numerous types of low pressure areas, one of which is the extratropical cyclone. The descriptor ''extratropical'' signifies that this type of cyclone generally occurs outside the tropics and in the middle latitudes of Earth between 30° and 60° latitude. They are term ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conservation Biology
Conservation biology is the study of the conservation of nature and of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction and the erosion of biotic interactions. It is an interdisciplinary subject drawing on natural and social sciences, and the practice of natural resource management. The conservation ethic is based on the findings of conservation biology. Origins The term conservation biology and its conception as a new field originated with the convening of "The First International Conference on Research in Conservation Biology" held at the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, California, in 1978 led by American biologists Bruce A. Wilcox and Michael E. Soulé with a group of leading university and zoo researchers and conservationists including Kurt Benirschke, Sir Otto Frankel, Thomas Lovejoy, and Jared Diamond. The meeting was prompted due to concern over tropical deforestation, disappearin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish Dollar
The Spanish dollar, also known as the piece of eight ( es, Real de a ocho, , , or ), is a silver coin of approximately diameter worth eight Spanish reales. It was minted in the Spanish Empire following a monetary reform in 1497 with content 25.563 g = 0.822 oz t fine silver. It was widely used as the first world currency, international currency because of its uniformity in standard and milling characteristics. Some countries countermarked the Spanish dollar so it could be used as their local currency. Because the Spanish dollar was widely used in Europe, the Americas, and the Far East, it became the first world currency by the late 18th century. The Spanish dollar was the coin upon which the original United States dollar was based (at 0.7735 oz t = 24.0566 g), and it remained legal tender in the United States until the Coinage Act of 1857. Many other currencies around the world, such as the Japanese yen and the Yuan (currency), Chinese yuan, were initially based on the Span ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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