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Cappadocia
November 6th, 2009 by Travel
In Turkey there lies an inland area known as Cappadocia, which is an area heavily visited by tourists who come to see many of its natural wonders. It was first recorded in history in the sixth century BC as a country in the Persian Empire, and they called the people who resided there Cappadocians, while the Greeks called them Syrians.
There are several buildings cut directly into the rocks of Cappadocia along with many odd and interesting rock formations such as the Fairy Chimneys and Uchsar Hill/Castle which is cut right into the rock. The rocks were formed by volcanic activity some nine million years ago with other sediments being deposited by lakes and streams, which also cut many of the formations seen today there. After Christianity arrived the Goreme Open Air Museum was created between the ninth and eleventh century with thirty rock carved churches and chapels being created.
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Bora Bora
November 6th, 2009 by Travel
Bora Bora is located in French Polynesia and is a territory of France, and is located in the Pacific Ocean, and is surrounded by a giant barrier reef along with a large lagoon. It was formed by volcanic processes, and has the remains of the volcano in two peaks that rise 272 meters into the sky.
The island has a population of roughly 7.2 thousand people, and was used during the Second World War as a supply base for a while. Today the local economy is heavily dependant on tourism and the new resorts built on islands surrounding Bora Bora, with its main attraction being the massive lagoon, with shark related activities such as snorkeling, and scuba diving. The total land area is about 40 square kilometers and is known for having relatively low crime when compared to other French holdings.
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Victoria Falls
November 6th, 2009 by Travel
Victoria Falls is located in Zambia and Zimbabwe, and is arguably the largest single waterfall in the world, with the only other contender being the Iguazu Falls. The fall itself is not the highest nor is it the widest, however it is a width of over a mile and a height of 306 feet, making it the largest waterfall to have one consistent sheet of falling water, and thus by combining the height and the width makes it overall the largest.
Usually the fall has 38,000 cubic feet of water falling every second, however in rainy seasons this doubles, triples, and more. The highest recorded level is a massive 444,965 cubic feet of water per second, and when ever the water is abundant the fall is said to “roar”. Recently the falls have fallen under the threat of over-development which has an impact on the local ecosystems and may threaten its status as a World Heritage site.
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Great Barrier Reef
November 6th, 2009 by Travel
Off the coast of Queensland Australia in the Coral Seal lies a 344 thousand square kilometers spread of area which encompasses around three thousand individual coral reefs, nine hundred islands, and stretches on for about 2.6 thousand kilometers. The Great Barrier Reed can be seen from space and is considered the biggest structure made by living creatures and formed with living creatures in the entire world, with more biological diversity than you could shake a million sticks at.
It is estimated to have started formation around twenty five million years ago, and skeletons of past reefs are found to have been at least 600 thousand years old. The current living reef has been growing for 20,000 years and has become taller as sea levels rise (around 120 meters higher since the end of the ice age). Sea levels ended their rising levels around 6,000 years ago, but more recently and partially due to human effects as is thought, sea levels have begun to rise again without any significant cooling period where the sea levels would have normally lowered.
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Paricutin volcano
November 6th, 2009 by Travel
Paricutin is a large volcano that is in Michoacán Mexico and is a cinder-cone volcano that rises 424 meters into the air. It is amazingly unique in that the year 1942 the volcano did not exist, but in 1943 a fissure opened up in a cornfield and was growing exponentially.
It covered surrounding villages in ash and then lava. After just one year the volcano had grown to be 336 meters tall, an amazingly huge volume of material was spew within that time, but the eruption lasted until 1952. After 1944 the volcano continued its eruption quietly with lava flows and an occasional burst here and there, then in 1952 after a gradual decline, it grew silent and dormant after one final explosive phase. No deaths were directly caused by any of the volcanic activity; however lightning caused by the ash storms killed three. Today the volcano is a popular tourist attraction.
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Palau
November 6th, 2009 by Travel
Palau is a small island nation that was granted its own government by the United Nations after decades of being in a trusteeship in 1994, and is now its very own nation state. The small country has four major islands and a large barrier reef which is considered one of the most diverse after the Great Barrier Reef and the Belize Barrier Reef.
There are several major threats to this area, with Global Warming and rising waters which could spell disaster for the locals, inadequate solid waste disposal, illegal fishing, dynamite fishing, dredging which destroys coral and parts of the reefs, along with toxic waste from fertilizers and biocides. The reef areas contain a full 5 percent of the marine area of the Pacific Ocean and 7 percent of costal areas because of how spread out it is. There are many caves and wrecks underwater to explore such as the Blue Hole, Blue Corner, Chandelier Cave, Helmet Wreck, Jellyfish Lake (diving banned), Ngerching Inside and Outside, Peleliu Wall, Turtle Cove, Tombstones, and Ulong Channel – there are many many more that could be listed.
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Belize Barrier Reef
November 6th, 2009 by Travel
The Belize Barrier Reef is located in the Latin America/Caribbean region and is a series of large coral reefs that stretch 185 miles and are a major tourist attraction for the local areas. It’ ecosystem is only rivaled by that of the Great Barrier Reef near Australia.
The Belize Barrier Reef hosts seventy different coral species, thirty six soft coral species, five hundred species of fish, and hundreds of invertebrates, and there are most likely more that have yet to be identified and classified. A large area of the Belize Barrier Reef is under protection and includes several marine reserves more than four hundred cays and three atolls. The Barrier Reef is still under threat from tourism, pollution, fishing, hurricanes, global warming, and increasing ocean temperatures which will kill many species of fish and coral if it continues with the current global warming trends.
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