Lying just outside the Amazon Basin, the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in northeastern Brazil is subject to a regular rain season during the beginning of the year. The fresh water collects in the valleys between sand dunes creating lagoons for half of the year and almost completely disappear during the dry season.
(via it-sfullofstars)
Westerly winds passing around Beerenberg volcano on Norway’s Jan Mayen Island create a Kármán vortex street. Absolutely glorious.
(This may well be the one and only time I post a GIF. I hope it’s appreciated.)
(via circuitdesign)
“To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of year, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be. “
-Rachel Carson
I know I have posted this quote before, but I thought of it when I saw this.
Lena Stone Pillars Russia
One of the most beautiful natural wonders of Russia, Lena’s Stone Forest is also one of the most difficult to reach,It lies in a part of Siberia not yet touched by civilization.
Known also as Lena’s Stone Pillars, this incredible rock formation is not only beautiful to look at, it’s also holds important information on the formation of the organic world. Fossils from various organisms dating back to the Cambrian era could supply invaluable insight on life evolved on planet Earth.The amazing stone structures towers over 150 meters in height and extends along the river Lena for about 80km.
(via fyeahgeology)
Jordon’s log. May 19th, 2013. We’re smack dab in the middle of day two. Tensions are high…cookie break was almost forgotten. Yes, having a cookie break everyday at 9 and 3 isn’t the only thing scheduled on our mission on the JOIDES Resolution. From 7:30 AM on it’s a non-stop borage of learning. So fast and furious that Vin Diesel himself would wet his pantaloons.
The activists kept up the blockade. They had their own proposal, a Marine Disposal Alternative. The MDA was no less ambitious than the bypass. The project would stabilize the Slide by widening the mountain’s base with a manmade earthen foundation sloping from the cliff to the water.
Geologists found this idea absurd. It would be a temporary solution, at best, lasting only until the newly formed lower slope succumbed to the inevitably violent erosion. Still, Caltrans had to at least make it seem like they were considering this alternative. So in the early 1990s, the department sent an exploration team to survey the area. A group of three or four scientists maneuvered a whaling boat through the waters below the Slide, deploying a bottom-sounding device to locate its base. Like most days, the surf was ferocious. It flooded the deck. Caltrans officials overseeing the project from the shore watched in horror as the boat capsized. The scientists managed to swim to land. And that was the end of the Marine Disposal Alternative.
(via blech)
Glass Beach, Northern California
From 1950 to 1967, residents of Fort Bragg, California chose to dispose of their waste by hurling it off the cliffs above a beach. No object was too toxic or too large such as household appliances, automobiles, and all matter of trash were tossed into the crashing waves below, eventually earning it the name The Dumps. Then in 1967, city leaders closed and reclaimed the beach. Various cleanup programs were undertaken.
Over the next several decades, the pounding waves cleaned the beach by breaking down everything but glass turning the sand into a sparkling, multicolored bed of smooth glass stones. The California Department of Parks and Recreation purchased the land and incorporated it into MacKerricher State Park in 2002.
(via discoverynews)
![beautiful-avalanche:
Mount Ol Doinyo Lengai [Tanzania] by Olivier Grunewald](http://24.media.tumblr.com/e083ad7a934baec7634f973693d32852/tumblr_mk8oowi2W41rh1j06o1_500.jpg)
Mount Ol Doinyo Lengai [Tanzania] by Olivier Grunewald
(via ocean-nerd)
ʻĪao Needle, April 2013
The ʻĪao Needle rises 1,200 ft (370 m) from the floor of the ‘Iao Valley, Maui. The valley formed as water eroded the caldera of the old West Maui volcano. An erosional remnant, the ‘Iao Neele is at the end of a ridge comprised of a denser dike stone. The softer rock around the dike stone was eroded by streams and waterfalls.
`Iao is so sacred that the remains of the highest chiefs were entrusted to secret hiding places in the valley. Kaka`e, ruler of Maui in the late 1400’s to 1500’s, is believed to have designated this valley as an ali`i burial area.
Reference (including a picture in sunshine!)
I Dreamt about a Terrific Cliff… on Flickr.
Isle of Staffa, Inner Hebrides (Scotland).
The Isle of Staffa (from the Old Norse for stave or pillar island) is a small and uninhabited of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland.
Entirely of volcanic origin, the isle consists of a basement of tuff, underneath colonnades of a black fine-grained Tertiary basalt, overlying which is a third layer of basaltic lava lacking a crystalline structure. By contrast, slow cooling of the second layer of basalt resulted in an extraordinary pattern of predominantly hexagonal columns which form the faces and walls of the principal caves.The lava contracted towards each of a series of equally spaced centres as it cooled and solidified into prismatic columns. Similar formations are found at the Giant’s Causeway In Ireland.
Staffa video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwWxpoNvC08&list=UU4gGewStvg0…
Staffa pictures:
www.flickriver.com/photos/little_frank/tags/Staffa/
