In 2007, a team of 41 cavers worked their way into the limestone of the Arabika Massif in the Western Caucasus, Georgia, to descend to new depths of the Voronja Krubera cave system. Two branches of this subterranean warren were discovered to reach 1,775 metres (5,823 feet) and 1,920 metres (6,299 feet), but the deepest …
Discover the origins of this geological phenomenon in Northern Ireland which consists of around 38,000 basaltic columns! On the north-east coast of County Antrim in Northern Ireland lies an unusual rock formation which draws in millions of visitors from around the world every year. They flock to see a vast plateau of polygonal basalt columns …
84% of the Earths volume is molten rock Most of the Earth’s volume is contained in the mantle, a rocky layer 2,970 kilometres (1,845 miles) thick, sandwiched between the planet’s core and crust. Despite temperatures approaching 4,300 degrees Celsius (7,772 degrees Fahrenheit) near the core, most of the mantle is solid due to the huge …
The deep ocean is one of the harshest places to live on our planet – cold, dark and with pressures up to 250 times greater than on land. When scientists discovered the first hydrothermal vent in 1977, they were amazed to see heaps of clamshells clinging to it and large colonies of shrimp.
While some of Earth’s creatures -the dragonfly, for instance – don’t particularly live up to their names, the kingfisher most certainly does. Indeed, this small but skilled riverbank predator is capable of some of the most spectacular aerial manoeuvres in the animal kingdom.
Every river that meanders through the countryside will eventually reach the sea. At the river’s mouth, this partially enclosed frontier of fresh river water and briny seawater essentially defines an estuary, which is one of the most productive ecosystems on Earth.
For the last 30 million or so years immense tectonic forces in action around north-east Africa have been slowly pulling old continental plates apart and in the process creating new ones. Earth’s rocky outer shell, or lithosphere, floats atop a hotter, denser and more fluid layer called the asthenosphere.
What makes it so hot and why is it so colourful? Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, became the world’s first national park when President Ulysses S Grant signed it into law in 1872. It’s not hard to see why the government wanted to preserve this area of great natural beauty, especially with features like this: the world’s …
It’s a quiz-master’s favourite: which is the only manmade object visible from orbit/space/the moon? To which we all know the answer: the Great Wall of China. That makes sense too, because it’s huge, right?
Deserts cover one-fifth of the Earth’s surface and are fascinating places. Take the Namib in southern Africa. Considered the world’s oldest desert, it may have been dry for 1 million years. The Namib reaches the sea along the barren Skeleton Coast, which is named after the shipwrecks that litter the dunes. South of the Skeleton …
