Swedish artist Andreas Häggkvist has taken the opportunity to use his art to raise awareness for endangered species. The artwork, along with his captions, creates a powerful and lasting emotion that moves the viewer to action. At least that is what he is hoping for.
Continue reading Striking portraits of endangered animals by Andreas Häggkvist
Cathedral Cove, Coromandel – By Micknz at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0, Link
By A.Savin (Wikimedia Commons · WikiPhotoSpace) – Own work, FAL, Link
Dallol is a cone volcano in the Danakil Depression, northeast of the Erta Ale Range in Ethiopia. It has been formed by the intrusion of basaltic magma into salt deposits and subsequent hydro thermal activity. Eruptions took place in 1926, forming Dallol Volcano. Numerous other eruption craters dot the salt flats nearby. These craters are the lowest known sub aerial volcanic vents in the world, at 45 m (150 ft) or more below sea level. In October 2004 the shallow magma chamber beneath Dallol deflated and fed a magma intrusion southwards beneath the rift. Numerous hot springs are discharging brine and acidic liquid here. Small, widespread, temporary geysers produce cones of salt.
The term Dallol was coined by the Afar people and means dissolution or disintegration, describing a landscape of green acid ponds and iron oxide, sulfur and salt desert plains. The area resembles the hot springs areas of Yellowstone Park but it is much hotter and its waters are much more acidic.
info source: wikipedia
Continue reading The Colorful Landscape of Dallol Volcano in Ethiopia
Florian G. [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Uyuni primarily serves as a gateway for tourists visiting the world’s largest salt flats, the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. One of the major tourist attractions of the area is an antique train cemetery. A place cluttered with old, rotting trains, a symbol of past greatness and also decay. It is located 3 km outside Uyuni and is connected to it by the old train tracks. The town served in the past as a distribution hub for the trains carrying minerals on their way to the Pacific Ocean ports. The train lines were built by British engineers who arrived near the end of the 19th century and formed a sizable community in Uyuni. The rail construction started in 1888 and ended in 1892. It was encouraged by the then Bolivian President Aniceto Arce, who believed Bolivia would flourish with a good transport system, but it was also constantly sabotaged by the local indigenous people who saw it as an intrusion into their lives. The trains were mostly used by the mining companies. In the 1940s, the mining industry collapsed, partly due to the mineral depletion. Many trains were abandoned thereby producing the train cemetery. There are talks to build a museum out of the cemetery.
info source: wikimedia
Photo credit: Alain Rouiller/Flickr
The Damme Canal (French: Canal de Damme. Dutch: Damse Vaart or Napoleonvaart) is a canal in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The canal links Bruges with the Western Scheldt at Sluis, Netherlands. It was constructed on the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte who wished to create a canal network in order to permit the efficient transport of troops without the risk of disruptive interventions from the British navy.
Following the defeat of Napoleon, the original strategic imperative for the canal was removed. The plans in the Napoleonic era had called for a link to the Scheldt at Breskens. Half a century later the canal opened to traffic in 1856, and the link with the sea had moved to Sluis.
After World War II use of the canal resumed, but it was used now by pleasure boats, along with a tourist boat connecting Damme and Bruges.
info source: wikipedia
Continue reading Damme Canal: The Canal that Napoleon built in Belgium
Damien Halleux Radermecker [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
These amazing weathered rocks in the village of Fabedougou, near Banfora, in Burkina Faso, are nearly 2 billion years old sculpted into quirky dome like shapes by water and erosion. The domes are about fifty meters high and formed at a time when this area was occupied by an ocean. The site is both an excellent view and climbing spot.
By Hmori1960.earthbound – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
Nemichi Shire, a Japanese Shinto shrine located in the city of Seki, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, has become famous for its koi pond, which has been compared to the Water Lilies paintings of 19th century French impressionist painter Claude Monet. Monet’s famous Water Lilies series actually depicts the Japanese garden at his home in Giverny, France.
Koi ponds are designed to promote health and well being and also the growth of the koi, the Japanese Ornamental Carp.
