The Mid-Atlantic Ridge in Iceland

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a submarine ridge located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, that wraps around the globe for more than 65,000 km like the seam of a baseball. It is the longest and the most extensive chain of mountains on earth, but being located underwater, more than 90% of this mountain range remains hidden from view. There are only a few places on earth where it juts out of the surface of the ocean, in the form of a few islands, one of which is Iceland.

Iceland represents the largest portion of the mid-Atlantic ridge exposed above sea level. Formed from volcanic eruptions on the Mid-Atlantic ridge, about 24 million years ago, it is one of the few places where you can stand on the ridge on dry land. This makes Iceland very special and a popular place for geologists and scientists.

This is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. A visitor stands between the two tectonic plates. 

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is geologically significant because it marks the boundary where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet and separate. Volcanic eruptions at this boundary create new ocean floor and at the same time push the two tectonic plates apart at rates of 1 cm to 20 cm per year, a process known as sea-floor spreading. As oceanic plates move apart, rock melts and wells up from tens of kilometers deep producing enormous volcanic eruptions of basalt, and building the longest chain of volcanoes in the world.

The place where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is best visible is at Thingvellir National Park, in southwestern Iceland. The continental drift between the North American and Eurasian Plates can

be clearly seen in the cracks or faults which traverse the region, the largest one, Almannagjá, being a veritable canyon.

The section of the ridge that includes the island of Iceland is known as the Reykjanes Ridge. The ridge is spreading at an average rate of about 2.5 cm per year. Over the past 10,000 years the Thingvellir Rift Valley has widened by 230 feet (70 m) and sunk by 131 feet (40 m). Not only is the mid-ocean ridge changing the geography of Iceland, it’s also responsible for the volcanic activity which created the island. As the two tectonic plates shift, fissures periodically form in the crust that allow molten rock from underground to surface as lava, creating Iceland's many volcanoes. Iceland is one of the most geologically active places on Earth with more than 15 volcanoes that have erupted in the last century.

Map of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, running from top to bottom, between the continents of North/South America and Africa.

Visitors walking next to the North American plate. On the right is the Eurasian plate

 

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Japan’s Notorious Taiji Dolphin Hunt

One of the most infamous dolphin hunting season has begun on the small coastal town of Taiji, in southwestern Japan. Hundreds of dolphins are herded into a small cove by fishermen on boats and then slaughtered for meat or captured to be sold to aquariums and marine parks around the

world. These annual hunts last for six months, from the beginning of September through the end of February, during which close to two thousand dolphins are killed.

The hunt takes place early morning, usually before sunrise. A small group of fishermen get into a dozen motorized boats and head towards the region where dolphins are known to migrate. Once a pod of dolphin is found, the fishermen lower several stainless steel poles into the water and strike them with mallets. The noise disrupts the dolphin's sonar throwing off their navigation and causing them to panic. This enables the fishermen to drive the panicked dolphins towards the bay which leads to a sheltered cove. Once inside, the mouth of the cove is sealed with nets trapping the dolphins inside.

At this point, the dolphins are too agitated to hunt. So the fishermen leave them to cool off for the night. The next morning, the fishermen enter the bay in small boats, and kill the dolphins one at a time. In the past, the fishermen used to stab the dolphins with sharp hooks and harpoons and bleed them to death turning the waters of the cove red with blood. Protests and condemnation against this practice has forced the fishermen to adopt a different killing technique. Nowadays, the dolphins are killed by driving a long metal rod into the cervical region of the dolphin, severing its brainstem, which supposedly kills them within seconds. In realty, the dolphins thrash about in agonizing pain for several minutes. To prevent spilling blood into the cove and turning it red, which would look really bad and inhumane, the fishermen push wooden corks into the wounds.

Aside from the physical pain, the dolphins undergo extreme psychological distress. The hunters would often release the smaller and younger dolphins and kill only the larger adults as they provided more meat. The released animals are traumatized and stressed by the hunts and rarely survive for long without the support of their pod. A pod is not just a random collection of dolphins, but is largely built on dolphin families with very close relations. When dolphins within a pod die, members of the pod exhibit signs of grieving and distress just like humans do.

The gruesome hunting was secretly filmed by National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos in 2009 for the Academy Award-winning documentary “The Cove”. Since the release of the documentary, the hunt has created an outrage across the world. Millions of people, animal activists and organizations have demanded that the hunting be stopped. But this isn’t going to happen, because it’s a multi-million-dollar industry and is supported by the Japanese government.

The government issues permits to hunt dolphins, whales and other marine animals. About 1,800 permits for dolphin are issued per year. Along with porpoises and other small whales, the total number of permits issued for a single hunting season exceeds well over 16,000. This is a significant drop from 23,000 permits that were annually issued at the time the documentary was made.

The fall in demand for dolphin meat is largely due to efforts from non-profit organizations and activists who have been educating the Japanese people about the dangers of eating mercury-contaminated dolphin meat. In 2015, the World Association of Zoos an Aquariums (WAZA) also banned the buying and selling of dolphins from the controversial hunt, after protests and pressure from global organizations. But there are still plenty of marine parks that do not belong to WAZA and are ready to buy dolphins from Taiji.

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Giant Crystal Cave in the Mexican Desert

Nearly 1,000ft below the Chihuahua Desert in Mexico, a gigantic cave was discovered by two brothers drilling in the Naica lead and silver mine in 2007-2008. It was an eerie sight. Obelisks shaped crystals up to 37 feet (11 meter) in length and the equivalent height of six men jutted out from the damp rock walls, and there were hundreds of blade-sharp crystals.

The giant obelisks are formed from groundwater saturated in calcium sulphate which filtered through the cave system millions of years ago. These water warmed by an intrusion of magma about a mile below, began filtering through the cave system millions of years ago. When, about 600,000 years ago, the magma began to cool, the minerals started to precipitate out of the water, and over the centuries the tiny crystals they formed grew and grew until 1985, when miners unwittingly drained the cave as they lowered the water table with mine pumps.

Because the crystals resemble giant icicles, the picture suggests it must be very cold inside the Cave of Crystals - but appearances can be deceptive. In fact, the temperature is a sweltering 112F, with a humidity of 90-100 per cent. The cavers had to wear protective suits and carry backpacks of ice-cooled air.

The cave has now been fitted with a heavy steel door to preserve this beautiful wonder for generations to come.

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The World’s Longest Surfing Wave at Chicama, Peru

The small coastal town of Puerto Chicama, in northwestern Peru, is home to the longest, the most perfect, left-breaking wave in the world. Here, the wave stretches for about 2.2 km from the point —an isolated rocky outcrop where the wave breaks— to a long pier on the barren coast, where the wave ends. Locals confirm that the entire distance has been ridden on a single wave. The whole cape upon which the waves break, to their most westernmost end, is actually 4 km long, although no one has ever ridden it for that distance.

An endless series of left-breaking swells is a common sight at Chicama. “If you fall off or need a rest, just wait for the next wave coming right behind and off you go again! It is a dream,” —Ben Herrgott, an Australian surfer.

The duck whispher

The surfing potential of Chicama was first discovered in 1965 by Hawaiian surfer Chuck Shipman. Legend has it that Shipman was peering out of the window of plane when he noticed an impossibly long left-breaking wave (waves are either left or right, depending on which direction the wave breaks from the point of view of the surfer riding the wave). He asked the pilot about the place, and once he got to Hawaii, Shipman consulted a large detailed map of Peru, and identified a couple of promising headlands.

Shipman then wrote to his friends in Peru and urged them to explore the northwestern coast. The first attempt failed to find the unmarked dirt road to Chicama, but later, another group of surfers found the way to the promising surf spot. Since then Chicama has also a popular surf destination.

The wave at Chicama is divided into multiple sections. The very outside point is called “Malpaso”, which breaks for about 150 meters. The next point toward town is called “Keys”, which breaks for another 600 meters before hitting deep water. Then comes “the Point” which is about a kilometer long and considered the best part of the wave. Finally, there is “El Hombre”. The waves usually doesn’t connect, but when the swell is over six feet high, which is quite rare, one can ride all the way to the pier on a single wave. The ride can last ride for three to five minutes —an eternity for a surfer.

Early this year, the legendary wave at Chicama became the world’s first nationally protected surf break, when the Peruvian government passed a law forbidding any construction within a kilometer of the shoreline that could potentially affect the way the wave breaks along the coast line. The government also plans to protect five other waves. Eventually the country hopes to have 130 protected wave.

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KAYAKOY: A Greek ghost town in Turkey

KAYAKOY: A GREEK GHOST TOWN IN TURKEY

Eight km to the south of Fethiye city in southwestern Turkey lies the ruins of around five hundred houses belonging to the once thriving community of Livissi, consisting mostly of Greek Orthodox Christians. Livissi, now known as Kayakoy or the Rock Village, was built probably in the 18th century on the site of the ancient city of Lebessus, and is thought to have been the place where the inhabitants of Byzantine Gemiler Island fled to escape the marauding pirates. After a devastating earthquake and fire left Fethiye a wasted land, many moved to Livissi and the town grew. During its heydays, Livissi had a population of 10,000 or 20,000 according to different sources.

Before the First World War, there were many Greek populations living peacefully across the whole of western Turkey. But when War started, these Greeks suddenly found themselves in enemy land and at mercy of the Ottomans. Several hundred thousand Greeks were massacred during the war as part of ethnic cleansing carried out by the Turks. Some fled to Greece. Others were forcibly deported.

The inhabitants of Livissi were driven out from their homes and marched on foot to another location 220 km away. Many perished, succumbing to hunger and fatigue, during these death marches.

After Turkey’s defeat in the War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Greeks decided to go land grabbing and invaded Turkey. A full-scale war followed —the Greco-Turkish War— lasting three years, during which untold number of horrible crimes were committed by both Greeks and Turks against each other —mass murders, rapes, butchering, burning down of cities and the usual.

Eventually, a peace treaty was signed in 1923, and both countries came to an agreement to exchange population. Over one million Greek Orthodox Christians living in Turkey were to return to Greece. In a similar fashion, about 500,000 Muslims would have to leave Greek territories and go back to Turkey.

By the time the war ended, Livissi was more or less abandoned. The few remaining families were once again forcibility deported. When the Greeks left, the Muslim deportees from Greece landed on Livissi. However, the Muslims, accustomed to large and fertile fields in their former land, found this hilly and rocky town unfit to live, and abandoned the place in favor of other regions. In 1957, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake delivered Livissi its final blow, destroying most of the town’s buildings.

The town of Livissi, now renamed Kayakoy, remains deserted but preserved as a museum and a historical monument. Unfortunately, the Turkish government has been cooking up some terrible plans to turn part of the historic town into a tourist attraction with hotels, shops and other facilities.

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Orda Cave: World's Longest Underwater Gypsum Cave in Russia

A team of daring cave divers working on Orda Cave Awareness Project have produced an incredible series of photos of the longest underwater gypsum crystal cave in the world. Located near Orda village in Perm region, Ural, Orda Cave is also the biggest underwater gypsum crystal cave in the world and second in Eurasia in terms of volumes of its galleries that stretch up to five kilometers.

Over a period of six months, famous underwater photographer, journalist and dive-instructor Victor Lyagushkin led the team of cave divers and took stunning images of the cave at less than zero degree temperature.

The location of the cave in Ural region, which is known for rich mineral deposits in Russia, may be linked to the gypsum content in Orda Cave, which has transparent water because of the mineral. The water is so clear divers can see over 50 yards ahead of them.

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