Colma, The Town of The Dead

South of San Francisco, near Daly City, lies the small town of Colma where the dead outnumbers the living by a thousand to one. It’s less than 2 square miles in size, but crammed within it are as many as 17 cemeteries where rest the bodies of more than 1.5 million souls.

Nearly all of the dead were once proud residents of San Francisco, both during their lifetime and after. But at the turn of the last century, the city passed an ordinance that banished all dead from within city limits. The government argued that cemeteries spread disease, but the true motive for the eviction was the rising value of real estate —land in San Francisco was too precious to waste on dead people.

Hundreds of thousands of dead bodies were dug up and transported to vacant lands south of the city and the town of Colma began to take shape. For the better part of the century, Colma’s residents were mainly gravediggers, flower growers and monument makers. It was only after the 1980s, that other types of people and businesses began settling next to the dead. Today, the little

town has many thriving businesses, including car dealerships and shopping centers. In recent years, Colma has held many boxing events.

The history of Colma actually goes back to the middle of the 19th century, and begins with the California gold rush of 1849. The lure of quick riches brought hundred of thousands of prospectors, merchants and other immigrants from all over the world to California. Tens of thousands ended up in San Francisco. But gold seeking was not an easy business. Thousands died from accidents while others succumbed to diseases such as cholera, and San Francisco, then a small settlement of about 200 residents, found itself in need for more cemeteries. More than two dozen cemeteries were established and they were nearly filled to their capacity.

Cemetery owners than started looking towards Colma, a small community of homes and small businesses along El Camino Real and the adjacent railroad line. The first cemetery, the Holy Cross, was established in 1887.

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The Orange Rocks of Bay of Fires

The Bay of Fires, on the northeastern coast of Tasmania in Australia, is a large bay that extends for about 30 km from Binalong Bay in the south to Eddystone Point in the north. The bay was named by the British navigator and explorer Captain Tobias Furneaux, in 1773, when he noticed numerous fires along the coast, which led him to believe that the country was densely populated. 

Evidence of settlement by aboriginal people can still be seen along the coast.

The Bay of Fires is characterized by white beaches, blue water and huge granite blocks that are colored bright orange by lichens. Perhaps, Captain Tobias Furneaux named the bay after these fiery red rocks. Who knows?

Lichens are a combination of algae and fungus that live together in a symbiotic relationship. The algae provides food by photosynthesis, while the fungus provides a protected environment for the algae. The combined life form has properties that are very different from the properties of its component organisms. Lichens are classified by their fungal component and are given the same scientific name as the fungus species in the lichen, irrespective of what alga lives in the fungus.

The lichens responsible for the orange hue in the rocks of Bay of Fires belong to the family Hymeneliaceae. The color is contained in their thallus, which is the vegetative part of the body. Lichens are grouped by thallus type, since the thallus is usually the most visually prominent part of the lichen. But in some lichens, the thallus is difficult to distinguish. As a result many lichens remain unclassified.

Aside from lichens, there is a wealth of local wildlife to discover around the bay area, including birds, corals and the rich marine diversity that the reefs attract.

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TRUE or FALSE: Siq, Petra’s Spectacular Gorge

TRUE or FALSE: Siq, Petra’s Spectacular Gorge: The ancient city of Petra, located in the heart of the mountainous desert of southern Jordan, had different approaches in the past. One po...

Siq, Petra’s Spectacular Gorge

The ancient city of Petra, located in the heart of the mountainous desert of southern Jordan, had different approaches in the past. One possible route was from the south, across the plain of Petra and around Jabal Haroun or Aaron's Mountain. Another approach was from the high plateau to the north. But modern visitors approach Petra from the east, through a narrow gorge called the Siq, that ends dramatically in front of the elaborate ruins of the “Treasury” or Al-Khazneh in Arabic.

The Siq is not really a gorge because it was not formed by water erosion but by tectonic forces that caused the sandstone mountain to split in half creating a deep, narrow pathway. Later, water from flash floods gradually rounded the sharp edges of the gorge into smooth curves.

The entrance to the Siq once contained a monumental arch, but it collapsed in 1896 following an earthquake. Only the two abutments and some hewn stones of the arch remain.

The path through the Sig meanders for 1.2 km between beautifully-colored sandstone cliffs that tower 150 meters on either side. The Siq is no more than 3 meters wide on average, but occasionally the path widens enough to allow in warm sunlight and even a tree. In other places, it becomes so narrow that one can touch both walls with arms outstretched.

Along the way are several archaeological artifacts such as ancient water aqueducts that run along the sides of the canyon and brought water down to the center of Petra. Small niches are carved out of the rock, high up the ground and can only be accessed by stairs. There are also remnants of what must have been large and impressive statues. Along the Siq are also some underground chambers, whose function is not clear. It’s thought that they housed the guards that defended the main entrance to Petra.

As one approaches the end of the Siq, a thin sliver of the Treasury comes into view through the narrow opening. Upon exiting the Siq, visitors can have full view of its jaw-dropping grandeur.

The Treasury was originally built as a mausoleum and crypt, but legend of it containing ancient riches had earned it its current name. The loot was rumored to be hidden inside a stone urn high on the second level. Local Bedouin tribes had tried to test the theory by shooting at the urn in hopes of breaking it open and spilling out the "treasure”. But the decorative urn is, in fact, solid sandstone. Its façade is now riddled with bullet holes.

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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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