Eight New Natural Wonders

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Eight New Natural Wonders

• From LiveScience.com
• PowerPoint prepared by Joe Naumann

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Eight new natural wonders added to the World
Heritage List.

• World Heritage Sites are named by the United
  Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
  Organization (UNESCO). The sites, both cultural
  and natural, added to the list are deemed "of
  outstanding value to humanity" and deserve
  protection and preservation. With the new
  additions, the World Heritage List now boasts 878
  sites (679 cultural, 174 natural and 25 mixed) in
  145 countries.

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Among the Best!

• "These eight stunning natural sites are amongst
  the best of what nature has to offer," said David
  Sheppard, head of the IUCN's Protected Areas
  Program, which recommended the sites. (IUCN
  stands for International Union for Conservation
  of Nature.)

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Socotra Archipelago

• The Socotra Archipelago is known as "the
  Galápagos of the Indian Ocean" and is home to 825
  plant species of which 37 percent can only be
  found there. Ninety percent of its reptile
  species can be found nowhere else. Its marine
  life is also diverse, with 253 species of
  reef-building corals, 730 species of coastal fish
  and 300 species of crab, lobster and shrimp.

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Location Yemen
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Joggins Fossil Cliffs

• The Joggins Fossil Cliffs have also drawn a
  comparison to the diverse Pacific Islands made
  famous by Charles Darwin's work, as they are
  sometimes called "the Coal Age Galápagos." The
  cliffs are considered to be an excellent
  reference site to the Coal Age (about 300 million
  years ago). The rocks there bear witness to the
  first reptiles in Earth's history and preserve
  upright fossil trees.

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Location Canada
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Surtsey

• Surtsey, a new island formed by volcanic
  eruptions off the southern coast of Iceland from
  1963 to 1967, is interesting for the new life
  forms that have settled there. The young bit of
  land has provided a unique scientific record of
  the ways in which plants and animals colonize
  land.

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Location Iceland
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The Mariposa Monarca Biosphere Reserve

• The Mariposa Monarca Biosphere Reserve protects
  eight areas of wintering habitat of the monarch
  butterfly in the oyamel fir forests of central
  Mexico. After traveling thousands of kilometers,
  as many as a billion monarchs overwinter there.

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Location Mexico
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Saryarka

• More than 200,000 hectares of Central Asian
  steppe, a vast region of open grassland, is found
  in Saryarka, Kazakhstan - more than half of it is
  pristine. The area's Korgalzhyn-Tengiz lakes
  provide feeding grounds to around 16 million
  birds and support hundreds of thousands of
  nesting waterfowl.

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Location Kazakhstan
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Mount Sanqingshan National Park

• Mount Sanqingshan National Park in China was
  selected for its "outstanding natural beauty,"
  the IUCN said. The park features a diverse forest
  and unusual granite rock formations, including
  shaped pillars and peaks, which can be viewed
  from suspended walking trails.

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Location China
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Sardona

• The Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona, on the other
  hand, was picked for its geological value it
  features a dramatic display of mountain-building,
  including an area called the Glarus Overthrust,
  where older rock overlays younger rock.

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Location Switzerland
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Lagoons of New Caledonia

• The highly diverse coral reef ecosystems of the
  Lagoons of New Caledonia put it on the new list -
  they equal or possibly surpass the larger Great
  Barrier Reef in coral and fish diversity.

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Location New Caledonia
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New Caledonia Reef
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The Larger Picture

• These eight natural sites were accompanied by 27
  cultural sites as inductees into the World
  Heritage program. The IUCN also helps monitor
  conservation at the natural sites. It has deemed
  several World Heritage sites as under threat,
  including the Galápagos Islands, in Ecuador,
  Machu Picchu, in Peru, and Virunga National Park,
  in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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Some Fascinating Earth Facts

• El Azizia in Libya recorded a temperature of 136
  degrees Fahrenheit (57.8 Celsius) on Sept. 13,
  1922 -- the hottest ever measured.
• The coldest temperature ever measured on Earth
  was -129 Fahrenheit (-89 Celsius) at Vostok ,
  Antarctica, on July 21, 1983.
• In a volcanic eruption , the violent separation
  of gas from lava produces a "frothy" rock called
  pumice, loaded with gas bubbles. Some of it can
  float, geologists say.

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The highest waterfall in the world is Angel
Falls. The water of Angel Falls in Venezuela
drops 3,212 feet (979 meters).

• The air around a lightning bolt is superheated to
  about five times the temperature of the Sun .
  This sudden heating causes the air to expand
  faster than the speed of sound, which compresses
  the air and forms a shock wave we hear it as
  thunder.
• Rocks called iron-manganese crusts grow on
  mountains under the sea. The crusts precipitate
  material slowly from seawater, growing about 1
  millimeter every million years.
• Roughly 1,000 tons of mater enters the atmosphere
  every year and makes its way to Earth's surface.

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The Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii is the largest
here on Earth. It rises more than 50,000 feet
above its base, which sits under the surface of
the sea.

• Dust is kicked up by high winds in North Africa
  and carried as high as 20,000, where it's caught
  up in the trade winds and carried across the sea.
  Dust from China makes its way to North America,
  too.
• The San Andreas fault, which runs north-south, is
  slipping at a rate of about 2 inches (5
  centimeters) per year, causing Los Angeles to
  move towards San Francisco. Scientists forecast
  LA will be a suburb of the City by the Bay in
  about 15 million years.
• The Nile River in Africa is 4,160 miles (6,695
  kilometers) long.

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A 1960 Chilean earthquake, which occurred off the
coast, had a magnitude of 9.6 and broke a fault
more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) long.

• Because the planet rotates and is more flexible
  than you might imagine, it bulges at the
  midsection, creating a sort of pumpkin shape. The
  bulge was lessening for centuries but now,
  suddenly, it is growing, a recent study showed.
  Accelerated melting of Earth's glaciers is taking
  the blame for the gain in equatorial girth.
• The world's deadliest recorded earthquake
  occurred in 1557 in central China. It struck a
  region where most people lived in caves carved
  from soft rock. The dwellings collapsed, killing
  an estimated 830,000 people.

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Climbers who brave Mt. Everest in the Nepal-Tibet
section of the Himalayas reach 29,035 feet
(nearly 9 kilometers) above sea level.

• The 1994 Northridge earthquake had a magnitude of
  6.7 was responsible for approximately 60 deaths,
  9,000 injuries, and more than 40 billion in
  damage. The Kobe earthquake of 1995 was magnitude
  6.8 and killed 5,530 people. There were some
  37,000 injuries and more than 100 billion in
  economic loss.
• The distance from the surface of Earth to the
  center is about 3,963 miles (6,378 kilometers).
  Much of Earth is fluid. The mostly solid skin of
  the planet is only 41 miles (66 kilometers) thick
  -- thinner than the skin of an apple, relatively
  speaking.

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The shore of the Dead Sea in the Middle East is
about 1,300 feet below sea level. Second is in
Death Valley, California, at a mere 282 feet
below sea level.

• A billion years ago, the Moon was in a tighter
  orbit, taking just 20 days to go around us. A day
  on Earth back then was only 18 hours long. The
  Moon is still moving away -- about 1.6 inches a
  year. Meanwhile, Earth's rotation is slowing
  down, lengthening our days.
• In a problem repeated elsewhere in the country,
  the pumping of natural underground water
  reservoirs in California is causing the ground to
  sink up to 4 inches (11 centimeters) per year in
  places. Water and sewage systems may soon be
  threatened.
• Yosemite Falls in California is 2,425 feet high.

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Alaska experiences a magnitude 7 earthquake
almost every year, and a magnitude 8 or greater
earthquake on average every 14 years.

• A place called Arica, in Chile, gets just 0.03
  inches (0.76 millimeters) of rain per year. At
  that rate, it would take a century to fill a
  coffee cup.
• Intense rainfall over a short period of time can
  trigger shallow, fast-moving mud and debris
  flows. Slow, steady rainfall over a long period
  of time may trigger deeper, slow-moving
  landslides. In a record-breaking storm in the San
  Francisco area in January 1982, some 18,000
  debris flows were triggered during a single
  night! Property damage was over 66 million, and
  25 people died.

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Scientists found in 1999 that molten material in
and around Earth's core moves in vortices ,
swirling pockets whose dynamics are similar to
tornadoes and hurricanes.

• Debris flows are like mud avalanches that can
  move at speeds in excess of 100 mph (160 kph).
• Lloro, Colombia averages 523.6 inches of rainfall
  a year, or more than 40 feet (13 meters). That's
  about 10 times more than fairly wet major cities
  in Europe or the United States.
• The Grand Canyon is billed as the world's largest
  canyon system. Its main branch is 277 miles long.
• The Snake River dug Hell's Canyon more than 8,000
  feet deep. The Grand Canyons less than 6,000 ft.
  deep.

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Earth's diameter at the equator is 7,926 miles.
It is just barely the largest rocky planet in the
Solar System. Venus is 7,521 miles (12,104
kilometers) wide.

• About 540 volcanoes on land are known to have
  erupted in historic times. No one knows how many
  undersea volcanoes have erupted through history.
• About 97 percent of the worlds water is in the
  oceans.
• Nearly 70 percent of the Earth's fresh-water
  supply is locked up in the icecaps of Antarctica
  and Greenland.
• The Pacific Ocean covers 64 million square miles
  (165 million square kilometers). It is more than
  two times the size of the Atlantic. It has an
  average depth of 2.4 miles (3.9 kilometers).

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The Earths temperature increases about 36
Fahrenheit for every 0.62 miles you go down. Near
the center, its thought to be at least 7,000
Fahrenheit.

• The surface area of the Earth is 196,950,711 sq.
  miles.
• By size and volume the Caspian Sea is the largest
  lake in the world.
• One of the most active plate boundaries where
  earthquakes and eruptions are frequent, for
  example, is around the massive Pacific Plate
  commonly referred to as the Pacific Ring of Fire.
• The top three countries are Indonesia, Japan, and
  the United States in descending order of volcanic
  activity.

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USGS scientists estimated that volcanoes posed a
tangible risk to at least 500 million people.

• Groundwater comprises a 30 times greater volume
  than all freshwater lakes, and more than 3,000
  times what's in the world's streams and rivers at
  any given time.
• The Anchorage earthquake (1964) had a magnitude
  of 9.2, whereas the San Francisco earthquake
  (1906) was a magnitude 7.8. This difference in
  magnitude equates to 125 times more energy being
  released in the 1964 quake and accounts for why
  the Anchorage earthquake was felt over an area of
  almost 500,000 square miles.

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The inner part of the core is thought to be
solid. But the outer portion of the core appears
molten. We've never been there, so we aren't sure
of the exact composition.

• The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was responsible
  for 700 deaths versus 114 from the Anchorage
  (1964) earthquake. Property damage in San
  Francisco was also greater in relative terms due
  to the destructive fires that destroyed mostly
  wooden structures of the time.
• The solid inner core -- a mass of iron comparable
  to the size of the Moon -- spins faster than the
  outer portion of the iron core, which is liquid.
• At least 300,000 have been killed by volcanoes in
  the past 500 years. Between 1980 and 1990,
  volcanic activity killed at least 26,000 people.

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The greatest known ocean depth is 36,198 feet
(6.9 miles or 11 kilometers) at the Mariana
Trench, in the Pacific Ocean well south of Japan
near the Mariana Islands.

• Scientists estimate that more than three-quarters
  of Earth's surface is of volcanic origin-- that
  is, rocks either erupted by volcanoes or molten
  rock that cooled below ground and has
  subsequently been exposed at the surface. Most of
  Earth's volcanic rocks are found on the sea
  floor.
• A tsunami can be massive but remain relatively
  low in height in deep water. Upon nearing the
  shore, it is forced up and can reach the height
  of tall buildings. One in 1964 was triggered in
  Alaska and swamped the small northern California
  town of Crescent City.

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More than two million cubic miles of fresh water
is stored in the planet, nearly half of it within
a half-mile of the surface.

• contrary to many artistic images of tsunamis,
  most do not result in giant breaking waves.
  Rather, most tsunamis come onshore more like very
  strong and fast tides. The water can rise higher
  than anyone along a given shore area has ever
  seen, however.
• About one-third of the Earths land is desert.
• The fastest "regular" wind that's widely agreed
  upon was 231 mph (372 kph), recorded at Mount
  Washington, New Hampshire, on April 12, 1934. But
  during a May 1999 tornado in Oklahoma,
  researchers clocked the wind at 318 mph (513 kph).

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Our planet is more than 4.5 billion years old,
just a shade younger than the Sun.

• The Sahara Desert (the worlds largest) in
  northern Africa is more than 23 times the size of
  southern California's Mojave Desert.
• Lake Baikal (the worlds deepest) in the south
  central part of Siberia is 5,712 feet (1.7
  kilometers) deep. It's about 20 million years old
  and contains 20 percent of Earth's fresh liquid
  water.
• There are roughly 4,000 known minerals, although
  only about 200 are of major importance.
  Approximately 50-100 new minerals are described
  each year.

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The total water supply of the world is 326
million cubic miles (1 cubic mile of water equals
more than 1 trillion gallons).

• Greenland (the worlds largest island) covers
  840,000 square miles (2,176,000 square
  kilometers).
•  The eruption of Tambora volcano in Indonesia in
  1815 is estimated to have killed 90,000 people.
  Most died from starvation after the eruption,
  though, because of widespread crop destruction,
  and from water contamination and disease.
• The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which splits nearly the
  entire Atlantic Ocean north to south, is the
  longest mountain chain in the world. Iceland is
  one place where this submarine mountain chain
  rises above the sea surface.

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In Burntcoat Head, Minas Basin, part of the Bay
of Fundy in Nova Scotia, tides can range 38.4
feet (11.7 meters).

• On average, there are about 100 lightening
  strikes per second. Those are just the ones that
  hit the ground, though. During any given minute,
  there are more than a thousand thunderstorms
  around the Earth causing some 6,000 flashes of
  lightning
• Louisiana loses about 30 square miles (78 square
  kilometers) of land each year to coastal erosion,
  hurricanes, other natural and human causes and a
  thing called subsidence, which means sinking.
• Mt. Cotopaxi in Ecuador supports the only glacier
  on the equator

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The two countries that produce the most gold are
South Africa produces 5,300 metric tons per year,
and the United States produces more than 3,200
metric tons.

• The most prominent topographic feature on Earth
  is the immense volcanic mountain chain that
  encircles the planet beneath the sea -- the chain
  is more than 30,000 miles (48,000 kilometers)
  long and rises an average of 18,000 feet (5.5
  kilometers) above the seafloor. It is called the
  mid-ocean ridge and is where Earth's plates
  spread apart as new crust bubbles up -- volcanic
  activity
• About 400 billion gallons of water are used on
  Earth each day.

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The highest, driest, and coldest continent on
Earth is Antarctica.

• The Antarctic Ice Sheet holds nearly 90 percent
  of the world's ice and 70 percent of its fresh
  water. If the entire ice sheet were to melt, sea
  level would rise by nearly 220 feet, or the
  height of a 20-story building.
• A Category 4 hurricane hit Galveston, Texas in
  1900 and killed more than 6,000 people (read
  about the history of it here). The next closest
  death toll was less than 1,900 from a 1928
  Florida hurricane.
• Most earthquakes are triggered less than 50 miles
  (80 kilometers) from the Earth's surface.

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About seventy percentage of the world's fresh
water is stored as glacial ice

• The creosote bush, which grows in the Mojave,
  Sonoran, and Chihuahuan deserts, has been shown
  by radiocarbon dating to have lived since the
  birth of Christ. Some of these plants may endure
  10,000 years, scientists say.
• The oldest continental rocks are 4.5 billion
  years old.
• Lake Tahoe (the largest alpine lake in North
  America) on the California-Nevada border has a
  105,000-acre surface, holds 39 trillion gallons
  of water, and is almost 1,600 feet (488 meters)
  deep.

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Astronomers know that over the next few billion
years, the Sun will swell so large as to envelop
Earth and vaporize it.

• During the 9-hour period of most vigorous
  activity on May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens dumped
  more than 540 million tons of ash over an area of
  more than 22,000 square miles (56,980 square
  kilometers). It was the most destructive volcanic
  eruption known to occur in the United States.

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• The most extreme locations in the United States,
  compass-wise are The westernmost point is the
  aptly named West Point of Amatignak Island,
  Alaska. The northernmost point is Point Barrow,
  Alaska. The southernmost point is the southern
  tip of the island of Hawaii. The easternmost
  point -- go ahead, take a guess! -- is Pochnoi
  Point at Semisopochnoi, Alaska. Huh? Look at a
  world map. The tip of the Aleutian Islands lies
  on the other side of the 180-degree longitude
  line --- the International Dateline -- putting
  Pochnoi Point barely but officially in the
  Eastern Hemisphere.

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World Heritage Sites in the USA

• Mesa Verde National Park (1978)
• Yellowstone National Park (1978)
• Everglades National Park (1979)
• Grand Canyon National Park (1979)
• Independence Hall (1979)
• Kluane / Wrangell-St Elias / Glacier Bay /
  Tatshenshini-Alsek (1979, 1992, 1994)
• Redwood National and State Parks (1980)
• Mammoth Cave National Park (1981)

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• Olympic National Park (1981)
• Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site (1982)
• La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site
  in Puerto Rico
• (1983) Great Smoky Mountains National Park (1983)
• Statue of Liberty (1984)
• Yosemite National Park (1984)
• Chaco Culture (1987)

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• Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (1987)
• Monticello and the University of Virginia in
  Charlottesville (1987)
• Pueblo de Taos (1992)
• Carlsbad Caverns National Park (1995)
• Waterton Glacier International Peace Park (1995)

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Cahokia Mound as it was
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Cahokia Mound Today
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Cahokia Mound State Historical Site Museum
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Woodhenge at Cahokia
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Somewhat analogous to Stonehenge in England