When I think about awesome places to visit, Iceland is definitely in my top 5. And here's one more reason why: Mýrdalsjökull, Icelandic for mire dale glacier or (the) mire valley glacier, is, as you can tell, a glacier in the south of Iceland. It is to the north of Vík í Mýrdal and to the east of the smaller glacier Eyjafjallajökull. Between these two glaciers there is also the Fimmvörðuháls pass. Its peak reaches 1,493 m (4,898 ft) in height and in 1980 it covered an area of 595 km2 (230 sq mi).     The icecap of the glacier covers an active volcano called Katla. The caldera of the volcano has a diameter of 10 km (6 mi) and the volcano erupts usually every 40–80 years. The last eruption took place in 1918. Scientists are actively monitoring the volcano, particularly after the eruption of nearby Eyjafjallajökull began in April 2010. Since the year 930, 16 eruptions have been documented.
     Before the Hringvegur (the main ring road round the island) was built, people feared traversing the plains in front of the volcano because of the frequent jökulhlaups (glacial floods) and the deep rivers to be crossed, although the road is still vulnerable to major events. Especially dangerous was the glacial flood after the eruption of 1918 when the coastline was extended by 5 km (3.1 mi) by laharic flood deposits.
     Mýrdalsjökull is an exceedingly wet location, receiving more than 10 metres of precipitation annually.

~Ally

     As if navigation and maps couldn't get cooler. Than you find out that some winds have names! Here are some of them! Read. Be amazed. Pretend you know the name of the next wind that blows your hair.

• Abroholos - A squall frequent from May through August between Cabo de Sao Tome and Cabo Frio on the coast of Brazil.
• Borasco - A thunderstorm or violent squall, especially in the Mediterranean.
• Boreas / Borras - A ancient Greek name for north winds. The term may originally have meant "wind from the mountains" and thus the present term BORA.
  

• Diablo - Northern California version of Santa Ana winds. These winds occur below canyons in the East Bay hills (Diablo range) and in extreme cases can exceed 60 mph. They develop due to high pressure over Nevada and lower pressure along the central California coast.
• Euros - The Greek name for the rainy, stormy southeast wind.
• Foehn - A warm dry wind on the lee side of a mountain range, whose temperature is increased as the wind descends down the slope. It is created when air flows downhill from a high elevation, raising the temperature by adiabatic compression. Examples include the Chinook wind and the Santa Ana wind. Classified as a katabatic wind.
• Papagayo - A violet northeasterly fall wind on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua and Guatemala. It consists of the cold air mass of a norte which has overridden the mountains of Central America.
  

• Willy-willy  A tropical cyclone (with winds 33 knots or greater) in Australia, especially in the southwest. More recent common usage is for dust-devils.
  

• Zephyros  The ancient Greek name for the west wind, which generally light and beneficial.  It has evolved into "zephyr" which denotes a soft gentle breeze.
  

~Ally

     The biggest cave in the world has been found! It is located in the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in Vietnam, in the Qyang Binh province. It is over 200m width, 150m high and about 9km extension, which makes it capable of accommodating a 40 floor skyscraper inside, along with the residing several stalactites, waterfalls and even a jungle with many native animals.
     The name "Son Doong" means something like "mountain river cave" and researchers believe it arose about 2-5 million years ago, through erosion caused by a river. Before it was discovered, the Deer Cave in Malasia was considered the biggest cave in the world. Son Doong is twice as big.
     So far, the only people who can visit Son Doong are researchers but, in 2014, it will be opened to some tourists - in order to preserve it.

~Ally

     What do you get when you mix Medusa and a big bucket of water? Petrifying water, of course! - or some wet snakes, but whatever, you got the point.
     At first I didn't believe what I was reading but it seems that there is a lake in Tanzania that provokes this effect in animals that touch its water. The lake Natron has high alkalinity, with ph levels between 9 and 10,5 and, apparently, this makes the animals get petrified for eternity. Birds and bats are common victims of the lake - the reflex of the light in the waters confuses them and, as a result, they fall in the water. Remaining in the water, their carcasses are calcified and perfectly preserved as they dry out.

~Ally

      I'm not fond of caves - you can thank my tiny claustrophobia for that - but, in this one, I would totally enter!
     The Waitomo Glowworm Caves attraction is a cave at Waitomo on New Zealand (on the North Island, to be precise), famous for its exclusive population of glowworms, Arachnocampa luminosa. This fly species have the size of an average mosquito and  all this glow is the result of a bioluminescent silk thread wrapped with mucus and poison produced by their larvae. It serves to attract prey: once an insect is caught, the silk thread stops glowing and is pulled back to the maggot's mouth. Nhom nhom!
    This cave is part of the Waitomo Caves system, which also includes the Ruakuri Cave and the Aranui Cave. There are organized tours that include a boat ride under the glowworms.

~Ally

     By now, if you follow this blog, you must have noticed that I've got a thing for maps and monsters. When the two come together, you can imagine how excited I get! Yesterday I wrote about a couple of monsters that appear in Olaus Magnus' Carta Marina, and, today, I'll discuss it a little bit further.
     For startes, the complete name of the map is Carta marina et descriptio septemtrionalium terrarum ac mirabilium rerum in eis contentarum diligentissime eleborata anno dni 1539, which can be translated as "A marine map and description of the northern countries and their remarkable features, meticulously made in the year 1539." It represents the beggining of Swedish cartography, and the representations of the Nordic countries were quite accurate!
     Magnus was a Swede church man and he worked in the map for 12 years (!) before it was finally printed in Venice in 1539 with the title Carta Marina. You can see in the picture above that there are commentaries in the bottom left-hand corner. Those are in Latin, but there were also Italian and German commentaries printed separately.
     The map itself consists in 9 separate sheets of black and white paper (the color is a modern addendum, I believe), each one measuring 55 x 40 cm and printed separately. Arranged in 3 x 3, the sheets form the map, which is 125 cm high and 170 cm wide.
     The Carta Marina can be considered the predecessor of Magnus' great work: Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (A History of the Nordic people), printed in Rome in 1555. That was the first description of the Nordic peoples and their countries. It is directly connected with Carta Marina, and some historians regard it as a comprehensive commentary to the map.

~Ally

      I already mentioned my lack os skills and knowledge when ships and naviagtion are concerned, and today I'll try to improve on that a little bit more!
      A Sextant is an instrument used to calculate global positioning in estimated navigation, but it can also be used in order to calculate distances based on the apparent size of objects. It is used to measure the angle between two objects, observing the horizon through its lunette and moving the alidade until the image of the object coincides with the horizon. A double reflection mechanism allows the user to reach a calculated angle value, which will be pointed in the alidade through the Sextant's limbo. Such angle measures usually have great accuracy.
     Due to its enormous importance to navigation, the Sextant has been recognized as the symbol of maritime navigation for more than two centuries.

~Ally

      According to specialists, one of the oldest watersheds and possibly the oldest river in the world is the Finke river, in Australia's Northern Territory. It is said that its area goes back to 350 million years. Nowadays, it is located in the Finke Gorge National Park, a 458 square kilometers protected area, which also includes the oasis of the Palm Valley desert.

~Ally

     The first time I read about inselbergs I thought I had read "icebergs" in the wrong way. But it wasn't the case.
   The word "inselberg" comes from the German "insel" (= island) and "berg" (= mountain), and basically means an isolated hill that stands above plains and appears like an island rising from the sea... But on dry land. They're relict features, since they maintained their form as the surrounding landscape was lowered.

~Ally

    I've been reading a lot about islands and volcanoes lately, and was quite surprised to know that this little Pacific island, a French territory called New Caledonia, was not formed by a volcanic eruption, but is, in fact, a tiny piece of the massive ancient continent Gondwanaland that still lingers on.
     Let's hope that it won't disappear as an effect of the Global Warming!

~Ally