NIAGARA FALLS....

       Thunder of Waters

Beautiful Niagra Falls Wallpaper.

            Niagara Falls, one of the most spectacular natural wonders in North America, is more than 25,000 years old. The falls are on the Niagara River, which flows between the United States and Canada, from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario.

Beautiful Niagra Falls at night Wallpaper.

            It is awesome just to be near the waterfall and watch the force of so many litres of water plunging down the steep cliff. More than 2.3 million litres per second pour over the falls. As the water thunders down, it fills the air with a silvery mist in which you can see many shining rainbows. A ceaseless roar fills the air as all this water strikes the bottom. The Iroquois Indians called this waterfall Niagara, meaning ‘thunder of waters’.

Beautiful Niagra Falls from American section at night Wallpaper.

            The falls are divided into two parts by Goat Island. The larger portion is the Canadian section, known as the Horseshoe Falls. It measures 790 metres along its curve and drops 49.4 metres. The American Falls are smaller and rockier. Their width is 305 metres across, and they drop about 51 metres.

Niagra Falls.

            Between the American Falls and Goat Island are the small Luna Island and the small Luna Falls, also called Bridal Veil Falls. There are caves behind the curtain of water of both these falls. One of these is the Cave of the Winds.

            The best views of the falls are from Queen Victoria Park on the Canadian Side, Prospect Point on the U.S. side, and Rainbow Bridge, which crosses between the two.

Niagra Falls Wallpaper.

DID YOU KNOW?

Beautiful Niagra Falls at night Wallpaper.

The great Niagara Falls once stopped running. On the evening of 29 March 1848, ice blocked the Niagara River, and the falls stopped for about 30 hours.

Niagra Falls when it froze completely in 1911.

OASIS .........

The Water in the Desert

An oasis in the desert , sorounded by date trees.

According to many the most precious thing in the world is fresh water. If a person was lost in a desert without any special equipment or supplies, he or she would soon die from lack of water.

            It is therefore not surprising that very few people live in the desert. But some people do. Where do they stay? Obviously, they stay near water reservoirs.

            A place in the desert with a natural supply of fresh water is called an ‘oasis’. An oasis has enough water to support a large variety of plants and animals including human beings..

            Most oases (the plural of ‘oasis’) have underground water sources such as springs or wells. Al-Hasa is the largest oasis in the Middle Eastern country of Saudi Arabia. It has hectares and hectares of palm groves and other crops.

A Oasis, water reservoir is clearly visible from  behind the trees

            But not all oases have a constant supply of water. Some areas have dry channels called ‘wadis’, where springs sometimes flow and at other times of the year they are completely dry. Another important thing  about them is: desert areas at higher elevations sometimes receive extra rain to support plant life.

            In the Sahara, people can live year-round in the oases because the water supply is permanent. The oases allow crops to be watered, and desert temperatures make crops grow quickly. The date palm is the main source of food. However, in its shade grow citrus fruits, figs, peaches, apricots, vegetables, and cereals such as wheat, barley, and millet.

            The Siwa Oasis in western Egypt has about 200 springs. It is a very fertile oasis, and thousands of date palms and olive trees grow there. In fact, the people living in his oasis export dates and olive oil to other places in the world.

A very large Oasis (water reservoir) in the desert

Grand Canyon...

The Nature’s Masterpiece

A very beautiful part of Grand Canyon with colourful stripy rocks

A canyon is a deep steep-walled valley cut through rock by a river. The word ‘canyon’ comes from the Spanish word canon, which means ‘tube’. Such valleys are found where river currents are strong and swift. A smaller valley cut out in the same way is called a ‘gorge’.

            The Grand Canyon, in northern Arizona state in the United States, is the most beautiful and awesome canyon in the world. It is cut about a kilometre and a half deep into the earth and is known for its fantastic shapes and colours. Swiftly flowing water, sand, gravel, and mud gave the rocks their interesting shapes. Each of its rock layers has a different shade of colour, including buff, grey, green, pink, brown, and violet.

Another beautiful view of The Grand Canyon 

            The canyon is 446 kilometres long and has been carved through the Arizona landscape by the Colorado River. It stretches in a zigzag course from the northern end of Arizona to the Grand Wash Cliffs near Nevada.

            Many ancient pueblos – Native American Cliffside dwellings – and other ruins in the canyon show that prehistoric peoples lived there. The Grand Canyon was first discovered by Europeans in 1540. It was established as a national park in 1919.

            Visitors to the park can take a mule-pack trip down to the bottom of the canyon. People can even go river rafting, taking a thrilling trip over the rapids.

A beautiful view of the River Colorado in the Grand Canyon

            If you visit the canyon, you’ll probably see some of the many animals that live there. Squirrels, coyotes, foxes, deer, badgers, bobcats, rabbits, chipmunks, and kangaroo rats all make their homes near the canyon. In 1979 the Grand Canyon was named a World Heritage site.

In geological terms the Grand Canyon is fairly young, at about 6 million years old. But the rocks it cuts through date back as far as 2 billion to 2.5 billion years ago.

Deserts....

The Golden Evening in a desert

The Lands of Little Water

Deserts are places that get very little rain through out the year – so little that most trees and plants cannot grow there. Some deserts even go for years without rain. They are extremely difficult places for human beings to live in. The few plants, animals, and people who live there have to be really tough to survive. Every continent except Europe has a desert. Even Antarctica has one, and that is a frigid desert.

A vast desert with lovely white sand all around

 Most deserts, however, are arid or dry deserts with miles and miles of sand, baked earth, and barren rock. In the daytime, these places took like lost worlds – hot, dry, and silent. Usually, the only plants growing there are low thorny ones. These plants store most of the water they are able to collect. It may be a long time before their next drink.

A desert ship caravan travelling through the desert

            At night it can be quite cold in the desert. That’s when creatures that have been hiding from the  burning rays of the sum, come out of their homes. Many of the creatures are lizards and insects such as scorpions. There are also different kinds of rats as well as other, larger animals.

Date trees , like camels have the special ability to survive in the tough desert weather.

            You can hear the animals squeaking and growling near water holes and springs. That’s where the coyotes, badgers, bobcats, foxes, and birds gather – all hunting for food and water. When the rare spring does bubble up in the desert, plants and trees begin to grow. An island of green like this is called an ‘oasis’.

            Many people choose to live in the desert. In late afternoon the sky turns crimson and gold, and the mountains make purple shadow. While at night the stars seem close enough to touch. Another amazing thing about desert it that at night temperature falls dramatically therefore nights in the deserts are very colder.

Bare trees standing in a desert.

Desert sands are known to ‘sing’. For some reason that scientists do not yet fully understand. It is also said to  be making a booming, barking, or humming noise when walked upon or moved by some other natural force.

Antarctica....A Continent of Extremes

Beautiful view of Antarctica
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Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, and highest continent in the world. It lies at the bottom of the world, surrounding the South Pole. The name Antarctica means ‘opposite to the Arctic’. This is because it is situated  at the opposite side of the Arctic Ocean.

The coldest temperature recorded in Antarctica is also the world’s lowest temperature, at -89.2C. A sheet of ice covers the entire continent through out the year. At its thickest point, it reaches up to 5 kilometers thick.This strange continent contains most of the world’s ice and much of the world’s fresh water. Toward the edges of the continent, the ice becomes glaciers. Some people consider glaciers as huge mountains of ice and snow but in fact they are creeping rivers of ice.

Beautiful Antarctica Wallpaper
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            Strange and wonderful continent of Antarctica has only one day in entire year. The Sun generally rises on 21 September and sets on 22 March. This one long day is the summer. From 22 March until 21 September, the South Pole is dark and Antarctica has its night, or winter.

Research Vassel stuck in the ice sheet of Antarctica
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            People do not live permanently in this continent. Only scientists and some adventurers visit Antarctica. There are, however, 45 species of birds found here, including the emperor penguin and the Adelie penguin, that live near the seacoast. Approximately four species of seals also breed in Antarctica.

Large colony of penguins in Antarctica
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            Whales live in the water around this frozen continent.. Most common species of whale found in the waters around it are the killer whale, the sperm whale, the rare bottle-nosed whale, the pygmy whale, and seven species of baleen whales. Thay can all be found off the coast of Antarctica.

            Oddly, there are active volcanoes in Antarctica. That means you can find not just the world’s coldest temperatures here but, deep down, some of the hottest too.

You might also be amazed to know that Antarctica is a desert – a ‘frigid desert’. It’s extremely cold, unlike the more common hot sandy desert. But like them, it gets so little moisture during the year that very little life can survive.

Thick and heavy sheet of ice in Antarctica
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Explorers travelling through Antarctica
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