Volcano

Volcano..

     A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or crust, which allows hot magma, volcanic ash and gases to escape from below the surface.

     Volcanoes are generally found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging. A mid-oceanic ridge, for example the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, has examples of volcanoes caused by divergent tectonic plates pulling apart; the Pacific Ring of Fire has examples of volcanoes caused by convergent tectonic plates coming together.

     The explosiveness of a volcanic eruption depends on how easily magma canflow and the amount of gas trapped in it. Large amounts of water and carbondioxide are dissolved in magma. They behave like gas in fizzy drinks. Afteropening the bottle the gas expands, forming bubbles that escape. This alsohappens when magma rises quickly through the crust - gas bubbles form andexpand up to 1000 times their original size.

     There are many different types of Volcano, which are Fissure vents, Shield volcanoes, Lava domes, Cryptodomes, Volcanic cones (cinder cones), Stratovolcanoes (composite volcanoes), Supervolcanoes, Submarine volcanoes, Subglacial volcanoes, Mud volcanoes, and Lava texture.


Effects of volcanoes

    There are many different types of volcanic eruptions and associated activity: phreatic eruptions (steam-generated eruptions), explosive eruption of high-silica lava (e.g., rhyolite), effusive eruption of low-silica lava (e.g., basalt), pyroclastic flows, lahars (debris flow) and carbon dioxide emission. All of these activities can pose a hazard to humans. Earthquakes, hot springs, fumaroles, mud pots and geysers often accompany volcanic activity.

Volcanic Eruption...

References:

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcano

- http://www.nationalgeographic.com

- http://youtube.com

Mummies of Egypt

MUMMIES . . . 

     Most of us usually picture an Egyptian mummy wrapped in bandages and buried deep inside a pyramid. While the Egyptian ones are the most famous, mummies have been found in many places throughout the world, from Greenland to China to the Andes Mountains of South America.
     A mummy is the body of a person (or an animal) that has been preserved after death.Normally when we die, bacteria and other germs eat away at the soft tissues (such as skin and muscles) leaving only the bones behind. Since bacteria need water in order to grow, mummification usually happens if the body dries out quickly after death. The body may then be so well preserved that we can even tell how the dead person may have looked in life.

"From the Middle Kingdom onwards, embalmers used salts to remove moisture from the body. The salt-like substance natron dried out and preserved more flesh than bone. Once dried, mummies were ritualistically anointed with oils and perfumes. The emptied body was then covered in natron, to speed up the process of dehydration and prevent decomposition. Natron dries the body up faster than desert sand, preserving the body better. Often finger and toe protectors were placed over the mummy's fingers and toes to prevent breakage. They were wrapped with strips of white linen that protected the body from being damaged. After that, they were wrapped in a sheet of canvas to further protect them. Many sacred charms and amulets were placed in and around the mummy and the wrappings. This was meant to protect the mummy from harm and to give good luck to the Ka of the mummy. Once preserved, they were laid to rest in a sarcophagus inside a tomb, where it was believed that the mummy would rest eternally. The mummy's mouth would later be opened in a ritual designed to symbolize breathing, giving rise to legends about revivified mummies. In some cases, a mummy has been discovered in an unmolested tomb, only to be found in a state of advanced decomposition due to the proximity of the water table. This was the case with the discovery in 1998 of the mummy of Iufaa, an Egyptian priest and administer who lived around 500 BC."

Here's How To Make a Mummy:

1. Get four jars to hold the liver, lungs, intestines, and stomach. Keep the heart inside the body and discard the other internal body organs.
2. Poke a rod with a hook on it through the nasal cavity to pull out the brain. Stuff the head with tree resin and sawdust.
3. Soak the body in natron for 40 days. Then put the body on an inclining couch so the liquids and natron fall to the bottom into a pan. Discard.
4. Rub the body with olibanum oil to make the skin supple.
5. Pack the body to make it more lifelike (with spices or sawdust).
6. Use wax to seal any incisions.
7. Tear fine linen into strips 16 yards long and 2-8 inches wide.
8. Wrap the smaller extremities (toes and fingers) first.
9. Next, wrap the limbs, and finally, the torso.
10. Sing appropriate chants over each body part.
11. Secure linen with tree resin.
12. Tuck in an amulet after every few layers. 

References:

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy

- http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/howto/ht_mummy.htm

Milky Way Galaxy

Star Struck
   Astronomers turn their telescopes to the unbounded beauty of the Milky Way...

Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy in which the Solar System is located. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy that is part of the Local Group of galaxies.The Milky Way galaxy has a whopping circumference of roughly 250-300 thousand light years. Within the main body of the Milky Way there are estimated to be between 200 and 400 billion stars. 

All the stars that the eye can distinguish in the night sky are part of the Milky Way Galaxy, but aside from these relatively nearby stars, the galaxy appears as a hazy band of white light arching around the entire celestial sphere. The center of the galaxy lies in the direction of Sagittarius, and it is here that the Milky Way looks brightest. From Sagittarius, the Milky Way appears to pass westward through the constellations of Scorpius, Ara, Norma, Triangulum Australe, Circinus, Centaurus, Musca, Crux, Carina, Vela, Puppis, Canis Major, Monoceros, Orion and Gemini, Taurus, Auriga,Perseus, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Cepheus and Lacerta, Cygnus, Vulpecula, Sagitta, Aquila, Ophiuchus, Scutum, and back to Sagittarius. The fact that the Milky Way divides the night sky into two roughly equal hemispheres indicates that the Solar System lies close to the galactic plane. The galactic plane is inclined by about 60 degrees to the ecliptic (the plane of the Earth's orbit).

Every star in the Milky Way revolves around this black hole, named Sagittarius A* (abbreviated "Sgr A*" and pronounced "Sagittarius A-star"). The sun, 27,000 light-years away, completes a revolution once every 230 million years. Within just a light-year of the black hole swarm more than 100,000 other stars caught far more firmly in its grip. Some take only a few years to complete their orbits. These paths reveal that Sgr A* is four million times mass of the sun, somewhat more massive than had been thought a decade ago.

Milky Way Galaxy documentary...

References:

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way

- http://chview.nova.org/chview/chv5.htm

- http://youtube..com

Ant

       Ants are common insects, but they have some unique capabilities. More than 10,000 known ant species occur around the world. They are especially prevalent in tropical forests, where they may be up to half of all the insects living in some locations.

        Ants look much like termites, and the two are often confused—especially by nervous homeowners. And ants have a narrow "waist" between the abdomen and thorax, which termites do not. Ants also have large heads, elbowed antennae, and powerful jaws. 

      Enthusiastically social insects, ants typically live in structured nest communities that may be located underground, in ground-level mounds, or in trees. Carpenter ants nest in wood and can be destructive to buildings. 

        Ant communities are headed by a queen or queens, whose function in life is to lay thousands of eggs that will ensure the survival of the colony. Workers (the ants typically seen by humans) are wingless females that never reproduce, but instead forage for food, care for the queen's offspring, work on the nest, protect the community, and perform many other duties. (**Male ants often have only one role—mating with the queen. After they have performed this function, they may die.**)

      Ants communicate and cooperate by using chemicals that can alert others to danger or lead them to a promising food source. They typically eat nectar, seeds, fungus, or insects.        

       Ants have an exoskeleton, an external covering that provides a protective casing around the body and a point of attachment for muscles, in contrast to the internal skeletons of humans and other vertebrates.     

       An ant's head contains many sensory organs. Like most insects, ants have compound eyes made from numerous tiny lenses attached together. Ants' eyes are good for acute movement detection but do not give a high resolution. They also have three small ocelli(simple eyes) on the top of the head that detect light levels and polarization.

       All six legs are attached to the mesosoma ("thorax"). A hooked claw at the end of each leg helps ants to climb and hang onto surfaces. Most queens and male ants have wings; queens shed the wings after the nuptial flight, leaving visible stubs, a distinguishing feature of queens. However, wingless queens (ergatoids) and males occur in a few species.

     The metasoma (the "abdomen") of the ant houses important internal organs, including those of the reproductive, respiratory (tracheae) and excretory systems. Workers of many species have theiregg-laying structures modified into stings that are used for subduing prey and defending their nests.

                      

References:

 

- Ant, Wikipedia.

Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org

- Ants, national geography.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/ant/