Category Geography

Which is the longest constructed waterway?

The longest waterway that has ever been constructed is located in China, and connects Hang-zhou in Zhejiang province with Beijing. The Grand Canal, also called Jing-Hang Yunhe, is not a single waterway but a series of waterways with length of around 1776 km. Successive Chinese regimes used this waterway to transport surplus grains from the agriculturally rich Yangtze (Chang) and Huai river valleys to feed the capital cities and the large armies in northern China. This structure is now considered as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The part of the canal that was originally on the Huang He (Yellow River) is the oldest part of this waterway. It was traditionally known as the Shanyang Canal but it is now called the Southern Grand Canal (Nan Yunhe) and is located between the Yangtze and the city of Huaiyin (formerly called Qingjiang) in Jiangsu province. It reaches its maximum height of 42 metres in the mountains of Shan-dong.

This system of canals has led to faster trading between different provinces and has supported China’s economy. The part of the canal in the south of the Yellow River continues to be extensively used by barges carrying bulk materials and containers.

Picture Credit : Google 

Why is the Ganges delta unique?

Known as the Sundarbans Delta or the Bengal Delta, the delta of the river Ganges is the world’s largest river delta. By definition, deltas are wetlands that are formed by the rivers as they empty their water and sediments into oceans, lakes, or other water bodies. The Sundarbans Delta encompasses more than 105,000 square kilometres and covers West Bengal and Bangladesh. This delta is formed when the combined waters of several river systems that include the Brahmaputra and the Ganges rivers, empty into the Bay of Bengal. Because of its rich soil, it is also one of the most fertile regions in the world, and is called the Green Delta. It begins at the Meghna River and stretches till the Hooghly River.

The biodiversity of the Ganges delta is also very vast. It is covered with deciduous forests and mangroves and is home to the famous Bengal Tiger. Sundarbans, which forms a major part of this delta, is the world’s largest mangrove forest and has a wide variety of wildlife such as the Indian python, elephants, and crocodiles. One can also find exotic birds like kingfishers, eagles, and woodpeckers here. It is also one of the world’s most populated regions, with approximately 130 million inhabitants.

Picture Credit : Google

What are the specialities of the Caspian Sea?

The Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water and is considered as the world’s largest lake. Historically, it has been considered a sea due its size and the saline it embodies many features of a lake. It covers 372,000 square kilometres (without including the lagoon of Garabogazkol to the east). It has a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometres. It is located at the junction of Europe and Asia and is bordered by the Caucasus Mountains to the west and the steppes of Central Asia to the east. Russia lies to its north-west, Azerbaijan to the west, Iran to the south, Turkmenistan to the southeast and Kazakhstan to the northeast.

The Caspian Sea is endorheic, which means it has no natural outlets. According to Natural History Magazine, close to 130 rivers flow into the Caspian Sea, but none of them are in the east. It’s most important tributary is the Volga River in the north, which provides about 80 per cent of the water that flows into the lake. The Caspian Sea is home to a wide range of species.

Picture Credit : Google

What makes the continent Asia unique?

Asia is the largest continent in the world in terms of land area and is spread across 44.6 million square kilometres. It is also home to 4.6 billion people from the total 7.7 billion population of our planet, making it the most populous continent as well. Apart from these specialities, Asia also has the highest and lowest points on land. Mount Everest, which is 8,848.86 metres above sea level, is the highest point and the Dead Sea depression, which is more than 431 metres below sea level, is the point.

A total of 49 countries form the continent of Asia. India, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and many more big and small countries are part of this continent.

Since the beginning, Asia has been home to the majority of the human population and gave birth to the first civilizations of our world. Even the most popular religions of the world such as Hindu- ism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Confucianism, Taoism, Sikhism, as well as many others were founded here.

Asia has a great variety of ethnic groups, cultures, environments, geographies, economies, historical connections and government systems. Similarly, it also has many different climates across its landscapes. From equatorial climates and hot deserts in the Middle East to temperate regions in the east and continental climate in the centre, Asia has almost all types of climatic zones. It even has subarctic and polar regions in Siberia.

Asia is home to about 2,300 languages, which include some of the widely spoken languages like Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, and Japanese.

Picture Credit : Google 

What is the shortest day ever recorded?

A day has 24 hours, right? That’s 1,440 minutes. Or 86,400 seconds. That’s to say, a day is 8,64,00,000 milliseconds. Only that, at that scale, hardly any of our days hits exactly that number. As the Earth’s rotation speeds up or slows down, fractions of a millisecond are often added or subtracted, making our days a teensy bit longer or shorter on record.

June 29, 2022

On June 29, 2022, we had the shortest day ever recorded since scientists started measuring the length of each day with the precision of atomic clocks in the 1960s. June 29, 2022 was 1.59 milliseconds shorter than 24 hours.

In December 2020, the website Time and Date reported that that year alone had experienced the 28 shortest days since records were maintained. This included July 19, 2020, which was previously the shortest day on record at 1.47 milliseconds under 24 hours.

Speeding up or slowing down the rotation of any object comes down to its angular momentum, which has three components: mass of the rotating object, speed at which it moves, and the distance from the point it is rotating about. To help your understanding, imagine swivelling around in a chair. While your rotation will slow when you have your arms outstretched, you will spin faster when you pull your arms back in.

Remains a challenge

As Earth constantly redistributes its mass and angular momentum, its rotation rate and the length of the day keep changing. Scientists have a number of ideas as to why the Earth speeds up and slows down, but predicting the length of a day remains a challenge, even in the future.

This is because a number of factors are involved and there could even be a mix of several factors acting together. These include the wind, the gradual movements of mass within the Earth, the interactions where the Earth’s core meets its mantle, and the fact that the Earth isn’t exactly spherical, to name a few.

While understanding the planet’s long-term changes that influence its rotation might put us on the path towards predicting the next shortest day, scientists believe that the most recent one could likely be the result of a brief climate phenomenon such as wind speed change high in the atmosphere. As for the next shortest day, we will just have to wait and see for the moment.

Picture Credit : Google 

WHERE IS THE ESKERS PROVINCIAL PARK LOCATED?

Eskers Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. The park comprises roughly 4,044 hectares (40.44 km2; 15.61 sq mi) and was created in 1987. Located west of Nukko Lake, which lies northwest of the city of Prince George, it protects an area of the 40-kilometre (25 mi) Stuart River Eskers Complex. Eskers are winding ridges of gravel formed by the glaciers which once covered the British Columbia Interior.

These unique land forms, for which the park is named, are long sinuous gravel ridges. They were created when sand and gravel were deposited in the meltwater channels of ancient glaciers that once blanketed this northern region.

Visitors can enjoy walking and hiking, canoeing, fishing, nature study and wildlife viewing. In the winter the summer hiking trails are turned into an excellent network for snow-shoeing and cross-country skiing enthusiasts. A 3 km beginners loop is located just off the Pine Marsh parking area.

Credit: Wikipedia

Picture credit: Goolge