American geologist Bruce Heezer and oceanic cartographer Marie Tharp were researchers at the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, New York. In the 1950s, they expedited with a crew across the Atlantic to gather data about the ocean floor from the ocean surface. The observations proved that there was in fact a chain of mountains, as high as halfway till the surface, under the…
The Tonlé Sap River is attached to a freshwater lake also known as the Tonlé Sap Lake. It connects the lake with the Mekong River, which is the world’s twelfth longest river. It flows north from November to May feeding the Mekong River with water from the lake. However, with the arrival of the monsoon…
Rafflesia arnoldii is a rare flower found in the rainforests of Indonesia. When it blossoms, it produces an extremely unpleasant odour of decaying flesh, earning it the nickname ‘corpse flower’. The foul smell of the flower attracts the carrion fly, its main pollinator.
Lake Baikal, situated in the south-east Siberia in Russia, is the deepest lake in the world. Known as the Galapagos of Russia, it is one of the richest and diverse repositories of flora and fauna. The depth of Lake Baikal is 1700 metre, making it the deepest lake in the world.
Researchers have come to the conclusion that fungi are genetically more closely related to animals and humans than to plants. Earlier it was believed that fungi were close to plants. This finding is based on the genetic data obtained recently. Accordingly, fungi have been assigned a separate kingdom along with the plant kingdom and animal kingdom.
The earth is divided into three layers: the upper crust, the middle mantle and the innermost core. The upper crust is made of solid plates, called tectonic plates. Some plates are under the ocean too. The mantle is semi solid and the tectonic plates slide over the mantle, causing an earthquake. Every year over one…
