PROIECT PENTRU OBTINEREA ATESTARII

PROFESIONALE IN LIMBA ENGLEZA

TITLU LUCRARII:
UK and USA buried treasures
 UK and USA buried treasures

Table of contents:

1.Introduction…………………………………………………………3
2.Physical Geography…………………………………………………5
3.Human Geography…………………………………………………..9
4.Geography of USA…………………………………………………11
5.Geography of UK…………………………………………………..13
6.UK Buried Treasures……………………………………………….15
7.USA Buried Treasures……………………………………………..21
8.Biography…………………………………………………………..28

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Introduction
Geography is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features,
inhabitants, and phenomena of the Earth and planets. The first person to use the
word was Eratosthenes (276–194 BC). Geography is an all-encompassing
discipline that seeks an understanding of Earth and its human and natural
complexities—not merely where objects are, but also how they have changed and
come to be.
Geography is often defined in terms of two branches: human geography and
physical geography. Human geography is concerned with the study of people and
their communities, cultures, economies, and interactions with the environment by
studying their relations with and across space and place. Physical geography is
concerned with the study of processes and patterns in the natural environment like
the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere.
The four historical traditions in geographical research are spatial analyses of
natural and the human phenomena, area studies of places and regions, studies of
human-land relationships, and the Earth sciences. Geography has been called "the
world discipline" and "the bridge between the human and the physical sciences".
Geography is a systematic study of the Universe and its features.
Traditionally, geography has been associated with cartography and place names.
Although many geographers are trained in toponymy and cartology, this is not their
main preoccupation. Geographers study the space and the temporal database
distribution of phenomena, processes, and features as well as the interaction of
humans and their environment. Because space and place affect a variety of topics,
such as economics, health, climate, plants and animals, geography is highly
interdisciplinary. The interdisciplinary nature of the geographical approach
depends on an attentiveness to the relationship between physical and human
phenomena and its spatial patterns.
“Names of places...are not geography...To know by heart a whole gazetteer
full of them would not, in itself, constitute anyone a geographer. Geography
has higher aims than this: it seeks to classify phenomena (alike of the natural
and of the political world, in so far as it treats of the latter), to compare, to

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generalize, to ascend from effects to causes, and, in doing so, to trace out the
laws of nature and to mark their influences upon man. This is 'a description
of the world'—that is Geography. In a word Geography is a Science—a
thing not of mere names but of argument and reason, of cause and effect.”

— William Hughes, 1863

“Just as all phenomena exist in time and thus have a history, they also exist
in space and have a geography.”

— United States National Research Council, 1997

Geography as a discipline can be split broadly into two main subsidiary

fields: human geography and physical geography. The former largely focuses on
the built environment and how humans create, view, manage, and influence space.
The latter examines the natural environment, and how organisms, climate, soil,
water, and landforms produce and interact. The difference between these
approaches led to a third field, environmental geography, which combines physical
and human geography and concerns the interactions between the environment and
humans.

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Physical geography
Physical geography (or physiography) focuses on geography as an Earth
science. It aims to understand the physical problems and the issues of lithosphere,
hydrosphere, atmosphere, pedosphere, and global flora and fauna patterns
(biosphere). Physical geography is the study of earth's seasons, climate,
atmosphere, soil, streams, landforms, and oceans.
Physical geography can be divided into several branches or related fields, as
follows:
Geomorphology is concerned with understanding the surface of the Earth
and the processes by which it is shaped, both at the present as well as in the past.
Geomorphology as a field has several sub-fields that deal with the specific
landforms of various environments e.g. desert geomorphology and fluvial
geomorphology; however, these sub-fields are united by the core processes which
cause them, mainly tectonic or climatic processes. Geomorphology seeks to
understand landform history and dynamics, and predict future changes through a
combination of field observation, physical experiment, and numerical modeling
(Geomorphometry). Early studies in geomorphology are the foundation for
pedology, one of two main branches of soil science.
Hydrology is predominantly concerned with the amounts and quality of
water moving and accumulating on the land surface and in the soils and rocks near
the surface and is typified by the hydrological cycle. Thus the field encompasses
water in rivers, lakes, aquifers and to an extent glaciers, in which the field
examines the process and dynamics involved in these bodies of water. Hydrology
has historically had an important connection with engineering and has thus
developed a largely quantitative method in its research; however, it does have an
earth science side that embraces the systems approach. Similar to most fields of
physical geography it has sub-fields that examine the specific bodies of water or
their interaction with other spheres e.g. limnology and ecohydrology.
Glaciology is the study of glaciers and ice sheets, or more commonly the
cryosphere or ice and phenomena that involve ice. Glaciology groups the latter (ice
sheets) as continental glaciers and the former (glaciers) as alpine glaciers.
Although research in the areas is similar to research undertaken into both the

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dynamics of ice sheets and glaciers, the former tends to be concerned with the
interaction of ice sheets with the present climate and the latter with the impact of
glaciers on the landscape. Glaciology also has a vast array of sub-fields examining
the factors and processes involved in ice sheets and glaciers e.g. snow hydrology
and glacial geology.
Biogeography is the science which deals with geographic patterns of species
distribution and the processes that result in these patterns. Biogeography emerged
as a field of study as a result of the work of Alfred Russel Wallace, although the
field prior to the late twentieth century had largely been viewed as historic in its
outlook and descriptive in its approach. The main stimulus for the field since its
founding has been that of evolution, plate tectonics and the theory of island
biogeography. The field can largely be divided into five sub-fields: island
biogeography, paleobiogeography, phylogeography, zoogeography and
phytogeography.
Climatology is the study of the climate, scientifically defined as weather
conditions averaged over a long period of time. Climatology examines both the
nature of micro (local) and macro (global) climates and the natural and
anthropogenic influences on them. The field is also sub-divided largely into the
climates of various regions and the study of specific phenomena or time periods
e.g. tropical cyclone rainfall climatology and paleoclimatology.
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere that
focuses on weather processes and short term forecasting (in contrast with
climatology). Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant
progress in meteorology did not occur until the eighteenth century. Meteorological
phenomena are observable weather events that illuminate and are explained by the
science of meteorology.
Soil geography deals with the distribution of soils across the terrain. This
discipline is fundamental to both physical geography and pedology.[6][7][8]
Pedology is the study of soils in their natural environment. It deals with
pedogenesis, soil morphology, soil classification. Soil geography studies the spatial
distribution of soils as it relates to topography, climate (water, air, temperature),
soil life (micro-organisms, plants, animals) and mineral materials within soils
(biogeochemical cycles).
Palaeogeography is a cross-disciplinary study that examines the preserved
material in the stratigraphic record to determine the distribution of the continents
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through geologic time. Almost all the evidence for the positions of the continents
comes from geology in the form of fossils or paleomagnetism. The use of these
data has resulted in evidence for continental drift, plate tectonics, and
supercontinents. This, in turn, has supported palaeogeographic theories such as the
Wilson cycle.
Oceanography is the branch of physical geography that studies the Earth's
oceans and seas. It covers a wide range of topics, including marine organisms and
ecosystem dynamics (biological oceanography); ocean currents, waves, and
geophysical fluid dynamics (physical oceanography); plate tectonics and the
geology of the sea floor (geological oceanography); and fluxes of various chemical
substances and physical properties within the ocean and across its boundaries
(chemical oceanography). These diverse topics reflect multiple disciplines that
oceanographers blend to further knowledge of the world ocean and understanding
of processes within it.
Landscape ecology is a sub-discipline of ecology and geography that address
how spatial variation in the landscape affects ecological processes such as the
distribution and flow of energy, materials, and individuals in the environment
(which, in turn, may influence the distribution of landscape "elements" themselves
such as hedgerows). The field was largely funded by the German geographer Carl
Troll. Landscape ecology typically deals with problems in an applied and holistic
context. The main difference between biogeography and landscape ecology is that
the latter is concerned with how flows or energy and material are changed and their
impacts on the landscape whereas the former is concerned with the spatial patterns
of species and chemical cycles.
Geomatics is the field of gathering, storing, processing, and delivering
geographic information, or spatially referenced information. Geomatics includes
geodesy (scientific discipline that deals with the measurement and representation
of the earth, its gravitational field, and other geodynamic phenomena, such as
crustal motion, oceanic tides, and polar motion), geographical information science
(GIS) and remote sensing (the short or large-scale acquisition of information of an
object or phenomenon, by the use of either recording or real-time sensing devices
that are not in physical or intimate contact with the object).
Environmental geography is a branch of geography that analyzes the spatial
aspects of interactions between humans and the natural world. The branch bridges
the divide between human and physical geography and thus requires an

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understanding of the dynamics of geology, meteorology, hydrology, biogeography,

and geomorphology, as well as the ways in which human societies conceptualize
the environment. Although the branch was previously more visible in research than
at present with theories such as environmental determinism linking society with the
environment. It has largely become the domain of the study of environmental
management or anthropogenic influences.

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Human geography
Human geography or anthropogeography is the branch of geography that is
associated and deals with humans and their relationships with communities,
cultures, economies, and interactions with the environment by studying their
relations with and across locations. It analyzes patterns of human social interaction,
their interactions with the environment, and their spatial interdependencies by
application of qualitative and quantitative research methods.
The primary fields of study in human geography focus around the core fields
of:
Cultural geography is the study of cultural products and norms - their
variation across spaces and places, as well as their relations. It focuses on
describing and analyzing the ways language, religion, economy, government, and
other cultural phenomena vary or remain constant from one place to another and on
explaining how humans function spatially.
Development geography is the study of the Earth's geography with reference
to the standard of living and the quality of life of its human inhabitants, study of
the location, distribution and spatial organization of economic activities, across the
Earth. The subject matter investigated is strongly influenced by the researcher's
methodological approach.
Economic geography examines relationships between human economic
systems, states, and other factors, and the biophysical environment.
Medical or health geography is the application of geographical information,
perspectives, and methods to the study of health, disease, and health care. Health
geography deals with the spatial relations and patterns between people and the
environment. This is a sub-discipline of human geography, researching how and
why diseases are spread and contained.
Historical geography is the study of the human, physical, fictional,
theoretical, and "real" geographies of the past. Historical geography studies a wide
variety of issues and topics. A common theme is the study of the geographies of

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the past and how a place or region changes through time. Many historical
geographers study geographical patterns through time, including how people have
interacted with their environment, and created the cultural landscape.
Political geography is concerned with the study of both the spatially uneven
outcomes of political processes and the ways in which political processes are
themselves affected by spatial structures.
Population geography is the study of ways in which spatial variations in the
distribution, composition, migration, and growth of populations are related to their
environment or location.
Settlement geography, including urban geography, is the study of urban and
rural areas with specific regards to spatial, relational and theoretical aspects of
settlement. That is the study of areas which have a concentration of buildings and
infrastructure. These are areas where the majority of economic activities are in the
secondary sector and tertiary sectors. In case of urban settlement, they probably
have a high population density.
Urban geography is the study of cities, towns, and other areas of relatively
dense settlement. Two main interests are site (how a settlement is positioned
relative to the physical environment) and situation (how a settlement is positioned
relative to other settlements). Another area of interest is the internal organization of
urban areas with regard to different demographic groups and the layout of
infrastructure. This subdiscipline also draws on ideas from other branches of
Human Geography to see their involvement in the processes and patterns evident
in an urban area.

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Geography of USA
The term "United States", when used in the geographical sense, is the
contiguous United States, the state of Alaska, the island state of Hawaii, the five
insular territories of Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands,
Guam, and American Samoa, and minor outlying possessions. The United States
shares land borders with Canada and Mexico and maritime borders with Russia,
Cuba, the Bahamas, and other countries, in addition to Canada and Mexico. The
northern border of the United States with Canada is the world's longest bi-national
land border.
From 1989 through 1996, the total area of the US was listed as 9,372,610
km2 (3,618,780 sq mi) (land + inland water only). The listed total area changed to
9,629,091 km2 (3,717,813 sq mi) in 1997 (Great Lakes area and coastal waters
added), to 9,631,418 km2 (3,718,711 sq mi) in 2004, to 9,631,420 km2 (3,718,710
sq mi) in 2006, and to 9,826,630 km2 (3,794,080 sq mi) in 2007 (territorial waters
added). Currently, the CIA World Factbook gives 9,826,675 km2 (3,794,100 sq
mi), the United Nations Statistics Division gives 9,629,091 km2 (3,717,813 sq mi),
and the Encyclopædia Britannica gives 9,522,055 km2 (3,676,486 sq mi)(Great
Lakes area included but not coastal waters). These sources consider only the 50
states and the Federal District, and exclude overseas territories. The US has the 2nd
largest Exclusive Economic Zone of 11,351,000 km2 (4,383,000 sq mi).
By total area (water as well as land), the United States is either slightly
larger or smaller than the People's Republic of China, making it the world's third or
fourth largest country. China and the United States are smaller than Russia and
Canada in total area, but are larger than Brazil. By land area only (exclusive of
waters), the United States is the world's third largest country, after Russia and
China, with Canada in fourth. Whether the US or China is the third largest country
by total area depends on two factors: (1) The validity of China's claim on Aksai
Chin and Trans-Karakoram Tract. Both these territories are also claimed by India,
so are not counted; and (2) How US calculates its own surface area. Since the
initial publishing of the World Factbook, the CIA has updated the total area of
United States a number of times.
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General Characteristics
The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and
Mexico (to the south), and a territorial water border with Russia in the northwest,
and two territorial water borders in the southeast between Florida and Cuba, and
Florida and the Bahamas. The contiguous forty-eight states are otherwise bounded
by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and the Gulf of
Mexico to the southeast. Alaska borders the Pacific Ocean to the south and
southwest, the Bering Strait to the west, and the Arctic Ocean to the north, while
Hawaii lies far to the southwest of the mainland in the Pacific Ocean.
Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and
Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the
contiguous United States, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is included in the
term continental United States, is located at the northwestern end of North
America.
The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia, is a federal district
located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia had also donated land,
but it was returned in 1849.) The United States also has overseas territories (Insular
areas) with varying levels of autonomy and organization: in the Caribbean the
territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and in the Pacific the
inhabited territories of American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands,
along with a number of uninhabited island territories. Some of the territories
acquired were a part of United States imperialism, or to gain access to the east.

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Geography of UK
The United Kingdom is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast
of continental Europe. With a total area of approximately 248,532 square
kilometres (95,960 sq mi), the UK occupies the major part of the British Isles
archipelago and includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern one-sixth of
the island of Ireland and many smaller surrounding islands. It is the world's 7th
largest island country. The mainland areas lie between latitudes 49°N and 59°N
(the Shetland Islands reach to nearly 61°N), and longitudes 8°W to 2°E. The Royal
Observatory, Greenwich, in south-east London, is the defining point of the Prime
Meridian.
The UK lies between the North Atlantic and the North Sea, and comes
within 35 km (22 mi) of the north-west coast of France, from which it is separated
by the English Channel. It shares a 499 km international land boundary with the
Republic of Ireland. The Channel Tunnel bored beneath the English Channel now
links the UK with France.
The total area of the United Kingdom according to the Office for National
Statistics is 248,532 square kilometres (95,960 sq mi), comprising the island of
Great Britain, the northeastern one-sixth of the island of Ireland (Northern Ireland)
and many smaller islands. This makes it the 7th largest island country in the world.
England is the largest country of the United Kingdom, at 132,938 square
kilometres (51,330 sq mi) accounting for just over half the total area of the UK.
Scotland at 80,239 square kilometres (30,980 sq mi), is second largest, accounting
for about a third of the area of the UK. Wales and Northern Ireland are much
smaller, covering 21,225 and 14,130 square kilometres (8,200 and 5,460 sq mi)
respectively.
The British Antarctic Territory, which covers an area of 1,709,400 km2 is
geographically the largest of the British Overseas Territories followed by the
Falkland Islands which covers an area of 12,173 km2. The remaining twelve
overseas territories cover an area 5,997 km2.

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General characteristics
England consists of mostly lowland terrain, with upland or mountainous
terrain only found north-west of the Tees-Exe line. The upland areas include the
Lake District, the Pennines, North York Moors, Exmoor and Dartmoor. The
lowland areas are typically traversed by ranges of low hills, frequently composed
of chalk, and flat plains. Scotland is the most mountainous country in the UK and
its physical geography is distinguished by the Highland Boundary Fault which
traverses the Scottish mainland from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. The faultline
separates the two distinctively different regions of the Highlands to the north and
west, and the Lowlands to the south and east. The Highlands are predominantly
mountainous, containing the majority of Scotland's mountainous landscape, while
the Lowlands contain flatter land, especially across the Central Lowlands, with
upland and mountainous terrain located at the Southern Uplands. Wales is mostly
mountainous, though south Wales is less mountainous than north and mid Wales.
Northern Ireland consists of mostly hilly landscape and its geography includes the
Mourne Mountains as well as Lough Neagh, at 388 square kilometres (150 sq mi),
the largest body of water in the UK.
The overall geomorphology of the UK was shaped by a combination of
forces including tectonics and climate change, in particular glaciation in northern
and western areas.
The tallest mountain in the UK (and British Isles) is Ben Nevis, in the
Grampian Mountains, Scotland. The longest river is the River Severn which flows
from Wales into England. The largest lake by surface area is Lough Neagh in
Northern Ireland, though Scotland's Loch Ness has the largest volume.
The geology of the UK is complex and diverse, a result of it being subject to
a variety of plate tectonic processes over a very extended period of time. Changing
latitude and sea levels have been important factors in the nature of sedimentary
sequences, whilst successive continental collisions have affected its geological
structure with major faulting and folding being a legacy of each orogeny

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(mountain-building period), often associated with volcanic activity and the

metamorphism of existing rock sequences. As a result of this eventful geological
history, the UK shows a rich variety of landscapes

UK Buried Treasures

Durdle Door

Durdle Door (sometimes written Durdle Dor) is a natural limestone arch on

the Jurassic Coast near Lulworth in Dorset, England. It is owned by the Welds, a
family who own 12,000 acres (50 km2) in Dorset in the name of the Lulworth
Estate. It is open to the public.
The form of the coastline around Durdle Door is controlled by its geology—
both by the contrasting hardnesses of the rocks, and by the local patterns of faults
and folds. The arch has formed on a concordant coastline where bands of rock run
parallel to the shoreline. The rock strata are almost vertical, and the bands of rock
are quite narrow. Originally a band of resistant Portland limestone ran along the
shore, the same band that appears one mile along the coast forming the narrow
entrance to Lulworth Cove. Behind this is a 120-metre (390 ft) band of weaker,
easily eroded rocks, and behind this is a stronger and much thicker band of chalk,
which forms the Purbeck Hills. These steeply dipping rocks are part of the
Lulworth crumple, itself part of the broader Purbeck Monocline, produced by the
building of the Alps during the mid-Cenozoic.
The limestone and chalk are in closer proximity at Durdle Door than at
Swanage, 10 miles (16 km) to the east, where the distance is over 2 miles (3 km).
Around this part of the coast nearly all of the limestone has been removed by sea
erosion, whilst the remainder forms the small headland which includes the arch.
Erosion at the western end of the limestone band has resulted in the arch formation.
UNESCO teams monitor the condition of both the arch and adjacent beach.
The 120-metre (390 ft) isthmus that joins the limestone to the chalk is made
of a 50-metre (160 ft) band of Portland limestone, a narrow and compressed band

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of Cretaceous Wealden clays and sands, and then narrow bands of greensand and
sandstone.
In Man O' War Bay, the small bay immediately east of Durdle Door, the
band of Portland and Purbeck limestone has not been entirely eroded away, and is
visible above the waves as Man O'War Rocks. Similarly, offshore to the west, the
eroded limestone outcrop forms a line of small rocky islets called (from east to
west) The Bull, The Blind Cow, The Cow, and The Calf.
As the coastline in this area is generally an eroding landscape, the cliffs are
subject to occasional rockfalls and landslides; a particularly large slide occurred
just to the east of Durdle Door in April 2013, resulting in destruction of part of the
South West Coast Path.
There is a dearth of early written records about the arch, though it has kept a
name given to it probably over a thousand years ago. In the late 18th century there
is a description of the "magnificent arch of Durdle-rock Door", and early 19th-
century maps called it "Duddledoor" and "Durdle" or "Dudde Door". In 1811 the
first Ordnance Survey map of the area named it as "Dirdale Door". Durdle is
derived from the Old English thirl, meaning to pierce, bore or drill, which in turn
derives from thyrel, meaning hole. Similar names in the region include Durlston
Bay and Durlston Head further east, where a coastal stack suggests the existence of
an earlier arch, and the Thurlestone, an arched rock in the neighbouring county of
Devon to the west. The Door part of the name probably maintains its modern
meaning, referring to the arched shape of the rock; in the late 19th century there is
reference to it being called the "Barn-door", and it is described as being
"sufficiently high for a good-sized sailing boat to pass through it."

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Giant’s Causeway

The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt

columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. It is located in County
Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (4.8 km) northeast
of the town of Bushmills.
It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 and a national
nature reserve in 1987 by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland.
In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, the Giant's Causeway was named the fourth
greatest natural wonder in the United Kingdom. The tops of the columns form
stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of
the columns are hexagonal, although there are also some with four, five, seven or
eight sides. The tallest are about 12 metres (39 ft) high, and the solidified lava in
the cliffs is 28 metres (92 ft) thick in places.
Much of the Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast World Heritage Site is
owned and managed by the National Trust. It is one of the most popular tourist
attractions in Northern Ireland, receiving over 998,000 visitors in 2019. Access to
the Giant’s Causeway is free of charge: it is not necessary to go via the visitor
centre, which charges a fee. The remainder of the site is owned by the Crown
Estate and several private landowners.
Around 50 to 60 million years ago, during the Paleocene Epoch, Antrim was
subject to intense volcanic activity, when highly fluid molten basalt intruded
through chalk beds to form an extensive volcanic plateau. As the lava cooled,
contraction occurred. Horizontal contraction fractured in a similar way to drying
mud, with the cracks propagating down as the mass cooled, leaving pillarlike
structures, which also fractured horizontally into "biscuits". In many cases, the
horizontal fracture resulted in a bottom face that is convex, while the upper face of
the lower segment is concave, producing what are called "ball and socket" joints.
The size of the columns was primarily determined by the speed at which lava

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cooled. The extensive fracture network produced the distinctive columns seen
today. The basalts were originally part of a great volcanic plateau called the
Thulean Plateau, which formed during the Paleocene.

Fingal’s Cave

Fingal's Cave is a sea cave on the uninhabited island of Staffa, in the Inner
Hebrides of Scotland, known for its natural acoustics. The National Trust for
Scotland owns the cave as part of a national nature reserve. It became known as
Fingal's Cave after the eponymous hero of an epic poem by 18th-century Scots
poet-historian James Macpherson.
Fingal's Cave is formed entirely from hexagonally jointed basalt columns
within a Paleocene lava flow, similar in structure to the Giant's Causeway in
Northern Ireland and those of nearby Ulva.
In all these cases, cooling on the upper and lower surfaces of the solidified
lava resulted in contraction and fracturing, starting in a blocky tetragonal pattern
and transitioning to a regular hexagonal fracture pattern with fractures
perpendicular to the cooling surfaces. As cooling continued these cracks gradually
extended toward the centre of the flow, forming the long hexagonal columns we
see in the wave-eroded cross-section today. Similar hexagonal fracture patterns are
found in desiccation cracks in mud where contraction is due to loss of water
instead of cooling.
Part of the Ulva estate of the Clan MacQuarrie from an early date until 1777,
the cave was brought to the attention of the English-speaking world by 18th-
century naturalist Sir Joseph Banks in 1772.
It became known as Fingal's Cave after the eponymous hero of an epic poem
by 18th century Scots poet-historian James Macpherson. It formed part of his
Ossian cycle of poems claimed to have been based on old Scottish Gaelic poems.
In Irish mythology, the hero Fingal is known as Fionn mac Cumhaill, and it is
suggested that Macpherson rendered the name as Fingal (meaning "white
stranger") through a misapprehension of the name which in old Gaelic would

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appear as Finn. The legend of the Giant's Causeway has Fionn or Finn building the
causeway between Ireland and Scotland.

Llechwedd Slate Caverns

Llechwedd is a visitor attraction near Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, Wales.

It details the history of slate quarrying in the town and specifically the Llechwedd
quarry in which it is located. The main aspect of Llechwedd is its Llechwedd Deep
Mine Tour which has the steepest narrow gauge railway in the UK and travels over
500 feet underground to the disused slate caverns, and the Quarry Explorer Tour
which heads out to the furthest reaches of the Llechwedd site to explore the history
of mining in the area.
The attraction also incorporates Mountain biking tracks, Zip-lines and giant
underground trampolines. Bounce Below is right beside the underground zip wire,
Zip World Caverns and Zip World Titan -longest zip course in Europe.
Home to some of the finest slate in the world, Llechwedd was an absolute
powerhouse in the 19th century. Nowadays, the spot is an award-winning tourist
attraction offering trips 500ft underground via Britain’s steepest cable railway.
Below ground, you’ll discover cathedral sized caverns, as well as the tunnel
systems that miners used to call home.

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Gaping Gill

Gaping Gill (also known as Gaping Ghyll) is a natural cave in North

Yorkshire, England. It is one of the unmistakable landmarks on the southern slopes
of Ingleborough – a 98-metre (322 ft) deep pothole with the stream Fell Beck
flowing into it. After falling through one of the largest known underground
chambers in Britain, the water disappears into the bouldery floor and eventually
resurges adjacent to Ingleborough Cave.
The shaft was the deepest known in Britain, until Titan in Derbyshire was
discovered in 1999. Gaping Gill still retains the records for the highest unbroken
waterfall in England and the largest underground chamber naturally open to the
surface.
Due to the number of entrances which connect into the cave, many different
routes through and around the system are possible. Other entrances include Jib
Tunnel, Disappointment Pot, Stream Passage Pot, Bar Pot, Hensler's Pot, Corky's
Pot, Rat Hole, and Flood Entrance Pot.
The Bradford Pothole Club around Whitsun May Bank Holiday, and the
Craven Pothole Club around August Bank Holiday, each set up a winch above the
shaft to provide a ride to the bottom and back out again for any member of the
public who pays a fee.
A detailed 3D model of the chamber has been created using an industrial
laser rangefinder which showed that its volume is comparable to the size of York
Minster.

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USA Buried Treasures

Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano

Kīlauea is an active shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands. Historically, it is

the most active of the five volcanoes that together form the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.
Located along the southeastern shore of the island, the volcano is between 210,000
and 280,000 years old and emerged above sea level about 100,000 years ago. Its
most recent eruption began on December 20, 2020.
It is the second-youngest product of the Hawaiian hotspot and the current
eruptive center of the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain. Because it lacks
topographic prominence and its activities historically coincided with those of
Mauna Loa, Kīlauea was once thought to be a satellite of its much larger neighbor.
Structurally, Kīlauea has a large, fairly recently formed caldera at its summit and
two active rift zones, one extending 125 km (78 mi) east and the other 35 km (22
mi) west, as an active fault of unknown depth moving vertically an average of 2 to
20 mm (0.1 to 0.8 in) per year.
Kīlauea erupted nearly continuously from 1983 to 2018, causing
considerable property damage, including the destruction of the towns of Kalapana
and Kaimū along with the renowned black sand beach, in 1990. During the 2018
lower Puna eruption, two dozen lava vents erupted downrift from the summit in
Puna. The eruption was accompanied by a strong earthquake on May 4 of Mw 6.9,

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and nearly 2,000 residents were evacuated from the rural Leilani Estates
subdivision and nearby areas.

Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave

Mammoth Cave National Park is an American national park in west-central

Kentucky, encompassing portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system
known in the world.
Since the 1972 unification of Mammoth Cave with the even-longer system
under Flint Ridge to the north, the official name of the system has been the
Mammoth–Flint Ridge Cave System. The park was established as a national park
on July 1, 1941, a World Heritage Site on October 27, 1981, and an international
Biosphere Reserve on September 26, 1990.
The park's 52,830 acres (21,380 ha) are located primarily in Edmonson
County, with small areas extending eastward into Hart and Barren counties. The
Green River runs through the park, with a tributary called the Nolin River feeding
into the Green just inside the park. Mammoth Cave is the world's longest known
cave system with more than 400 miles (640 km) of surveyed passageways, which
is nearly twice as long as the second-longest cave system, Mexico's Sac Actun
underwater cave.
Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata
capped by a layer of sandstone, which has made the system remarkably stable. It is
known to include more than 400 miles (640 km) of passageway.[3][5] New
discoveries and connections add several miles to this figure each year. Mammoth
Cave National Park was established to preserve the cave system.
The upper sandstone member is known as the Big Clifty Sandstone. Thin,
sparse layers of limestone interspersed within the sandstone give rise to an
epikarstic zone, in which tiny conduits (cave passages too small to enter) are

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dissolved by the natural acidity of groundwater. The epikarstic zone concentrates

local flows of runoff into high-elevation springs which emerge at the edges of
ridges. The resurgent water from these springs typically flows briefly on the
surface before sinking underground again at elevation of the contact between the
sandstone caprock and the underlying massive limestones. It is in these underlying
massive limestone layers that the human-explorable caves of the region have
naturally developed.
The limestone layers of the stratigraphic column beneath the Big Clifty, in
increasing order of depth below the ridgetops, are the Girkin Formation, the Ste.
Genevieve Limestone, and the St. Louis Limestone. For example, the large Main
Cave passage seen on the Historic Tour is located at the bottom of the Girkin and
the top of the Ste. Genevieve Formation.
Each of the primary layers of limestone is divided further into named
geological units and sub-units. One area of cave research involves correlating the
stratigraphy with the cave survey produced by explorers. This makes it possible to
produce approximate three-dimensional maps of the contours of the various layer
boundaries without the necessity for test wells and extracting core samples.
The upper sandstone caprock is relatively hard for water to penetrate: the
exceptions are where vertical cracks occur. This protective role means that many of
the older, upper passages of the cave system are very dry, with no stalactites,
stalagmites, or other formations which require flowing or dripping water to
develop.
However, the sandstone caprock layer has been dissolved and eroded at
many locations within the park, such as the Frozen Niagara room. The contact
between limestone and sandstone can be found by hiking from the valley bottoms
to the ridgetops: typically, as one approaches the top of a ridge, one sees the
outcrops of exposed rock change in composition from limestone to sandstone at a
well-defined elevation.
At one valley bottom in the southern region of the park, a massive sinkhole
has developed. Known as Cedar Sink, the sinkhole features a small river entering
one side and disappearing back underground at the other side.
Mammoth Cave is home to the endangered Kentucky cave shrimp, a
sightless albino shrimp.

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Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the

western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending
into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into
law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872.[6][7][8] Yellowstone was the
first national park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in
the world.[9] The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features,
especially Old Faithful geyser, one of its most popular.[10] While it represents
many types of biomes, the subalpine forest is the most abundant. It is part of the
South Central Rockies forests ecoregion.
Although Native Americans have lived in the Yellowstone region for at least
11,000 years, aside from visits by mountain men during the early-to-mid-19th
century, organized exploration did not begin until the late 1860s. Management and
control of the park originally fell under the jurisdiction of the United States
Department of the Interior, the first Secretary of the Interior to supervise the park
being Columbus Delano. However, the U.S. Army was eventually commissioned
to oversee management of Yellowstone for a 30-year period between 1886 and
1916.[12] In 1917, administration of the park was transferred to the National Park
Service, which had been created the previous year. Hundreds of structures have
been built and are protected for their architectural and historical significance, and
researchers have examined more than a thousand archaeological sites.

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Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468.4 sq mi (8,983 km2),

comprising lakes, canyons, rivers, and mountain ranges. Yellowstone Lake is one
of the largest high-elevation lakes in North America and is centered over the
Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the continent. The caldera is
considered a dormant volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times
in the last two million years. Well over half of the world's geysers and
hydrothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism. Lava
flows and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the land area of
Yellowstone. The park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem,
the largest remaining nearly-intact ecosystem in the Earth's northern temperate
zone. In 1978, Yellowstone was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians have
been documented, including several that are either endangered or threatened. The
vast forests and grasslands also include unique species of plants. Yellowstone Park
is the largest and most famous megafauna location in the contiguous United States.
Grizzly bears, wolves, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk live in this park.
The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the oldest and largest public bison herd in the
United States. Forest fires occur in the park each year; in the large forest fires of
1988, nearly one third of the park was burnt. Yellowstone has numerous
recreational opportunities, including hiking, camping, boating, fishing, and
sightseeing. Paved roads provide close access to the major geothermal areas as
well as some of the lakes and waterfalls. During the winter, visitors often access
the park by way of guided tours that use either snow coaches or snowmobiles.

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Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara

Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the
state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls,
also known as Canadian Falls, which straddles the international border of the two
countries. The smaller American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls lie within the United
States. Bridal Veil Falls is separated from Horseshoe Falls by Goat Island and from
American Falls by Luna Island, with both islands situated in New York.
Flowing north as part of the Niagara River, which drains Lake Erie into
Lake Ontario, the combined falls have the highest flow rate of any waterfall in
North America that has a vertical drop of more than 50 m (160 ft). During peak
daytime tourist hours, more than 168,000 m3 (six million cubic feet) of water goes
over the crest of the falls every minute. Horseshoe Falls is the most powerful
waterfall in North America, as measured by flow rate. Niagara Falls is famed for
its beauty and is a valuable source of hydroelectric power. Balancing recreational,
commercial, and industrial uses has been a challenge for the stewards of the falls
since the 19th century.
Niagara Falls is located 27 km (17 mi) north-northwest of Buffalo, New
York, and 121 km (75 mi) south-southeast of Toronto, between the twin cities of
Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York. Niagara Falls was formed
when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age), and

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water from the newly formed Great Lakes carved a path over and through the
Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean.

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in

Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles (446 km) long, up to 18
miles (29 km) wide and attains a depth of over a mile (6,093 feet or 1,857 meters).
The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon National
Park, the Kaibab National Forest, Grand Canyon–Parashant National Monument,
the Hualapai Indian Reservation, the Havasupai Indian Reservation and the Navajo
Nation. President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of the preservation
of the Grand Canyon area and visited it on numerous occasions to hunt and enjoy
the scenery.
Nearly two billion years of Earth's geological history have been exposed as
the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of
rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted. While some aspects about the
history of incision of the canyon are debated by geologists, several recent studies
support the hypothesis that the Colorado River established its course through the
area about 5 to 6 million years ago. Since that time, the Colorado River has driven
the down-cutting of the tributaries and retreat of the cliffs, simultaneously
deepening and widening the canyon.
For thousands of years, the area has been continuously inhabited by Native
Americans, who built settlements within the canyon and its many caves. The

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Pueblo people considered the Grand Canyon a holy site, and made pilgrimages to
it. The first European known to have viewed the Grand Canyon was García López
de Cárdenas from Spain, who arrived in 1540.

Biography

https://en.wikipedia.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_United_Kingdom
https://secretldn.com/natural-wonders-uk/\
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/usas-top-10-natural-wonders

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