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Great Victoria Desert
The Great Victoria Desert is a sparsely populated desert ecoregion and Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion in Western Australia and South Australia. History In 1875, British-born Australian explorer Ernest Giles became the first European to cross the desert. He named the desert after the then-reigning monarch, Queen Victoria. In 1891, David Lindsey's expedition travelled across this area from north to south. Frank Hann was looking for gold in this area between 1903 and 1908. Len Beadell explored the area in the 1960s. Location and description The Great Victoria is the largest desert in Australia, and consists of many small sandhills, grassland plains, areas with a closely packed surface of pebbles (called desert pavement or gibber plains), and salt lake (geography), salt lakes. It is over wide (from west to east) and covers an area of from the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia to the Gawler Ranges in South Australia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serpentine Lakes
The Serpentine Lakes is a chain of salt lakes in the Great Victoria Desert of Australia. It runs for almost along the border between South Australia and Western Australia. When full, the lakes cover an area of . Most of it is located in the Mamungari Conservation Park. The Anne Beadell Highway crosses the northernmost arm of the lake. The Serpentine Lakes are considered an important wetlands area. They form part of a major palaeo-drainage system, a now-inactive drainage system from the Palaeozoic era. The surface of the lake normally consists of dry clay, silt and sand, and is covered with a salty crust. The sediment is mostly quartz arenite. The lakes form the main channel of the palaeo-drainage system. Other channels are covered by sand dunes and are not well defined. The surface elevation is above mean sea-level. Tektites high in magnesium have been found in these lakes. See also * List of lakes of Australia Natural freshwater lakes in Australia are rare due to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days, which was List of monarchs in Britain by length of reign, longer than those of any of her predecessors, constituted the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. After the deaths of her father and grandfather in 1820, she was Kensington System, raised under close supervision by her mother and her Comptrol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Wildlife Fund
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States. WWF is the world's largest conservation organization, with over 5 million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries and supporting around 3,000 conservation and environmental projects. It has invested over $1 billion in more than 12,000 conservation initiatives since 1995. WWF is a foundation with 65% of funding from individuals and bequests, 17% from government sources (such as the World Bank, FCDO, and USAID) and 8% from corporations in 2020. WWF aims to "stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature." '' Living Planet Report'' has been published every two year ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rain
Rain is a form of precipitation where water drop (liquid), droplets that have condensation, condensed from Water vapor#In Earth's atmosphere, atmospheric water vapor fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water for hydroelectricity, hydroelectric power plants, crop irrigation, and suitable conditions for many types of ecosystems. The major cause of rain production is moisture moving along three-dimensional zones of temperature and moisture contrasts known as weather fronts. If enough moisture and upward motion is present, precipitation falls from convection, convective clouds (those with strong upward vertical motion) such as cumulonimbus (thunder clouds) which can organize into narrow rainbands. In mountainous areas, heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation which forces moist air to condense and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the world ocean, generally taken to be south of 60th parallel south, 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is the second-smallest of the five principal oceanic divisions, smaller than the Pacific Ocean, Pacific, Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic and Indian Ocean, Indian oceans, and larger than the Arctic Ocean. The maximum depth of the Southern Ocean, using the definition that it lies south of 60th parallel, was surveyed by the Five Deeps Expedition in early February 2019. The expedition's multibeam sonar team identified the deepest point at 60° 28' 46"S, 025° 32' 32"W, with a depth of . The expedition leader and chief submersible pilot Victor Vescovo, has proposed naming this deepest point the "Factorian Deep", based on the name of the crewed submersible ''DSV Limiting Factor'', in which he successfully visited the bottom for the first time on February 3, 2019 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nullarbor Plain
The Nullarbor Plain ( ; Latin: feminine of 'no' and 'tree') is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its north. It is the world's largest single exposure of limestone bedrock, and occupies an area of about . At its widest point, it stretches about from east to west across the border between South Australia and Western Australia. History Historically, the Nullarbor was seasonally occupied by Indigenous Australian people, the Mirning clans and Yinyila people. Traditionally, the area was called ''Oondiri'', which is said to mean 'the waterless'. The first Europeans known to have sighted and mapped the Nullarbor coast were Captain François Thijssen and Councillor of the Indies, Pieter Nuyts, on the Dutch East Indiaman '''t Gulden Zeepaert (ship, 1626), 't Gulden Zeepaert'' (the Golden Seahorse). In 1626–1627, they charted a stretch of the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Ranges Xeric Shrublands
The Central Ranges xeric scrub is a deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion of Australia. Location and description The region consists of sandy plains with some areas of rocky highland. These plains have a dry climate but do get some rain in both summer and winter. This area contains the remote city of Alice Springs while the grasslands are home to a number of Indigenous Australian communities or are used for cattle grazing. This ecoregion contains four Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia bioregions – Burt Plain, Central Ranges, Finke, and MacDonnell Ranges. Flora This ecoregion includes the Central Australian Mountain Ranges Centres of Plant Diversity. The habitats consists of thick, tough spinifex grassland with some wooded areas of western myall and desert oak (''Acacia coriacea''). The region and the MacDonnell Ranges in particular are home to a number of specialised endemic plant species including the cabbage palms of Palm Valley in Finke Gorge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Sandy Desert
The Little Sandy Desert (LSD) is a desert region in the state of Western Australia, lying to the east of the Pilbara and north of the Gascoyne regions. It is part of the Western Desert cultural bloc, Western Desert cultural region, and was declared an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion in the 1990s. History Indigenous Australians, Indigenous groups that have identified with the region include the Mandilara, an Aboriginal Australian group who are regarded as the traditional owners of the land. Today the group recognised as traditional owners are the Martu people. The desert is crossed by the Canning Stock Route, an historic stock route created in the early 20th century. Description The Little Sandy Desert covers around and adjoins the Great Sandy Desert (, to the north) and the Gibson Desert (, to the east), all of which lie within the huge Australian Arid Zone which covers the centre of the Australian continent. It lies east of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gawler Ranges
The Gawler Ranges are a range of stoney hills in South Australia to the north of the Eyre Peninsula. The Eyre Highway skirts the south of the ranges. The Gawler Ranges National Park is in the ranges north of Kimba, South Australia, Kimba and Wudinna, South Australia, Wudinna. The ranges are covered by the Gawler Ranges Native Title Claim. History The traditional owners of the Gawler Ranges are the Barngarla, Kokatha and Wirangu peoples, who have inhabited the area for at least 30,000 years and are now known collectively as the Gawler Ranges Aboriginal People. These Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal peoples maintained and used rock holes in the granite rock formations as a water source. The ranges were named by Edward John Eyre after the Governor of South Australia, George Gawler in 1839. This was on one of Eyre's Eyre's 1839 expeditions, earlier expeditions before his famous crossing of the Nullarbor Plain further west. It was on this expedition that Edward John Eyre made the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Goldfields
The Eastern Goldfields is part of the Western Australian Goldfields in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, covering the present and former gold-mining area east of Perth. Extent and name origin The region encompasses the towns of Kalgoorlie, Boulder, Coolgardie, Kambalda, Southern Cross and other smaller settlements within this area. The name is derived in two parts: ''Eastern'' in relation to its location from Perth, and ''Goldfields'' as the name suggests comes from the mining of gold in the region. Vegetation and biological survey In the 1980s, a series of surveys were reported for the broader region. The component areas were designated: * Lake Johnston - Hyden * Edjudina - Menzies * Youanmi - Leonora * Duketon - Sir Samuel * Kurnalpi - Kalgoorlie * Norseman - Balladonia * Sandston - Sir Samuel and Leonora - Laverton * Boorabbin - Southern Cross and Barlee - Menzies Transport The region was the destination of the long-running '' Westland'' overnight r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salt Lake (geography)
A salt lake is a lake containing a high concentration of salt. Salt Lake may also refer to: Places Landforms * Salt pan (geology), desert feature, a dry lake that may become a salty lake in wet weather Lakes * North America: ** Salt Lake (Arkansas), in Clark County ** Salt Lake (Brown County, South Dakota) ** Salt Lake (Minnesota–South Dakota), (U.S.) bi-state lake, in counties of Lac qui Parle (MN) and Deuel (SD) ** Salt Lake (Campbell County, South Dakota) ** Salt Lake (Florida), a lake in Pinellas County, Florida, United States ** Little Salt Lake, small salt lake in Utah ** Great Salt Lake, the largest salt lake in the Western Hemisphere, located in northern Utah, U.S. ** Great Salt Lake Desert, a large playa in northern Utah ** Zuñi Salt Lake, a rare, high desert lake (a classic maar) south of the Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico ** Salt Lake (Saskatchewan), a lake in Saskatchewan, Canada * Oceania: ** Salt Lake (New Zealand), in the Northland Region * Europe: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desert Pavement
A desert pavement, also called reg (in western Sahara), serir (in eastern Sahara), gibber (in Australia), or saï (in central Asia) is a desert surface covered with closely packed, interlocking angular or rounded rock fragments of pebble and cobble size. They typically top alluvial fans. Desert varnish collects on the exposed surface rocks over time. Geologists debate the mechanics of pavement formation and their age. Formation Several theories have been proposed for the formation of desert pavements. A common theory suggests that they form through the gradual removal of sand, dust and other fine-grained material by the wind and intermittent rain, leaving the larger fragments behind. The larger fragments are shaken into place through the forces of rain, running water, wind, gravity, creep, thermal expansion and contraction, wetting and drying, frost heaving, animal traffic, and the Earth's constant microseismic vibrations. The removal of small particles by wind does not co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
