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Paracel Chain
The Paracel Islands, also known as the Xisha Islands () and the Hoàng Sa Archipelago (), are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea and currently controlled by the People's Republic of China. The word ''paracel'' is of Portuguese origin, meaning placer (a submerged bank or reef), and appears on 16th-century Portuguese maps. The archipelago includes about 130 small coral islands and reefs, most grouped into the northeastern Amphitrite Group or the western Crescent Group. They are distributed over a maritime area of around , with a land area of approximately . The archipelago is located about 220 miles (350 km) southeast of Hainan Island, equidistant from the coastlines of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Vietnam, and approximately one-third of the way between central Vietnam and the northern Philippines. A feature of the Paracel Islands is Dragon Hole, the second deepest blue hole (underwater sinkhole) in the world. Sea turtles and seabirds are native to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xisha (other)
Paracel Islands, Xisha (, "Western shoal, Sands") is the Chinese name for the Hoàng Sa or Paracel Islands. It may also refer to: * Xisha (Yangtze), one of the former islands which developed into Chongming See also * Xiasha (other) {{dab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Special Municipality (Taiwan)
Special municipality, historically known as Yuan-controlled municipality, is a first-level administrative division unit in Taiwan. It is the highest level of the country's administrative structure and is equivalent to a province. After the suspension of the provincial governments of 2018, the special municipalities along with provincial cities and counties have all governed directly under the central government. Currently total six cities are designated as special municipalities: Taipei, Taoyuan, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung, all located in the most densely populated regions in the western half of the island. These special municipalities encompass five most populous metropolitan areas in Taiwan, accounting for more than two-thirds of the national population. History The first municipalities of the ROC were established in 1927 soon after they were designated as "cities" during the 1920s. Nominally, Dairen was a municipality as well, although it was un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Hole
A blue hole is a large marine cavern or sinkhole, which is open to the surface and has developed in a bank or island composed of a carbonate bedrock (limestone or coral reef). Blue holes typically contain tidally influenced water of fresh, marine, or mixed chemistry. They extend below sea level for most of their depth and may provide access to submerged cave passages. Well-known examples are the Blue Hole of Dahab in the Red Sea, Dragon Hole in the South China Sea and, in the Caribbean, the Great Blue Hole and Dean's Blue Hole. ''Blue holes'' are distinguished from ''cenotes'' in that the latter are inland voids usually containing fresh groundwater rather than seawater. Description Blue holes are roughly circular, steep-walled depressions, and so named for the dramatic contrast between the dark blue, deep waters of their depths and the lighter blue of the shallows around them. Their water circulation is poor, and they are commonly anoxic below a certain depth; this enviro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dragon Hole
Dragon Hole, also known as Sansha Yongle Blue Hole (Traditional chinese:永樂藍洞) after the third Ming emperor, Yongle, was the deepest known blue hole in the world at deep until it was discovered that the Taam Ja' surpassed it in 2024. It is located about north of Drummond Island in the Paracel Islands. Blue holes generate a distinctive dark blue colour when seen from above and are typically only a few dozen meters deep. The local fishermen call it the "eye" of the South China Sea, and according to legend it is where the Monkey King, depicted in the novel ''Journey to the West'', found his golden cudgel. Dragon Hole is about deeper than Dean's Blue Hole in the Bahamas. There are several fresh water sinkholes on land that are deeper than Dragon Hole. These include Mexico's Zacatón (), Pozzo del Merro in Italy () and Hranice abyss in the Czech Republic (). The Sansha Yongle blue hole was created around the same time as the surrounding South China Sea islands. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Vietnam
Central Vietnam ( or ), also known as Middle Vietnam or The Middle, formerly known as by the State of Vietnam, by the Republic of Vietnam, or '' Annam'' under French colonial rule, is one of the three geographical regions within Vietnam. The name Trung Bộ was used by the emperor Bảo Đại when he established administrative level higher than Province in 1945, instead of the Trung Kỳ which recalled the French occupation. This name was officially used by government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and is popularly used today. The two south central costal provinces Ninh Thuận and Bình Thuận are sometimes seen as part of the Southeast region. Administration Central Vietnam includes 3 administrative regions, which in turn comprises 19 First Tier units. Municipality (thành phố trực thuộc trung ương) Of all 19 First Tier units, 1 is municipality and 18 are provinces. Gallery See also * Northern, Central and Southern Vietnam *Regions of Vietnam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reef
A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geology), deposition of sand or wave erosion planning down rock outcrops. However, reefs such as the coral reefs of tropical waters are formed by biotic component, biotic (living) processes, dominated by corals and coralline algae. Artificial reefs, such as shipwrecks and other man-made underwater structures, may occur intentionally or as the result of an accident. These are sometimes designed to increase the physical complexity of featureless sand bottoms to attract a more diverse range of organisms. They provide shelter to various aquatic animals which help prevent extinction. Another reason reefs are put in place is for aquaculture, and fish farmers who are looking to improve their businesses sometimes invest in them. Reefs are often quite n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coral Island
A coral island is a type of island formed from coral detritus and associated organic material. It occurs in tropical and sub-tropical areas, typically as part of a coral reef which has grown to cover a far larger area under the sea. The term low island can be used to distinguish such islands from high islands, which are formed through volcanic action. Low islands are formed as a result of sedimentation upon a coral reef or of the uplifting of such islands. Ecosystem Coral reefs are some of the oldest ecosystems on the planet, over geological time, they form massive reefs of limestone. The reef environment supports more plant and animal species than any other habitat. Coral reefs are vital for life in multiple aspects some of which include structure, ecology, and nutrient cycles which all support biodiversity in the reefs. Coral reefs build massive calcareous skeletons that serve as homes for animals such as fish hiding inside the crooks and crannies of the reef and barnacle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Placer (geography)
Placer ( or ''pracel'') is a term used by Portuguese and Spanish navigators and cartographers to refer to a certain kind of submerged bank or reef. Commonly the bottom of such a reef is sandy, but there are some where the bottom is muddy or stoney. Although most reefs designated as placer are flat and shallow, exceptionally there are some that do not share those characteristics and are known as ''placer acantilado''. A placer usually provides an anchorage for seagoing vessels. Etymology The word placer derives from the Spanish ''placer'', meaning shoal or alluvial/sand deposit, from ''plassa'' (place) from Medieval Latin ''placea'' (place) the origin word for "place" and "plaza" in English. The word in Spanish is thus derived from placea and refers directly to an alluvial or glacial deposit of sand or gravel. Spanish navigator and explorer Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa commented that ''placer'' likely originated as a term derived from placer mining in the Antilles, where pearl fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portuguese Language
Portuguese ( or ) is a Western Romance language of the Indo-European language family originating from the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is the official language of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and São Tomé and Príncipe, and has co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea and Macau. Portuguese-speaking people or nations are known as Lusophone (). As the result of expansion during colonial times, a cultural presence of Portuguese speakers is also found around the world. Portuguese is part of the Iberian Romance languages, Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia and the County of Portugal, and has kept some Gallaecian language, Celtic phonology. With approximately 250 million native speakers and 17 million second language speakers, Portuguese has approximately 267 million total speakers. It is usually listed as the List of languages by number of native speaker ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
People's Republic Of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after India, representing 17.4% of the world population. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and Borders of China, borders fourteen countries by land across an area of nearly , making it the list of countries and dependencies by area, third-largest country by land area. The country is divided into 33 Province-level divisions of China, province-level divisions: 22 provinces of China, provinces, 5 autonomous regions of China, autonomous regions, 4 direct-administered municipalities of China, municipalities, and 2 semi-autonomous special administrative regions. Beijing is the country's capital, while Shanghai is List of cities in China by population, its most populous city by urban area and largest financial center. Considered one of six ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the origin of the term), the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the Stockholm Archipelago, the Malay Archipelago (which includes the Indonesian and Philippine Archipelagos), the Lucayan (Bahamian) Archipelago, the Japanese archipelago, and the Hawaiian Archipelago. Etymology The word ''archipelago'' is derived from the Italian ''arcipelago'', used as a proper name for the Aegean Sea, itself perhaps a deformation of the Greek Αιγαίον Πέλαγος. Later, usage shifted to refer to the Aegean Islands (since the sea has a large number of islands). The erudite paretymology, deriving the word from Ancient Greek ἄρχι-(''arkhi-'', "chief") and πέλαγος (''pélagos'', "sea"), proposed by Buondelmonti, can still be found. Geograph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shoal
In oceanography, geomorphology, and Earth science, geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank (geography), bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body of water close to the surface or above it, which poses a danger to navigation. Shoals are also known as sandbanks, sandbars, or gravelbars. Two or more shoals that are either separated by shared crest and trough, troughs or interconnected by past or present sedimentary and hydrographic processes are referred to as a shoal complex.Neuendorf, K.K.E., J.P. Mehl Jr., and J.A. Jackson, eds. (2005) ''Glossary of Geology'' (5th ed.). Alexandria, Virginia, American Geological Institute. 779 pp. The term ''shoal'' is also used in a number of ways that can be either similar to, or quite different from, how it is used in geologic, geomorphic, and oceanographic literature. Sometimes, the term refers to either any relatively shallow place in a stream ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
