|
Porcupine Bank
Porcupine Bank is a raised area on the Irish shelf, approximately west of Ireland. It is 200 m below sea level at its highest.Shannon, P, Haughton, P, Corcoran D, (2001) The Petroleum Exploration of Ireland's Offshore Basins, Geological Society, P355 Etymology The name comes from the bank's discovery in 1862 by HMS ''Porcupine'', a British sail and paddle-wheel ship used mainly for surveying. Location and features Porcupine Bank is located on Ireland's continental shelf, on the fringes of the Atlantic Ocean approximately west of Ireland. The relatively raised area of seabed, 200 m below sea level at its highest, lies between the deep-water Porcupine Seabight and Rockall Trough. Porcupine Bank has also been identified with Brasil (also called Hy-Brasil), a phantom island of Irish myth located at approximately the same place as the bank, which was recorded on maps throughout the late Middle Ages. In 1870, eight years after Porcupine Bank's discovery, a paper was read to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porcupine Bank And Seabight, NE Atlantic
Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two families of animals: the Old World porcupines of the family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of the family Erethizontidae. Both families belong to the infraorder Hystricognathi within the profoundly diverse order Rodentia and display superficially similar coats of rigid or semi-rigid quills, which are modified hairs composed of keratin. Despite this, the two groups are distinct from one another and are not closely related to each other within the Hystricognathi. The largest species of porcupine is the third-largest living rodent in the world, after the capybara and beaver. The Old World porcupines (Hystricidae) live in Italy, Asia (western and southern), and most of Africa. They are large, terrestrial, and strictly nocturnal. The New World porcupines (Erethizontidae) are indigenous to North America and northern South America. They live in wooded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phantom Island
A phantom island is a purported island which was included on maps for a period of time, but was later found not to exist. They usually originate from the reports of early sailors exploring new regions, and are commonly the result of navigational errors, mistaken observations, unverified misinformation, or deliberate fabrication. Some have remained on maps for centuries before being "un-discovered". Unlike lost lands, which are claimed (or known) to have once existed but to have been swallowed by the sea or otherwise destroyed, a phantom island is one that is claimed to exist contemporaneously, but later found not to have existed in the first place (or found not to be an island, as with the Island of California). Examples Some may have been purely mythical, such as the Isle of Demons near Newfoundland, which may have been based on local legends of a haunted island. The far-northern island of Thule was reported to exist by the 4th-century BC Greek explorer Pytheas, but in ... [...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] |
National University Of Ireland, Galway
The University of Galway () is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. The university was founded in 1845 as "Queen's College, Galway". It was known as "University College, Galway" (UCG) () from 1908 to 1997 and as "National University of Ireland Galway" (NUI Galway) () from 1997 to 2022. In September 2022, it changed its name to "University of Galway". The University of Galway is a member of the Coimbra Group, a network of 40 long-established European universities. History The university was established in 1845 as Queen's College, Galway, together with Queen's College, Cork, and Queen's College, Belfast. It opened for teaching on 30 October 1849 with 68 students. In 1850, it became part of the Queen's University of Ireland, and its degrees were conferred in the name of that university. Located close to the city centre, the university campus stretches along the River Corrib. The oldest part of the university, the Quadrangle with its ''Aula Maxi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deep-water Coral
The habitat of deep-water corals, also known as cold-water corals, extends to deeper, darker parts of the oceans than tropical corals, ranging from near the surface to the abyss, beyond where water temperatures may be as cold as . Deep-water corals belong to the Phylum Cnidaria and are most often stony corals, but also include black and thorny corals and soft corals including the Gorgonians (sea fans). Like tropical corals, they provide habitat to other species, but deep-water corals do not require zooxanthellae Zooxanthellae (; zooxanthella) is a colloquial term for single-celled photosynthetic organisms that are able to live in symbiosis with diverse marine invertebrates including corals, jellyfish, demosponges, and nudibranchs. Most known zooxanthell ... to survive. While there are nearly as many species of deep-water corals as shallow-water species, only a few deep-water species develop traditional reefs. Instead, they form aggregations called patches, banks, bioher ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graham Hancock
Graham Bruce Hancock (born 2 August 1950) is a British journalist and author who promotes pseudoscientific ideas about ancient civilizations and hypothetical lost lands. Hancock proposes that an advanced civilization with spiritual technology existed during the last Ice Age until it was destroyed following comet impacts around 12,900 years ago at the onset of the Younger Dryas. He speculates that survivors of this cataclysm passed on their knowledge to primitive hunter-gatherers around the world, giving rise to all the earliest known civilizations (such as ancient Egypt, Sumer, and Mesoamerica). Born in Edinburgh, Hancock studied sociology at Durham University before working as a journalist, writing for a number of British newspapers and magazines. His first three books dealt with international development, including ''Lords of Poverty'' (1989), a well-received critique of corruption in the aid system. Beginning with '' The Sign and the Seal'' in 1992, he shifted focus to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Notes And Queries
''Notes and Queries'', also styled ''Notes & Queries'', is a long-running quarterly scholarly journal that publishes short articles related to " English language and literature, lexicography, history, and scholarly antiquarianism".From the inner sleeve of all modern issues of ''Notes and Queries''. Its emphasis is on "the factual rather than the speculative". The journal has a long history, having been established in 1849 in London;''Notes and Queries'', Series 1, Volume 1, Nov 1849 - May 1850 via it is now published by |
Late Middle Ages
The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the Periodization, period of History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renaissance). Around 1350, centuries of prosperity and growth in Europe came to a halt. A series of famines and Plague (disease), plagues, including the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the Black Death, reduced the population to around half of what it had been before the calamities. Along with depopulation came social unrest and endemic warfare. Kingdom of France, France and Kingdom of England, England experienced serious peasant uprisings, such as the Jacquerie and the Peasants' Revolt, as well as over a century of intermittent conflict, the Hundred Years' War. To add to the many problems of the period, the unity of the Catholic Church was temporarily shattered by the Western Schism. Collectively, those events ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irish Mythology
Irish mythology is the body of myths indigenous to the island of Ireland. It was originally Oral tradition, passed down orally in the Prehistoric Ireland, prehistoric era. In the History of Ireland (795–1169), early medieval era, myths were Early Irish literature, written down by Celtic Christianity, Christian scribes, who Christianized them to some extent. Irish mythology is the best-preserved branch of Celtic mythology. The myths are conventionally grouped into 'List of literary cycles, cycles'. The Mythological Cycle consists of tales and poems about the god-like Tuatha Dé Danann, who are based on Ireland's pagan deities, and other mythical races like the Fomorians. Important works in the cycle are the ''Lebor Gabála Érenn'' ("Book of Invasions"), a legendary history of Ireland, the ''Cath Maige Tuired'' ("Battle of Moytura"), and the ''Aided Chlainne Lir'' ("Children of Lir"). The Ulster Cycle consists of heroic legends relating to the Ulaid, the most important of whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brasil (mythical Island)
Brasil, also known as Hy-Brasil (from the Irish Gaelic: ) among several other variants, is a phantom island said to lie in the Atlantic Ocean west of Ireland. Irish myths described it as cloaked in mist except for one day every seven years, when it becomes visible but still cannot be reached. Nomenclature The historian Walter Scaife (1890) noted that ''Brasil'' has been charted at various locations (cf. ) with an almost equally diverse variation on the toponymy (Scaife listed thirteen spellings for "Brasil"). Etymology The etymology of the names ''Brasil'' and ''Hy-Brasil'' is uncertain, but the Italian geographer (1937) was sure it was related to the wood dye brazil. Medieval Latin ''brasile'' was the term for a dye that enjoyed great popularity as a trading commodity in the twelfth century throughout Western Europe. It has been speculated that the widespread appearance of the name served as a locational marker for sources of the dye, primarily for sailors from the Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Continental Shelf
A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island is known as an "''insular shelf''." The continental margin, between the continental shelf and the abyssal plain, comprises a steep continental slope, surrounded by the flatter continental rise, in which sediment from the continent above cascades down the slope and accumulates as a pile of sediment at the base of the slope. Extending as far as 500 km (310 mi) from the slope, it consists of thick sediments deposited by turbidity currents from the shelf and slope. The continental rise's gradient is intermediate between the gradients of the slope and the shelf. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the name continental shelf was given a legal definition as the stretch of the seabed adjacent to the shores ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rockall Trough
The Rockall Trough () is a deep-water bathymetric feature to the northwest of Scotland and Ireland, running roughly from southwest to northeast, flanked on the north by the Rockall Plateau and to the south by the Porcupine Seabight. At the northern end, the channel is bounded by the Wyville-Thomson Ridge, named after Charles Wyville Thomson, professor of zoology at the University of Edinburgh and driving force behind the Challenger Expedition. At the southern end, the trough opens into the Porcupine abyssal plain. The Rockall Basin (also known as the Hatton Rockall Basin) is a large (c. ) sedimentary basin that lies beneath the trough. Both are named after Rockall, a rocky islet lying west of St Kilda. Features of the Rockall Plateau have been officially named after features of Middle-earth in the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, e.g. Eriador Seamount, Rohan Seamount, Gondor Seamount, Fangorn Bank, Edoras Bank, Lorien Knoll, Isengard Ridge. In February 2000, the ''RRS Di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
