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Diomede Islands : Tomorrow and Yestarday

The Diomede Islands are two rocky islands located in the middle of the Bering Strait, about halfway between Russia and Alaska.

Despite being separated by just 3.8 kilometers, the Diomede Islands find themselves not only in different countries, but also twenty hours apart, due to the International Date Line passing between them. That's why the islands are sometimes called Tomorrow Island (Big Diomede) and Yesterday Isle (Little Diomede) because the time in Big Diomede is 20 hours (approximately a day) ahead of Little Diomede. Therefore, you can stand on the eastern island in Alaska and look into “tomorrow” in Russia.

Big Diomede is a part of the Russian Federation and is its easternmost point. Neighboring Little Diomede is part of Alaska. The islands were first populated by the Yupik peoples and used for hunting as long as 3,000 years ago, but Russian explorer Semyon Dezhnev was the first European to discover them in 1648.

It was eighty years before they were rediscovered by Danish navigator Vitus Bering on August 16th, 1728, celebrated in the Russian Orthodox church as the day honoring the Martyr St. Diomede. For many years, both islands had a small native population, but the population was eventually forced off of Big Diomede because of the Cold War. It is now unpopulated and the only structure in use on the island is a Russian weather station.

During the Cold War, the relationship between the two superpowers chilled, but the 'Ice Curtain' did not stop Lynne Cox from swimming between the islands in 1987, where she was congratulated by both Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan. In 1997, comedian and television presenter Michael Palin visited the island at the start of his television show Full Circle. 

Little Diomede has a small town, Diomede (or Ignaluk), with a population of approximately 170, over 90 percent of which are Native Americans. The islanders are famous for their ivory carvings and the city functions as a wholesaler for the carvings, which are sold in Fairbanks and Anchorage as well as on the internet.

In the last few decades some factions have discussed the construction of a bridge over the strait, however, financial and weather concerns have continually stalled the project. Recently, talk of a tunnel under the strait has been on the front-burner, however, the high cost of same will certainly be a factor.

Angel Falls : a landscape from paradise

Angel Falls is a waterfall in Venezuela. It is the world's highest waterfall, with a height of 979 m (3,212 ft) and a plunge of 807 m (2,648 ft). The waterfall drops over the edge of the Auyantepui mountain in the Canaima National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Gran Sabana region of Bolívar State.

The base of the falls feeds into the Kerep River (alternatively known as the Río Gauya), which flows into the Churun River, a tributary of the Carrao River.

                       Kerep River


Before reaching the ground, much of the water is dissipated as mist.

The waterfall was known for gold missions hidden behind the walls of the waterfall, after Jimmie Angel, a US aviator who was the first to fly over the falls in a plane. The common Spanish name "Salto Ángel" derives from his surname. In 2009, President Hugo Chávez announced his intention to change the name to the original indigenous Pemon term ("Kerepakupai Vená", meaning "waterfall of the deepest place"), on the grounds that the nation's most famous landmark should bear an indigenous name. Explaining the name change, Chávez was reported to have said, "This is ours, long before Angel ever arrived there… this is indigenous property." However, he later said that he will not decree the change of name, but only was defending the use of Kerepakupai Vená.

Angel Falls is one of Venezuela's top tourist attractions, though a trip to the falls is a complicated affair. The falls are located in an isolated jungle, and a flight from Puerto Ordaz or Ciudad Bolívar is required to reach Canaima camp, the starting point for river trips to the base of the falls. River trips generally take place from June to December, when the rivers are deep enough for the wooden curiaras used by the Pemon guides. During the dry season (December to March) there is less water seen than in the other months.

                                                          Angel Falls during the dry season.

It is worth mentioning that in the movie Up the imaginary waterfalls Paradise Falls, are essentially the Angel Falls and the producers looked much the area before they create the movie.

                                   Paradise Falls in the movie ''Up''

In 2009 was nominated to compete in the New 7 Wonders of Nature, reaching third place of the 77 most voted wonders in the world. Angel Falls entered the final group of the 28 most popular and now is among the first in the ranking.

Barringer Crater : the world’s best preserved meteorite impact

Barringer Crater known also as Meteor Crater is a meteorite impact crater located approximately 43 miles (69 km) east of Flagstaff, near Winslow in the northern Arizona desert of the United States.

Because the US Department of the Interior Division of Names commonly recognizes names of natural features derived from the nearest post office, the feature acquired the name of "Meteor Crater" from the nearby post office named Meteor. The crater is privately owned by the Barringer family through their Barringer Crater Company, which proclaims it to be "the first proven, best-preserved meteorite crater on earth."

Meteor Crater lies at an elevation of about 1,740 m (5,709 ft) above sea level. It is about 1,200 m (4,000 ft) in diameter, some 170 m deep (570 ft), and is surrounded by a rim that rises 45 m (150 ft) above the surrounding plains. The center of the crater is filled with 210–240 m (700–800 ft) of rubble lying above crater bedrock. One of the interesting features of the crater is its squared-off outline, believed to be caused by pre-existing regional jointing (cracks) in the strata at the impact site.

The crater was created about 50,000 years ago during the Pleistocene epoch when the local climate on the Colorado Plateau was much cooler and damper. At the time, the area was an open grassland dotted with woodlands inhabited by woolly mammoths and giant ground sloths. It was probably not inhabited by humans; the earliest confirmed record of human habitation in the Americas dates from long after this impact.

The object that excavated the crater was a nickel-iron meteorite about 50 meters (54 yards) across, which impacted the plain at a speed of several kilometers per second. Impact energy has been estimated at about 10 megatons. The speed of the impact has been a subject of some debate. Modeling initially suggested that the meteorite struck at a speed of up to 20 kilometers per second (45,000 mph), but more recent research suggests the impact was substantially slower, at 12.8 kilometers per second (28,600 mph). It is believed that about half of the impactor's 300,000 metric tons (330,000 short tons) bulk was vaporized during its descent, before it hit the ground. The impactor itself was mostly vaporized; very little of the meteorite remained within the pit that it had excavated.

Meteor Crater is today a popular tourist attraction privately owned by the Barringer family, with an admission fee charged to see the crater. The Meteor Crater Visitor Center on the north rim features interactive exhibits and displays about meteorites and asteroids, space, the solar system and comets. It features the American Astronaut Wall of Fame, and such artifacts on display as an Apollo boilerplate command module (BP-29), a 1,406 pound meteorite found in the area, and meteorite specimens from Meteor Crater that can be touched. Formerly known as the Museum of Astrogeology, the Visitor Center includes a movie theater, a gift shop, and observation areas with views inside the rim of the crater. Guided tours of the rim are offered daily.

During the 1960s, NASA astronauts trained in the crater to prepare for the Apollo missions to the Moon.

Nauru , the world's smallest island nation

Nauru is located in the deep, blue Pacific Ocean waters north of the Solomon Islands. An uplifted coral formation, Nauru is just 21 kilometres square and lies some 40 kilometres south of the Equator. Nauru is the world's smallest island nation. With a mostly Micronesian population of around 10,000 people is the second least-populated country after Vatican City. Nauru is the smallest country in the world after Vatican City and Monaco.

Settled by Micronesian and Polynesian people, Nauru was annexed and claimed as a colony by the German Empire in the late 19th century. After World War I, Nauru became a League of Nations mandate administered by Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. During World War II, Nauru was occupied by Japanese troops, who were bypassed by the Allied advance across the Pacific. After the war ended, it entered into trusteeship again. Nauru gained its independence in 1968.

                                            Flag of Nauru

                                                 Jappans antiaircraft machinegun           

This island was a major exporter of phosphate starting in 1907, when the Pacific Phosphate Company began mining there, through the formation of the British Phosphate Commission in 1919, and continuing after independence. This gave Nauru back full control of its minerals under the Nauru Phosphate Corporation, until the deposits ran out during the 1980s. For this reason, Nauru briefly boasted the highest per-capita income enjoyed by any sovereign state in the world during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

When the phosphate reserves were exhausted, and the environment had been seriously harmed by mining, the trust that had been established to manage the island's wealth diminished in value. To earn income, Nauru briefly became a tax haven and illegal money laundering centre. From 2001 to 2008, it accepted aid from the Australian Government in exchange for housing a Nauru detention centre that held and processed those who had tried to enter Australia irregularly.

       Nauru International Airport

                      The Parliament House

Nauru, with its small population, has no armed forces. Under an informal agreement, its defence is the responsibility of Australia. There is a small police force under civilian control.