he Nile is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa, and is the longest river in Africa and the dis- puted longest river in the world. The Nile, which is about 6,650 km (4,130 mi) long, is an “interna- tional” river as its drainage basin covers 11 countries, namely, Tan- zania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Republic of the Su- dan and Egypt. In particular, the Nile is the primary water source of Egypt and Sudan. The river Nile has two major tributaries, White Nile and Blue Nile. White Nile is considered to be the headwaters and primary stream of the Nile itself. Blue Nile, however, is the source of most of the water and silt. White Nile is longer and rises in the Great Lakes region of cen- tral Africa, with the most distant source still undetermined but lo- cated in either Rwanda or Burun- di. It flows north through Tanza- nia, Lake Victoria, Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast. The two rivers meet just north of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The northern section of the riv- er flows north almost entirely through the Sudanese desert to Egypt, then ends in a large delta and flows into the Mediterranean Sea. Egyptian civilisation and Su- danese kingdoms have depended on the river since ancient times. Most of the population and cities of Egypt lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan, and nearly all the cultural and histor- ical sites of Ancient Egypt are found along river banks. ot spring, also called a thermal spring, has a higher tempera- ture than the rest of the sur- rounding region. Most hot springs discharge groundwa- ter that is heated by shallow intrusions of magma (molten rock) in volcanic areas. Some thermal springs, however, are not related to volcanic activity. In such cases, the water is heated by convective circulation: ground- water percolating downward reaches depths of a kilometre or more where the tempera- ture of rocks is high because of the normal temperature gradient of Earth’s crust – about 30 °C per kilometre in the first 10 km. SUM IT UP ➤ Hot springs form when water deep below Earth's surface is heated by rocks or other means, and rises to the Earth’s surface. ➤ Mud pots form when hot spring waters mix with dirt and clay before they reach the Earth’s surface. ➤ Extremophiles are tiny organisms that thrive in hot springs and other places that are inhospitable to most life on Earth. So many extraordinary questions pop-up in our minds pertaining to the most ordinary occurrences in life. Let us simplify the difficult processes and explain the how, why, when and where to you... his forms a group of coun- tries where Ro- mance languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, and French are pre- dominantly spoken; it is broad- er than the terms Ibero-Amer- ica or Hispanic America. The term “Latin America” was first used in an 1856 conference with the title “Initiative of the America. Idea for a Federal Congress of the Republics” by the Chilean politician Fran- cisco Bilbao. The term was also used by Napolean III’s French government in the 1860s as Amérique latine to keep in mind French-speaking territo- ries in the Americas along with the larger group of countries where Spanish and Portuguese languages prevailed, including the Spanish-speaking portions of the United States (South- western United States and Florida). Today, areas of Canada and the United States (with the excep- tion of Puer- to Rico), where Span- ish, Por- tuguese and French are pre- dominant, are typi- cally not included in defini- tions of Latin America. THE COUNTRIES Latin America is generally un- derstood to consist of the en- tire continent of South Amer- ica in addition to Mexico, Cen- tral America, and the islands of the Caribbean whose inhabitants speak a Romance lan- guage. CULTURE Even since in- dependence, many of the nations have ex- perienced simi- lar trends, but there are enormous differ- ences. Not only do the people live in independent units, but the geography and climate of their countries vary immense- ly. The inhabitants’ cultural characteristics differ accord- ing to the constitution of the occupants before the Iberian conquest, the timing and na- ture of European occupation, and their varying material en- dowments and economic roles. Since the Spanish and Por- tuguese element looms so large in the history of the region, it is sometimes proposed that Iberoamerica would be a better term than Latin America. Latin seems to suggest an equal im- portance of the French and Ital- ian contributions, which is far from being the case. WHICH T WHAT is a hot spring? T is the longest river in the world? HOW DO HOT SPRINGS FORM? Rain or ground water is heated when in contact with rocks that have been warmed by magma. These are formed near areas of volcanic activity. The heated water becomes buoyant and viscous, and looks for cracks and fissures to escape to Earth’s surface. Another kind of hot spring forms when rain water flows into the ground and is heated by the radioactive decay of elements in the rocks that it flows through. For each 1,000 feet, the water is heated an extra 10-15 0 F. is Latin America so called? WHY Photos: Getty images H CAN IT BURN YOU? The hot springs have claimed a few lives. The danger lies in the heat. The pools can reach temperatures of up to 205 degrees Fahrenheit, enough to cause third-degree burns in seconds. BLUE NILE Blue Nile springs from Lake Tana in the Ethiopian Highlands. The Blue Nile flows about 1,400 kilometre to Khartoum, where Blue Nile and White Nile join to form the Nile. Ninety per cent of the water and 96 per cent of the transported sediment car- ried by the Nile originates in Ethiopia, with 59 per cent of the water from the Blue Nile (the rest being from the Tekezé, Atbarah, Sobat, and small tribu- taries). The flow of Blue Nile varies considerably over its yearly cycle and is the main contributor to the large natural variation of the Nile flow. WHAT ARE MUD POTS? When the water in a hot spring mixes with dirt or clay before it reaches the surface, the spring is called a mud pot. Mud pots are often highly acidic, bub- bling pools. When minerals in the mixture cause the mud to be brightly coloured, it is called a paint pot. They are found in the United States and Europe. TOP HOT SPRINGS ❚ Grand Prismatic Spring: Located in Yellowstone National Park, it seems to display all the colours of the rainbow. ❚ Blood Pond. Located in Japan, the water is bright red in colour ❚ Hammam Debagh: Located in Algeria, the water from this spring cascades over a cliff. are algal blooms? lgal blooms are large concen- trations of al- gae that grow in the warm waters of oceans, lakes and rivers. They are often harm- ful to marine life, and some bloom varieties can be toxic to humans. Blooms that grow large are also proving to be harmful to economies that rely on tourism. They can wash up ashore and form large piles on beaches. As wa- ter temperatures around the world slowly creep higher, more and more algae blooms are affecting wildlife and peo- ple negatively. FACTS ABOUT ALGAL BLOOMS ➤They tend to form in warm waters such as the Gulf of Mexico during the summer months. ➤ Some types are toxic to hu- mans, while others are not. ➤ Algal blooms cause the surrounding water to turn different shades of colour, de- pending on the plant. ➤ Microscopic algae provide the fuel that drives marine and freshwater foodwebs, and via photosynthesis, they gobble up carbon dioxide to help counteract emissions, and provide us with oxygen. A WHAT CAUSES ALGAL BLOOMS? An algal bloom is a phenom- enon that happens when algae plants (simple aquatic plants) multiply quickly. This can happen in both fresh water and salt water marine envi- ronments. Depending on the type of algae involved, the water in the surrounding area will turn a different colour based on the pigmentation of the algae. Red tide and algal blooms in general, are affected by surround- ing atmospheric conditions and water temper- atures. They require a spe- cific tempera- ture to thrive. WHERE DO THEY OCCUR? ❚ These phenomena are most common in places where water temperatures are warmer, such as the gulf coasts of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida during the summer months. They also occur in the warm waters of the Caribbean, and can be found in East Asia, Africa, and as far north as Canada. ❚ As average water temperatures across the US and Caribbean have been slowly rising over the past few decades, scientists have noticed an increase in the rate of blooms in these and other areas, as well as their severity. RED TIDE Red tide, which occurs in Florida’s Gulf Coast, is caused by toxic algae known as Karenia brevis. When consumed by birds, marine mammals and fish, the toxic algae can be deadly. It can also harm people who eat contami- nated shellfish. FUN FACT There is only one non Latin country in South America, Suriname, which is a Germanic country as they speak Dutch. YELLOW NILE Yellow Nile is a former tribu- tary that connected the Ouaddaï Highlands of eastern Chad to the Nile River Valley 8000 to 1000 BC. Its remains are known as the Wadi Howar. The Wadi passes through Gharb Darfur near the north- ern border with Chad and meets up with the Nile, near the southern point of the Great Bend. The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. Socrates 02 SCIENCE OF EVERYTHING
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he Nile is a majornorth-flowing river
in northeasternAfrica, and is the
longest river inAfrica and the dis-
puted longest river in the world. The Nile, which is about 6,650
km (4,130 mi) long, is an “interna-tional” river as its drainage basincovers 11 countries, namely, Tan-zania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi,the Democratic Republic of theCongo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea,South Sudan, Republic of the Su-dan and Egypt. In particular, theNile is the primary water source
of Egypt and Sudan.The river Nile has two major
tributaries, White Nile and BlueNile. White Nile is considered tobe the headwaters and primarystream of the Nile itself. Blue Nile,however, is the source of most ofthe water and silt.
White Nile is longer and risesin the Great Lakes region of cen-tral Africa, with the most distantsource still undetermined but lo-cated in either Rwanda or Burun-di. It flows north through Tanza-nia, Lake Victoria, Uganda andSouth Sudan. The Blue Nile beginsat Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flowsinto Sudan from the southeast. Thetwo rivers meet just north of theSudanese capital of Khartoum.
The northern section of the riv-er flows north almost entirelythrough the Sudanese desert toEgypt, then ends in a large deltaand flows into the MediterraneanSea.
Egyptian civilisation and Su-danese kingdoms have dependedon the river since ancient times.Most of the population and citiesof Egypt lie along those parts ofthe Nile valley north of Aswan, and
nearly all the cultural and histor-ical sites of Ancient Egypt arefound along river banks.
ot spring, also called a thermalspring, has a higher tempera-ture than the rest of the sur-rounding region. Most hotsprings discharge groundwa-
ter that is heated by shallow intrusions ofmagma (molten rock) in volcanic areas. Somethermal springs, however, are not related tovolcanic activity. In such cases, the water isheated by convective circulation: ground-water percolating downward reaches depthsof a kilometre or more where the tempera-ture of rocks is high because of the normaltemperature gradient of Earth’s crust – about30 °C per kilometre in the first 10 km.
SUM IT UP➤ Hot springs form when water deep below
Earth's surface is heated by rocks or othermeans, and rises to the Earth’s surface.➤ Mud pots form when hot spring watersmix with dirt and clay before they reach theEarth’s surface.➤ Extremophiles are tiny organisms thatthrive in hot springs and other places thatare inhospitable to most life on Earth.
So many extraordinary questions pop-up in our minds pertaining to the most ordinary occurrences inlife. Let us simplify the difficult processes and explain the how, why, when and where to you...
his forms agroup of coun-
tries where Ro-mance languages
such as Spanish,Portuguese, and French are pre-dominantly spoken; it is broad-er than the terms Ibero-Amer-ica or Hispanic America. The term “Latin America” wasfirst used in an 1856 conferencewith the title “Initiative of theAmerica. Idea for a FederalCongress of the Republics” bythe Chilean politician Fran-cisco Bilbao. The term was alsoused by Napolean III’s Frenchgovernment in the 1860s asAmérique latine to keep inmind French-speaking territo-ries in the Americas along withthe larger group of countrieswhere Spanish and Portugueselanguages prevailed, including
the Spanish-speaking portionsof the United States (South-western United Statesand Florida).Today, areas ofCanada andthe UnitedStates (withthe excep-tion of Puer-to Rico),where Span-ish, Por-tuguese andFrench are pre-dominant, are typi-cally not included in defini-tions of Latin America.
THE COUNTRIESLatin America is generally un-derstood to consist of the en-tire continent of South Amer-
ica in addition to Mexico, Cen-tral America, and the islands
of the Caribbean whoseinhabitants speak a
Romance lan-guage.
CULTUREEven since in-dependence,many of the
nations have ex-perienced simi-
lar trends, but thereare enormous differ-
ences. Not only do the peoplelive in independent units, butthe geography and climate oftheir countries vary immense-ly. The inhabitants’ culturalcharacteristics differ accord-ing to the constitution of theoccupants before the Iberianconquest, the timing and na-ture of European occupation,and their varying material en-dowments and economic roles.Since the Spanish and Por-tuguese element looms so largein the history of the region, itis sometimes proposed thatIberoamerica would be a betterterm than Latin America. Latinseems to suggest an equal im-portance of the French and Ital-ian contributions, which is farfrom being the case.
WHICH
T
WHATis a hot spring?
T
is the longest river in the world?
HOW DO HOTSPRINGS FORM?
Rain or ground water isheated when in contact
with rocks that have beenwarmed by magma. These
are formed near areas ofvolcanic activity. The heated
water becomes buoyant andviscous, and looks for cracks
and fissures to escape toEarth’s surface. Another kind of
hot spring forms when rainwater flows into the ground and
is heated by the radioactive decayof elements in the rocks that it
flows through. For each 1,000 feet,the water is heated an extra
10-150 F.
is Latin Americaso called?WHY
Photos: Getty images
H CAN IT BURN YOU? The hot springs have claimed a fewlives. The danger lies in the heat. Thepools can reach temperatures of upto 205 degrees Fahrenheit, enough tocause third-degree burns in seconds.
BLUE NILEBlue Nile springs from LakeTana in the Ethiopian Highlands.The Blue Nile flows about 1,400kilometre to Khartoum, whereBlue Nile and White Nile join toform the Nile. Ninety per centof the water and 96 per cent ofthe transported sediment car-ried by the Nile originates inEthiopia, with 59 per cent ofthe water from the Blue Nile(the rest being from the Tekezé,Atbarah, Sobat, and small tribu-taries). The flow of Blue Nilevaries considerably over itsyearly cycle and is the maincontributor to the large naturalvariation of the Nile flow.
WHAT ARE MUD POTS?When the water in a hot spring mixeswith dirt or clay before it reaches thesurface, the spring is called a mud pot.Mud pots are often highly acidic, bub-bling pools. When minerals in the mixturecause the mud to be brightly coloured, itis called a paint pot. They are found inthe United States and Europe.TOP HOT SPRINGS❚ Grand Prismatic Spring: Located in
Yellowstone National Park, it seems todisplay all the colours of the rainbow.❚ Blood Pond. Located in Japan, thewater is bright red in colour ❚ HammamDebagh: Located in Algeria, the waterfrom this spring cascades over a cliff.
are algal blooms? lgal blooms arelarge concen-trations of al-gae that growin the warm
waters of oceans, lakes andrivers. They are often harm-ful to marine life, and somebloom varieties can be toxicto humans. Blooms that growlarge are also proving to beharmful to economies thatrely on tourism. They canwash up ashore and formlarge piles on beaches. As wa-ter temperatures around theworld slowly creep higher,more and more algae bloomsare affecting wildlife and peo-ple negatively.
FACTS ABOUT ALGALBLOOMS
➤They tend to form in warmwaters such as the Gulf ofMexico during the summermonths.➤Some types are toxic to hu-mans, while others are not.➤ Algal blooms cause thesurrounding water to turndifferent shades of colour, de-pending on the plant.➤ Microscopic algae providethe fuel that drives marineand freshwater foodwebs,and via photosynthesis, theygobble up carbon dioxide tohelp counteract emissions,and provide us with oxygen.
A
WHAT CAUSESALGAL BLOOMS?An algal bloom is a phenom-enon that happens whenalgae plants (simple aquaticplants) multiply quickly.This can happen inboth fresh waterand salt watermarine envi-ronments.Depending onthe type of
algae involved, the water inthe surrounding area willturn a different colourbased on the pigmentationof the algae. Red tide andalgal blooms in general, are
affected by surround-ing atmospheric
conditions andwater temper-atures. Theyrequire a spe-cific tempera-
ture to thrive.
WHERE DO THEY OCCUR?❚ These phenomena are most common in places wherewater temperatures are warmer, such as the gulf coastsof Mississippi, Alabama and Florida during the summermonths. They also occur in the warm waters of theCaribbean, and can be found in East Asia, Africa, and asfar north as Canada. ❚ As average water temperaturesacross the US and Caribbean have been slowly rising overthe past few decades, scientists have noticed an increasein the rate of blooms in these and other areas, as well astheir severity.
RED TIDERed tide, which occurs inFlorida’s Gulf Coast, iscaused by toxic algaeknown as Karenia brevis.When consumed by birds,marine mammals and fish,the toxic algae can bedeadly. It can also harmpeople who eat contami-nated shellfish.
FUNFACT
There is only one nonLatin country in South
America, Suriname, whichis a Germanic country
as they speakDutch.
YELLOW NILE
Yellow Nile is a former tribu-tary that connected theOuaddaï Highlands of easternChad to the Nile River Valley8000 to 1000 BC. Its remainsare known as the Wadi Howar.The Wadi passes throughGharb Darfur near the north-ern border with Chad andmeets up with the Nile, nearthe southern point of theGreat Bend.
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.Socrates02 SCIENCE OF EVERYTHING
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