ROCKS

Rocks are so common that most of us take them for granted—cursing when we hit them with the garden hoe or taking advantage of them to drive in tent pegs on summer camping trips.

But what exactly is a rock?

To geologists, a rock is a natural substance composed of solid crystals of different minerals that have been fused together into a solid lump. The minerals may or may not have been formed at the same time. What matters is that natural processes glued them all together.

There are three basic types of rock: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.

Extremely common in the Earth's crust, igneous rocks are volcanic and form from molten material. They include not only lava spewed from volcanoes, but also rocks like granite, which are formed by magma that solidifies far underground.

Typically, granite makes up large parts of all the continents. The seafloor is formed of a dark lava called basalt, the most common volcanic rock. Basalt is also found in volcanic lava flows, such as those in Hawaii, Iceland, and large parts of the U.S. Northwest.

Granite rocks can be very old. Some granite, in Australia, is believed to be more than four billion years old, although when rocks get that old, they've been altered enough by geological forces that it's hard to classify them.

Sedimentary rocks are formed from eroded fragments of other rocks or even from the remains of plants or animals. The fragments accumulate in low-lying areas—lakes, oceans, and deserts—and then are compressed back into rock by the weight of overlying materials. Sandstone is formed from sand, mudstone from mud, and limestone from seashells, diatoms, or bonelike minerals precipitating out of calcium-rich water.

Fossils are most frequently found in sedimentary rock, which comes in layers, called strata.

Metamorphic rocks are sedimentary or igneous rocks that have been transformed by pressure, heat, or the intrusion of fluids. The heat may come from nearby magma or hot water intruding via hot springs. It can also come from subduction, when tectonic forces draw rocks deep beneath the Earth's surface.

Marble is metamorphosed limestone, quartzite is metamorphosed sandstone, and gneiss, another common metamorphic rock, sometimes begins as granite.

GRAND TETONS

YELLOWSTONE

ZION RIVER

GRAND CANYON!

The Slow March of Big Earthquakes

When an earthquake strikes, the shaking doesn't start instantaneously. Instead, the most violent energy spreads out from the epicenter at a relatively modest 3.5 kilometers per second. So-called earthquake early warning systems use a specially designed network of seismic stations to detect the shaking closest to the epicenter and send an alert out to people at more distant locations.

In this video of a simulation conducted by the United States Geological Survey we see how a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on the Hayward Fault in California would spread throughout the eastern half of the San Francisco Bay Area. The video runs in real-time. (Note that the ground deformation in the right panel has been magnified by 1,000 times.) In this particular scenario we see that the strongest shaking does not arrive in Livermore, about 70 kilometers southeast of the epicenter, until 50 seconds after the earthquake begins. Even with a delay for detection and processing, an earthquake early warning system would give power plants, construction sites and schools well over 30 seconds of warning time.

People Were Chipping Stone Tools in Texas More Than 15,000 Years Ago

Some 15,500 years ago early nomadic North Americans had already set up camp near Buttermilk Creek in central Texas's hill country, where they left behind impressive array of stone tools and artifacts.

Such an old habitation predates the widespread toolmaking tradition known as Clovis, which spread across the continent some 12,800 to 13,100 years ago and was once thought to mark the first wave of settlers in the Americas. The find is "unequivocal proof for pre-Clovis occupation of America," said Steven Forman, of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The area where the tools were found, northwest of Austin, must have been an appealing campsite for millennia, because it bears a record of nearly continuous occupation from 15,500 years ago. The discovery is detailed in a new study, published online March 24 in Science.

When the makers of these tools were using the site (from 15,500 to 13,200 years ago), the region would have been slightly cooler than it is today, probably by an average of about 5 to 6 degrees Celsius—"rather amiable at that time period," Lee Nordt, of Baylor University's Department of Geology and co-author of the new study, said in a press briefing on Wednesday. But the resources in the area were likely plentiful, added Michael Waters, of the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M University in College Station and co-author of the new study. With the rich hill country around them, "it's not surprising people came back time and time again."

The people who left the tools and fragments described in the study were likely hunter–gatherers, passing through the site from time to time over thousands of years. "This was a mobile tool kit—something that was easily transported," Waters said.

The prevalence of Clovis style tools—epitomized by fine, fluted (grooved) stone points—across the continent had suggested to many archaeologists for decades that the groups who made these tools must have comprised the first wave of settlement in the Americas. This arrival would have placed the initial migration from northeastern Asia over the Bering Land Bridge and through the Arctic corridor that opened between ice sheets at some 15,000 years ago.

This latest tool evidence, however, suggests that people were already making and discarding stone tools about 15,500 years ago, which would mean that the migration likely occurred even earlier. "You'd have to get to central Texas, and that would probably take a little while," Waters said.

Waters argues that their find of 15,528 artifacts (made from chert, a flint-like rock), which span the 2,400 years before the accepted emergence of Clovis technology 13,100 years ago, is the nail in coffin of the theory that Clovis toolmakers were the first inhabitants of the New World, the so-called Clovis-first model. "This is almost like a baseball bat to the side of the head to the archaeological community to wake up," he said.

Pantai Koka, The Next Dream Beach

Nusa Tenggara Timur - Daratan Flores tidak henti-hentinya menawarkan pemandangan alam yang eksotis. Di tengah2 petualangan Cika menyusuri keindahan alam Flores, ternyata masih ada satu tempat yang sangat menarik namun sepertinya jarang dijamah manusia (tpi jangan berpikir tempatnya di alam gaib lho ya ). Sebenarnya sudah ada jalan menuju ke tempat ini,namun kurang banyak orang yang mengetahui tempat ini karena jalan masuknya agak kurang terlihat dan papan penunjuk arahnya sudah tidak jelas lagi menunjuk kea rah mana,hehe..


Tpi jangan khawatir,Cika bakal ngasi sedikit petunjuk untuk dapat mencapai lokasi ini. Dengan ditemani oleh seorang sahabat asli putra Flores, Cika memulai perjalanan menuju Pantai Koka, The Dream Beach dari kota Maumere. Dengan menyusuri jalan yang berkelok2 selama hampir 1 jam menuju arah Ende, akhirnya Cika tiba di Kecamatan Paga yang merupakan lokasi pantai ini. Nah, setelah mencapai Paga tinggal tengok2 ke kiri jalan, karena nantinya akan ada papan petunjuk arah menuju pantai. Pada saat nyari papan petunjuk jalan mesti focus, nda boleh lirik2 yg laen (apa coba ??? :p) karena ukuran papannya cukup kecil dan posisinya sudah tidak normal a.k.a mereng kanan kiri. Kalo nda nemu jalan menuju pantai,padahal kepala udah mereng kiri karena kelamaan nyari n tiba2 sudah sampai di gerbang perbatasan kota Maumere – Ende, itu artinya jalan menuju pantai udah lewat. Tpi jangan khawatir, lewatnya ga jauh ko, coba deh telusuri lagi jalan yg dilalui sebelumnya sambil nanya2 ke warga setempat, pasti deh ketemu.

Kalo udah nemu jalannya, berarti kurang lagi beberapa menit lagi temen2 bakal melihat pemandangan yang sangat indah dan menawan. Dengan hamparan pantai putih bersih dan birunya laut sangat menyejukkan dan menenangkan hati. Dari jalan utama, tinggal menelusuri jalan kecil selama kurang lebih 15 menit. Berhubung jalannya cukup kecil dan kondisinya kurang bagus, Cika saranin sebaiknya kesini naek sepeda motor, ato kalopun menggunakan mobil parkirnya di jalan utama saja trus jalan kaki. Tpi kalo udh yg mahir naek mobil n males jalan kaki, nda papa si naek mobil, cuman ya gitu kalo seandainya ada mobil papas an dari arah berlawanan mesti nyari tempat yg kosong biar mobilnya bisa lewat

Begitu sampai di Pantai Koka, hamparan pasir putih dan birunya laut sudah menyapa Cika dan seolah2 memanggil untuk menikmati keindahan yang ada. Tidak menyia2kan waktu, Cika langsung mengambil kamera Canon Powershoot kesayangan (kamera satu2nya si,hehe) untuk mengabadikan keajaiban alam yang sangat mempesona ini. Rasanya tidak cukup kalo hanya poto2 saja, mesti merasakan juga lembutnya belaian ombak Pantai Koka. Tapi kalo mau berenang disini paling ngga mesti sudah bisa berenang, coz ombaknya cukup besar, bahkan waktu Cika berenang tinggi ombak bisa mencapai 1,5 meter. Cucok banget buat yg hobi surfing.

Menikmati keindahan alam Pantai Koka seperti tiada habisnya, sayangnya keindahan ini belum dimanfaatkan secara optimal. Dalam bayangan Cika, seandainya jalannya diperlebar dan diperbaiki, papan petunjuk arah dibuat dengan design menarik dan permanen, ada fasilitas hotel/cottage, restaurant di pesisir pantai tentunya akan menambah pesona pantai ini. Apalagi ditambah dengan promosi wisata yang gencar ke mancanegara pasti akan semakin banyak wisatawan yang berminat untuk mengunjunjungi Pantai Koka dan tempat2 menarik lainnya di Flores.

PANTAI NGURBLOAT

MALUKU - Terletak di desa Ngilngof berjarak sekitar 17 km dari Tual terdapat sebuah pantai yang sangat indah dengan hamparan pasir putih yang halus seperti tepungyaitu pantai Ngurbloat. Pasir di pantai ini sangat halus seperti tepung...sungguh luar biasa, baru kali ini saya menjumpai pantai dengan pasir yang sangatputih bersih dan sehalus tepung.

Dan menurut informasi bahwasanya pasir di pantai Ngurbloat merupakan pantai dengan pasir paling halus di dunia.Banyangkan sungguh amat mengagumkan alam Indonesia.

Kata Ngurbloat ini sendiri berasal dari bahasa Kei yang berarti " Pasir Panjang". Pantai ini memanjang sekitar 3 km dengan dihiasi nyiur yang melambai -lambai ditiup angin menambah keindahan pantai Ngurbloat. Pantai ini sangat cocok untuk menikmati sunset, berjemur dan berenang.

Di sini juga terdapat guesthouse yang disewakan sehingga pengunjung bisa sejenak melepaskan kepenatan dalam aktifitas sehari - hari dengan menginap di pantai Ngurbloat. Untuk lebihmemanjakan wisatawan di sini juga terdapaat makanan tradisional seperti ikan bakar, embal dan sayur sir-sir.Embal adalah makanan tradisional yang terbuat dari singkong.

Untuk menuju pantai Ngurbloat dapat ditempuh dengan menggunakan mobil sewa seharga Rp 400,000,- sehari belum termasuk BBM, selama sekitar 30 menit dari kota Tual.