The Teylers Museum in Haarlem is the oldest museum in the Netherlands, founded in 1778. Its collection includes fossils, coins, minerals, scientific instruments, and a selection of paintings by famous artists such as Michelangelo, Ribera, Claude Lorrain, and Guercino, among others. However, the most curious piece on display at the Teylers Museum is the one […]
Mountains
Posted inGeography
The Ancient Transantarctic Mountains That Split Antarctica in Two, A World You’ll Likely Never See Yourself
Hidden beneath the vast ice sheet that characterizes Antarctica, the Transantarctic Mountains rise as one of the longest and oldest mountain ranges on the planet. This range, extending over 3,500 kilometers from Cape Adare in Victoria Land to Coats Land in the Weddell Sea, forms a crucial geographic and geological boundary: the divide between East […]
Posted inGeography, Travel
The Highest Peak in the Netherlands is a Caribbean Volcano You Climb via 1,064 Steps
Similar to Australia, whose highest peak is located in a remote part of the Indian Ocean, between Madagascar and Antarctica, the highest point in the Netherlands is not found in Europe, but on a small Caribbean island. This peak is Mount Scenery, a volcano located on the island of Saba, which rises 887 meters above […]
Posted inScience
A Mountain That Sank Millions of Years Ago off the Coast of Lanzarote May Have Inspired the Myth of Atlantis
A team of researchers, led by the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME-CSIC), has made a significant discovery in the waters of the North Atlantic, specifically in the region north of the Canary Islands. During a research campaign conducted aboard the oceanographic vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa, three new underwater volcanoes were identified, which have […]
Posted inGeography
Australia’s Highest Peak is in a Remote Place in the Indian Ocean, between Madagascar and the Antarctic
In the southernmost reaches of the Indian Ocean, nearly 2,500 nautical miles (4,700 kilometers) southwest of Perth and halfway between Madagascar and Antarctica (from which is separated by 1,550 kilometers), lies Australia’s tallest mountain. This is Mawson Peak, located not on the Australian mainland but in the Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands, a […]
Posted inScience
Researchers Discover Previously Unknown Process in Tectonics that Turns Seafloor into Mountains
Scientists use tiny minerals called zircons as geological clocks. These crystal grains, often the size of sand, record the chemical signals of the geological environment they formed in. In a new study led by scientists at the University of Texas at Austin, researchers used them to describe what may be a missing step in a […]
Posted inGeography
Gunnbjørn, a Nunatak, is the Highest Peak in the Arctic Circle, Greenland and Denmark
Until the year 1930, it was believed that the highest point in Greenland was Mount Forel, located in the Schweizerland range southeast of the island. The mountain and the range were named by the Swiss explorer Alfred de Quervain in 1912. That year, Quervain’s expedition crossed the Greenland ice cap from Godhavn in the west, […]
Posted inAncient Rome, Geography
The Mountain that Attracts Storms and Was Climbed by Three Roman Emperors
At the border between Turkey and Syria, near the mouth of the Orontes River on the Mediterranean Sea and about 30 kilometers north of ancient Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra), lies a mountain that has played a prominent role in the history of the region. Today it’s called Jebel Aqra (Mount Kel in Turkish), but it […]
Posted inGeography
Puncak Jaya, the Highest Island Mountain in the World and the Highest Point on Earth Between the Himalayas and the Andes
Due to its geographical location, between Southeast Asia and Australia in the Pacific Ocean and south of the equator, the island of New Guinea has a tropical climate with average temperatures of about 24 degrees Celsius all year round. However, it also has high peaks where temperatures can drop below zero, with abundant rainfall. One […]
Posted inGeography, Travel
The spectacular Katskhi Pillar in Georgia
Near the village of Katskhi in the Imereti region of western Georgia, there is a natural monolith of rock about 40 meters (131 feet) high known as the Katskhi Pillar. The first mention of it in historical records appears in the 18th-century work “Description of the Kingdom of Georgia” by the cartographer, historian, and geographer […]
