SEVEN NATURAL WONDERS
Mount Everest, rising 8848 meters above the sea level, the world's highest mountain, lies in Nepal. This range formed in a gradual collision of two of the approximately 30 tectonic plates that make up the earth's outer shell. This range is still supposed to be rising about 1 cm each year.
Victoria Falls is a waterfall on the Zambezi River in southern Africa, between Zimbabwe and Zambia. At the falls, the river is about 1.6 km wide. The falls plunges 108 m in to a gorge. The local name of the falls, Mosi oa Tunya (smoke that thunders), describe its tremendous sound and the water vapour that rises from the falls.
Ayers Rock is the world's biggest monolith (single large stone). It rises 348 m above the desert floor in Central Australia. The rock is loaf-shaped and has a circumference of about 9 km. It is composed of red sandstone. Its name is Uluru in the language of Australia's aborigine people.
Matterhorn is one of the most beautiful mountains on earth. Its base is in Switzerland and Italy. Its peak in Switzerland is 14,692 feet (4478 m) above sea level. It is known for its extra ordinary Pyramidal shape, called a horn by earth scientists. Glaciers formed the horn by eroding rock from mountains as they pushed inward from opposite sides.
Meteor Crater, also known as Barringer Carter, is a huge circular depression in the ground near Winslow, Arizona. It formed when a meteorite struck the earth about 50,000 years ago a recent event in geological history. The crater is 175 m deep and 1,275 m wide. Scientist considers it the best crater of its kind on earth because it was created so recently. It is in almost perfect condition.
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's longest group of coral reefs. It follows the coast of Australia for about 2010 km. The reef consists of small islands of solid coral patches of coral sand and submerged coral. Coral is made of hardened skeletons of water animals called polyps that have died. But billions of live polyps are attached to submerged coral. Living polyps and other animals give undersea parts of the Great Barrier Reef a brilliant coloring. Many people are concerned about possible damage to the reef by a large number of tourists who visit it.
The Grand Canyon, in the U.S. is a breathtaking features created by the erosion of rock by the Colorado River over a period of about 8 million years. The Canyon extends across northwestern Arizona for 446 km and is about 1.6 km deep. The erosion exposed rock formations that represent 4 billion years of earth's history. The flow of the river, and thus the rate of erosion have been reduced by the construction of the glen canyon Dam upstream from the Grand Canyon.
