What is a failed state? It is a state that can no longer control its own security and does not have control over its territory, borders, economy, and people. The expression “failed state” hasn’t been used since 2014 because it has the nuance that a state cannot be saved. The correct expression is “Fragile State”. […]
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What is asbestos? Asbestos is a material made of lots of mineral fibers. It can be woven into shapes and it is fire-resistant. Asbestos is a natural mineral that is mined and then processed. There are six different types of asbestos, and they are divided into two categories: amphibole and serpentine. The fibers in the
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How deep is the desert? Depending on the desert, the sand is between 1 m and 43 m deep. Although, if you count to the top of the largest sand dunes, they could be several hundred meters deep. Also, if we are talking about deserts and not just sandy deserts, the ice on Antarctica is
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Why is there an obelisk in Rome? There is more than one and the Romans took them from Egypt as a show of power. During the Roman Empire, 50 obelisks were taken from Egypt and 13 of those survive today. 8 of those 13 were made in Ancient Egypt and the other 5 were commissioned
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What are El Nino and La Nina? They are climate patterns that happen in the Pacific Ocean and affect weather all over the world. El Nino means “Little Boy” and La Nina means All of the climate in the world is connected and changes in one place can lead to climate events in other places.
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What happened to the Aral Sea? The Soviet Union diverted the rivers that fed it in the 1960s and it has almost completely dried up. The Aral Sea was located between Kazakhstan in the north and Uzbekistan in the south. It formed between 23 and 2.3 million years ago. It was a fairly shallow lake,
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What is St. Elmo’s fire? It is a glowing region that appears around tall structures, the masts of old ships, or the wings of aircraft. It is a plasma made by a corona discharge from the structure. St. Elmo’s fire looks like a blue or violet fire that has engulfed the tip of whatever structure
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Why is there such a difference between Haiti and the Dominican Republic? There are several reasons. Some of them are the climate, their history, their languages, their population densities, and their governments. Haiti and the Dominican Republic are both on the island of Hispaniola, which is an island between Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Cuba. It
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Why is there a plastic island in the Pacific Ocean? Because of the amount of plastic waste we throw into the sea and because of the point where ocean currents converge. There are plastic islands in all of the oceans on Earth, not just the Pacific. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch just happens to be
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When did Britain become an island? It was connected to continental Europe by a land bridge that was destroyed 450,000 years ago. Some of the land bridge returned and that was submerged under the sea in about 6100 BC. If sea levels were a little lower than they are now, a lot more land would
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