Rashid's Blog
This Blog is about various aspects of Earth Sciences.

• Signs of Hidden Ocean Underneath Titan’s Crust
  posted on August 02, 2008 - 11:32:30 pm
  
  Astronomers’ mental image of Titan, the solar system’s second-largest moon, used to be that of a vast swimming pool. But maybe they should have imagined a water bed instead. Last year, researchers reported that radar mapping of Titan by the Cassini spacecraft had found a peculiar shift in landmarks on the moon’s surface of up to [...]

  

  
  
  
• Scientists Confirm Liquid on Saturn’s Moon Titan
  posted on August 02, 2008 - 09:46:48 am
  
  Researchers report in Nature today that they identified a dark liquid lake, surrounded by a lighter shoreline and a “beach,” on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan. The foot-shaped lake is the first verified extraterrestrial body of liquid, and is likely filled with hydrocarbons, simple compounds also common on Earth. “This is the first definitive evidence [...]

  

  
  
  
• NASA Spacecraft Confirms Water on Mars
  posted on August 02, 2008 - 07:10:38 am
  
  Laboratory tests aboard NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample. The lander’s robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples. “We have water,” said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. “We’ve [...]

  

  
  
  
• Solar Eclipse
  posted on August 01, 2008 - 06:10:19 am
  
  Unlike ancient times, when eclipses were viewed as bad omens in many cultures, fewer people should be expecting doom this time around. Still, myths persist, especially in remote regions, so it’s likely there will be some banging on pots and other creative tactics employed to drive the “evil spirits” away. Billions of people along the path, [...]

  

  
  
  
• Maps of Ancient India
  posted on July 31, 2008 - 10:33:19 am
  
  One of my readers asked faor the map of ancient india. Here are maps and links. The history of India is shrouded in antiquity. The country has been thought of as a nation of philosophers with a well-developed and even idyllic society. Excavations of sites belonging to the Harappan era show that the people lived in [...]

  

  
  
  
• Arctic ice bigger than 2007, but thawing long-term
  posted on July 30, 2008 - 12:05:45 pm
  
  Much is posted on net about Arctic Ice this year.Here is another one. Arctic sea ice is unlikely to shrink below a 2007 record low this year in a reprieve from the worst predictions of climate change even though new evidence confirms a long-term thaw is under way, experts said. The 2007 record raised worries of a [...]

  

  
  
  
• Birds fly north due to climate change : study
  posted on July 30, 2008 - 11:55:44 am
  
  Birds have been moving north in Europe over the past 25 years because of climate change in the vanguard of likely huge shifts in the ranges of plants and animals, scientists said on Wednesday. A study of 42 rare bird species in Britain showed that southern European bird species such as the Dartford warbler, Cirl bunting, [...]

  

  
  
  
• Caravanserai
  posted on July 29, 2008 - 11:02:43 pm
  
  A caravanserai (Persian: كاروانسرا kārvānsarā, Turkish kervansaray) was a roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the day’s journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information, and people across the network of trade routes covering Asia, North Africa, and South-Eastern Europe. Most typically it was a building with a square or rectangular walled exterior, [...]

  

  
  
  
• South Korea Plans To Raise Its Investment In Alternative Energy Development
  posted on July 29, 2008 - 03:16:56 pm
  
  South Korea plans to raise its investment in alternative energy development by 60 percent this year to $193 million, the government said, as the resource-hungry nation seeks to diversify its energy sources. It plans to spend 194.4 billion won ($193 million) on alternative energy technologies, including solar and wind power as well as biofuels, the Ministry [...]

  

  
  
  
• VIllage: Basic Unit of Settlement Development
  posted on July 29, 2008 - 02:55:35 pm
  
  A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet, but smaller than a town or city[. Though generally located in rural areas, the term urban village may be applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New York City and the Saifi Village in Beirut, Lebanon. Villages [...]