The Earth Story

Although butterfly wings are usually covered in thousands of gleaming scales, glass winged butterflies (Greta Oto), which are native to Central America, have transparent wings which absorb and reflect almost no visible light. Their wings are able to do this because of the structure of their surface, which is made up of an apparently random distribution of nanostructures of varying heights separated by varying distances. These beautiful wings, which are also water repellent and self-cleaning, keep the butterflies safe from predators by helping to camouflage them and by suppressing infrared and ultraviolet light. -Jean Photos by David Fingerhut (http://www.westford.com/fingerhut/Westford.htm) and Ekaterina Koritskaya (https://500px.com/EkaterinaK)

Panorama from Acatenango volcano, Guatemala. The volcano has 2 peaks, one of them the viewer is standing on and the other is visible. The other nearby peak is Fuego volcano.

Some impressive boiling mud pots, San Jacinto, Leon, Nicaragua

Belize Barrier Reef

This photo shows the line of Belize’s Barrier Reef, an ecosystem of corals, mangrove swamps, and islands in the Caribbean. Charles Darwin described this reef “as the most remarkable reef in the West Indies” after visiting on his travels.

The reef is the longest barrier reef (tracking a shoreline) in the Northern or Western hemispheres. It is home to a number of endangered species, including turtles, manatees, and crocodiles.

It also hosts a variety of spectacular landscapes sculpted by sea level changes over the past several million years. For example, the spectacular Blue Hole (http://tmblr.co/Zyv2Js1ZtCSfP) is a karst feature, created when sea level dropped and parts of the limestone structure of the coral reef were exposed to rainfall and tropical erosion.

The Barrier Reef is considered a UNESCO World Heritage site, but it is also considered a threatened site. The fully protected Reserve area includes only 12% of the reef; the remainder is governed under a variety of laws and statuses. Fishing, tourism, and development have taken their toll on some sections of the reef, and the reef is also under stress from changes in ocean chemistry and warming waters like those in the rest of the world.

-JBB

Image credit: Ian Morton https://flic.kr/p/aEPM23

References: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/764 http://bit.ly/21jus6T

Although butterfly wings are usually covered in thousands of gleaming scales, glass winged butterflies (Greta Oto), which are native to Central America, have transparent wings which absorb and reflect almost no visible light.

Their wings are able to do this because of the structure of their surface, which is made up of an apparently random distribution of nanostructures of varying heights separated by varying distances.

These beautiful wings, which are also water repellent and self-cleaning, keep the butterflies safe from predators by helping to camouflage them and by suppressing infrared and ultraviolet light.

-Jean

Photos by David Fingerhut (http://www.westford.com/fingerhut/Westford.htm) and Ekaterina Koritskaya (https://500px.com/EkaterinaK)

A Volcanic Arc

This photo taken from a NASA aircraft in Guatemala illustrates pretty well why we call things volcanic arcs. It captures the long series of volcanic cones produced by subduction of oceanic crust beneath Central America. The volcanoes are produced in almost a line, created above the location where the subducting plate reaches 100 kilometers depth beneath the Earth’s surface.

-JBB

Image credit: http://www.nasa.gov/content/earth-science-radar-imaging-mission-travels-to-central-and-south-america

Dawn over the Dominican Republic. Thunderheads are forming out over the Caribbean sea as the first rays of the sun reflect off the clouds onto the sea below. Loz Image credit: M.G. Broadster

Panama Canal entry from above In this photo from the International Space Station you can make out, through the clouds, the Isthmus of Panama and a single dark channel representing the Panama Canal. A large number of ships can be spotted just offshore, mostly awaiting entrance to the canal. -JBB Image credit: Koichi Wakata https://twitter.com/Astro_Wakata/status/417080935914303489/photo/1