View allAll Photos Tagged tectonics
Europe, Netherlands, Rotterdam, Kop van Zuid, Wilhelminapier, Nieuwe Luxor (Bolles & Wilson) and De Rotterdam (Koolhaas/OMA) (uncut).
The 'mysterious' brises soleil / balconies of the Rijn foyer of the Nieuwe Luxor theatre, juxtaposed with the steel & glass facade of the hotel and office towers of De Rotterdam 'vertical city'.
More Nieuwe Luxor shots:
The Rijn foyer from ouside, with the Klean world wide globe: here.
With ‘Belvédère and De Rotterdam: here.
The top of the building with De Rotterdam: here.
Interior shot, bottom level: here.
Iinterior shot, wall / lighting in th main stair well: here.
Interior shot furniture Rijn foyer: here.
This is number 212 of Urban frontiers and 944 of Minimalism / explicit Graphism.
Þingvellir rift valley in Iceland, where the North Americana and the Eurasian tectonic plates are drifting away of each other causing all sorts of phenomena in this deep rift valley within Iceland's Þingvellir National Park.
Winston Salem, NC
Full Spectrum Conversion
Hoya R72 Filter
A passerby told me they will be tearing this plant down soon, and claimed they will be making a giant tinman from the metal hoppers (??!!)...
This image is of the Almannagja Gorge in Iceland. This stunning narrow valley is a part of the Thingvellir National Park and is at the tip of the Mid-Atlantic Rift, the boundary between North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. It was formed over time as the tectonic plates between North America and Eurasia pulled apart. The North American tectonic plates pulled west, and after a lot of pressure, the edge broke free of the Eurasian continent in an earthquake.
The gorge and Thingvellir National Park have been an integral part of Icelandic history, including its judicial system. Thingvellir National Park, where the Almannagja gorge is located was the venue for the world’s longest-running assembly/parliament. It is believed that the lawmakers would read out the laws to the people of Iceland on the rock above the Almannagjá Gorge.
This area also has a long history of violence. For example, as punishment for women who committed adultery, lawmakers would drown them Drekkingarhylur, the Drowning Deep Pool. Gallows Rock is another historic site in the Gorge that is steeped in violence.
The waterfall, Öxarárfoss, in Þingvellir National Park, Iceland is located where the Öxará (river) flows over the Almannagjá (cliff). A small, clear blue pool sits at the base of the 13m (44ft) and 6m (20ft) wide waterfalls. As seen in the photo, visitors climb on the rocks of basalt around the pool.
The entire Þingvellir region is located in a rift valley created by the drifting apart of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. The tectonic plates are drifting in opposite directions at the rate of 7 mm (0.276 in) annually. Almannagjá lies along the North American plate on the west side of the valley. It measures 7.7 km long and 64 m wide at its maximum. The gorge’s cliffs lie along a fault with a maximum throw of 30-40 m. Geologists believe the Þingvellir faults (fissures) to be the surface expressions of deeply rooted normal faults. The ravines like Almannagjá have walls composed of basalt, a volcanic rock that cooled from lava flows that erupted out of near by fissures about 2,000 years ago.
Þingvellir is where the first Icelandic parliament, Alþing, was founded in 930 AD. For many years Icelanders traveled from all over the country to meet at Þingvellir and pass laws, voice opinions, give trials, and even battle with each other. Öxarárfoss is part of the area’s rich history. Legend and geological evidence suggest thet the early Vikings divirted the Öxarár in order to provide water to the meeting site, That diversion took the river over the cliff at Almannagjá creating Öxarárfoss.
References:
When tectonic plates smash into each other, they push the Earth’s crust higher and higher, forming mountains. Some mountain ranges, like the Himalayas, are still growing. Others, like the Appalachians, saw their heyday hundreds of millions of years ago and have been weathering away ever since. Volcanoes also form mountains and periodically erupt – scraping clear the landscape.
On a mountain, weather and the organisms that live there rapidly change as elevation increases. As temperatures get colder, tree species change, and then become scarcer before disappearing entirely. At the top there may be nothing but snow and ice. But even these bleak landscapes are home to a diverse array of plants and animals adapted for that environment.
Until recently, mountain habitats have been largely protected because of their inaccessibility. As people have moved into the mountains to live, for recreation and to obtain valuable resources such as timber, mountain ecosystems around the world have been subject to degradation and destruction.
Thingvellir National Park, Iceland
Iceland is one of the few places in the world where the fissure in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which separates the North American tectonic plate and the European tectonic plate, can be seen above the ocean surface.
Silfra is a rift formed in the divergent tectonic boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates and is located in the Þingvallavatn Lake in the Þingvellir National Park in Iceland.
The plates drift about 2 cm (0.79 in) farther apart every year, building up tension between the plates and the earth mass above. This tension is relieved through periodic major earthquakes at approximately ten year intervals, which have caused cracks and fissures to form in Þingvellir valley; Silfra lies at the rim of the Þingvallavatn Lake and is one of the largest and deepest of these fissures.
The Silfra fissure intercepts a major aquifer, which feeds multiple springs at its base. Boulders and rocks falling into the widening cracks have formed caves within the fissures.
Visitors can be seen walking far down in the Almannagjá Gorge in Þingvellir National Park in southwest Iceland. The entire Þingvellir region is located in a rift valley created by the drifting apart of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. The tectonic plates are drifting in opposite directions at the rate of 7 mm (0.276 in) annually. Almannagjá lies along the North American plate on the west side of the valley. It measures 7.7 km long and 64 m wide at its maximum. The gorge’s cliffs lie along a fault with a maximum throw of 30-40 m. Geologists believe the Þingvellir faults (fissures) to be the surface expressions of deeply rooted normal faults. Basalt from cooled lava flows make up the cliffs and valley floor. About two thousand years ago, the basalt erupted from near by fissures. At the top of the photo, the base of Ármannsfell, a volcanic mountain, dominates the horizon.
This unique geology became the backdrop for some of Iceland's most important political and cultural events. Iceland’s settlement by The Norse began with the arrival of Ingólfur Arnarson in 874. Historians refer to the next 56 years, as ‘The Settlement Period’. Driven away from a newly united Norway under King Harald Fairhair, settlers from many different clans settled all around the island’s shores. Though the new arrivals shared an ancestral home, religion and language, difference sprang up because each clan had its own leaders and customs. Violence broke out from time to time between these clans both over their beliefs and for the limited resources their new island had to offer. In order to address these issues the people decided to hold a general assembly with members from each clan.
A man called Grímur Geitskör was given the tasks of gathering representatives from each clan and finding a suitable meeting location. As Geitskör was searching for a location, a man who owned a sheltered piece of land accessible from all corners of the country was convicted of murder, and his property turned public. This sheltered place was in the rift valley at Þingvellir. People from all over Iceland could reach the assembly place with no more than seventeen days of traveling. In 930 AD, over thirty ruling chiefs met for the first time at Þingvellir to discuss law on the island and to create a Viking commonwealth. Their meeting place was within the Almannagjá Gorge.
Þingvellir translated literally means "Assembly Plains”. The Parliament, called The Alþing, met at Þingvellir from 930 to 1798 AD. Many important historic and cultural events occurred here while Parliment was in session which makes it one of the most imporant places in Icelandic History. In 1799 the Alþing stopped meeting due to Danish colonialism. The Alþing started meeting again sporadically in 1848 in Reykjavik but was given only limited powers by the King of Denmark. It was 1907 before the Alþing started meeting regularly also in Reykjavik. In 1928, just before the 1000 anniversary of the foundation of Alþingi in 1930, the parliament made Þingvellir a National Park. When Iceland declared it independence from Denmark in 1944, the declaration was made at Þingvellir. Today, hundreds of thousands visit Þingvellir National Park every year and most of those visitors walk the Almannagjá.
References:
icelandroadguide.com/items/hakid/
guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/jorunnsg/ingvellir-...
notendur.hi.is/oi/geology_of_thingvellir.htm
www.thingvellir.is/en/history-nature/history/
icelandmag.is/article/9-essential-things-know-about-thing...
The natural arches in this area first began forming around 300 million years ago (during the Paleozoic era), as tectonic activity, as well as wind and water erosion carved away salt deposits on top of sandstone. There are over 2000 beautiful arches in this scenic park, (more than in any concentrated area in the world) all of which, according to scientists, may be completely eroded away in the future.
1/16/23©ttounces images
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my written permission.
© Toni_V. All rights reserved.
Europe, Holland, Zuid Holland, Rotterdam Zuid, Kop van Zuid, InHolland extension, Cité, UWV building (cut from all sides).
Modernism is very different guises in Rotterdam's Kop van Zuid -- a large former harbour urban restructuring area. In the BG is the neo-modernist InHolland extension (by Erik van Egeraat associated architects, 2009), a small part of Cité student/starters tenement building (by Tangram architecten, 2010) and the post-modern UWV office (by OZP, 2009 ) in the FG.
This is number207 of the Urban Frontiers album and 902 Minimalism & explicit graphism one.
Mes blocs de lamelles de papier qui ont décidé de prendre l'air cette semaine se sont mis à danser puis se tortiller pour enfin rappeler que les plaques tectoniques bougent. #Macro #MacroMondays #Stripes
Rain fell steadily—sometimes in hard bursts—as we hiked the forested trail to Second Beach in Olympic National Park, Washington. But when we reached the shore, the rain eased, and the skies opened just enough to take in the rugged beauty of the coast.
This photo looks west along the north end of the beach, capturing several sea stacks and a striking natural arch carved into the end of a narrow headland. The arch is on one of the rocky fingers that form the Quateata headland. Pronounced Qw'aatilla by the Quileute people, the origin and meaning of the name are unclear, but the headland is iconic along this stretch of coastline.
Geologically, the headlands and sea stacks are composed primarily of massive, erosion-resistant sandstones belonging to the Hoh rock assemblage. These sedimentary rocks were deposited in deep marine basins likely as submarine fans and later uplifted as tectonic forces shaped the Olympic Peninsula.
The bluffs and parts of the beach are formed from a distinctive geologic unit known as a mélange—a chaotic mix of rock types and sizes. The grain sizes range from large blocks to sand of various origins embedded in a fine-grained, highly deformed matrix.
Mélanges like this are typically formed in subduction zones, where one tectonic plate is forced beneath another. In this case, the mélange is part of the Hoh rock assemblage which is an accretionary wedge associated with the ongoing subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate beneath the North American Plate along the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
These rocks record the complex and powerful geologic history of the Pacific Northwest coast.
After we had some time to enjoy the scenery and examine a little of the geology, the clouds darkened, and the rain returned. We hurried back up the trail.
In the Þingvellir National Park. The cracks and faults around the lake, of which the Almannagjá [ˈalˌmanːaˌcauː] ravine is the largest, is where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates meet.
Nesgjá / Krafla / Skútustaðir / Iceland
Album of Iceland: www.flickr.com/photos/tabliniumcarlson/albums/72157710594...
Island ist eine große Insel, auf der die Plattentektonik der eurasischen und nordamerikanischen Platten auseinanderdrifftend wirkt. Dieser Berg wurde im Laufe der Jahrtausende hier um gut 100 m auseinandergerissen. Jährlich trifften die beiden Paltten um mehrere Millimeter auseinander, was besonders im Süden der Insel zu kleinen Mikroerdbeben führt. Der Graben ist an meheren Stellen der Insel sehr deutlich sichtbar und geht von Nordost nach Südwesten der Insel.
When tectonic plates smash into each other, they push the Earth’s crust higher and higher, forming mountains. Some mountain ranges, like the Himalayas, are still growing. Others, like the Appalachians, saw their heyday hundreds of millions of years ago and have been weathering away ever since. Volcanoes also form mountains and periodically erupt – scraping clear the landscape.
On a mountain, weather and the organisms that live there rapidly change as elevation increases. As temperatures get colder, tree species change, and then become scarcer before disappearing entirely. At the top there may be nothing but snow and ice. But even these bleak landscapes are home to a diverse array of plants and animals adapted for that environment.
Until recently, mountain habitats have been largely protected because of their inaccessibility. As people have moved into the mountains to live, for recreation and to obtain valuable resources such as timber, mountain ecosystems around the world have been subject to degradation and destruction.
My website | Twitter | Instagram
Copyrighted © Wendy Dobing All Rights Reserved
Do not download without my permission.
A very quick edit from a recent (family) holiday to Northumberland as I'm stacked with wedding photos at the moment. Always love visiting this part of the country.
This is Low Hauxley and dawn was out there somewhere!
Thanks in advance for any comments or favourites you may wish to make.
The crack in the surface rock which marks the divide between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. We are slowly parting company. Iceland, summer 2014.
This is where Iceland is ripped apart, literally. Near Thingvellir, coincidentally also the place where one of the oldest parliaments in the world met (the word means "assembly field"), magma pushes up right against a tectonic seam, resulting in the North American plate drifting away from the Eurasian plate. Along the rims of the divide, beautiful basalt columns mark the geologic event.
Þingvellir National Park, the place where Vikings who settled in Iceland, had created the first sort of Parliament in Europe: Alþingi ("Althing" in English), the Icelandic Parliament, was established at Þingvellir in 930, and remained there until 1798. But the National Park is also a place where one can practically watch Earth' powers at work. It marks the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which means it is here where the two main tectonic plates, The European and the Atlantic one are drifting away of each other, tearing Iceland apart. The opening rift can be seen here at the National Park.#
Happy Monochrome Monday!
These gnarly veterans are Antarctic Beeches (Lophozonia/Nothofagus moorei) growing on the Springbrook Plateau near the 'Greatest of All Lookout'. Their lumpy bases are thought to part of the root mass made visible by soil erosion. The spread is caused by coppicing or suckering as an adjunct to sexual reproduction which can still occur but requires particular conditions.
There is speculation that these trees date back to the well-supported plate tectonic plate theory suggesting that Antarctica broke way from Gondwanaland the remains of which are now the lands in the South Pacific including Australia.
This western face of Aoraki / Mt Cook is composed of metamorphosed sedimentary (metasedimentary) rocks. The mountain (and the whole range) is actively being uplifted whilst it is actively being glacially eroded and tectonically shaken from time to time which causes landslips and avalanches.
There's a little pink tinge in the ice which is derived from a major dust storm in Australia.
Guerilla Bay beach and inlet has calm waters and some of the oldest rock formations on the east coast of Australia. Taken on the South Coast of NSW, Australia.
Summits and cols L-R: Mt Graham (3184M), Silberhorn (3300M), Col at the head of Balfour Glacier, Mt Tasman (3497M), North Ridge (shoulder) ending in a buttress of ice, Engineer Col, Lendenfeld Peak (3194M), Marcel Col, Mt Haast's 3 peaks:3114M, 3099M, 3065M.
The glaciers on this face all descend towards the major Tasman Glacier which traverses this area from right to left, far below and between the icy face and the Malte Brun Range (dark range in the foreground). The tributary glacier falling from Mt Graham, at left of image, is Linda Glacier.
Mount Tasman sits alongside Aoraki Mount Cook, on the Main Divide of the Southern Alps. Sculpted by the weather, Mount Tasman's summit is a beautiful and sinuous peak. It is one of the most striking ice summits in the world.
Climbing Mt Tasman:: Every ridge to Mount Tasman's summit requires excellent technique, concentration, and commitment. All guided routes are on snow and ice, featuring steep faces and exposed airy ridges. Mount Tasman is a serious ascent for experienced mountaineers. [Alpine Guides NZ]
Mt Tasman & Aoraki/Mt Cook are the highest peaks in the Southern Alps. The Southern Alps are being uplifted at a rate of approx 7mm/annum. This is the result of the compressional movement as this western edge of the Pacific tectonic plate is being thrust over the Australia Plate.
Þingvellir is a site of historical, cultural, and geological significance, and is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Iceland. The park lies in a rift valley that marks the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. To its south lies Þingvallavatn, the largest natural lake in Iceland.
The name Þingvellir is derived from the Old Norse Þingvǫllr meaning assembly fields. The site takes its name from Alþing (Althing), the national parliament of Iceland, which was founded at Þingvellir in 930 and held its sessions there until 1798.
Although I did not have the courage to swim between the tectonic plates, I did stop by for a while to cook some dinner and enjoy a beautiful sunset enroute to Gulfoss. I have not travelled anywhere the past few years barring a few places in the US which I hope to post one of these days...
Hope everyone is doing good! Thanks for viewing and have a great week ahead :)