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Topic Review
Tsunami
A tsunami (Japanese: 津波) (/(t)suːˈnɑːmi, (t)sʊˈ-/ (t)soo-NAH-mee, (t)suu- pronounced [tsɯnami]) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions (including detonations, landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impacts and other disturbances) above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami. Unlike normal ocean waves, which are generated by wind, or tides, which are generated by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun, a tsunami is generated by the displacement of water. Tsunami waves do not resemble normal undersea currents or sea waves because their wavelength is far longer. Rather than appearing as a breaking wave, a tsunami may instead initially resemble a rapidly rising tide. For this reason, it is often referred to as a tidal wave, although this usage is not favoured by the scientific community because it might give the false impression of a causal relationship between tides and tsunamis. Tsunamis generally consist of a series of waves, with periods ranging from minutes to hours, arriving in a so-called "wave train". Wave heights of tens of metres can be generated by large events. Although the impact of tsunamis is limited to coastal areas, their destructive power can be enormous, and they can affect entire ocean basins. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was among the deadliest natural disasters in human history, with at least 230,000 people killed or missing in 14 countries bordering the Indian Ocean. The Ancient Greece historian Thucydides suggested in his 5th century BC History of the Peloponnesian War that tsunamis were related to submarine earthquakes, but the understanding of tsunamis remained slim until the 20th century and much remains unknown. Major areas of current research include determining why some large earthquakes do not generate tsunamis while other smaller ones do; accurately forecasting the passage of tsunamis across the oceans; and forecasting how tsunami waves interact with shorelines.
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  • 02 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Agriculture in Ancient Mesopotamia
Agriculture was the main economic activity in ancient Mesopotamia. Operating under harsh constraints, notably the arid climate, the Mesopotamian farmers developed effective strategies that enabled them to support the development of the first states, the first cities, and then the first known empires, under the supervision of the institutions which dominated the economy: the royal and provincial palaces, the temples, and the domains of the elites. They focused above all on the cultivation of cereals (particularly barley) and sheep farming, but also farmed legumes, as well as date palms in the south and grapes in the north. In reality, there were two types of Mesopotamian agriculture, corresponding to the two main ecological domains, which largely overlapped with cultural distinctions. The agriculture of southern or Lower Mesopotamia, the land of Sumer and Akkad, which later became Babylonia received almost no rain and required large scale irrigation works which were supervised by temple estates, but could produce high returns. The agriculture of Northern or Upper Mesopotamia, the land that would eventually become Assyria, had enough rainfall to allow dry agriculture most of the time so that irrigation and large institutional estates were less important, but the returns were also usually lower.
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  • 02 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Boreal (Age)
In paleoclimatology of the Holocene, the Boreal was the first of the Blytt-Sernander sequence of north European climatic phases that were originally based on the study of Danish peat bogs, named for Axel Blytt and Rutger Sernander, who first established the sequence. In peat bog sediments, the Boreal is also recognized by its characteristic pollen zone. It was preceded by the Younger Dryas, the last cold snap of the Pleistocene, and followed by the Atlantic, a warmer and moister period than our most recent climate. The Boreal, transitional between the two periods, varied a great deal, at times having within it climates like today's.
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  • 02 Dec 2022
Topic Review
The Shift Project
The Shift Project (also called The Shift or TSP) is a French nonprofit created in 2010 that aims to limit both climate change and the dependency of our economy on fossil fuels.
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Topic Review
List of Assyrian Tribes
This page features a list of Assyrian clans or tribes historically centered in the Hakkari, Sirnak and Mardin provinces in Turkey and West Azerbaijan Province in Iran, prior to 1915, or before Seyfo, when they were historically Assyrian settlements, before early 20th century resettlement in Northern Iraq (which simultaneously had Catholic-Assyrian tribes since the 1st millennium) and northwestern Syria (namely in Al-Hasakah) after they were displaced, slaughtered and driven out by Ottoman Turks in 1915 and in the early 1930s, respectively, during the Simele massacre where they endured a similar anguish and predicament. From around 2500 BC, Assyrians primarily lived in the ancient Assyrian cities of Nineveh, Assur, Nohadra, Arrapha and Arbela, which now lie in modern-day northern Iraq, and as well as the mountainous Assyrian region of Hakkari in what is now Turkey, from around 2300 BC. Though after the spread of Islam, many eventually left the ancient Assyrian cities in the Nineveh Plains, where they settled and found refuge in the highland region in southeastern Anatolia, with the existing Assyrian population, and northwestern Iran. The villages in southeastern Turkey are primarily centred in the modern-day towns of Yuksekova, Çukurca and Semdinli in Hakkâri, Uludere in Sirnak Province and Tur Abdin in Mardin Province. Most of the historical Assyrian tribes are located in the region stretching from Tur Abdin to Hakkari, in Upper Mesopotamia, which formed the Nairi lands, serving as the northern Assyrian frontier and border with their Urartian rivals. The Assyrians of this region were Nestorian Christians adhering to the Assyrian Church of the East and lived here until 1924, when the very last Assyrians who survived the Assyrian Genocide and massacres that occurred during 1918 were expelled. Most subsequently moved to the Nahla valley in northern Iraq or elsewhere. The people of these tribes are an ancient people of Mesopotamia who speak Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, a modern Syriac language that's derived from old Aramaic and has influences of Akkadian. In the early-mid 20th century, most settled in Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Iran, where many eventually immigrated to the western world in recent years.
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  • 02 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Endocrine Disrupting Compounds in Water Environment
Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) are a particularly dangerous group because they have estrogenic activity. Among EDCs, the alkylphenols commonly used in households deserve attention, from where they go to sewage treatment plants, and then to water reservoirs.
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  • 02 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Triangulation Station
A triangulation station, also known as a triangulation pillar, trigonometrical station, trigonometrical point, trig station, trig beacon, or trig point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The nomenclature varies regionally: they are generally known as trigonometrical or triangulation stations in North America, trig points in the United Kingdom, trig pillars in Ireland, trig stations or points in Australia and New Zealand, and trig beacons in South Africa; triangulation pillar is the more formal term for the concrete columns found in the UK.
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  • 02 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Oregon Petition
The Global Warming Petition Project, also known as the Oregon Petition, is a petition urging the United States government to reject the global warming Kyoto Protocol of 1997 and similar policies. Some consider it to be a political petition designed for disinforming and confusing the public about the scientific results and the consensus of climate change research.
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Topic Review
Air Pollution Interconnections with Climate and Environmental Health
Air pollution is a major environmental problem. It is a problem that is interconnected with climate change and ecosystem health. The dynamics within the Niger Delta region of Nigeria are discovered. The high reliance of the people of the Niger Delta on their environment increases their vulnerability to environmental changes. This makes the problem an issue of environmental Justice when the drivers of air pollution in the region are factored in. Urgent and concerted action is required at the individual, local and national levels. The directions in this regard are highlighted. The emission and transmission of air pollutants cause air pollution. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation of over 200 million, is plagued with numerous environmental problems one of which is air pollution. The air quality in its major cities ranks among the worst in the world. 
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Topic Review
Map Symbolization
Map symbolization is the characters, letters, or similar graphic representations used on a map to indicate an object or characteristic in the real world.
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  • 02 Dec 2022
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