Every Day Is Special: coral reef

Showing posts with label coral reef. Show all posts

May 20 - Independence Day in East Timor

Posted on May 20, 2022

This is an update of my post published on May 20, 2011:

East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, is one of the youngest nations on earth. Having been colonized by Portugal rather than by the Netherlands, as surrounding islands of Indonesia were, East Timor did not welcome rule by Indonesia after the colonizers left. Unfortunately, there was violence between the people of East Timor and Indonesia for decades before East Timor finally became independent on May 20, 2002.

It's interesting to see how language and religious differences are dealt with during times of conflict. You may know that more Muslims live in Indonesia than anywhere else in the world; East Timor, on the other hand, is one of only two Asian nations that is predominantly Roman Catholic. (Can you guess the other?) The Portuguese language, alone with Tetum, is widely spoken in East Timor, but when Indonesia ruled over East Timor, Portuguese was banned! The language was still used by the resistance forces, however, and it became a symbol of freedom. Isn't it ironic that the language of a conquering / colonizing force (Portugal) -- which squelched freedom for centuries -- became a symbol of freedom against another invasive force?

Check out some of the natural beauty of East Timor:

East Timor is part of the so-called Coral Triangle, an area of coral reefs with the highest coral diversity in the world.

See the triangle of red dots,

which show three national parks?

That's the Coral Triangle!

Note that East Timor is called Osttimor.

Ost means “east.”

Check out coral!

You probably already know that coral reefs are built by tiny animals that are cousins of jellyfish. Coral polyps secrete calcium carbonate to built a hard skeleton, and there are many different colors and shapes of living corals. Coral reefs provide great homes to many other creatures such as mollusks and fish.

Art Predator has gathered together some links to help kids learn about coral reefs.

The Reef Education Network has a website with info and activities and opportunities to make a difference in the worldwide efforts to protect coral reefs.

Also on this date:

Editor and Icelandic patriot Bergur Sigurbjörnsson's birthday

Weights and Measures Day

Eliza Doolittle Day

Cameroon's National Day

Birthday of actor / singer Cher

Emancipation Day in Florida

World Bee Day

First solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean

First woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean

Endangered Species Day

(Third Friday in May)

O. Henry Pun-Off Day

(Third Friday in May)

National Pizza Party Day

(3rd Friday in May)

Plan ahead:

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And here are my Pinterest boards for:

June 18 – National Day for Seychelles

Posted on June 18, 2016

As I mentioned in an earlier post, June 5 and June 29 are both important holidays for Seychelles—but today is, too! On this date in 1993, a multi-party democratic constitution was adopted by the island nation.

Located in the Indian Ocean, this 115-island country is considered to be part of Africa. It has the smallest population of any independent African nation. But that seems about right, since it is also the smallest country in Africa in total land area. Actually, it's only a little bit larger in area than the U.S. Capital, Washington, D.C. – which is a city, not a nation! Still, there are quite a few smaller nations in the world.

Some of the Seychelles islands are granite-based.

But most of them are coral islands, coral sand islands, or raised coral islands.

You may wonder what the difference is between coral, coral sand, and raised coral islands.

Here is a crash course in island building:

A coral island starts as a coral reef. But rocks and sand can be piled on top of the reef during a storm, and then seeds can sprout in the layers of accumulated material.

Coral sand islands are formed by sand made by coral being broken up into tiny pieces by pounding surf. This sand can sit on the surface of a coral reef and form a small, low-elevation island. Small sandy islands are often called cays (also, cayes or keys).

This is coral sand magnified!

And a raised coral island is an atoll (a ring-shaped coral reef that encircles a central lagoon) that was uplifted above sea level. What causes the uplift? The same tectonic forces that create mountains and cause earthquakes. Just like other coral islands, rocks and soil and sand can be deposited on these uplifted reefs, and then plants colonize and change the island.

One of the largest atolls in the world is Aldabra Atoll – and it is a raised coral atoll.

There is a short video about conservation of Seychelles's coral reefs on the Encyclopedia Britannica website.

Also on this date:

Worldwide Knit in Public Day

World Juggling Day

Evacuation Day in Egypt

Anniversary of Susan B. Anthony being fined for daring to vote

International Sushi Day

Anniversary of the possible sighting of the creation of a lunar crater

Beatle Paul McCartney's birthday

Anniversary of the discovery of the “missing” neutrinos

Dump the Pump Day

Plan ahead:

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June holidays

June birthdays

Historical anniversaries in June

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

June 11 – Discovery of a Great Reef

Posted on June 11, 2016

The Great Barrier Reef from space

The Great Barrier Reef is a gorgeous place, by some definitions the largest living thing on Earth, visible, even, from space! Thousands and thousands of different sorts of species – from dolphins and dugongs to fish and sea snakes, from sea turtles and sea grasses to mollusks and crocodiles, from sponges and anemones to sea stars and seaweeds, and of course thousands of corals – live on the reef.

It does not seem like it would be difficult to discover such a huge thing – and it seems like the discovery would be a fun and beautiful thing.

But...

The Great Barrier Reef is located off the coast of Australia, a place very far from and indeed not yet discovered by European explorers. And the discovery wasn't so much of a “Oh, look! How beautiful is that!” as it was a “Oh, no! What did we run into???”

On this date in 1770, English explorer and naval officer Captain James Cook “discovered” the Great Barrier Reef the hard way – by running his ship The Endeavor aground on it!

Once your ship is aground, it's not so easy to fix the problem.

After being stuck for an entire day, Cook and his crew finally freed their ship by throwing overboard 50 TONS of stuff. Then they still had to repair the damage. And only then could they get back to following their super secret orders: to search for a major southern continent and claim it for England.

A couple of months later, Cook would discover and explore Australia and New Zealand. Even though the former is considered a southern continent, it wasn't the huge landmass that so many people thought MUST exist to balance out the Earth. (Have you ever noticed that there is way more land in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern?)