Sky island

 Sky islands are mountains that are isolated from the surrounding lowlands of a totally different environment, a situation which, in combination with the altitudinal zonation of ecosystems, has significant implications for natural habitats. endemic populations, vertical migration, and relics are among the natural phenomena found on islands in the sky. The complex dynamics of species richness in the sky islands called the attention of the discipline of biogeography, and biodiversity is of interest to conservation biology. One of the key elements of an island in the sky is the separation by the huge physical distance from the mountains, resulting in an island habitat, such as a forest surrounded by desert. Some sky islands serve as refuges for boreal species stranded by climate warming since the last ice age. In other cases, localized populations of plants and animals tend to speciation, the same process that occurs on oceanic islands like the Galapagos Islands.

The term was popularized by the writer of the nature of Weldon Heald, a resident of southeastern Arizona. In his 1967 book, Sky Island, demonstrated the concept by describing a unit of the town of Rodeo, New Mexico, in the lowlands of the Sonoran Desert, with a peak in the Chiricahua Mountains, 35 miles (56 km) away and 5600 m (1707 m) higher in elevation. Rising from the hot, dry desert, the environment transitions to grassland, then oak-pine forest, pine and spruce-fir forest finally, aspen. The book mentions the concept of a biome, but prefers the terminology areas of life, and refers to the work of Clinton Hart Merriam. The book also describe the wildlife and the lives of the Chiricahua.
Around the same time, the idea of ​​mountains as islands of habitat is maintained with scientists and has been used by such popular writers as David Quammen] and John McPhee. This concept is included in the study of island biogeography. Not limited to the mountains in southwestern North America, but can be applied to the mountains, highlands, and massive worldwide.

Nature

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also life in general. It varies from the subatomic to the cosmic. 

The nature of the word is derived from the Latin word natura, or "essential qualities, innate disposition," and in ancient times, literally means "birth." Natura is a Latin translation from the Greek word physis (φύσις), which originally related to the intrinsic characteristics that plants, animals and other features of the developing world of their own volition. The concept of nature as a whole, the physical universe, is one of several additions to the original concept, but started with some basic applications of word φύσις pre-Socratic philosophers, and has been gaining currency since. This usage was confirmed during the advent of modern scientific method in recent centuries. 

Within the various uses of the word today, "nature" may refer to the general scope of the various types of plants and animals, and in some cases to the processes associated with inanimate objects, the way in which certain types of things exist and change of their own volition, such as climate and geology of the earth, and matter and energy of all these things are made. Often means the "natural environment" or wilderness wild animals, rocks, forests, beaches, and generally things that have not been substantially altered by human intervention, or which persist despite human intervention. For, example, manufactured objects and human interaction are generally not considered part of nature unless qualified as, for example, "human nature" or "the whole of nature." This traditional concept of natural things that can still be found today implies a distinction between natural and artificial, the artificial with the understanding that has been brought into existence of human consciousness, or mind human. Depending on the context, the term "natural" could also be distinguished from the unnatural, the supernatural, or what is made by man (man).

Garden

A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, next to the display, cultivation and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and artificial materials. The most common today is known as a residential garden, but the garden has traditionally been a term more generally. Zoos, which display wild animals in simulated natural habitats, were formerly called zoological gardens. Western gardens are almost universally based on plants, garden often means a shortened form of botanical gardens. 

The etymology of the word refers to the box: Gardin is Middle English, from Anglo-French Gardin, garden, of Germanic origin, similar to Old High German Gard, GART, a box or a compound, as in Stuttgart. See Grad (Slavic settlement) for more complete etymology. The courtyard of the words, the court, and America hortus (which means "garden", therefore, horticulture and orchard) are cognates, all referred to an enclosed space. 

The term "garden" in British English refers to an enclosed area of ​​land, usually next to a building. This is known as a playground of American English. 

Some traditional types of eastern gardens, such as Zen gardens, use plants such as parsley. Xeriscape gardens use local native plants that do not require irrigation or extensive use of other resources while still providing the benefits of a garden setting. Gardens may have structural improvements, sometimes called follies, including water features such as fountains, ponds (with or without fish), waterfalls or creeks, dry beds of streams, statues, gazebos, pergolas and more. 

Some gardens are for ornamental purposes, while some gardens also produce food crops, sometimes in separate areas, or sometimes mixed with ornamentals. gardens for food production are distinguished from farms by their smaller scale, labor intensive methods of work, and their purpose (enjoyment of a hobby rather than produce for sale). Flower gardens combine plants of different heights, colors, textures and fragrances to create interest and delight the senses.

Rocks

In geology, rock or stone is a natural addition of solid minerals and / or mineraloids. 

The outer layer of the solid Earth, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general, the rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. The scientific study of rocks is called petrology, petrology and is an essential component of geology. 

The rocks are generally classified by mineral and chemical composition, texture of the constituent particles and the processes that formed them. These indicators separate rocks into igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. Which are classified according to the size of the particles. The transformation of a rock type to another is described by the geological model called the rock cycle.

Sunset

Sundown or sunset is the daily disappearance of the sun below the horizon in the west as a result of rotation of the Earth. 

The time of sunset is defined in astronomy as the time when the trailing edge of the disk of the sun disappears below the horizon in the west. The beam of light from the sunset is very distorted near the horizon due to atmospheric refraction, with fantastic astronomical occur when the Sun's disk and is close to a diameter below the horizon. Sunset is different from the dusk, when night falls, which occurs when the Sun is about eighteen degrees below the horizon. The period between sunset and astronomical twilight is called penumbra. 

Places north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle experience no sunset or sunrise at least one day each year when day and night polar fleece persists continuously for 24 hours. 

Sunset creates the unique atmospheric conditions such as orange and red often intense sun and the surrounding sky.

Sea

Sea generally refers to a large body of salt water, but the term is used in other contexts. Usually the term refers to a large extent of salt water connected to the ocean, and is used as a synonym of ocean. Also sometimes used to describe a large saline lake that lacks a natural outlet such as the Caspian Sea.

Waterfalls

Waterfalls are usually formed when a river is young. At the moment the channel is often narrow and deep. When the course of the rivers on resistant bedrock, erosion occurs slowly, while downstream erosion occurs faster. As the stream velocity increases at the edge of the waterfall, which starts from the riverbed material. Eddies in the turbulence created as well as sand and stones carried by the increased capacity of the watercourse erosion. This makes the carving waterfall in bed and go back upstream. Often, the passage of time, the cataract will move away again to form a canyon or ravine downstream and upstream away, and are carved deeper into the song over it. The withdrawal rate for a waterfall can be up to a year and a half meters per year. 

Often, the rock stratum just below the more resistant shelf will be a milder type, which means that due to the undervaluation of overalls occur here to form a shallow cave formation known as a rock shelter under and behind the waterfall. Finally, the outcrop, more resistant cap rock will collapse under pressure to add blocks of rock to the base of the waterfall. These blocks of rock are arranged in small rocks for wear and bumping into each other, and also erode the base of the waterfall by abrasion, creating a deep pool or throat.

Moon

Moon is the only natural satellite of Earth [Note 4] and the fifth largest satellite in the solar system. It is the largest natural satellite of a planet in the solar system in relation to the size of your principal, a quarter of Earth's diameter and 1 / 81 and its mass (Charon is proportionally large compared to Pluto, Pluto, but has been reclassified as a dwarf planet.) The Moon is the second densest satellite after Io. Is in synchronous rotation with the Earth, always showing the same face, the near side is marked with dark volcanic maria between the ancient highlands of brilliant bark and prominent impact craters. It is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun, although its surface is really very dark, with a reflection similar to that of coal. Its importance in the sky and its regular cycle of phases since ancient times have made the moon a great cultural influence on language, calendars, art and mythology. gravitational influence of the moon causes the ocean tides and longer minute of the day. current orbital distance of the Moon, about thirty times the diameter of Earth, it displayed nearly the same size in the sky as the sun, allowing it to cover the sun almost exactly in the total solar eclipses. 

The Moon is the only celestial body on which humans have landed. Although the program of the Soviet Union Luna was the first to reach the Moon with unmanned spacecraft in 1959, the U.S. NASA Apollo program achieved the only manned missions to date, starting with the first manned mission to the moon in orbit by Apollo 8 in 1968, and six manned moon landings between 1969 and 1972-the first was the Apollo 11. These missions returned more than 380 kg of lunar rocks, which have been used to develop a detailed understanding of the geological origins of the Moon (believed to have formed about 4. 5000 million years ago, in an event of great impact participation of the Earth), the formation of internal structure and its subsequent history. 

Aurora Borealis

Aurora (plural auroras or aurorae) is a natural light show in the sky, especially in the polar regions caused by the collision of charged particles directed by the Earth's magnetic field. An aurora is usually observed at night and usually occurs in the ionosphere. Also known as a polar aurora or, collectively, as the polar lights. These phenomena are usually seen between 60 and 72 degrees latitude north and south, which puts them in a ring right in the Arctic and Antarctic polar circles. [Citation needed] The auroras occur deep within the polar regions, but these are rare and often invisible to the naked eye. 

In northern latitudes, the effect is known as the aurora borealis (or northern lights), named after the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for north wind, Boreas, by Pierre Gassendi in 1621. The auroras were seen near the magnetic pole can be head high, but further, that illuminate the northern horizon as a greenish glow or sometimes a faint red, as if the sun were rising from an unusual direction. The aurora borealis most often occurs around the equinoxes. The northern lights have had a number of names throughout history. The Cree call this phenomenon the "Ghost Dance." In Europe, the Middle Ages, the aurora is commonly thought a sign from God (see Wilfried Schröder, Das Phänomen des Polarlichts, Darmstadt 1984).
Its southern counterpart, the Aurora Australis (or Southern Lights), has similar properties, and is visible from high southern latitudes in Antarctica, South America and Australia
Auroras can be seen around the world and other planets. They are most visible near the poles due to longer periods of darkness and the magnetic field.
Modern style guides recommend that the names of weather phenomena, such as the aurora borealis, that no capitals.