User talk:Mbz1/II Archive

Interesting Images Please scroll down and read descriptions. Click the images to enlarge.

Looming, towering and mirage of Farallon Islands
The image was composed out of the three frames taken from the same place of the same place (Farallon Islands). The difference in the appearance was kindly explained by Dr. Andy Young: "Mila has an illustration, containing 3 different views of the south-east Farallons with different refraction conditions: the top image shows just looming; the middle, looming with towering; and the bottom, a 5-image mirage, with the uppermost erect image severely stooped. These pictures were taken at heights of 40 to 66 meters on Point Lobos, near the Cliff House (San Francisco). The nominal distance to the sea horizon from a height of 40 meters is just about halfway to these islands and rocks, so only their parts above about 40 m height should be visible. An eye height of about 150 m would be required to put the sea horizon at the islands, assuming standard refraction. Even from 66 m, the lower peaks, such as Seal Rock (the isolated feature at the left of the photographs), which is 25 m high, should be almost completely hidden. However, a picture taken from a ship near the islands shows that everything is visible in Mila's pictures, even the low flats a meter or two above the sea. So looming is present in all the pictures taken from San Francisco." If you are interested to learn more about phenomenon,here's the page to read

Sand and Camouflage
All underwater images were taken off the same beach in kona at the Big Island of Hawaii. The upper left frame was taken 1-2 feet off shore. Flowery Flounder, Bothus mancus is blended well in the black lava sand. The lower left frame was taken 10-15 feet off shore. Hawaiian Lizardfish ,"Synodus 'ulae" has no problem with camouflage in the mixed (lava and and coral/ seashell sand. Even the eyes of the fish have a different colors to better match the sand. The upper right and the lower right images were taken few hundreds feet off shore. Although the sand there still has particles of lava it mostly came from corals and seashells. Surprisingly the same Hawaiian Lizardfish, as from the left lower frame looks very well camouflaged in that white sand. Please try to find the fish at those upper and lower right frames, and, if you give up then look.

Pterocaesio chrysozona in Papua New Guinea
This image was taken in Papua New Guinea. It was strange I heard the fishes before I actually saw them, and suddenly I found myself inside the school. What is interesting about the fishes that apparently common fish was kind of hard to ID. First I asked our local and very famous Marin biologist and here. My questions were ignored by him as usual. So, I thought he knows, but he's never responded because he is extremely unfriendly to me, or maybe as Richard would have said because he believes that Talk is silver, silence is golden :), or maybe as he said here "Those "questions" are irrelevant aa [sic the answers are known"] :). Then I posted the question at Wikipedia fish project. Once again no response followed. It was getting really interesting, and I posted question at Digital Divers network. The people there are very friendly and knowledgeable too. The post was viewed 83 times, and still no response! At one point I thought I discovered something new, and even started to think about name for my fish :)...Anyway to make a long story short at least I found both real and  friendly Marine Biologist and now I have my ID! Those are Goldband, Fusilier "Pterocaesio chrysozona".

"Kissing" Green Turtles
When I first time observed "kissing" green turtles in tide pools  in Kona, I thought "how sweet"! Guess what. In reality my "kissing" turtles were actually an arguing, and probably biting turtles. They were arguing for a feeding spot. Sometimes they approached each other from the front, and sometimes from the back. The end result was the same - the winner stayed, the looser run away (of course run as fast as a turtle runs :) )

Regeneration
While the surgeons work very hard to attach a lost limb to an injured person, starfishes have no problems with regeneration of the lost limbs on their own. I read that some shrimps are actually farming starfishes: They keep starfishes captive, eat an arm or two, and let it grow back :)

Cloning of Sea Anemone
While seastars know how to regenerate lost arms, some Sea Anemones know how to clone. At the image Anthopleura elegantissima is in process of cloning(longitudinal fission).In just a few few hours (or days), instead of one unit there will be two. The small pieces of shells, which are attached to the sea anemone are used for Camouflage.

Something from Antarctica
IMO everything that has something to do with the exploration of Antarctica could be consided as an interesting image. So, here's one:In February 1899, Borchgrevink's party of Southern Cross Expedition landed at Cape Adare - the northeastern most peninsula in Victoria Land, East Antarctica,where they built a prefabricated hut (the first human structure ever built on the Antarctic continent). They wintered at Cape Adare and were picked up in January of 1890 by Southern Cross ship. At the image you could see a drawing above Kolbein Ellefsen's bed in Borchgrevink's Cape Adare Hut. Ellefsen was one of the members of the Southern Cross Expedition. He was a good sailor and also the Cook on the expedition and a talented artist. While looking at the image, please, try to imagine a young man (Kolbein Ellefsen was in his yearly twenties) during unforgiving Polar night, not knowing what's going to happened next (one of the expedition members did not make it), who used a  Kerosene lamp or a candle with its ghostly light to draw portrait of a beautiful woman above his bed. The image was taken in January of 2001.

Fogshadow
Fog shadow of Sutro tower, San Francisco. These fascinating shadows look odd since humans are not used to seeing shadows in three dimensions. The thin fog was just dense enough to be illuminated by the light that passed through the gaps in a structure or in a tree. As a result, the path of an object shadow through the "fog" appears darkened. In a sense, these shadow lanes are similar to crepuscular rays, which are caused by cloud shadows, but here, they're caused by an object shadows. (The description was provided by Dr. Andy Young.)

Inferior Mirage of a setting comet
Probably most of you, who is looking at the image now, would find it not spectacular or even boring, yet it is one of the rarest images ever taken, and to me the image is fascinating. It is rare not because it shows inferior mirage. Inferior mirage is one of the most common mirages. It is rare not because it shows Comet McNaught. Comet McNaught was one of the most photographed comets ever. This image is rare because it shows the combination of two. The comet was setting over Pacific while refracted comet was rising from Pacific. Eventually the two of them reached each other, and there was one comet once again. :)

Interesting behavior of great white sharks
A rare image of a behavior of a great white shark. Great white sharks sometimes roll over on their back to capture a wounded or dead prey item. It is possible that this behavior is utilized when feeding upon carrion, like a dead whale.

Fata Morgana
Fata Morgana is a complex form of superior mirage. Fata Morgana is often mistaken with UFO

Pele's Hair
The photo is showing what looks to be fine strands of wire or hair amidst hardened lava was taken on the Big Island of Hawaii (on Kilauea) in August of 2008. Actually, it's not hair or wire at all; it's volcanic glass, referred to as Pele's hair. It forms during eruptions as molten basaltic material is pulled apart or stretched. It's sufficiently light to be blown around by gusts of wind. I picked up a shard of this "hair" to examine it and wished I had not. It broke apart in my hand. When a park ranger tried to remove it, it became further embedded in my skin. Park ranger asked me how I got myself in the situation. I said I wanted to see Pele's hair in the wild. Oh well... :)