Glory Hole In Monticello Dam, California, United States

Monticello Dam is a 304-foot (93 m) high concrete arch dam in Napa County, California, United States constructed between 1953 and 1957. The dam impounded Putah Creek to create Lake Berryessa in the Vaca Mountains.

Lake Berryessa is currently the seventh largest man-made lake in California. Water from the reservoir primarily supplies agriculture in the Sacramento Valley downstream. The dam is noted for its classic, uncontrolled morning-glory-type spillway.The diameter at the lip is 72 ft (22 m). Locally, the spillway is also known as the "Glory Hole

Though the dam and its 26-mile (42 km) long reservoir are located entirely in eastern Napa County, the dam lies less than 500 ft (150 m) west of the boundary with Yolo County. In addition, parts of the lake's watershed extend into Lake County. Monticello is a concrete medium thick arch dam 304 ft (93 m) high from the foundations, 1,023 ft (312 m) long and 239 ft (73 m) above the riverbed. The dam is 100 ft (30 m) thick at the base, tapering to 12 ft (3.7 m) at the crest. The total volume of construction materials is 326,000 cubic yards.

The capacity of the reservoir is 1,602,000 acre⋅ft , with a full surface area of 20,700 acres (8,400 ha). The maximum operating elevation is 440 ft (130 m); any higher water levels will flow over the dam's spillway. About 375,000 acre feet of runoff flow into the reservoir each year from its 566-square-mile  watershed. The Monticello Dam Powerplant was completed in 1983 and has three generators, totaling a capacity of 11.5 megawatts (MW). The powerplant is operated and maintained by the Solano Irrigation District. The electrical power is sent mostly to the North Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area.

 

As of 1992, about 71,445 acres, or nearly 75 percent, of the project command area was irrigated. Water is diverted 6 miles (9.7 km) downstream of Monticello at the Putah Diversion Dam, and distributed to farms through the 33-milePutah South Canal. The canal ends at Terminal Reservoir, which supplies water to the cities of Vallejo and Benicia. A 1999 contract provides for the delivery of 207,350 acre feet of water each year for irrigation. About 32,000 acre feet  of municipal water are also supplied by the project.Since construction the dam and reservoir have prevented about $5,015,000 in flooding related damages

The dam's morning-glory-type spillway, known as the Glory Hole, is 72 feet (22 m) in diameter at lake level and narrows down to about 28 feet (8.5 m) at the exit. At the lake's peak level, the spillway can drain 48,400 cubic feet per second, which occurs when the lake level rises to 15.5 feet (4.7 m) above the level of the funnel. Water spills over its lip when the lake reaches 1,602,000 acre feet and a reservoir elevation of 440 feet (130 m) above sea level. The last time the reservoir naturally spilled through the glory hole was on the afternoon of February 26, 2019.

Prior to that, the last time the spillway was active was February 16, 2017. After a number of storms had caused the lake level to rise 35.5 inches since January 1, 2017, the reservoir was on the cusp of spilling once again at 439.2 feet. Eager to witness this event, a number of local boaters and recreation enthusiasts generated enough wake to cause the reservoir to spill, albeit briefly, at 1:45 p.m. on February 13, 2017. Lake Berryessa reservoir filled and ran into its glory hole spillway for the first time in over a decade on February 16, 2017.

Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden (Asia Biggest Tulip Garden), Srinagar, Kashmir, India

Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip garden is a tulip garden in Srinagar, Kashmir. It is the largest tulip garden in Asia spread over an area of about 30 hectares. It is situated on the foothills of Zabarwan Range with an overview of Dal Lake. The garden was opened in 2007 with the aim to boost floriculture and tourism in Kashmir Valley.

The garden is built on a sloping ground in a terraced fashion consisting of seven terraces. Apart from tulips, many other species of flowers - hyacinths, daffodils and ranunculus have been added as well.

A seven-terraced garden, Tulip Garden is also known as Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden after being known as Model Floriculture Center for a long time. The water channel running through the terraces adds more charm to the place. Sprawling in 30-hectares of land, this major tourist site in Srinagar comes to live during the spring season when the Tulip Festival is held annually. Opened to public, this festival aims at flaunting the natural beauty of the garden, the rich Kashmiri culture, and its handicraft and cuisine.

Tulip festival is an annual celebration that aims to showcase the range of flowers in the garden as a part of tourism efforts by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir. It is organized during the onset of spring season in Kashmir valley.There are some added attractions in the Tulip Festival of 2019. Nature has bestowed the garden with more varieties of flowers this year. Moreover, visitors can avail the benefits of surplus facilities like free Wi-Fi, more fountains, washrooms and drinking points.

More green spaces are included in the garden area keeping in mind the comforts of the tourists. Extra plants like daffodils, hyacinths, narcissus and other ornamental plants are planted to ornate the area. Water channel running through the terraces will add charm to the garden.

Visitors will now be able to buy souvenirs and savor Kashmiri dishes from outside the garden area. This will be possible because of the decorated stalls and kiosks exhibiting cuisine and handicrafts of Kashmir.

Hill of Crosses, Northern Lithuania

Hill of Crosses is a site of pilgrimage about 12 km north of the city of Šiauliai, in northern Lithuania. The precise origin of the practice of leaving crosses on the hill is uncertain, but it is believed that the first crosses were placed on the former Jurgaičiai or Domantai hill fort after the 1831 Uprising. Over the generations, not only crosses and crucifixes, but statues of the Virgin Mary, carvings of Lithuanian patriots and thousands of tiny effigies and rosaries have been brought here by Catholic pilgrims. The exact number of crosses is unknown, but estimates put it at about 55,000 in 1990 and 100,000 in 2006. Over the generations, the place has come to signify the peaceful endurance of Lithuanian Catholicism despite the threats it faced throughout history. After the 3rd partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Lithuania became part of the Russian Empire. Poles and Lithuanians unsuccessfully rebelled against Russian authorities in 1831 and 1863. These two uprisings are connected with the beginnings of the hill: as families could not locate bodies of perished rebels, they started putting up symbolic crosses in place of a former hill fort.

                         

Over the generations, the place has come to signify the peaceful endurance of Lithuanian Catholicism despite the threats it faced throughout history. After the 3rd partition of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Lithuania became part of the Russian Empire. Poles and Lithuanians unsuccessfully rebelled against Russian authorities in 1831 and 1863. These two uprisings are connected with the beginnings of the hill: as families could not locate bodies of perished rebels, they started putting up symbolic crosses in place of a former hill fort.When the old political structure of Eastern Europe fell apart in 1918, Lithuania once again declared its independence. Throughout this time, the Hill of Crosses was used as a place for Lithuanians to pray for peace, for their country, and for the loved ones they had lost during the Wars of Independence.

The site took on a special significance during the years 1944–1990, when Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union. Continuing to travel to the hill and leave their tributes, Lithuanians used it to demonstrate their allegiance to their original identity, religion and heritage. It was a venue of peaceful resistance, although the Soviets worked hard to remove new crosses, and bulldozed the site at least three times (including attempts in 1963 and 1973). There were even rumors that the authorities planned to build a dam on the nearby Kulvė River, a tributary to Mūša, so that the hill would end up underwater.

On September 7, 1993, Pope John Paul II visited the Hill of Crosses, declaring it a place for hope, peace, love and sacrifice. In 2000 a Franciscan hermitage was opened nearby. The interior decoration draws links with La Verna, the mountain where St. Francis is said to have received his stigmata. The hill remains under nobody's jurisdiction; therefore people are free to build crosses as they see fit.

Hashima Island (The Battleship Island), Nagasaki, Southern Japan.

Hashima Island commonly called Gunkanjima, is an abandoned island lying about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the city of Nagasaki, in southern Japan. It is one of 505 uninhabited islands in Nagasaki Prefecture. The island's most notable features are its abandoned concrete buildings, undisturbed except by nature, and the surrounding sea wall. While the island is a symbol of the rapid industrialization of Japan, it is also a reminder of its history as a site of forced labor prior to and during the Second World War.

The 6.3-hectare (16-acre) island was known for its undersea coal mines, established in 1887, which operated during the industrialization of Japan. The island reached a peak population of 5,259 in 1959. In 1974, with the coal reserves nearing depletion, the mine was closed and all of the residents departed soon after, leaving the island effectively abandoned for the following three decades. Interest in the island re-emerged in the 2000s on account of its undisturbed historic ruins, and it gradually became a tourist attraction. Certain collapsed exterior walls have since been restored, and travel to Hashima was re-opened to tourists on April 22, 2009. Increasing interest in the island resulted in an initiative for its protection as a site of industrial heritage.

The island was formally approved as a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site in July 2015, as part of Japan's Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining.

 

 

Coal was first discovered on the island around 1810, and the island was continuously inhabited from 1887 to 1974 as a seabed coal mining facility. Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha bought the island in 1890 and began extracting coal from undersea mines, while seawalls and land reclamation (which tripled the size of the island were constructed. Four main mine-shafts (reaching up to 1 kilometer deep) were built, with one actually connecting it to a neighbouring island. Between 1891 and 1974 around 15.7 million tons of coal were excavated in mines with temperatures of 30°C and 95% humidity.

In 1916 the company built Japan's first large reinforced concrete building (a 7 floor miner's apartment block), to accommodate their burgeoning ranks of workers. Concrete was specifically used to protect against typhoon destruction. Over the next 55 years, more buildings were constructed, including apartment blocks, a school, kindergarten, hospital, town hall, and a community centre. For entertainment, a clubhouse, cinema, communal bath, swimming pool, rooftop gardens, shops, and a pachinko parlour were built for the miners and their families.

Beginning in the 1930s and until the end of the Second World War, conscripted Korean civilians and Chinese prisoners of war were forced to work under very harsh conditions and brutal treatment at the Mitsubishi facility as forced laborers under Japanese wartime mobilization policies. During this period, it is estimated that about 1,300 of those conscripted laborers died on the island due to various dangers, including underground accidents, exhaustion, and malnutrition.

In 1959, the 6.3-hectare (16-acre) island's population reached its peak of 5,259, with a population density of 835 people per hectare (83,500 people/km2, 216,264 people per square mile) for the whole island, or 1,391 per hectare (139,100 people/km2) for the residential district. As petroleum replaced coal in Japan in the 1960s, coal mines began shutting down across the country, and Hashima's mines were no exception. Mitsubishi officially closed the mine in January 1974, and the island was cleared of inhabitants by April. Today its most notable features are the abandoned and still mostly-intact concrete apartment buildings, the surrounding sea wall, and its distinctive profile shape. The island has been administered as part of Nagasaki city since the merger with the former town of Takashima in 2005. Travel to Hashima was re-opened on April 22, 2009, after 35 years of closure.

The island was owned by Mitsubishi until 2002, when it was voluntarily transferred to Takashima Town. Currently, Nagasaki City, which absorbed Takashima Town in 2005, exercises jurisdiction over the island. On August 23, 2005, landing was permitted by the city hall to journalists only. At the time, Nagasaki City planned the restoration of a pier for tourist landings in April 2008. In addition a visitor walkway 220 meters (722 feet) in length was planned, and entry to unsafe building areas was to be prohibited. Due to the delay in development construction, however, at the end of 2007 the city announced that public access was delayed until spring 2009. Additionally the city encountered safety concerns, arising from the risk of collapse of the buildings on the island due to significant aging.

It was estimated that landing of tourists would only be feasible for fewer than 160 days per year because of the area's harsh weather. For reasons of cost-effectiveness the city considered cancelling plans to extend the visitor walkway further—for an approximate 300 meters (984 feet) toward the eastern part of the island and approximately 190 meters (623 feet) toward the western part of the island after 2009. A small portion of the island was finally reopened for tourism in 2009, but more than 95% of the island is strictly delineated as off-limits during tours. A full reopening of the island would require substantial investment in safety, and detract from the historical state of the aged buildings on the property.

The island is increasingly gaining international attention not only generally for its modern regional heritage, but also for the undisturbed housing complex remnants representative of the period from the Taishō period to the Shōwa period. It has become a frequent subject of discussion among enthusiasts for ruins. Since the abandoned island has not been maintained, several buildings have collapsed mainly due to typhoon damage, and other buildings are in danger of collapse. However, some of the collapsed exterior walls have been restored with concrete.

 

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Dallol Volcano, (The Hottest Areas on Earth) , Ethiopia

The Danakil Depression is a rift valley that parallels the Red Sea, near the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is a minor structure related to the rift between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. As the rift opens, the floor of the Danakil Depression subsides. After millions of years of subsidence, the deepest part of the depression is about 410 feet below sea level. It is one of the lowest points on Earth.

Several times during the formation of the Danakil Depression, water has over topped the divide between the Danakil Basin and the Red Sea, flooding the basin with seawater. Thick evaporate sequences of gypsum and halite were deposited in the basin as the seawater evaporated in the hot dry climate. Some of the evaporate deposits were formed by evaporating runoff water and evaporating hydro thermal brines.

The Dallol area is one of the hottest areas on Earth. The average daily maximum temperature is 106 degrees Fahrenheit and the annual mean temperature is 94 degrees Fahrenheit. During the rainy season, large portions of the Danakil depression can be covered with runoff water.

Much of the floor of the Danakil Depression is covered by salt flats. Other areas are covered by basalt flows, shield volcanoes, and cinder cones. Several craters up to a mile across can be seen on the salt flats. These are thought to be maars formed by phreatic eruptions.

The most recent eruption occurred in 1926 when a body of magma ascended toward Earth's surface in the Danakil Depression near the boundary of northern Ethiopia and Eritrea. The rising magma body penetrated the salt on its way to the surface and a phreatic explosion formed a small maar about 100 feet across at the eruption site.

Dallol has some of the most colorful landscapes on Earth. The hot magma below heats groundwater flowing in from the surrounding highlands. This hot water moves up toward the surface and through the evaporite deposits, dissolving salt, potash, and other soluble minerals.

The supersaturated brine emerges through hot springs in the floor of the craters. As the brines evaporate in the hot arid climate, extensive salt formations are formed on the floor of the craters. These are colored white, yellow, brown, orange, and green by sulfur, dissolved iron, mud, and the life activity of halophile algae.

The actions of the hot springs, the deposition of salt, and sediments washed in by runoff have modified the geometry of the craters. Dallol craters are dangerous places to visit because their surface can be covered by a crust of salt with pools of hot acidic water just inches below. Toxic gases are sometimes released from craters.

In the past decade Dallol and Erta Ale, volcanic areas in the southeastern part of the Danakil Depression, have been frequently visited by tourists. These excursions can be risky because of the severe climate, the remote location, and repeated attacks on tourists. Armed guards accompany many of the tour groups.