Thunderstorms of the world

Lightning strikes Earth some 1.4 billion times per year. More than 2,000 thunderstorms are happening simultaneously over the Earth with some 100 flashes every second. Only some 20 – 30% of strikes go from cloud to ground.

Lightning is more frequent over the land because the land surface in the day gets more heated, causing more intense air convection, which in turn leads to lightning.

Areas far away from the equator only occasionally experience lightning flashes, while closer to the equator lightning is very common. Most frequent lightning flashes are in the following areas of the globe:

• Central Africa;
• Northern Colombia and Venezuela. See the description of the phenomenal Catatumbo Lightning;
• Southern Brazil and Paraguay;
• Southern slopes of northern Himalayas.

In each of these locations take place such intense thunderstorms which are unseen in Europe. But out of these locations, Central Africa has the highest intensity of lightning bolts.

Kifuka – world record holder of lightning intensity

Kifuka is located just 300 km south of the equator, in a zone of tropical wet climate. The summer lasts here for a whole year and thunderstorms are frequent throughout the whole year. Masses of humid air have traveled 1,700 km from the Atlantic ocean over the second-largest rainforest of the world and finally, they have reached the very first mountains: hills around Kifuka reach a height up to 1 kilometer above sea level.

As a result, Kifuka experiences violent thunderstorms unprecedented anywhere else in the world: each square kilometer experiences approximately 158 lightning strikes per year – one lightning strike per 6,300 square meters. For comparison in Europe north from Alps density and frequency of lightning is 150 – 300 times lower.

World record of Kifuka was announced six-seven years ago and the research goes on since then. Wondermondo does not possess information whether Kifuka still holds the record.

How are the lightning flashes counted?

Researchers of lightning obtained powerful instruments with the launch of NASA’s Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on a Japanese satellite in November 1997.

LIS detects the distribution and variability of all kinds of lightning in the tropical regions of our planet. The instrument records the time when lightning occurs, measures the radiant, determines location. It manages to detect even most of the day lightning. This information is of high value to climate researchers because it helps to understand the mechanism of global storm convection and dynamics.

Data from LIS, including fairly recent data, is available here.

References

1. Quality Controlled LIS Browse Images, Lightning & Atmospheric Electricity Research at the GHCC. Accessed on November 7, 2010.

Kifuka is included in the following article:

Realm of nitrates

Atmosphere per 78% consists of nitrogen. Photochemical reactions in the upper layers of the atmosphere create nitrates which are deposited everywhere on Earth. But almost everywhere these nitrates immediately are consumed by microorganisms. Only in a few places in the world, there is too little water and – as a result – too little life for denitrification. Such places are found in Dry Valleys of Antarctica, Nevada, and California (United States) and in northern Kenya. But the richest nitrate deposits are found in the Atacama Desert.

The driest place in the Atacama desert is the area around Yungay town because it has a so-called “double rain shadow”: a lower range screening it from the Pacific and the much higher Andes stopping any rain coming from the rainforest of Paraná and Amazon.

Rain comes here approximately once per 10 years and precipitation is measured in millimeters per decade. There has been fixed also a period without rain lasting for 40 years.

Nowhere else in the world there are found that many nitrates as here. Throughout 10 – 15 million years nitrate has virtually covered this land. Nitrates form up to 28% of the soil, forming a specific rock called caliche. The layer of caliche in some places is even 5 m thick.

Besides nitrates here are found other water-soluble salts, which often are not found elsewhere in the world – such as perchlorates and iodides. Most salts came here by the wind from the ocean and from local evaporated lakes whose sediments also are moved around by the wind.

Wealth from the desert

Nitrogen is one of the primary plant nutrients and nitrate fertilizers can do wonders in agriculture. This was discovered in the middle of the 19th century and agricultural businesses immediately started to look for this excellent possibility to boost their profit.

Soil with a weight content of nitrates above 7% was considered to be excellent fertilizer – a kind of “fertilizer ore”. In a short time, the Atacama desert gained huge popularity as the main producer of nitrate fertilizer in the world. Chile managed to gain control over most of the deposits and for decades this was the main source of income in Chile.

In the late 19th century in the lifeless hills developed a miner town Yungay and other mining towns.

In the 1920s there was developed an industrial method for the artificial synthesis of nitrate fertilizers and in the 1940s the large-scale mining of fertilizers in the Atacama desert ended. Since then the town has been almost completely abandoned. This was a heavy blow to the economics of Chile as well, ruining its financial system and proving how unsafe might be the dependence of the state economy on natural resources.

Astrobiologists look for life

As fertilizer business left the Atacama, here came completely different people – astrobiologists.

Their main interest is to find a border in the ground between areas without life and with life. When such a border is found, there could be research on which factors decide whether life exists or not. These findings could be of great assistance in the quest for life in outer space.

It is surprisingly hard to find soil on Earth without life. Microbial activity is found everywhere from the deepest seas to the highest mountains, from the coldest land to the hottest springs. It seems that only a complete lack of water leads to a complete lack of life. Microorganisms are found even in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica which are nearly as dry and a lot colder than the Atacama Desert.

Near the abandoned buildings of Yungay is located at the University of Antofagasta Desert Research Station. From time to time in this small house come interested scientists from all over the world. With different methods, they are researching dry, lifeless soil and publishing lots of scientific articles about their findings.

The soil does not have abnormal acidity or alkalinity and it is not toxic – if there would be water, it would sustain a whole set of diverse species. But until recent times it seemed that the area around Yungay is completely lifeless.

Thus a group of scientists from NASA Ames Research Center have been looking for life here for several years and have found none – their collected soil samples did not contain any traces of DNA. The only organic molecules found by the pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method were formic acid and benzene found in very low concentrations.

Only in 2007 it has been found that some microbial life exists on the thin layer (varnish) on the surface of rocks. Areas devoid of larger rocks still are lifeless.

In 2010 there has been published another research showed that microbial life exists also in gypsum crusts which are found in some areas. But in the driest locations of Yungay even in gypsum crusts, there is no life.

Some species of microorganisms manage to live in the dry salt flocks which gather some moisture at dawn when the temperature falls and air releases some moisture.

But there are locations in Yungay where none of these habitats exists. It is possible that these areas are the only lifeless grounds on Earth.

References

1. Rafael Navarro-González, Fred A. Rainey, Paola Molina, Danielle R. Bagaley, Becky J. Hollen, José de la Rosa, Alanna M. Small, Richard C. Quinn, Frank J. Grunthaner, Luis Cáceres, Benito Gomez-Silva, Christopher P. McKay, Mars-Like Soils in the Atacama Desert, Chile, and the Dry Limit of Microbial Life, Science, Vol.302, 7.November 2003. p.1018-1021. Accessed on the 2nd November 2010.
2. Kuhlman, K.; Venkat, P.; La Duc, M.; Kuhlman, G.; McKay, C, Biodiversity of Rock Varnish at Yungay, Atacama Desert, Chile, American Geophysical Union, Fall Meetin 2007, abstract #B33A-0861. Accessed on the 2nd November 2010.

Yungay is included in the following articles:

The hottest place on Earth

In 2003 – 2005 there was performed valuable and interesting scientific work – mapping of the soil surface temperature of Earth. NASA’s satellite “Aqua” with a help of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flew overhead around 1:30 the day around the whole planet and recorded the temperature of the soil surface.

For calculations of land surface temperatures was used MOD11 methodology. It had an accuracy of 1 – 0.5 K. This is a specific methodology measuring how hot the surface of the Earth would feel to the touch. One can see how hot the Earth felt every month from February 2000 to September 2010 in this animation of NASA Earth Observatory.

The results of this mission can be considered to be a fairly trustable source of information: and these results show that in 2004 and in 2005 the hottest place on Earth was exactly Lut desert in Iran. It is logical to suppose that the dark-colored Gandom-e Beryan plateau is the hottest place here. MODIS data indicated that temperatures often reach even 71 ° C temperature here.

This is not the hottest place of the world in all "disciplines": for example, the air above the surface here is not the hottest (Meteorologists traditionally measure the temperature of the air at 2 m height). In this respect, the record goes to the Furnace Creek Ranch, California, USA: there in July 1913 was registered the maximum temperature of 56.7°C.

Dark plateau

Gandom Beryan is a 480 km² large plateau covered with dark lava. The source of this rock is a bit of a mystery as there are no volcanoes in the vicinity.

Plateau is located in Shahdad Desert – part of Lut Desert. No roads lead to this remote plateau.

Temperatures on the top of the plateau are bearable only in November – April. It is extremely silent here. Sky in the night is unusually clean and filled with stars – after all this is one of the driest places on Earth and water vapor does not disturb the view.

There are seen no life forms and it seems that there are no microorganisms here. Sterilized milk dries out without getting sour. There are stories about mummified corpses of animals lying on stones for years.

Theoretically the maximum temperatures of soil, if they exceed 70°C, should be enough to fry an egg.

Down, right next to the base plateau, there is a river valley with green plants in it – thus it is not true that Lut desert is totally lifeless. Also, air and soil temperatures below are more bearable. But it is also true that in many other places Lut desert is completely lifeless too.

Scorched wheat

Name of the plateau means "Scorched Wheat". There is a story that the name originated from the following event:

In the 1950s a caravan with camels bringing a load of wheat was going through the desert from Shahdad to Khorasan. Due to an accident, they had to leave the wheat in the desert near the Gandom Beryan hill. A few days later drivers of another caravan noted the abandoned load – the grains were scorched due to the heat. Since then the hill got its present name.

Surroundings of Gandom Beryan have otherworldly beauty and lately are turning into a popular eco-tourism place.

References:

1. The Hottest spot on Earth, NASA Earth Observatory, accessed in the 31st October 2010.
2. MODIS land team validation, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, accessed in the 1st November 2010.
3. Zhengming Van, MODIS Land-Surface Temperature Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (LST ATBD), Version 3.3., April 1999. Accessed in the 1st November 2010.
4. Arizona State University. World: Highest temperature.

Gandom Beryan is included in the following list:

Active stratovolcano

Poas volcano is a 2,708 m high stratovolcano – e.g. conical volcano made of material erupted by the volcano itself. The volcano is erupting diverse lavas – in this respect, it is called a basaltic-andesite volcano.

Poas volcano is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Costa Rica with a well-developed tourism infrastructure and preserved by the Poás Volcano National Park (area 6,500 ha). Tourists are attracted by the unusual diversity of landscape: here the lush tropical forest is located next to a lifeless landscape created by acid fog.

Summit contains three craters with lakes. Here are also eight water-filled maars. Maars are created by spectacular phenomenon: as larger amounts of groundwater reached hot magma or lava, there rapidly formed steam, virtually blowing up the ground and leaving a hollow which later filled up with water.

Lower northern flank of Poás contains another volcano – Congo stratovolcano.

Poás is very active – there are known 39 pronounced eruptions since 1828 when the observations started. The last large eruptions took place in 1952 – 1954. Some specialists consider that the volcano is heading towards a large eruption. But between the eruptions there is no calm either: almost continuously something interesting is happening here.

In the southern part of the volcano is located Lake Botos – a beautiful crater lake surrounded by impressive tropical cloud forest, located 870 m above sea level. This is a more ancient crater that last erupted some 7,500 years ago. For the most part, it behaves like a common lake but sometimes the water gets heated for several degrees by volcanic heat.

In the north is located the most interesting feature of Poas volcano – some 1.7 km wide and 290 – 300 m deep, active crater with Laguna Caliente – one of the largest lakes of acidic brine on Earth. This lake is located some 2300 m above sea level, although the level is changing.

Laguna Caliente – lake of acid

Hot Lagoon (Laguna Caliente in Spanish) is one of the most acidic natural lakes in the world. The pH of this lake often is close to 0 (for example in 1993, 1994, and 2000) and no aquatic life has been found in it. No wonder – in comparison, the car battery acid is a lot less acid – around 1 of pH.

Bottom of the lake contains a layer of liquid sulfur.

Lake is very variable – sometimes 40 – 50 m deep, but sometimes it disappears entirely. The diameter of the lake may reach 250 – 300 m. Temperature of brine in it sometimes is 22°C but sometimes it rises up to 94°C.

Fascinating is the diversity of colors of the lake. It might be emerald green but some three hours later – grey-whitish. Sometimes rafts of brilliant, yellow sulfur are seen floating in the lake.

Phreatic explosions

As if this is not spectacular enough – Laguna Caliente often experiences impressive phreatic and phreatomagmatic eruptions. This is caused by the magma reaching the water – extreme heat instantly turns the water and acid into explosive steam and the lake blows up like a giant geyser.

Tourist booklets and Websites announce often that Laguna Caliente IS a geyser. This is wrong – geysers are powered by a somewhat different mechanism.

Phreatic explosions in Laguna Caliente are very diverse. Thus on September 28, 1972, there was observed that the central part of the lake surged for some 2 meters and then fell back, causing large waves. Lake color changed from turquoise to dark grey. In the middle of December 1977, a column of water and mud was ejected more than 1 km high and then fell down, covering a large area around the summit of the volcano. Rather often phreatic explosions throw up the acid water more than 200 – 300 meters high.

In 1978 – 1980 crater lake behaved like a giant geyser – for two periods of time, it was periodically, some 9 – 50 times per day, ejecting ash and mud 5 – 300 m high. In August 1988 the geyser-like activity of the lake took place every third minute, fountains were up to 30 m high.

In March – April 1989 the lake disappeared completely, leaving pools of bright yellow, bubbling sulfur. At the southern side of the lake formed chimneys of sulfur which were emitting gases, some with the sound of jet aircraft.

Then, in April 1990 in the site of the lake was noticed up to 10 m high fountains of pure liquid sulfur, also bluish sprays of sulphuric acid.

Five years later, in the summer of 1995 the lake was back, sky blue, with comparatively low temperature and nearly clean water in it. It is noticed that every time, when the lake recedes, in the sites of geyser-like eruptions are formed yellow sulfur cones and chimneys with bubbling sulfur inside.

On January 13, 2008, a group of tourists with awe looked at some 200 m high column of water and acid rising from the lake.

Acid rain from Poas volcano

A lake filled with acid is highly unusual – no wonder that there are unusual effects in the surroundings of it as well. One such effect is frequent acid rain and fog, eliminating life in a larger area around the lake. The acidity of rain is higher and more pronounced when the level of the lake is lower – then more sulfur is blasted by fumaroles directly in the air. This shows that Laguna Caliente at high water is a very efficient collector of magmatic gases.

Elsewhere in the world the acidity of the rain normally is a bit more than 5.7 of pH. There are exceptions and the most extreme ones were created by humans: in Los Angeles, there has been measured fog with acidity 2.0 of pH – this is similar to the acidity of lemon juice.

Close to the Laguna Caliente the acidity of fog and rain is similar – around 2.0 of pH and maybe even less. The ruling winds here are blowing to the west. As a result around the crater and to the west from it, there has formed some 3.5 km long and 1 km wide, lifeless, naked scar surrounded by jungle.

Effects of the volcanic acid rain extend far beyond this scar. One of such effects is “stunted forest”. Diverse plants grow in the fertile volcanic soil under the otherwise favorable climate – but they frequently get sprayed with volcanic acid. As a result, the leaves of plants are burned and shoots damaged and trees and bushes grow crooked and undersized.

Unfortunately people living and working close to the volcano experience the effects of acid rain and fog too – and it may be far from pleasant.

Acid rain has often damaged the crops and fruits in the vicinities of the volcano. Due to the acid the farm equipment, cars, and home utensils become rusty, roofs of the buildings are damaged. Often tourists have been rescued from the nature trails to avoid potential health problems due to acid fog – sometimes tourists have been running out of the fog coughing and with runny eyes.

In April – October 1988 the acid rain consisted of small mud droplets covering everything in high density. Park guards experienced constant headaches, stomach problems, and serious irritation of mucous skin – happily, there was no long-term effect on their health. Dead birds were seen. Visitors of the park experienced eye and respiratory irritation.

In January – June 1989 toxic and acidic fog brought suffering to the inhabitants of nearby towns – they suffered from eye and throat irritation. Acid fog covered cars and houses with fine sulfur dust. In March 1992 the acid dust impaired the vision of people in the vicinities of the volcano and in May – July 1994 caused extensive damage to fields, forests, cars.

Orchids and unique squirrel

In spite of this extreme and rare meteorological phenomenon the surroundings of Poas volcano are covered with lush, very diverse tropical forest. Numerous rare and exotic species of plants and animals are found here.

Acid rain has created a unique biotope southwest from the Laguna Caliente at the height of 2,500 – 2,600 m. This biotope is disturbed by the acid and this has led to much lower species diversity in this location. The trees here look like bonsai, are low, on some areas here totally are missing bromeliads which elsewhere are very common. The forest canopy here is not continuous.

Exactly in this place is observed a very rare squirrel – Bangs’s mountain squirrel (Syntheosciurus brochus Bangs, 1902) – often identified as a subspecies – Syntheosciurus brochus poasensis. This animal is found in the mountain rain forest of three volcanos – two in Costa Rica and one in Panama. Here, on the summit of Poas volcano, it is the most frequently seen animal.

In areas with less frequency of acid rain the plant diversity is considerably higher – the lower montane forest is very rich with orchids and bromeliads, tree ferns, and the spectacular poor man parasol (Gunnera insignis Oerst. 1857.)

References

1. Global Volcanism Program, Poás. Accessed on October 14, 2010
2. Image of phreatic eruption, Laguna Caliente.. Accessed on October 15, 2010
3. O.Vaselli, F.Tassi, A.Minissale, G.Montegrossi, E.Duarte, E.Fernandez & F.Bergamaschi, Fumarole migration and fluid geochemistry at Poás volcano (Costa Rica) from 1998 to 2001.. Included in "Volcanic Degassing". Accessed on October 23, 2010

Poas Volcano and Laguna Caliente are included in the following articles:

No wonder that for centuries the ancient road was lined with corpses of dead pack-animals. Also nowadays Markansu desert (reportedly in the Kyrgyz language – "creek of tornadoes" or "creek of death", also "dead water") leaves a somber feeling.

Extreme weather

There are several reasons why Markansu valley is so specific.

One is the following: the valley is located 4 kilometers above sea level. At such height in these latitudes, the plant and animal life is left below in valleys and the plains are nearly lifeless.

Here should be mentioned interesting find: in 1957 archaeologist Vadim Ranov found here a 9,500 – 8,500 years old Neolithic summer settlements (the most famous is Oshkona – Ошхонa) with fireplaces where charred remnants of birch and juniper were found. Some scientists are convinced that back then Markansu valley was even 600 m lower than now (ie. it has been rising 5 – 7 cm every year) – otherwise people and trees cannot live here. Tectonic movements of high speed are not uncommon in this area – but it is not proven yet that Markansu Valley really experiences a fast upward rise lasting for thousands of years.

Another reason for extreme weather conditions is the following: this highland valley is surrounded by mountains – but not entirely. There is formed a singular likeness to wind tunnel: cold air masses from the Pamir Plateau are pushed through this comparatively narrow valley towards Xingjiang. Air is extremely dry – often the annual precipitation is less than 30 mm – thus Markansu Desert gets less precipitation than any other desert in Central Asia.

Markansu desert is some 30 km long and 1 – 2 km wide valley. It is flat, lifeless plain covered with a thin layer of sand and pebbles and black stones below it. The plain is crossed by a perennial stream – Markansu creek. For the most part of the year, this stream is dry or frozen. Plain contains occasional, wind polished, 20 – 30 m high hoodoos.

Valley is surrounded by bleak mountains rising some 500 m high. The sky above is unusually dark blue but the air closer to the land surface is filled with dust.

Often at forenoon the valley is silent. This is dead, depressive silence. In the afternoon the wind starts. It is very strong and there is no place to hide from it. The wind rises the dust and in stronger storms, it is not easy to orientate, it is hard to breathe.

The contrasting temperature of heated land surface and cold wind creates whirlwinds. Countless dust devils rise and they rise the stone shivers from the ground. Strong whirlwinds reach the strength of tornadoes and are very dangerous – there are reports about camels with all their burdens lifted by winds. People believed that these are real, fearsome spirits – jinns.

Valley is also extremely cold. Further south, in the mountains at Bulunkul there has been registered -63°C temperature – the lowest registered temperature outside the polar regions. But also in Markansu there are registered -40°C, while in summer days the sun might be scorching hot and the surface heats up to 60 – 70 °C hot. Even in summer, the temperature falls below zero at night. Winter lasts here from October to April.

Cursed valley

Local people and traveling traders considered that this valley is cursed and tried to cross it as fast as possible. Every traveler (also nowadays) reports a dreary, depressive feel of this location.

The ancient route of caravans was positioned similar to the current road. Caravans often perished here and this was considered one of the most dangerous parts of the Great Silk Road. In spite of the macabre fame, this valley was the simplest path to enter the Tarim Basin from the west, used by caravans until the early 20th century.

Danger was created exactly by the meteorological conditions. Pack-animals died here very often and at some moments in history, the path was full with skeletons of these animals – mainly horses and camels, at some places forming heaps of bones. Dry and cold climate often led to the mummification of corpses and preserved traces of past tragedies for long centuries.

In the 1930s, when the road was built here, these bones were removed.

Marco Polo described that here have been found numerous horns of mountain sheep. This is explained by hunting methods where herds of mountain sheep are driven to the base of steep cliffs and killed. Heads of male sheep are cut off and left here due to heavy horns. A dry and cold climate preserves them well. According to Marco Polo, shepherds use these horns for their everyday needs – like bowls, and dishes, and even as a building material for enclosures of their herds.

More appalling is another find – a group of dead mountain sheep and not far from them – several dead wolves. Who knows why these animals perished – but death came fast and unexpectedly.

As if nature hasn’t tried hard enough to create a somber landscape, Markansu valley is crossed by a kind of "Great Anti-Chinese Wall" built by the Soviet Union in the 1960s. This is a long fence stretching through Central Asia to Mongolia. It was built in the period when Soviet – Chinese relations were strained. This fence has signalization and border guards (in other regions, where is more life) have enough work while checking false alarms created by animals.

Markansu Desert is included in the following articles:

Geography

Cape Denison is an isolated rock at the icy shores of Commonwealth Bay. This rock is some 900 by 700 m large and surrounded by a nearly endless ice plain – the giant East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Distance to the South Pole is some 2,560 km – only a small bit closer than Tasmania.

Commonwealth Bay is approximately 60 km wide bay. Cliff of Cape Denison is located roughly in the center of this half-moon-shaped bay.

Ice cap here is rising like a giant amphitheatre. 1 kilometre from the shore ise rises some 50 – 90 metres above the sea level, 10 kilometres far – some 500 metres and 20 kilometres far – some 650 – 700 m high. Thus – as the ice approaches the sea, the surface of plain becomes steeper and steeper.

Inversion winds and katabatic winds

Central areas of Antarctica are not windy. In opposite – these endless plains of snow often are dead silent.

Surface of snow here is extremely cool – even as cold as -60°C. In the center of Antarctica ice shield rises up to 4,100 m above sea level. Closer to the sea the height of ice gradually decreases.

The cold air flows down the ice slope by the force of gravity like a giant stream. Such movement of air is called – inversion wind. As it approaches the sea, the ground becomes steeper and wind – faster.

When the smooth flow is disturbed by some monolithic cliff rising from the ice field or some ridge or valley, the movement of wind may become faster. Wind becomes very strong also close to the see, when the surface of ice shield falls even faster. Such wind already is similar to an avalanche and is is called katabatic wind.

Windiest place in world

Katabatic wind was known before the research of Antarctica, but nowhere else people have met such a powerful wind of this kind (katabatic winds in Greenland have comparable power).

This strength can be explained by the half-moon form of the bay – streams of air are squeezed here together and thus forced to flow faster. Right at the spot where the speed of air is at its fastest, in the middle of this powerful stream is located the rocky outcrop of Cape Denison. Thus the fast flow of air around this rock becomes even faster.

Mean annual speed of wind at Cape Denison is 80 km per hour (22 m per second). Meteorologists consider that storm begins at 24.5 km/h – thus the mean weather in Cape Denison is almost storm, and, as this is Antarctica – this storm is very very cold.

Mawson during his stay in Cape Denison measured winds exceeding 66 m per second (240 km/h). Such extreme speed of the wind was something new for the scientific community of the time. Mawson wrote:

" Having failed to demolish us by dogged persistence the gale tried new tactics on the evening of May 24 (1913), in the form of a series of Herculean gusts. As we learned afterward, the momentary velocity of these doubtless approached 200 miles (320 km) per hour."

His team was impressed and worn out by these impossible hurricanes lasting for days. Heroic 18 men of his Australasian Antarctic Expedition stayed here in the winter in 1912 and seven people – in 1913. They had to endure such storms which no one had experienced and survived to tell about – for example long-lasting 180 km/h wind at -30° C cold. Huts (Mawson’s Huts) of these hardy explorers have been preserved here up to this day and belong to the most valuable historical monuments on the continent.

Powerful winds strip away the snow from the surface of the ice shield and expose the old, blue ice. There are formed ridges in the ice which show the dominant directions of wind – they are called sastrugi (from Russian).

Beginning of these extreme hurricanes often is unusual – there might be absolutely calm weather and then in few minutes unexpectedly starts extreme wind which lasts for many hours and then again stops, as if switched out. These fast pressure jumps create small but very violent whirlwinds of snow and a characteristic short-lived and quick cloud disappearing above the sea.

It is observed that these extreme winds quickly lose their strength above the sea. Weather on the coast can be very diverse – at one spot it can be relatively calm but few kilometers further there might be a strong storm raging for hours.

While in summer there might be enjoyed periods of calm weather, winters are especially bad – then temperature falls, and storms are almost endless.

In spite of extreme weather conditions, the coast of Commonwealth Bay contains breeding colonies of emperor penguins and Adelie penguins, as well as the largest colony of Antarctic petrels with 158,000 breeding pairs and numerous other birds.

References

1. Australian Antarctic Division, Living&Working Mawson Station. Accessed on September 26, 2010.
2. F.K.Ball. The Katabatic Winds of Adelie Land and King George V Land. 1956.

Katabatic winds at Commonwealth Bay are included in the following list:

Search for the best sites of observatories

One of the main disturbing factors for astronomical research is the atmosphere of Earth – it removes some parts of the radiation coming from space and for the most part, contains particles, vapor. Disturbances in visibility are caused by the temperature difference and air movements.

One efficient way to overcome these hardships is by building space observatories. But as these devices are extremely expensive and hard to sustain and adjust for unexpected needs, astronomers put much effort to find the best location for astronomical observations on Earth.

When they find such locations, whole "villages" of high-tech astronomical observatories are built in such places. Groups of such observatories have been built in the Atacama desert (Chile), on La Palma island (Spain, Canary Island), on Mauna Kea mountain (United States, Hawaii), and some more places.

Antarctic astronomy

A group of American and Australian researchers has calculated in 2009 that the best-suited places for astronomical research (from a purely technical and not financial point of view) are located in several spots in the central part of Antarctica.

Researchers analyzed several factors important for different kinds of astronomical equipment, including the thickness of the boundary layer of the atmosphere, cloud cover, thermal regime, amount of vapor, and others. Data were obtained by screening the satellite data and using atmospheric models.

Several locations in Antarctica are a lot more perfect for astronomy than the ones used today. Thus, the famous Dome A is well-suited thanks to very calm weather, extremely low temperatures, comparatively thin atmospheric boundary layer, and several more characteristics.

The very best place to look in the sky

Researchers though noticed that another location approximately 144 km south-east from Dome A is even better. It got the nickname Ridge A as this is a low ridge of ice shield.

Ridge A is located almost as high as Dome A – if Dome A is 4,083 (4,092.5?) m above the sea level, Ridge A is 4,053 m high. Calculations show that Ridge A might be even colder than the eventual coldest place on Earth – Dome A.

Astronomical images taken here would be three times sharper than in the best current observatories and can be compared with the quality of images taken in space.

This remote place in the endless, flat Antarctic desert is the best place on Earth to look in the star-dotted winter sky and this view might be fantastic, incomparable with our daily experiences. But one should remember that temperature on such nights usually is minus 70 – 80°C and there is a possibility that it may fall below minus 100°C. Not the best conditions for a romantic stroll.

References

1. Will Saunders, Jon S. Lawrence, John W.V. Storey, Michael C.B. Ashley, Seiji Kato, Patrick Minnis, David M.Winker, Guiping Liu, Craig Kulesa Where is the best site on Earth? Domes A, B, C and F, and Ridges A and B. Accessed on September 27, 2010.

Ridge A is included in the following list:

Antarctic desert

“Dome Argus” was named by the researchers of Scott Polar Research Institute. The name “Argus” is taken from Greek mythology – Argus is the builder of the ship of Argonauts. Most likely Argus in his worst dreams could not imagine that there exist such cold places.

Visually Dome A looks like most other places in Antarctica – an endless, flat, lifeless plain. The landscape consists of white snow and the sky above it.

Dome A is the highest part of the Eastern Antarctic ice shield. The ice near it is at least 2,400 m thick and below the Dome, A is located Gamburtsev Mountain Range. These mountains reach a height of up to 2,700 m and in many ways are similar to the Alps. It is possible that the development of the Eastern Antarctic ice shield started from the glaciers of this mountain range in the late Eocene some 35 million years ago.

Area around Dome A is extremely flat – if Dome A is located 4092.5 m above the sea level, the lowest spot in 30 km distance around it is 4,090.2 m above the sea level – height difference over 30 km is only 2.3 m.

Yearly precipitation here is around 10 mm of snow – it is one of the driest places on Earth. The area is also very calm, although there is little data about the speed of wind in winter here (installed anemometres does not work properly at these extreme temperatures).

Extreme cold

The lowest temperature ever recorded has been registered in 1983 in Russian station Vostok: -89.2°C.

Dome A though is located some 600 m higher than Vostok. An automatic meteorological station was installed here in January 2005 and already in July 2005 there was registered -82.5°C. Currently, as Wondermondo writes this article (September 27, 2010), the temperature 1 m above the land surface is -71°C. Temperature falls below -80°C almost every winter. In summer in rare cases the temperature here rises above -10°C but usually is between -20 – -40°C.

Deep the ice it is not any better: at 10 m depth, the temperature is -58.3°C.

Weather in Dome A is very calm. During the cold winters, a specific phenomenon is observed – inversion. The coldest air is closer to the land surface, while several meters higher the temperature is some 10°C higher. This is caused by the cooling effect of snow surface and lack of wind which elsewhere would mix this cold air with the warmer air above it.

It is possible though that Dome A is not the coldest place on Earth. 144 km south-west from Dome A has been identified Ridge A which might have even lower temperatures.

Another contender for the coldest place is the 890 km distant Valkyrie Dome (Dome F or Dome Fuji) where reportedly has been registered record low temperature: 91.2 °C.

Climate record

There accumulates 1 – 3 cm of snow over Dome A in a year. Densification of snow is approximately 1 – 2 cm per year. Thus the ice shield gets very thin “annual rings”. Each of these rings records information about the climatic conditions of the respective year.

Due to this Dome A is a valuable site for climatic research – layers have been accumulated without any local disturbances, they are thin and thus one should not go too deep to reach very old ice. Research here would provide very valuable information about the climate in the past.

Chinese expeditions and ambitions

Chinese Antarctic Research Expedition CHINARE-21 was the first who arrived in this remote place in January 2005. Under the bright summer sun, they made several important scientific research activities – extracted 110 m long ice core sample and installed automatic meteorological station built by Australians. It is expected that this station continuously will collect data for 20 years and send it to the satellite. Data can be seen online here.

Ambitions of Chinese scientists did not end with this. The next expedition installed automatic astronomical observatory PLATO in January 2008. This station worked well for 208 days when energy supplies ended and thus far is serviced and restarted every summer. The science made by PLATO can be learned here and current situation can be seen on these webcams. In fact, these webcams show that some accumulation of snow due to winds is taking place here.

In 2009 the construction of the most extreme Antarctic research station – Kunlun Station – was started. For the beginning, it, of course, is summer station.

The work here is extremely demanding. It is hard to breathe and one should be very careful not to damage his lungs. There are numerous problems that can not be imagined by people elsewhere in the world. Going to the toilet outside premises seems to be mission impossible: at -60°C everything freezes stone-hard immediately after leaving the body, or, if you are not well prepared and quick enough, shortly BEFORE leaving the body. Hands without handkerchiefs are damaged by frost in 3 minutes’ time at this temperature.

After working for 50 days at Dome A people are losing weight – it is not possible to take wholesome food to this place.

Kunlun station is designed to persist in at least -93°C cold at a wind speed of 12 m/s. This requires special engineered materials – common steel is not trustable at such conditions. It is planned to develop an airport here as well. The station is located 1,200 km from the other Antarctic stations and is outside the range of helicopters – thus currently it is reached only with snowmobiles.

Dome A is one of the best locations on Earth for astronomical observations – for example, it is probably the only place on Earth where the interstellar medium can be researched in terahertz frequencies. Many roles in this program are taken by Australia which sees a possibility to develop a world-class astronomical observatory here.

References

1. Australian Antarctic Division, Dome A: Colder than Cold. Accessed in the 31st December 2011. Here you can look current temperature at Dome A – amazing!
2. Xiao Cunde, Li Yuansheng, Ian Allison, Hou Shugui, Gabrielle Dreyfus, Jean-Marc Barnola, Ren Jiawen, Bian Lingen, Zhang Shenkai, Takao Kameda. Surface characteristics at Dome A, Antarctica: first measurements and a guide to future ice-coring sites. Annals of Glaciology 48, 2008. Accessed in 27 September 2010.

Dome A is included in the following article:

Monsoon rains

Cherrapunji (the old and lately returned name – Sohra) is a town located on a high plateau in Khasi Hills, rising 600 m above surrounding valleys. This is a beautiful, fairy-tale landscape, some 1,200 – 1,400 m above sea level.

Contrary to the plains of Bangladesh further south, here almost never gets hot: for the most part, there is a pleasant 24°C temperature. Only the dry winters might become unpleasantly cold – sometimes it is almost freezing.

As the spring ends, by the third week of May the weather in Khasi Hills becomes very humid. There has started monsoon – nearly constant wind blowing from Bengal Bay and Bangladesh to the dry Tibetan plateau which at this time of the year has low atmospheric pressure.

Air masses gather lots of humidity from the baking hot swamps of Bangladesh and the sea in Bengal Bay. The wind blows without obstacles over the extremely flat plains of Bangladesh, which is 400 km from the sea rise only 10 – 30 m above the sea level.

But, as the humid, heated air masses reach Khasi Hills, over an 8 – 9-kilometer distance they reach 1,200 – 1,400 m tall mountains. The abrupt change in conditions leads to extremely heavy downpours of rain, which are especially powerful on the southern slopes of Khasi Hills.

Another reason for powerful rain is the proximity of Cherrapunji to the line of the discontinuity between the dry eastern and northern winds and moist southern and western winds.

Powerful rains and high cliffs lead to another spectacular phenomenon – tall waterfalls. Khasi Hills contains several of the most impressive waterfalls in India. Especially great are the approximately 335 m tall Nohkalikai Falls near Cherrapunji.

World records

Different sources give a different number for average annual rainfall in Cherrapunji – from 10,816 mm to 12,063 mm of rain per year.

More than 80% of rains in Cherrapunji fall in summer: from May to September. The remaining part of the year gets a lot less rain and there might be even droughts in winter when local people (living in one of the wettest places in the world!) have a hard time getting any water. It has happened though that daily rains have lasted here for two years.

As Brits moved into this beautiful land, they noticed the extreme rainfall. The meteorological observatory was established in 1902 in a convenient location – Cherrapunji town. Before 1902 there were rain gauges installed in several locations of Cherrapunji and thus climatic records are available since 1871 – a luxury that is rare even in many parts of Europe.

Here have been measured several world records of rainfall:

• Yearly rainfall – 24,555 mm in 1974.
• Rainfall in one month – 9,300 mm in July 1861.
• Some believe that Cherapunji holds the record for rainfall in one day – 1,563 mm on June 15-16, 1995, measured in 8:30 one day – 8:30 next day. Three times more than it rains in London PER YEAR! In European or American cities even 5 minutes of such rain would lead to flash floods and make headlines in newspapers, but here it continued for a whole day – for 1,440 minutes! But this record has been beaten elsewhere – at Cilaos, Reunion Island, wherein 15 – 16 March 1952 was registered 1,870 mm rainfall!

Most rain in Cherrapunji falls in the early morning hours, as the moist air rises from valleys, where it has been trapped in the night.

Lately though it has become clear that nearby there are locations that get even more rain. Just 15 km to the west there is Mawsynram village which over the last years become established as one of the rainfall champions in the world. The average annual rainfall here is 11,873 mm. Most likely also other records have been registered in Cherrapunji just because there is a meteorological observatory – other locations nearby may have more rain.

There is another – more worrying tendency. It seems that the climate in Cherrapunji is changing due to deforestation, which leads to severe droughts in winter. Population in the town has grown from 7 thousand in 1960 to more than 100 thousand in the 2000s in the Cherrapunji area (the town itself has more than 10,000 inhabitants).

It is well possible that some other remote locations of the world get even more rain than Khasi Hills – just there are no meteorological observatories. Such contenders might be the upper reaches of the Nakanaï Mountains in New Britain, Papua New Guinea, and many other remote tropical regions. Lloro town in Colombia gets 13,300 mm of rain per year – here the rain is spread throughout the year – thus it certainly beats both Cherrapunji and Mawsynram in this respect, but the intensity of rainfall is less impressive.

Land of Khasi People

The beautiful Khasi Hills are inhabited by the proud and distinctive Khasi people (around Cherrapunji – Khynriam sub-tribe). Khasi belongs to Mongoloid race, to the Mon-Khmer group, and are more closely related to people living in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam than to most other people in India.

Their language – Khasi – is the most northern of Austro-Asiatic languages.

Khasi have interesting traditions. One of them is the recent tradition of erecting megaliths – East Khasi Hills contain numerous megaliths (Khasi monoliths). Monoliths, table stones, and cromlechs were erected to commemorate important events and deceased people.

Khasi properties are inherited from the mother to the youngest daughter. In comparison with other regions in India, women here have comparative freedom, they definitely cannot be forced into an unwanted marriage and they also own the children.

Khasi have been subjugated to other powers and have long fought against this. British Empire took over their land in the 1820s – 1830is and renamed the ancient Sohra village to Cherrapunji, building a new town to the south of the old village.

Brits declared Sohra as the capital of Assam in 1832 but as the weather was unbearable, the capital was relocated to the north, to Shillong in 1866 – 1874.

Life under the rain

Extreme rains in Khasi Hills have created an impressive and biologically very diverse landscape. The soil on the summits of plateaus is very poor due to extreme rains – everything is washed away. Thus, as a result on the wettest plateau of the world, there are not too many plants and the existing ones are used to dry conditions.

This is compensated with rich, fertile land down in valleys. Here grow the most biodiverse forest of India: Meghalaya subtropical forest filled with endemic plants including hundreds of beautiful orchids (265 species recorded in Khasi Hills). Here live tigers, elephants, bears, and other large mammals.

References

1. O.N.Dhar, S.M.T.Farooqui, A Study of Rainfalls Recorded at the Cherrapunji Observatory, Hydrological Sciences – Bulletin – des Sciences Hydrologiques, XVIII, 4 12/1973. Accessed on 28 August 2010
2. Preet Werma Lal, Wettest Spot on Earth, IndiaCurrents. Accessed on 28 August 2010

Cherrapunji (Sohra) is included in the following list:

It is modelled that Lloro in Colombia gets more (13,000 mm) but this has not been proven scientifically.

Rains over Khasi Hills

Mawsynram is located in the beautiful Khasi Hills. The area is adorned with very tall cliffs, roaring waterfalls, and numerous exotic plants of Meghalaya subtropic forests. The village contains the Khasi word "Maw" in its root – most likely this hints to important megalithic stone settings, which are common in Meghalaya.

Village is located 1,400 m above the sea. Just 14 km to the south are plains of Bangladesh rising only 20 m above sea level. Air masses gather moistness from the baking hot swamps of Bangladesh and, as the monsoon starts, are blown by the winds towards Khasi Hills. As the humid, heated air masses reach Khasi Hills. The abrupt change in conditions leads to extremely heavy downpours of rain, which are especially powerful on the southern slopes of Khasi Hills.

No meteorological observatory – no records

Unfortunately this remote village does not have a meteorological station – contrary to the nearby Cherrapunji. General measurements show that Mawsynram gets more rain – average rainfall here is 11,872 mm – although results are disputed due to less sophisticated measurement methods. Other "disciplines" of rainfall records (like 24 hours maximum) do not look that impressive. This rather shows the lack of a permanently working meteorological observatory, not the lack of rain.

Exciting location

Irrespective of the world records, Mawsynram is a beautiful and very interesting place. Here are located hot sulphuric waters and the interesting Mawjymbuin Cave, in vicinities are located megaliths, very tall waterfalls, cliff formations, and countless exotic plants.

Mawsynram is included in the following list: