Explosion in the Eifel
Natural EnvironmentsLake Laach glistens quietly in the sunlight. But the idyllic tranquillity is deceptive: 13,000 years ago, hell raged here on earth – this landscape is the result of a volcanic eruption. And scientists expect the Eifel volcanoes to erupt again. The only thing that is unclear is when … The first volcanic eruptions occurred in
Earthquake in Switzerland
Natural EnvironmentsA series of violent earth tremors reduced the city of Basel to rubble on 18 October 1356. From the afternoon until midnight, the earth trembled again and again. Many houses and part of Basel Cathedral collapsed. The quake and the subsequent fire razed the city to the ground. It is not yet known exactly how
A full bath for a cup of coffee
Natural EnvironmentsA bathtub full of water to make one cup of coffee – that’s 140 litres! It takes almost as much water to make one breakfast egg. Sheer nonsense? British geographer Anthony Allan has found otherwise. At the Stockholm World Water Week, he and the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) came up with an amazing
A small blue dot
Natural EnvironmentsYou have to look for a while in this picture: The sensation is a “pale blue dot”, a tiny light blue dot in the nothingness. It’s hard to imagine that this little dot should be our home! This picture shows the Earth. It was taken by the Voyager 1 probe from the edge of the
A skyscraper breathes
Natural EnvironmentsIt’s high, it’s green and it’s full of holes: in the middle of the mega-city Bangkok stands a high-rise building that is extremely well adapted to the tropical climate – and without air conditioning! For its unusual architecture, the residential high-rise “The Met” has now received the International Highrise Award. Thailand’s capital Bangkok has a
A shark in the Thuringian Forest
Natural EnvironmentsAnother piece of the puzzle has been found: Excavations in the Thuringian Forest bring new insights into the Earth’s history at the end of the Palaeozoic era. Over the past two weeks, they have dug and dug hard, but the effort was worth it: researchers from the Freiberg Mining Academy uncovered a ten-metre-high rock wall