The Azure Window - Soon to be the Azure Pinnacle

Image Credit Flickr User albir

There are a number of reasons why places have their names changed. Sometimes it is because the country has undergone reorganisation. Other times it is because the name might be a little embarrassing to the locals. In the case of Azure Window, a gorgeous spot on the Maltese island of Gozo it is because very soon the famous window will no longer be a window. It may very well look like this soon.

Of course, at the moment, it is intact. Thanks to Reddit member TeknOtaku for this impression, however, of how it may look once the day arrives.

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The Azure Window (or Tieqa Żerqa as the locals call it) is simply stunning. A popular site for scuba diving this window was created thousands of years ago with the collapse of two caves. Since before the Roman Empire this natural arch – perhaps a table top created for Poseidon to picnic upon – has captivated those who laid their eyes upon it.

Image Credit Flickr User * David *

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However, all that is set to change and it could be any day now.  Every now and again huge chunks of rock have been falling from the arch in to the sea. The arch is now in such poor condition that people have been barred from walking along it, just in case their added weight sends it (not to mention its unlucky guests) crashing in to the sea. The last two walk its length did so this summer.

Image Credit Flickr User Daniele Pesaresi

You do not have to be a professional geologist to see where and how disaster might strike. The only thing to guess about is when the inevitable will occur.

Image Credit Flickr User DBarefoot

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Yet this has not really perturbed the laid back citizens of Malta.  All things must pass and so, with a shrug of their Mediterranean shoulders, they plan to rename the picturesque Azure Window to the Azure Pinnacle.

Image Credit Flickr User Glen Bowman

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If the arch seems familiar to you, you have probably recognised it from its appearance in a number of feature films.

Most likely you recall it from the 1981 Ray Harryhausen epic Clash of the Titans.

Notice how much thicker the table top is in the shot from the movie, left, to how it appears in the more recent pictures on this post. 

Image Credit Flickr User Marcja

You may also have spotted it in The Odyssey from 1997 and The Count of Monte Cristo from 2002.  Get the three films and watch them in order and although you could well claim to be nerdier than Sheldon Cooper, you can see the inexorable decline of this beautiful natural arch. Time, it seems, is running out for the Azure Window.

Image Credit Flickr User ramonramon

Image Credit Flickr User Josep Toeldo

The Azure Window is about to die. Long live the Azure Pinnacle!

Image Credit Flickr User juamatronics 

 Thanks to Reddit member rewarren for this impression of what the Azure Pinnacle may look like!

Alien Life Found On Earth

Scientists in Italy have discovered what they believe to be the first life form on Earth to be able to live its entire life without oxygen.  Until now it was thought that every living thing needed to use oxygen in one way or another in order to survive.  However, in an anoxic pit in the Mediterannean the scientist have found tiny life forms that do not use oxygen in any way to metabolise.

The title of this post may be misleading in as much as the life form is very much terrestrial but it is the most alien that anyone has ever come across on this planet (my way of apologising for hyperbole I guess).  They are thought to belong to the Loriciferan family (example of the left) and have been living in the anoxic pit for possibly millions of years.
 
Anoxic is the term that refers to areas of water (either on the land masses or oceans) that are depleted of dissolved oxygen.  Most places that are like this are prevented from oxygenising by a barrier, usually physical.

The pit in which these creatures have been discovered is not a unique phenomenon and it therefore begs the question whether there are other species like this on the planet.  Not only that but it may indicate that we may find life elsewhere in the solar system that we thought could not sustain it.  Scientists have been looking at the amount of methane in the atmosphere of Mars and pondering whether or not this indicates the presence of micro-organisms deep below the surface (methane being a by-product of any process of metabolism).  Perhaps they do not need oxygen up there either?

Click HERE for the whole story.

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