Ball's Pyramid is an erosional remnant of a shield volcano and caldera that formed about 7 million years ago. Ball's Pyramid is 20 km (13 miles) southeast of Lord Howe Island in the Pacific Ocean. It is 562 m (1844 ft) high, while measuring only 200 m (656 ft) across, making it the tallest volcanic stack in the world. It is part of the Lord Howe Island Marine Park.

Ball's Pyramid has a few satellite islets. Observatory Rock and Wheatsheaf Islet lie about 800 m WNW and 800 m WSW, respectively, of the western extremity of Ball's Pyramid. Southeast Rock is a pinnacle located about 3.5 km southeast of Ball's Pyramid. Like Lord Howe Island and the Lord Howe seamount chain, Ball's Pyramid is based on the Lord Howe Rise, part of the submerged continent of Zealandia.

The pyramid was named after Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball who discovered it in 1788 at the same time he discovered Lord Howe Island (see the history section of that article). The first person to go ashore is believed to have been Henry Wilkinson in 1882, who was a geologist at the New South Wales Department of Mines.

The first successful climb to the summit was made on 14 February 1965 by a team of climbers from the Sydney Rock Climbing Club, consisting of Bryden Allen, John Davis, Jack Pettigrew and David Witham.

There had been an earlier attempt in 1964 by another Sydney team that included adventurer Dick Smith (then just 20 years old) and other members of the Scouting movement. They were forced to turn back on their fifth day running short of food and water. In 1979 Smith returned to the pyramid, together with climbers John Worrall and Hugh Ward, and they successfully reached the summit. At the top they unfurled a flag of New South Wales provided to them by Premier Neville Wran and declared the island Australian territory (a formality which it seems had not previously been done).

Climbing was banned in 1982 under amendments to the Lord Howe Island Act, and in 1986 all access to the island was banned by the Lord Howe Island Board. In 1990 the policy changed to allow some climbing under strict conditions, which in recent years has required an application to the relevant state Minister.

In 2001, a team of entomologists and conservationists landed on Ball's Pyramid to chart its flora and fauna. To their surprise they rediscovered a population of the Lord Howe Island stick insect (Dryococelus australis) living in an area of six by 30 metres, at a height of 100 metres above the shoreline, under a single Melaleuca shrub. The bush is growing in a small crevice where water was seeping through cracks in the underlying rocks. This moisture supported relatively lush plant growth which had, over time, resulted in a build up of plant debris, several metres deep. The population was extremely small, only 24 individuals. Two pairs were brought to two Pacific zoos to breed new populations. On the unsuccessful 1964 climb, Dave Roots had brought back a photograph of the insect, which the Australian Museum told him they thought was extinct.

credited to wikipedia

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Mount Katmai

Mount Katmai is a large volcano located in Katmai National Park and Reserve on the Alaskan Peninsula. In 1912 a vent located about 6 miles west of Mount Katmai exploded for over 60 hours in one of the two largest eruptions in the world in the twentieth century (the other being Mount Pinatubo in 1991). It is believed that as magma flowed out of Mount Katmai the summit area collapsed and formed the caldera that contains Mount Katmai's spectacular crater lake today.

Kerid

Kerid is a crater lake formed in a caldera located along the popular tourist route called the Golden Circle in southern Iceland. The lake is very shallow measuring just 25 to 40 feet deep depending upon the season but the color of the water is a beautiful aquamarine due to the heavy concentration of minerals.

Lake Tazawa

Lake Tazawa is located in the Akita Prefecture in northern Japan. It is a caldera lake and with a maximum depth of 1,388 feet is the deepest lake in Japan. Due to its depth the lake never freezes over in winter. At one time Lake Tazawa was known for its clear water but a hydroelectric dam was built on the lake in 1940 and polluted the lakes indigenous fish known as kunimasu to extinction. The area around Lake Tazawa is known for its hot springs.

Lake Toba

Lake Toba is located in the northern part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra and is the largest volcanic lake in the world. It is a product of what is believed to have been the largest volcanic eruption in the last 25 million years when it erupted some 75,000 years ago. A similar eruption today would wipe out much of the world's population. The area remains active volcanically today with a magnitude 8.4 quake having occurred around Sumatra in 2007.

Rano Raraku

Located in Rapa Nui National Park on Easter Island, Rano Raraku is a volcanic crater which has a crater lake in its center. Rano Raraku crater was long used as a stone quarry by the ancient inhabitants of Easter Island who used the large stones available here to carve the monolithic human figures known as Moai that are located around the island's perimeters. Some of these statues are over 30 feet high.

Mount Ruapehu

Mount Ruapehu is an active volcano located in New Zealand. Inside, it contained a crater lake but on March 18, 2007 the dam holding back the lake burst sending a huge landslide of mud, rock and water (a lahar) down the Whangaehu River but resulting in no injuries. How much of the crater lake remains today is unknown by this author.

Taal Lake

Taal Lake is located in the province of Batangas on the island of Luzon, Philippines. The lake is in a caldera formed by large volcanic eruptions that first occurred roughly 500,000 years ago. Today the active Taal volcano is located on an island in the center of Taal Lake.

Lake Bolsena

Lake Bolsena is located in the northern part of the province of Viterbo in central Italy. It is a crater lake formed roughly 350,000 years ago by the collapse of Vulsini volcano. There are two islands in the lake that were formed by underwater eruptions following the initial collapse of the volcano. The last recorded volcanic activity in the area was in 104 BC according to Roman historical records. The Catholic Church was given 1/3 of Lake Bolsena by a noble family many years ago. Today the lake is a popular tourist destination.

Laguna Chicabal

Laguna Chicabal is a Guatemalan lake formed in the crater of Chicabal Volcano. The lake is sacred to the Mam Mayan people and altars along the shore are still used today. Swimming in Laguna Chicabal is also prohibited in respect to spiritual importance of the lake. The lake's elevation is over 7,000 feet high and it is often enshrouded by low-level clouds.

credited to wikipedia, scienceray.com and flickr users: jenniferboyer, marcveraart, atoll, twinkletuason, picdrop, upton

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Lakes sprawl the world over. Here are five lakes discint from the others.

Owens Lake: USA

This lake is truly bizarre because as we all know a lake contains water but Lake Owens does not instead, its a large dry lake located in eastern California's Owens Valley, located about 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Lone Pine, California. Unlike most dry lakes in the Basin and Range Province that have been dry for thousands of years, Owens held significant water until 1924, fed by the Owens River.

Lake Enriquillo: Dominican Republic

Usually, only a few animal species thrive on saltwater lakes. Lake Enriquillo is a lake in the Dominican Republic. It is one of only a few saltwater lakes in the world inhabited by crocodiles. This is unusual because crocodiles are known to live on freshwater lakes. Lake Enriquillo is located in a rift valley that extends 79 miles (127 km) from Port-au-Prince Bay in Haiti in the west to near Neiba Bay in the Dominican Republic in the east.

Hanging Lake: USA

The Hanging Lake is a unique lake because even if the water is crystal clear, people are not allowed to swim in the lake. The fragile shoreline of Hanging Lake is composed of travertine. Travertine is created when dissolved limestone is deposited on rocks and logs, creating travertine layers. According to experts, the oils from human skin help to speed along the erosion of the travertine so it is suggested that hikers not wade in the water in an effort to help preserve the lake for future generations. Hanging Lake is located in Glenwood Canyon, about 7 miles east of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The lake is reached via a trailhead located near I-70 in the bottom of the canyon. The trail follows Dead Horse Creek, a tributary of the Colorado River. The dissolved limestone comes from the Mississippian aged Leadville Formation, which Dead Horse Creek flows through.

Lake Urmia: Iran

Looking at this lake nothing seems to be unusual. Well, Lake Urmia is actually a salt lake. It is located in northwestern Iran near Turkey. The lake is between the provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, west of the southern portion of the similarly shaped Caspian Sea. It is the largest lake inside Iran and the second largest salt water lake on earth, with a surface area of approximately 5,200 km² (2,000 mile²). At its maximum extent, it is about 140 km (87 miles) long, and 55 km (34 miles) wide. Its deepest point is approximately 16 m (52 ft) deep and contains 102 islands.

Lake Vostok: Antarctica

One of the most bizarre lakes in the world is Lake Vostok. By simply looking at the map of the frozen continent of Antarctica, there is no way you will think that it contains several lakes. Lake Vostok, which means “east” in the Russian language, is the largest of more than 140 subglacial lakes found under the surface of Earth's southern-most continent. It is located, beneath Russia's Vostok Station, 4,000 meters (13,000 ft) under the surface of the central Antarctic ice sheet. It is 250 km long by 50 km wide at its widest point, thus similar in size to Lake Ontario, and is divided into two deep basins by a ridge. The water over the ridge is about 200 m (650 ft) deep, compared to roughly 400 m (1,300 ft) deep in the northern basin and 800 m (2,600 ft) deep in the southern. Lake Vostok covers an area of 15,690 km² (6,058 mi²). It has an estimated volume of 5,400 km³ (1,300 cubic miles) and consists of fresh water. The average depth is 344 m. In May 2005 an island was found in the center of the lake.

credited to scienceray.com

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The Mariana Trench (or Marianas Trench) is the deepest known oceanic trench, with a maximum depth of about 11 km (6.8 mi), and the deepest location on the surface of the Earth's crust. It is located in the floor of the western North Pacific Ocean, to the east and south of the Mariana Islands, near Guam.

The trench forms the boundary between two tectonic plates, where the Pacific Plate is subducted beneath the Philippine Plate. The bottom of the trench is farther below sea level than Mount Everest is above it. At the bottom, the water column above exerts a pressure of 108.6 MPa, over one thousand times the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level.

The trench was first surveyed in 1951 by the Royal Navy vessel Challenger, which gave its name to the deepest part of the trench, the Challenger Deep. Using echo sounding, the Challenger II measured a depth of 5,960 fathoms (10,900 metres, 35,760 ft) at 11°19′N, 142°15′E.

In 1957, the Soviet vessel Vityaz reported a depth of 11,034 meters (36,200 ft]]), dubbed the Mariana Hollow. (Although this claim was made by the Soviets in 1957, the finding has not been repeated by subsequent mapping expeditions by more accurate and modern equipment.

In 1962, the surface ship M.V. Spencer F. Baird recorded a greatest depth of 10,915 meters (35,810 ft), using precision depth gauges.

In 1984, the Japanese sent the Takuyō, a highly specialized survey vessel, to the Mariana Trench and collected data using a narrow, multi-beam echo sounder; they reported a maximum depth of 10,924 meters, also reported as 10,920 meters ± 10 meters).

In an unprecedented dive, the United States Navy bathyscaphe Trieste reached the bottom at 1:06 p.m. on January 23, 1960, with U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard on board. Iron shot was used for ballast, with gasoline for buoyancy. The onboard systems indicated a depth of 11,521 meters (37,799 ft), but this was later revised to 10,916 meters (35,813 ft).] At the bottom, Walsh and Piccard were surprised to discover soles or flounder about 30 cm (1 ft)long, as well as shrimp. According to Piccard, "The bottom appeared light and clear, a waste of firm diatomaceous ooze".

The most accurate measurement on record was taken by a Japanese probe,Kaikō , which descended unmanned to the bottom of the trench on March 24, 1995 and recorded a depth of 10,911 meters (35,798 ft).

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is planning to send its Nereus hybrid remotely operated vehicle (HROV) to explore the trench in 2008.

credited to wikipedia and wikimedia.org, abc.net.au

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