Seven Wonders of the Natural World

GRAND CANYON:
The Grand Canyon is a rocky gorge (ravine) in Arizona, USA. It was created by millions of years of wind and water erosion from Colorado River, which cut through layer after layer sediment. The rocks of the canyon walls range from 250 million years old at the top to over 2 billion years old at the bottom. Each layer of rock represents a distinct geological period of earth's past.

PARICUTIN VOLCANO
It erupted out of a cornfield on February 20, 1943, located just outside a city called Michoacan, about 200 miles of mexico city, Paricutin grew to 10,400 feet in just nine years, making it the fastest growing volcano ever recorded in history.

THE HARBOR AT RIO DE JANEIRO
On the east coast of Brazil lies a picturesque scene of towering mountains and beautiful beaches. Portuguese explores were the first Europeans to see the harbor, also known as Guanabara Bay, on January 1, 1502. They thought they had reached the mouth of an immense river and named it Rio de Janeiro which means River of January
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NORTHERN LIGHT
Northern lights, also called Aurora Borealis, are nature's fireworks. This spectacular light show takes place in the northern regions, but can be seen from many parts of the world. They occur when solar particles from the sun collide with gases in earth's atmosphere. The collision energy between the solar particle and the atmospheric gas is emitted as a photon (light particle). When there are many collisions, you have an aurora,- lights that seem to dance across the sky.

VICTORIA FALLS
On the African border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, the tranquil Zambezi river suddenly plummets 420 feet over a cliff to form the world's largest waterfall. David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary was the first white man to see the waterfall in 1855. Although he named it after the queen of England, native Africans continue to call it Mosi-ao-tunya which means the smoke that thunders, because the water makes thunderous spray clouds as it falls.

MT EVEREST
About 60 million years ago, India was a separate continent that rapidly moved northward and collided with Asia. The crash pushed up the northern rim of India to create the highest mountain range in the world known as the Himalayas (Mt Everest). It stands above the other mountains at 29,035 feet, making it the tallest on the planet.

GREAT BARRIER REEF
The world largest coral reef is located in the coral sea off the coast of Queensland in Australia. It stretches over 1,400 miles in length and can be seen from space. An estimated 1,500 species of fish and 350 types of coral live and grow on the Great barrier reef.