Discover Pandipedia
A growing directory of useful answers selected by the Pandi community. Search the collection or browse the latest discoveries.
2323 entries available
A Rock Pile That Looks Like Cheese
At Cornwall’s Cheese Wring, eight rough granite blocks rise 32 feet, with the top block wider than those below. No mason built the stack: weathering eroded the softer rock around the granite, leaving the harder blocks balanced on one another. Nearby, logan (rocking) stones can rock with a push despite weighing many tons. The formations show how ordinary weathering over time can create shapes that look built by people.
Let's look at alternatives:
- Modify the query.
- Start a new thread.
- Remove sources (if manually added).
Field Companion: Wonders of the Earth
Meet your next conversation
Loudon
A walk through the book's mountains, caverns, and volcanoes
Ask about Peter Botte's Mountain, the Cheese Wring, the Peak of Teneriffe, the Giant's Causeway, the Grotto of Antiparos, prairie fires, or the Persberg mines — answered only from what the book itself reports.
Let's look at alternatives:
- Modify the query.
- Start a new thread.
- Remove sources (if manually added).
Giant's Causeway: Nature's Masonry
The Giant’s Causeway is made of thousands of basalt columns, fitted so closely that they have been compared to vertebrae. Cooling basalt cracks into these shapes wherever conditions are right. The same kind of formation appears at Fingal’s Cave on Staffa, with similar columns in South America and India. Across distant places, the same natural process creates something that looks like masonry.
Let's look at alternatives:
- Modify the query.
- Start a new thread.
- Remove sources (if manually added).
Mountains That Bite Back
Let's look at alternatives:
- Modify the query.
- Start a new thread.
- Remove sources (if manually added).
Field Companion: Creatures of Sea, Sky, and Shore
Meet your next conversation
Loudon
A walk through the book's mammals, birds, and fishes
Ask about the whale tribe, the birds of prey, or the chapter's stranger fish — answered only from what the book itself reports.
Let's look at alternatives:
- Modify the query.
- Start a new thread.
- Remove sources (if manually added).
When the Prairie Becomes a River of Fire
A historical account describes prairie flames at night as brilliant chains of liquid fire across the grass. Along the Missouri, Platte and Arkansas river bottoms, dry grass burned fast enough to overtake a rider on horseback. The account describes rivers, bare ground and already-burned ground as barriers. Its striking point is the speed of a fire moving through grass, driven by fuel and wind.
Let's look at alternatives:
- Modify the query.
- Start a new thread.
- Remove sources (if manually added).
The Fastest Bird Alive (in 1848)
A falcon flown from Andalusia was found alive in Tenerife, roughly 752 miles away, about sixteen hours later. The account describes another long-distance flight: one of Henry II’s falcons escaped at Fontainebleau and was recaptured in Malta the very next morning. From that second flight, the book estimates a speed of about 75 miles an hour, sustained speed, not a brief burst. The two flights both point to the same striking figure, though the estimate comes from the second one.
Let's look at alternatives:
- Modify the query.
- Start a new thread.
- Remove sources (if manually added).
Coral Reefs Built an Island (No Architect Required)
Tiny coral animals build limestone skeletons, grain by grain. Generation after generation, a reef can grow until it reaches the surface. Given enough time, sand collects and plants take hold, creating dry land where there was only open sea. No architect or single builder is needed: repeated small contributions can make new ground.
Let's look at alternatives:
- Modify the query.
- Start a new thread.
- Remove sources (if manually added).
Descent Into the Earth
Let's look at alternatives:
- Modify the query.
- Start a new thread.
- Remove sources (if manually added).
Wonders of Water
Let's look at alternatives:
- Modify the query.
- Start a new thread.
- Remove sources (if manually added).