Some interesting science facts I never knew about Uluru.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2015/02/11/4175341.htm

This stunning image of Uluru in the Australian outback was taken by the Korean Kompsat-2 satellite at an altitude of 685 kilometres.

From this angle, it looks like the top of Uluru has been scarred by a hundred parallel cuts.

Uluru is made up of coarse-grained arkose (a type of sandstone) that was laid down in horizontal layers. These layers eventually hardened, were uplifted and then tilted almost 90 degrees upwards to their present position.

The satellite image clearly shows how these once horizontal layers now run perpendicular to the ground and appear to cut across the top of the formation.

Uluru didn’t always have its famous, rusty-red appearance — when relatively young the rock would have looked grey in colour, but millions of years of weathering of iron-bearing minerals through oxidation have given it its signature colour.

Uluru is sacred to the traditional Anangu people of the area and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

How did Uluru form?

I didn’t know that either.

The satellite images available on the maps provided by a well known Internet search engine provider also provide a good view.

it looks a lot different from the view we are used to seeing. I don’t think I would have recognized it as Uluru.

I was there in 2010 or 2011 (can’t remember which) and it rained for the first tie in fifteen years. I have some great shots of that. though I would like to go back again and take some non wet Uluru photos too, though the ones I have a pretty special and unique to most peoples visit shots, so I am happy with that.

Shopped.

Yeah, amazing how it was layered down and then the entire formation uplifted and rotated 90°

Hey Arts, can you post one of your images?

Aquila said:

Yeah, amazing how it was layered down and then the entire formation uplifted and rotated 90°

Hey Arts, can you post one of your images?

hooly…. Ill try to find one…. may take me a while

Peak Warming Man said:

Shopped.

Damn, ya busted me, brah!

LOL

The Rev Dodgson said:

I didn’t know that either.

The satellite images available on the maps provided by a well known Internet search engine provider also provide a good view.

Yes, Altavista Cartographs is a valuable resource.

This picture looks great, though.

I suspect it rain more than once every 15 years.

sibeen said:

I suspect it rain more than once every 15 years.

probably, just going by what the guide said… surely they would never exaggerate

Aquila said:

Hey Arts, can you post one of your images?

+1

You were very lucky Arts.

We were discussing this in chat only yesterday and I suggested to Droppy that, if visiting as a photographer, he try to be there during a storm. He was not impressed by the image I found on-line. Hopefully yours is better :)

Speedy said:

Aquila said:

Hey Arts, can you post one of your images?

+1

You were very lucky Arts.

it was the best thing that happened to me all year.

This picture shows Uluru in its geological context: it is a bit of the Mutitjulu Arkose (shown in yellow) that is still jutting out of the ground.

Interestingly, the image also shows alluvial fan development in section and plan. The scales and ages of the fans are different. The old fan is much larger than the young fans.

The old fan is preserved in rock that youngs to the northeast; it is seen in section. Above (northeast of) the most prominent bedding plane in the image, the beds are cumulatively thicker to the east than they are to the west; this fan has a wedge shaped section. This indicates a source for the sediment southeast of Uluru.

The young fans surround Uluru, and are seen in plan. The sediment wedges are thickest at the base of Uluru, and sediment thins outwards. Clearly these fans are sourced from Uluru itself. At their extremities, each fan has a curved margin, which indicates the “part-conical” profile of the alluvial fan sediment wedges.

Aquila said:

This stunning image of Uluru in the Australian outback was taken by the Korean Kompsat-2 satellite at an altitude of 685 kilometres.

From this angle, it looks like the top of Uluru has been scarred by a hundred parallel cuts.

Uluru is made up of coarse-grained arkose (a type of sandstone) that was laid down in horizontal layers. These layers eventually hardened, were uplifted and then tilted almost 90 degrees upwards to their present position.

The satellite image clearly shows how these once horizontal layers now run perpendicular to the ground and appear to cut across the top of the formation.

Uluru didn’t always have its famous, rusty-red appearance — when relatively young the rock would have looked grey in colour, but millions of years of weathering of iron-bearing minerals through oxidation have given it its signature colour.

Uluru is sacred to the traditional Anangu people of the area and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

How did Uluru form?

dv said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

I didn’t know that either.

The satellite images available on the maps provided by a well known Internet search engine provider also provide a good view.

Yes, Altavista Cartographs is a valuable resource.

This picture looks great, though.

Obviously I was referring to Bing Maps, rather than AltaVista Cartographs.

Do AltaVista Cartographs even still exist?

Arts said:

sibeen said:

I suspect it rain more than once every 15 years.

probably, just going by what the guide said… surely they would never exaggerate

You needed a guide?

Damm, the things pretty big, I would have thought it would have been relatively easy to find.

sibeen said:

You needed a guide?

Damm, the things pretty big, I would have thought it would have been relatively easy to find.

:) We also went on a guided tour while we were there. They showed us a cave which had a number of old Aboriginal rock engravings and paintings in it. Surprisingly, one of the recent ones had been done it acrylic paint.

This guide also explained that dot paintings were created only a few decades ago for sale to tourists.

Arts said:

sibeen said:

I suspect it rain more than once every 15 years.

probably, just going by what the guide said… surely they would never exaggerate

He probably meant a decent rain. Having spent five months watching the Nightcap ranges getting a decent rain almost every day was an eye opener. Most of my life I’d wait for up to 25 years to see that kind of rain.

Why doesn’t anyone ever mention the trees at the top?

I so want to go back and have a really good look at the vegetation communities on top of Uluru.

Teleost said:

Why doesn’t anyone ever mention the trees at the top?

I so want to go back and have a really good look at the vegetation communities on top of Uluru.

Is the Coke machine still up there?

Neophyte said:

Teleost said:

Why doesn’t anyone ever mention the trees at the top?

I so want to go back and have a really good look at the vegetation communities on top of Uluru.

Is the Coke machine still up there?

They removed it last year (the back of it featured a mural painted by Rolf Harris).

It was an awful mural.

While you are checking out the vegetation on top check out the wildlife as well.
http://australianmuseum.net.au/shrimps-from-uluru

PaulS said:

While you are checking out the vegetation on top check out the wildlife as well.
http://australianmuseum.net.au/shrimps-from-uluru

I suppose that you’d need special permission these days?

Peak Warming Man said:

It was an awful mural.

LOL. Tidy.

:-)

PaulS said:

While you are checking out the vegetation on top check out the wildlife as well.
http://australianmuseum.net.au/shrimps-from-uluru

Wow, interesting.

Also, I had some sea monkeys when I was a kid, but they were nothing like the pictures on the packet!
So I was really disappointed.

Dry branchiopoda eggs are sometimes sold in pet stores as a powder that can be added to water to ‘miraculously’ produce animals marketed as ‘sea monkeys’. – See more at: http://australianmuseum.net.au/shrimps-from-uluru#sthash.EQ5FVgfp.dpuf