标签澳大利亚下的文章

海浪冲击着悉尼海岸的一个心形岩石岛，澳大利亚 Ocean waves crashing over a heart-shaped rock island off the coast of Sydney, Australia (© Kristian Bell/Getty Images)

An oceanic Valentine

Just off the coast of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia, the surf crashes over this cluster of rocks, sending an oceanic Valentine's Day card to a lucky bird—or photographer—flying overhead. We'll take nature's love letters wherever and whenever we can find them. But what makes February 14 the day we celebrate love? Some claim Valentine's Day has its roots in an ancient Roman fertility festival called Lupercalia that included goat sacrifices and a lottery that paired off eligible men and women. Others argue that the holiday began with Christians celebrating a martyr named Valentine. Chaucer romanticized the day with a poem about two birds mating for life. No matter its pagan or Christian origins, in the modern world, Valentine's Day is celebrated most everywhere as a day devoted to love.

海洋 情人节

就在澳大利亚新南威尔士州悉尼海岸附近，海浪冲过这片岩石群，给头顶飞过的幸运鸟或摄影师送去了一张海洋情人节贺卡。无论何时何地，我们都会带着大自然的情书。但是，是什么让2月14日成为我们庆祝爱情的日子呢？有人说情人节起源于古罗马的生育节，叫做Lupercalia，包括山羊祭祀和抽奖，抽奖的对象是符合条件的男女。另一些人则认为，这个节日始于基督徒庆祝一位名叫瓦伦丁的烈士。乔叟用一首关于两只鸟一生交配的诗把这一天浪漫化了。无论是异教或基督教的起源，在现代世界，情人节是庆祝作为一个致力于爱的日子最无处不在。

属于大堡礁的一部分的心形礁，澳大利亚昆士兰 Heart Reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland, Australia (© Peter Adams/Offset by Shutterstock)

Didgeridoo you know what day it is?

If this aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef is a reminder that you ❤ everything Australia, today's your day. Australia Day commemorates January 26, 1788, when the first transplants from England said g'day to Australian shores, but you can just call it a day to celebrate all things Aussie. From the Barrier Reef to the rugged bush to the dry Outback, we invite you to join the diverse people of Oz in celebrating their island nation (well, we can almost join the Aussies—it's tomorrow for them already, so they celebrated yesterday).

Meanwhile, we presume you find yourself stuck in a Northern Hemisphere winter—so why not scroll Down Under and try our Australia Day quiz?

你知道今天是什么日子吗？

如果这张大堡礁的鸟瞰图提醒你❤ 澳大利亚的一切，今天是你的日子。澳大利亚日是为了纪念1788年1月26日，当时第一批从英国移植过来的人在澳大利亚的海岸上称为“国庆日”，但你可以称之为庆祝澳大利亚一切的日子。从大堡礁到崎岖的灌木丛，再到干旱的内陆，我们邀请你加入奥兹的不同民族庆祝他们的岛国（好吧，我们几乎可以加入澳大利亚人的行列，他们已经是明天了，所以他们昨天庆祝了）。

同时，我们假设你发现自己被困在北半球的冬天，那么为什么不向下滚动，试试我们的澳大利亚日测验呢？

卡尔巴里国家公园，澳大利亚 Kalbarri National Park, Australia (© AWL Images/Offset by Shutterstock)

What a wonderful window

From planes to cafes, many of us love a nice ‘window view’, but we’d argue that few provide sights as truly spectacular as Nature’s Window here in Kalbarri National Park. Located 485 km north of Perth, the park covers around 186,000 hectares, and traditionally sees thousands of visitors each year to enjoy its rocky terrain and quiet peacefulness.

The main attraction, however, is this sandstone stunner – formed after many years of wind erosion. Find the perfect angle you’ll be able to catch incredible glimpses of the river in the distance and its surrounding greenery. It’s also one of the best places in the country to watch the sunrise. If you prefer a little more adventure, you can take a stroll to the Kalbarri Skywalk that shows off views of the gorge, or enjoy a spot of abseiling, rafting, and canoeing.

日落时分中央海岸入口海滩上的救生员小屋，澳大利亚新南威尔士州 Lifeguard shack at sunset on The Entrance beach, Central Coast, NSW, Australia (© Yury Prokopenko/Getty Images)

Sand, surf, and sun

Serenity is the name of the game here at the Entrance beach in New South Wales’ Central Coast region, and with sunsets like these its easy to see why. A beloved destination for family holidays and weekend getaways alike, the beach and backing town gains its name by being the entrance to Tuggerah Lake off to the north – acting as a narrow channel between it and the Pacific Ocean on the opposite side.

Just over an hour’s drive from Sydney, the small town packs plenty of history, and is the home to both Norah Head Lighthouse - an operating beacon for shipping that was built in 1903 - as well as a classic carousel built in Germany during the late 1800s, which continues to delight children to this day.

But because the Entrance area has six different beaches to enjoy, most still visit for the perfect combination of sand and surf. As the weather continues to warm on our shores, it’s making us want to start packing our bags as well!

澳大利亚哈梅林浦 Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve in Australia (© Abstract Aerial Art/Getty Images)

Over the boardwalk

In this shallow stretch of Shark Bay in Western Australia, a natural record of Earth's history lies just below the water's surface. Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve protects our planet's biggest collections of stromatolites—small sedimentary rock towers built up over the centuries. Each layer captures fossils of the many microorganisms that populate our oceans. Some of the stromatolites in Hamelin Pool contain fossil specimens that are 3 billion years old. When you're strolling down the boardwalk of Hamelin Pool, you're walking over an unparalleled collection of biological history. The view of the Indian Ocean's not bad either.

大堡礁，澳大利亚昆士兰 Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia (© AWL Images/Danita Delimont)

The largest living organism on Earth

Today marks the second ever World Reef Day, an observance created to help focus global attention on the deteriorating health of on our planet's vital reef systems, and also to help marshal efforts to help them recover. Why should you care about the health of ecosystems such as the Great Barrier Reef, seen in this photo? Because reefs are an easy indicator of how healthy our oceans are. And right now, reefs aren’t doing too well. What can you do? Learn about reefs—not just the dangers that put healthy reefs at risk, but why reefs are such a critical part of Earth's greater ecosystems.

Thunderbolt and lightning…

Ever endured a scorcher of a summer’s day only to be hit with a thunderstorm soon after? That’s especially common here at City Beach in Perth, where the two go together like Vegemite and toast. Moisture and warmth are both major factors in the creation of thunderstorms, meaning when humidity and heat ramp up during the hotter months, large amounts of warm, humid air gradually rise off the ground via surface winds into an unstable atmosphere. If this atmosphere is particularly unstable that can lead to severe conditions like large hail, wind gusts of 90 km/h and uncharacteristically heavy rainfall - leading to flash flooding.

Peak summer in the Southern Hemisphere

As the Northern Hemisphere slowly creeps toward spring, our neighbors to the south are enjoying the sunny days of summer. Some are even cooling off with a trip to the pool, like the swimmers in today's image of the Bronte Baths, an ocean pool located in a Sydney suburb. While seaside swimming pools aren't unique to Australia, this island country is known for its many oceanside pools, which provide sheltered spots for swimming in places where rocky shorelines and occasional shark attacks can make ocean swimming difficult or dangerous.

Celebrating women in science

For the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we're visiting the Great Barrier Reef with oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle. This photo is from the 2014 documentary film 'Mission Blue,' which follows Earle, a legendary oceanographer, marine biologist, environmentalist, and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence. The film focuses on Earle's campaign to create a global network of protected marine sanctuaries. Sometimes called Her Deepness, Earle has made immense contributions to science over her career. From leading groundbreaking research in deep ocean science to becoming the first female chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earle is recognized as one of the world's preeminent oceanographers.

More recently, she started Mission Blue, an organization that promotes exploration and protection of the world's oceans. With women accounting for a disproportionately low percentage of the world's science researchers, we hope Earle can inspire girls and women alike to investigate, experiment, and leave their mark on the world of science.

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