amudu

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

"Bodies" Fill Underwater Sculpture Park

The installation is the first endeavor of a new underwater museum called MUSA, or Museo Subacuático de Arte.

Created by Mexico-based British sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor, the Caribbean installation is intended to eventually cover more than 4,520 square feet (420 square meters), which would make it "one of the largest and most ambitious underwater attractions in the world," according to a museum statement.

Visitor From Above

More than 400 of the permanent sculptures have been installed in recent months in the National Marine Park of Cancún, Isla Mujeres, and Punta Nizuc (map of the region) as part of a major artwork called "The Silent Evolution."

"Lucky" Statue

The people in "The Silent Evolution" were created from live casts of a wide sample of people, most of them locals—including Lucky, a Mexican carpenter (center).

School of Rock

The sculptures (pictured in December) are made of a special kind of marine cement that attracts the growth of corals, according to creator Taylor. That in turn encourages fish and other marine life to colonize the reef.

Blowing Bubbles

"The manifestation of living organisms cohabiting and ingrained in our being is intended to remind us of our close dependency on nature and the respect we should afford it," according to a museum statement.

Face-to-Face

An activist comes face-to-face with an underwater "Silent Evolution" statue in December during a campaign for action on global warming.

Deep in Thought

Already the exhibition (pictured in December) is drawing more divers, and area dive-tour providers are hoping the underwater museum boosts business and supports reef health, according to a museum statement.

Work in Progress

Taylor works on a cast of Charlie Brown, a 67-year-old Mexican fisher with Chinese ancestors, at the sculptor's studio in Puerto Morelos, Mexico, in February 2010. The sculptures are made from cement, sand, micro silica, fiber glass, and live coral.

Casting Call

Portraits of Puerto Morelos, Mexico, residents hang on the wall of Taylor's studio in February 2010. To make the Caribbean underwater sculptures, Taylor is choosing a wide variety of local residents and creating molds of their bodies.

Sculptures-in-Waiting

Before being taken underwater, "Silent Evolution" sculptures stand on a Cancún, Mexico, beach in September 2010. Upon the installation's completion, the total weight of the statues will total more than 180 tons, according to a museum statement.

Into the Drink

Silent Evolution" sculptures are lowered into the waters off Cancún in late 2010. Along with creator Taylor, a team of artists, builders, marine biologists, engineers, and scuba divers are working together to complete the installation.

Bottom Dwellers

Silent Evolution" sculptures (pictured in October) sit in just 30 feet (9 meters) of water, which allows visitors in glass-bottomed boats to also observe the artwork, according to a museum statement.

Caribbean Cancún

Placing the statues (bottom) off the shores of Cancún (above) was a strategic move, according to a museum statement.

Heavenly Plea

"Kelly," modeled from a U.K. social housing officer (pictured in December 2010), was rendered looking up, with his hands open to symbolize questioning or prayer, according to Taylor. MUSA, the underwater museum, plans to add sculptures as funding becomes available.

Caribbean Photos

Underwater Sculpture, Grenada

Pitons, St. Lucia

Carnival, Colombia

Eden Rock, Grand Cayman

Jet Landing, St. Maarten

Beach Soccer, St. Lucia

St. Kitts

San Miguel Arcángel Church, Puerto Rico

Sperm Whales, Dominica

Shoal Bay Beach, Anguilla

St. George, Grenada

Belize Waters

Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands

Iguana, Grand Cayman

Pitons, St. Lucia

Diving, Little Cayman

Jawfish, Little Cayman

San Cristobal Fort, Puerto Rico

Thunderstorm, Montserrat

Beach, Anguilla

Cane Garden Bay, Tortola

Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia

Fort Christiansvaern, St. Croix

Shells, Costa Rica

Flamingo

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

Green Sea Turtle, Venezuela

Places on Earth Aliens Could Thrive?

Shark Bay, Australia

For about 85 percent of the history of life on Earth, only microbes existed. The only large-scale evidence of their activities is preserved by stromatolites, ancient structural records of life on Earth that hold evidence both of the biology of the microbial mat communities that created them and the nature of the environments in which they grew. They are rocky, dome-shaped structures formed in shallow water through the trapping of sedimentary grains by communities of microorganisms.

Yellowstone National Park

What is causing the beautiful colors in this hot spring in Yellowstone National Park? Life, that’s what! Many microorganisms live in the pools there, and because the temperatures of the springs are so hot (most are well over 100 degrees F, or 37.7 degrees C), they are called extremophiles (extreme-loving). They contain molecules that absorb the damaging rays of the sun, protecting their DNA. Those same molecules are also pigments that cause the different colors we see. Different extremophiles thrive in different temperatures, so the color of a particular area is determined by which organisms are living in it. A veritable rainbow appears as the water temperature decreases as it flows further and further away from its superheated source.

Mono Lake, California

Calcium carbonate formations called tufa give California’s Mono Lake an otherworldly feel. Mountains surround the lake, forming a closed hydrological basin—water flows in, but it doesn’t flow out. Because the only way for water to leave Mono Lake is through evaporation, it is naturally hypersaline—roughly two to three times saltier than the ocean. Freshwater streams and underwater springs have brought trace amounts of minerals into the lake over the eons, including arsenic. Recently, bacteria which appear to incorporate arsenic rather than phosphorus into their basic biological molecules were found living in Mono Lake

High Lakes, South America

The highest volcanic lakes in the world are located in the Andes Mountains of South America. Their elevation and isolation make them some of the least understood lakes on Earth and excellent analogs for lakes that existed on Mars 3.5 billion years ago. Simba Lake, at an elevation of 19,265 feet (5,872 meters) in the Chilean Andes, is red because of algae that developed pigments to protect themselves against high UV radiation. They float in the water near the surface, not deep enough to use the water column as a natural protection.

Pilbara, Western Australia

Created in a shallow pool on early Earth more than three billion years ago, these stromatolites represent a record of the most ancient life on Earth. They formed because colonies of microbes, as they grew, incorporated sediments from the water to create rocky structures. Found in Western Australia, the stromatolites take several different forms, including the slightly cone-shaped ones seen here resembling an egg carton. The structures shown in this picture are each about half an inch (1.2 centimeters) high.

Rio Tinto, Spain

Cloudy with particulates and flowing along terraces made of iron oxides, the Rio Tinto in southwestern Spain stretches for more than 62 miles (100 kilometers) before reaching the Atlantic. Despite its acidic waters and high concentrations of iron and other heavy metals, the river supports an incredible diversity of extremophile microorganisms, including algae and fungi. Microbial biofilms colonize the riverbed and are covered with yellow iron oxide precipitates, seen here. Because of geological similarities with Mars, the Mars Astrobiology Research and Technology Experiment (MARTE) team tested equipment at Rio Tinto in 2005 for drilling on Mars in search of subsurface life.

Svalbard, Norway

Svalbard is a remote archipelago in northern Norway, deep within the Arctic Circle. Scientists with the Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition (AMASE) traveled there to test the protocols, procedures, and equipment needed to detect traces of organic chemistry and perhaps life on Mars. Instruments that will fly onboard NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory and ESA’s ExoMars missions were tested in Svalbard by the AMASE team. With a unique combination of volcanoes, hot springs, and permafrost, the Bockfjord Volcanic Complex on Svalbard is the only place on Earth with carbonate deposits identical to those found in the famous Martian meteorite ALH84001 (aka Allan Hills).

Flinders Range, South Australia

Piece of upturned sandstone in the Flinders Range of South Australia shows ripple marks of an ancient sea bed. This area of Australia hosts fossils of the first complex, multicellular organisms, which began to emerge on Earth about 600 million years ago. The study of these early fossils, known as the Ediacaran Fauna.

Ellesmere Island, Canada

Borup Fiord Pass Glacier on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut is a site in the Canadian High Arctic where astrobiologists study the potential for life on Jupiter‘s moon Europa. Water rich in sulfur-containing compounds flows from the top of this 656-foot-thick (200-meter-thick) glacier, a chemical mix that is capable of supporting microbial life. Europa’s icy surface is similarly stained with sulfate salts.

JR-Maglev - World's Fastest Train with Top Speed of 581km/hr

JR-Maglev is a magnetic levitation train system developed by the Central Japan Railway Company which holds the world record of reaching a maximum speed of 581 km/hr (361 mph) in a manned vehicle run. More amazingly, this train has a capacity of achieving a jaw-dropping speed of3,500km/hr. Check out this amazing video!