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The Pali-Aike volcanic field is a volcanic field in Argentina that straddles the border with Chile. It is part of a family of back-arc volcanoes in Patagonia that formed from the collision of the Chile Ridge with the Peru–Chile Trench. There are approximately 467 vents in an area of 4,500 square kilometres (1,700 square miles). The field was first active 3.78 million years ago, and is noteworthy for the presence of large amounts of xenoliths in its rocks. The latest eruptions occurred during the Holocene, as indicated by the burial of archaeological artifacts; the Laguna Azul maar formed about 3,400 years before present. Humans have lived in the region for thousands of years, and a number of archaeological sites such as the Fell Cave are located in the field. Presently, parts of the volcanic field are protected areas in Chile and Argentina. The city of Río Gallegos in Argentina is within 23 kilometres (14 mi) of the volcanic field. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Peninah Musyimi's neighborhood

... that on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, Peninah Musyimi, from the slums of Nairobi (pictured), was given the "I am Powerful" award?
... that in the 1970s, Coors Brewing Company owned Television News Inc., which provided newsfilm to North American TV stations?
... that Hal Sigurdson was described as "the thinking man's sportswriter"?
... that magazine Women's World was the first to publish photographs of Ottoman Muslim women?
... that the discovery of Bianchengichthys may shed new light on the evolution of all jawed vertebrates?
... that in 1958, Virginia Ali and her husband Ben Ali founded Ben's Chili Bowl, a landmark Washington, D.C. restaurant where Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson, and Stokely Carmichael would often eat?
... that prior to the third session of the United Nations General Assembly, while the Cold War was ongoing, prayers were conducted in various parts of the world?
... that London's Greenwell Street is part of a trapezoid, not a triangle?

In the news

Jane Campion

The Power of the Dog wins Best Film and Best Director (Jane Campion pictured) at the British Academy Film Awards.
The discovery of the wreck of the Endurance, sunk during Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, is announced.
Yoon Suk-yeol is elected president of South Korea.
Australian cricketer Shane Warne dies at the age of 52.

On this day

March 18: Feast day of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (Christianity)

Traian Vuia's monoplane

1068 – An estimated 20,000 people died across the Near East when a violent earthquake struck the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba.
1892 – Canadian governor general Lord Stanley of Preston pledged to donate an award to Canada's top-ranked amateur ice hockey club, now known as the Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America.
1906 – Romanian inventor Traian Vuia became the first person to fly a heavier-than-air monoplane (pictured) with an unassisted takeoff.
1965 – Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov donned a space suit and ventured outside the Soviet spacecraft Voskhod 2, becoming the first person to walk in space.
1985 – The first episode of the soap opera Neighbours was broadcast on the Seven Network, later becoming the longest-running drama in Australian television history.

Randal Cremer (b. 1828)
Marcellin Berthelot (d. 1907)
Unita Blackwell (b. 1933)

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From today's featured list

Alison Krauss

American musician Alison Krauss has received 59 awards from 105 nominations, including twenty-seven Grammy Award wins, the most by a female artist and third-most by any artist. She has also won fourteen International Bluegrass Music Association Awards, nine Country Music Association Awards, two Gospel Music Association Awards, two CMT Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music Awards, and one Canadian Country Music Award. She has released sixteen studio albums – seven with the band Union Station and nine without them – and five compilation albums. Country Music Television ranked Krauss twelfth on their list of "40 Greatest Women of Country Music" in 2002. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences presented her with a special musical achievement honor in 2005. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Holi is a popular Indian festival of love and spring. The festival celebrates the eternal and divine love of Radha Krishna, and signifies the triumph of good over evil, as it celebrates the victory of Vishnu over Hiranyakashipu. This photograph depicts the celebration of Lathmar Holi at Radha Rani Temple in Barsana, India, with devotees throwing gulal (coloured powder) at each other as a celebration of love and equality.

Photograph credit: Narender9

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