Soothing breeze from woods,
Soft moonlight, misty landscapes,
Blooming tulip buds.

Land is the solid of the earth's surface, as distinguished from the sea or water, or from the air. Land is also an expanse of country; ground; soil.

Sea is the expanse of salt water that covers most of the earth's surface and surrounds its land masses.

LAND AND SEA are the two faces of the same coin. One cannot exist without the other. Nature strikes a balance between the two and maintains an eternal harmony for peaceful co-existence!

Let's explore the secrets of the domain of sea, the existence of life under water and how man has been attracted towards it. What inspired man to make sea a part of his life and go out and out to invent new kind of tools, machines and explore the expanse of sea for his benefit.

Superior of all
living things is man, sun in
him surpasses all.

REEF LIFE

According to the information available, the world of the coral reef is one of the most diverse ecosystems on our planet. The sheer number of life forms in this environment rivals even that of the tropical rain forests. Built over thousands of years by tiny calcium-producing organisms, the reefs are a haven for countless thousands of life forms, some of which seem totally alien in form. It is a fairy tale world of bright colours and ever changing patterns. Only on the reef can one find living examples from nearly every group of organisms representing a billion years of evolution.

Stay like an ocean -
Rich, vast, powerful and active;
Draw inspiration.

Some of the oldest reefs today began growing over 25 million years ago. Diving on a coral reef is like entering another world. We have, in fact, spent less time and money exploring the worlds oceans than we have the surface of the moon. Every day brings the discovery of an exciting new species. It is a world of never-ending wonders. But it is also an extremely fragile environment, and it is in very real danger of disappearing forever.

Soul is same in all,
Though placed in different forms;
Birth, accidental.

Mankind's ignorance and carelessness is beginning to have a noticeable impact on the world's reefs. From the Florida Keys to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the damage is becoming apparent. If we wish to share this wondrous world with our children, we must take steps to conserve it.

The first step to saving our reefs is education.

Icons of knowledge,
Open floodgates of power;
Lie at razor's edge.

The Webster's dictionary defines the word monster as "an animal of strange or terrifying shape" and "one unusually large for its kind". By this definition, the creatures that dwell in the deep ocean are true monsters. Miles beneath the surface, where sunlight can no longer penetrate, exists an eerie world of cold darkness. This is the abyss. It is a world of strange and sometimes grotesque forms.

Gentle touch creates
Magic in that hyacinth:
Heart strings vibrates.

SOME ANIMALS

Some of the animals here have evolved the ability to create their own light. They use their lights to attract prey and ward off predators. There are also creatures here of gigantic proportions. There are also animals here that get all of their nutrients from chemicals in the ocean. This is where the elusive giant squid hunts. It is also where the great sperm whale comes to feed on the giant squid. Here, within the waters of our own planet, lies an alien world of wonders.

Wheels within wheels grow
In the womb of nature, life
Becomes treasure-trove.

Strange and wondrous creatures of the deep rule the dark domain like rulers in the past centuries.

INVENTIONS

Ocean beautiful,
Darkness deep down treasure-trove;
Domain is blissful.

Let's see how man used his intellect from time to time while probing into deep sea and have unearthed various valuable facts that fall under oceanic science. Around 4500 B.C., coastal cultures like those in Greece and China begin diving into the sea as a source of food gathering, commerce, and possibly even warfare.

The ancient Egyptians develop the first sailing vessels in 4000 B.C. These vessels were probably only used for sailing in the eastern Mediterranean and near the mouth of the Nile river.

In search of tin and other resources, The ancient Phoenicians develop sea routes around the Mediterranean and into the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. They make it as far as Africa by 590 B.C. They also reach England by sailing along the western European coast.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle mentions the use of a sort of crude, air-supply diving bell in 300 B.C.

The Vikings begin to explore and colonize Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland. They are among the first to use the North Star to determine their latitude. Viking Expeditions begin in 900 A. D

First Circumnavigation of the World Ferdinand Magellan and his fleet depart Portugal to begin a daring voyage of discovery on September 20, 1519. The fleet would become the first sail around the world. Magellan does not live to see their accomplishment. He dies on the Island of Mactan in the Philippines in 1521 from the poison arrows of the local natives

Various inventions took place one linked with the other.
Chevalier de Beauve, a guard in the Navy, develops a waterproof suit with lead shoes in 1715. Air is supplied from the surface by two leather tubes fastened to the helmet.

Lieutenant James Cook leaves the port of Plymouth, England on a voyage to observe a transit of the planet of Venus across the Sun on August 26, 1768. During this and two voyages to follow, Cook would explore and map the Pacific ocean. He was the first to use a chronometer to accurately determine his longitude at sea.

The French scientist Sieur Freminet invented a helmet-hose diving apparatus, in which air is pumped from the surface with an egg-shaped reservoir in 1772. The air reaches the diver through a hose attached to the helmet. This system provided a constant supply of air to the diver. With this device, Freminet is able to stay submerged at a depth of 16 meters for up to 1 hour. German mechanic Karl Heinrich Klingert creats a device which is the first to be called a "diving suit" in 1797.

Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat, builds an early submarine called The Nautilus 1800. This cigar-shaped craft is made of wood over iron plates, and uses a horizontal rudder to control the up-and-down movement of the submarine. This rudder system is still in use today.

Thus, various tools were invented, from time to time, in order to facilitate man friendlier with the sea or ocean and make a living out of it.

Today, the scientific research and development has helped man in making sea and ocean his own territory and play his role accordingly.

Several experiments were conducted whereby people live in underwater habitats. In the first such experiment, Cousteau and his team spend seven days under 33 feet of water near Marseilles, France, in a habitat they name Diogenes, in 1982.

Then, came the age of Robot. The Navy develops Halibut, a submarine that can lower miles of cables bearing lights, cameras, and other gear to spy on enemy armaments and materiel lost on the bottom of the sea, in 1965.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was established in 1970. This U.S. Government agency is responsible for all U.S. weather and climate forecasting, monitoring and archiving of ocean and atmospheric data, management of marine fisheries and mammals, mapping and charting of all U.S. waters, coastal zone management, and research and development in all of these areas.

Dr. Robert Ballard, with the help of a tiny robotic submarine named Jason, discovers the wreck of the Titanic, on September 1, 985. The wreck is found in 12,500 feet (two and a half miles) of water about 375 miles off the coast of Newfoundland in Canada. Titanic is found in two separate pieces, dashing any hopes of one day raising the mighty ship.

Thus man has been doing his best to explore possibilities making sea or ocean a part of human life and have been proving that man can achieve all that is impossible to achieve while singing the ode to the Creator of the universe and its wonders.

A walk in moonlight
Make twinkling stars watch with fun;
Crickets creek at night.

By and large, we find land and sea co-exists with one another maintaining its own discipline under the command of nature.

OCEAN PLANET

Now let us peep through the mysteries of marine life facts under "OCEAN PLANET".

Thin line divides all,
A walk on razor's edge show:
It's a mirage wall!

According to information available, the oceans contain 99 percent of the living space on the planet.

The blue whale is the largest known animal ever to have lived on sea or land. Individuals can reach more than 110 feet and weigh nearly 200 ton -- more than the weight of 50 adult elephants. The blue whale's blood vessels are so broad that a full-grown trout could swim through them, and the vessels serve a heart the size of a small car.

The oarfish is the longest bony fish in the world. With its snakelike body sporting a magnificent red fin along its 50-foot length - horse like face and blue gills, it accounts for many sea-serpent sightings.

Green turtles can migrate more than 1,400 miles to lay their eggs.

A group of herring is called a seige. A group of jelly fish is called a smack.

The main key of life,
On the Earth or in Heaven;
Is nothing but sex.

Many fish can change sex during the course of their lives. Others, especially rare deep-sea fish, have both male and female sex organs.

Oils from a deep-sea fish from New Zealand, are used in making shampoo.

Bluefin tuna are among the largest and fastest marine fish. An adult may weigh 1,500 pounds and swim up to 55 miles per hour. Prized as sushi in Japan, bluefins are also among the most valuable fish: individual bluefins can bring as much as $20,000 at U.S. docks.

Retain ecstasy,
A means to recharge yourself;
Life is fantasy.

Penguins "fly" underwater at up to 25 miles per hour.

Since the architecture and chemistry of coral are very close to human bone, coral has been used to replace bone grafts in helping human bones to heal quickly and cleanly.

Horseshoe crabs have existed in essentially the same form for the past 135 million years. Their blood provides a valuable test for the toxins that cause septic shock, which previously led to half of all hospital-acquired infections and one-fifth of all hospital deaths.

Mind is a diamond
Cosmic rays when made to pass,
Create a spectrum.

Alginates, derived from the cell walls of brown algae, are used in beer, frozen desserts, pickles, adhesives, boiler compounds, ceramics, explosives, paper and toys.

The remains of diatoms, algae with hard shells, are used in making pet litter, cosmetics, pool filters and tooth polish.

Life blossoms with time,
When the seed of love spurts out:
Heart begins to chime.

One study of a deep-sea community revealed 898 species from more than 100 families and a dozen phyla in an area about half the size of a tennis court. More than half of these were new to science.

Nature is not free
So are birds and so are thoughts
All slaves, so are we

Life began in the seas 3.1 billion to 3.4 billion years ago. Land dwellers appeared 400 million years ago -- a relatively recent point in the geologic time line.

SEA AND LAND BREEZES

Soothing breeze from woods,
Soft moonlight, misty landscapes;
Blooming tulip buds.

If you have spent much time at the beach during the summer at the beach, you've probably noticed that at around 3:00 p.m. there often is a strong steady wind blowing in from the water. This steady wind, the sea breeze, is a result of the uneven heating during the daytime between the land and the adjacent water. At night the wind often reverses direction and blows from the land to the water (a land breeze). Land and sea breezes are referred to as direct thermal circulations.

Painter of nature
Paints, repaints, landscapes
For His sheer rapture.

This difference is what keeps the circulation moving and is due to the air over land being warmer than the air over the ocean.

The important concept is that heating (or cooling) of a column of air leads to horizontal differences in pressure, generating a pressure gradient force which causes the air to move and a circulation to develop. During the evening, the land cools faster than the water and the process is reversed. The net result is a land breeze, surface winds blow from the land out to sea.

Lush green fields display
Wind dance on tips of paddy;
Catch Nature at play.

During the day, the upward branch moves inland and is an indication of the strength of the sea breeze. If the atmospheric conditions are favourable for the formation of thunderstorms, the sea breeze may provide just enough lifting to cause thunderstorms to develop.

Bees buzz, flowers yawn
Sunrays pierce thro' life line
Dewdrops fly with dawn.

As the day progresses and the temperature difference between the land and ocean increases, the circulation gets stronger and the sea breeze front penetrates farther inland.

Whenever large land and water bodies are adjacent to one another, sea breezes may develop and may cause thunderstorms.

Stay like an ocean -
Rich, vast, powerful and active;
Draw inspiration.

NATURAL CALAMITIES

Nature is supreme and the functions of nature are not only mysterious but also mystical. It is entirely a different domain wherein laws of nature are automatically executed to set in order and bring in normalcy as and when the forces of nature go astray in the form of earthquakes, storms, floods, torpedoes, volcanoes and the like.

The earth's spin causes,
Earthquakes, storms, floods, tornado
As nature chooses.

Science is yet to explore ways and means to control such natural calamities. By and large, we find land and sea co-exists and maintains its own discipline under the command of nature.

Earth eats away all,
The spinning force spare no one;
Mighty and low fall.

While doing this feature on 'Land and Sea', this writer was shocked to find 'tsunami' disaster having killed over 1.5 lakh people around Indonesia, the worst in four decades, on Sunday,26th December 2004.

Andamans and Car Nicobar islands, Sri Lanka and East and South-west coast line in India, Thailand and many small islands are the most affected areas.

The United Nation said on January 1, 2005, that the number of people killed by the tsunami was nearing 1,50,000 and concluded by telling "the exact figures may never be known"

Life reaches the End
On its own without reason;
Death has none as friend.

The world body said $1.2 billion has been pledged in aid so far, for the nearly five million survivors.
Indonesia has emerged as the country worst affected, accounting for more than two-thirds of the dead.

Nothing in man's hand,
Life takes a turn on it's own;
May fall in quicksand.

TSUNAMI SPELLS DOOM

Life cycle wheels by,
Ever green nature stay with
Earth, sun, moon, stars, sky.

The 'tsunami', which hit India for the first time on 26th December 2004, wreaking havoc across the southern coastline, is a known phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean region stretching from Chile in Latin America to Japan in far-east Asia, according to the recent reports published.

The waves, which were caused by a massive earthquake on the Indian Ocean and claimed thousands of lives in India and six other countries, are usually triggered by seismic disturbances - coastal earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or undersea landslides - that jolt the ocean floor.

Depression in sea,
Oft creates storm and tension;
So, in you and me.

Often, tremors displace ground surface, sending an entire column of water in motion outward from an earthquake region - often with disastrous results thousands of kilometres from their origin.

The difference between tsunami waves and tidal waves is that while the former hit only the harbours and coast areas even as the other parts of the sea remain calm, the later make the sea rough. The result is a deep wave that reaches from the sea's surface to the floor and travels horizontally at speeds up to 500 miles per hour and reaches heights between 50 and 100 feet. The waves travel faster in deeper water and when it approaches shore, they rise further. It is the sharp elevation of the ocean floor near the coast that slows the bottom of the wave while the top keeps moving at the original speed.

Vast quantity of water is then piled up into a vertical wall that finally crashes over the shore with amazing force.

In the open sea, Tsunamis are only about a metre high, but when they reach a shoreline, the can be taller than a house and weigh millions of tons. The word "Tsunami" has come from Japanese language, describing very long. Low seismic sea waves. It is usually found in the Pacific ocean where there is significant movement of the earth's tectonic plates.

Japan is one of the two Asian countries - the other being Indonesia - which has been frequently hit by Tsunami waves. The Japanese suffered the fury when hundreds died after a huge wave travelling at a speed of 750 km per hour smashed the country in 1960 following a series of quakes in Chile on the other side of Pacific Ocean.

Major Tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean region only about once per decade and the major once - the Prince William Sound, Alaska, in March 1964, and the Tsunami generated off the coast of Chile in 1960 - have been devastating over large distances.

Life in all a quiz,
Man is a kaleidoscope;
He fights back a blitz.

The first sign of an approaching Tsunami is the sea tide draining away from the shore.

Wheels within wheels grow
In the womb of nature, life
Becomes treasure-trove.

The NIO scientists are now engaged in collecting, collating and analysing the sea-level data related to the magnitude and intensity of the tidal waves which are being constantly recorded by different ports on a routine basis across India The tremors traversed at a speed of 750 km per hour from Sumatra islands reaching the Indian Ocean and east coast within two and half hours at about 0900 hrs, Dr. Shethye said.

Icons of nature,
Teaches us to live in peace;
Greed is man's nature.

Not having witnessed a tsunami in the Indian Ocean for over l00 years, India failed to recognise or sound an alert in the two hours it took the killer waves to hit Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Hope fuels spirits,
Life surges fast like the sun;
Hopeful has quick wits.

While the earthquake occurred at 6.29 a.m., the tsunami hit the Indian coast at around 8.25 am in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

The second earthquake was recorded at 9.51 a.m. at Great Nicobar Island

In the absence of instrumentation, India could not have known that the earthquake in Sumatra would lead to tsunami on its coasts.

The Earth still spins on :
As all Time surges forward,
Day and night wheels by.

India had failed to react to initial news that the earthquake off Sumatra had occurred on the side that would affect Indian Ocean countries and not Pacific Rim nations.

Nature keep changing,
So is life; adjust oneself --
Make life smooth flowing.

---References:Planet Ocean Planet, by Peter Benchley and Judith Gradwohl , newspaper clippings and author's Haiku