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The Marianas before the Uranie

An essay with the title HISTORY and GEOGRAPHY of the ARCHIPELAGO of the MARIANAS, in the 1809 volume of the journal Annales des Voyages de la Géographie et de l’Histoire, may well have been Louis de Freycinet’s main source of information on the Marianas when he was planning his voyage. What he read there may have been a factor in his decision to send three members of his état-major on a rather risky voyage with a Carolinian fleet from Guam to Rota and Tinian.

The value of gold

Gold seems to be enjoying a resurgence, and its fans are promoting the Randian fantasy of a return to a gold standard. But how would that work?

An Iceland in the South Atlantic ?

The Rio Grande Rise Massif and the Valdivia Bank have been interpreted as the two halves of an originally continuous hot-spot-related plateau formed on the Mid Atlantic Ridge. Is Iceland an example of what that plateau might have been like, geologically at least, at the time of its formation?

The Aragonauts

Most of what has been written about Jacques Arago concentrates on the voyage of the Uranie, and only to a lesser extent on his literary career in the 1830s. Mentions of his second major journey, which began with a plan to join the California gold rush, are far less common.

Gravity and the Middle Amazon Basin

If it had not been for LinkedIn, I might never have been aware of the existence of the 2024 Bouguer gravity map of Brazil, and that would have been a pity. Some things jump out almost at first sight, and one of these is the narrow and almost linear gravity high that roughly coincides with the main course of the middle Amazon.