(Mai 2010) The earthquake in Chile shifted the continental plate by approx 3 m to the West and spread it apart. The effect is that the globe’s spin has slowed down according to scientists at the University of Vienna (German). Attention, synchronize your watches: days are now 0.3 milliseconds longer! And another thing: due to irregular distribution of mass in the Earth’s interior the oceans’ surfaces have deep valleys and mountain ranges.

Photos of the volcanic eruption on Island. Remember: Eyjafjallajökull is its name.

Manhattanhenge is the name chidingly given to a reoccurring solar phenomenon in New York by the Planetarium-Director alluding to Stonehenge: end of May and beginning of July the sun sets right between the gaps between the sky scrapers as if they were built according the solar calendar.

Limestone pillars will play an important role in Washington’s the Eisenhower Memorial. The US-Capital city’s design concept was the idea of architect Frank O. Gehry.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II Cultural Centre’s design concept by architect Zaha Hadid was recently presented.

Video of the month: National Geographic on fossils in Egyptian limestone.