Beware of meteorite hunters
It's a huge pleasure to lie under clear desert skies watching shooting stars fall to Earth. Oman is singularly fortunate in the number of meteorites that fall on its surface, particularly in Dhofar and Al Wusta. The meteorite density in Interior Oman is unusually high - more than one meteorite per square kilometre. Oman Observer, August 2001.
Three years ago, Ali al Kathiri, an Omani geologist on study leave from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry undertook a field survey with the Natural History Museum of Berne and the University of Berne in Switzerland. The geologists collected over 1,000 kg of meteorite fragments, but one in particular, now named SaU 169, after its discovery at Sayh al Uhaymir in Sharqiyah, has been identified as originating in the Imbrium Basin on the Moon.
Three years ago, Ali al Kathiri, an Omani geologist on study leave from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry undertook a field survey with the Natural History Museum of Berne and the University of Berne in Switzerland. The geologists collected over 1,000 kg of meteorite fragments, but one in particular, now named SaU 169, after its discovery at Sayh al Uhaymir in Sharqiyah, has been identified as originating in the Imbrium Basin on the Moon.
Don's springs
Following on from yesterday's piece about groundwater leaking away from Wadi Dayqah, I found some of Don Davison's photos taken on boat trips east of the boundary of the Daghmar Plain (Wadi Dayqah flood plain) between February to March 1992. The photos show freshwater springs of different types emerging at the base of the cliffs.
The dam at Wadi Dayqah, or should that be Dhaiqa?
Although you might think that a water storage dam would probably be an anachronism in the Persian Gulf, sufficient water does fall in the mountainous areas of the Arabian Peninsula to make water storage seem to be a viable option. Several small dams were built on Al Jabal al Akhdar during the 1990s to feed domestic water supply to villages and to irrigate agriculture, particularly in regions where water supply from traditional springs had dwindled.
But at what point does the benefit of building such structures become overtaken by the cost?
But at what point does the benefit of building such structures become overtaken by the cost?
Blue City - environment and mangroves
Finally, Gulf News blurted it out on 30th November. Michael Jackson has been in Oman for the last two weeks. And issue 143 of The Week, Muscat's weekly society rag, sports photos of him visiting City Centre and Carrefour, Muscat's biggest shopping centre, although small by comparison with that in Dubai. No interview though.
Gulf News focused on his possible involvement with The Blue City at Al Sawadi, 100 kms northwest of Muscat.
Gulf News focused on his possible involvement with The Blue City at Al Sawadi, 100 kms northwest of Muscat.