Extreme Antarctic Winds Shape Trees Into Beautiful Forms on Slope Point, New Zealand

Bored Panda ^ | November 14, 2013

[beebuster2000]

wow. not a place for rubber boats thats for sure

[familyop]

From my perspective, that’s a nice, warm, calm predictable climate at a low elevation. Looks comfortable and arable. So sheep can live without shelter there. That’s something. Here, last night, 100+ mph gusts from various westerly directions with temps below 20 F and a little spraying ice. No trees here. Before long, it will be way below 0 with windy days most of the time. Many days with gusts over 80 mph and a few each winter with gusts over 100 carrying the spraying ice.

[Rebelbase]

There’s nothing between Antarctica and NZ but open ocean.

[dr_lew]

That sign is a little off. In Google Earth I get latitude and longitude of 46 40 30 S and 169 00 07 E . Well, who knows, right?

But I also measured the distances and got 5171 and 4831, vs.
5140 and 4803 on the sign. The polar circumference is 40008, which I hit on the nose with Google Earth, finding 10002 for one quarter of it. Honestly, I did not have this number in mind when I made the measurements! The sign values add to 9943, of course.

Only after I looked it up did I recall that the original definition of the meter was the distance from the north pole to the equator, through Paris, of course!

BTW, this latitude corresponds almost exactly to Duluth, MN, mutatis mutandis.

Also BTW, when I was dragging the GE “ruler” to the south pole, I went directly through New Zealand’s Scott Base, adjacent to McMurdo Station.

[blam]

"There used to be a grove of oak trees on the Texas coast in the vicinity of Rockport and Fulton that looked like this."

(Ahem)

Between Rockport and Fulton, Texas…

"This part of the Texas coastline also features large windswept mottes of live oaks. The beauty of each tree has been slowly shaped and carved by the prevailing winds along this part of the coastline. Though short in stature and bent by the wind they still hold for us a unique stately grace."

[blam]

This photo of Rockport is courtesy of TripAdvisor.

[Ditter]

Thank you so much blam! They look a little more cared for than I remembered but that is good. My parents retired to Rockport and then both of them died in 1984, I haven't been back since.

[OldNewYork]

Beautiful.

[dr_lew]

But I also measured the distances and got 5171 and 4831, vs. 5140 and 4803 on the sign. The polar circumference is 40008, which I hit on the nose with Google Earth, finding 10002 for one quarter of it. Honestly, I did not have this number in mind when I made the measurements! The sign values add to 9943, of course.

I was trying to account for this discrepancy, and I did find that if the correct values in miles were converted to kilometers using a factor of 1.6 instead of the more correct 1.60934, we should recover the correct sum in kilometers by multiplying 9943 by 1.60934/1.6, and in fact this comes to 10001.04, so I'm gonna say that's it and call it a day.

[al_c]

Meanwhile in Rockport, TX ...