Kerama Islands offer spectacular dive/snorkeling sites, which are world famous for its magnificent coral reefs and abundant sea life. It include some 20 small and large islands and are located 30-40 kilometers north of Naha, the prefectural capital located on the island of Okinawa.

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Capitol Reef National Park is an evocative world of spectacular colored cliffs, hidden arches, massive domes, and deep canyons. It is a place that includes the finest elements of Bryce and Zion Canyons in a less crowded park that can offer a more relaxing experience than either of those more-famous Utah attractions. It is named for a particularly colorful section of the fold where rounded Navajo sandstone forms capitol-like domes and sheer cliffs form a barrier to travel, often referred to as a reef. The park stretches from north-northwest to south-southeast for 70 miles (112 km) and generally narrows in width (east-west) from up to 12 miles (19 km) in the north to as little as 1 mile (1.6 km) near the southern end. It lies along the northwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau, where it encompasses about three-fourths of the nearly 100-mile- (160-km-) long Waterpocket Fold.

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The Waterpocket Fold is a straight, 100 mile long ridge of tilted and layered rock stretching from the Fishlake Mountains in central Utah to Lake Powell in the south. Most is preserved in Capitol Reef National Park, which contains multicolored cliffs, narrow canyons, ridges, arches, spires and domes. That landscape makes Capitol Reef Country perfect for outdoor activities such as hiking, biking, horseback riding, ATV tours, hunting, fishing, wildlife viewing, or just a quiet picnic. Capitol Reef encompasses the Waterpocket Fold, a warp in the earth\’s crust that is 65 million years old. It is the largest exposed monocline in North America. In this fold, newer and older layers of earth folded over each other in an S-shape. This warp, probably caused by the same colliding continental plates that created the Rocky Mountains, has weathered and eroded over millennia to expose layers of rock and fossils.

credit: Peter Stabolepszy

The Great Barrier Reef is the world\’s largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi). It is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in north-east Australia. The world’s largest coral reef is the only living entity that is detectable from outer space. New research shows it is also in steep decline, with half of the reef vanishing in the past 27 years, caused by various factors, including cyclones, coral bleaching and the Crown of Thorns starfish.

credit: Paul from www.Castaways.com.au