.png)
Empress Matilda (1102–1167) was a claimant to the English throne during the civil war known asthe Anarchy. The daughter ofKing Henry I, she moved to Germany to marry the futureHenry V, Holy Roman Emperor. Her younger brother died in 1120, leaving a succession crisis. On Henry V's death in 1125, her father arranged for her to marryGeoffrey of Anjou. Henry I nominated her as his heir before his death in 1135, but she faced opposition from the Norman barons and the throne was taken by her cousinStephen of Blois. In 1139, Matilda travelled to England to take the crown by force. She captured Stephen at theBattle of Lincoln in 1141, but crowds in London blocked her attempt to be crowned and she was never formally declared queen. Her half-brother was captured and Matilda exchanged him for Stephen. A stalemate developed and she returned to Normandy in 1148, leaving her eldest son—laterHenry II—to continue the campaign. She then focused on leading Normandy and giving her son political advice. (Full article...)
.jpg) |
Blue-ice areas are regions of Antarctica where the ice surface has a blue colour, contrasting with the more common white Antarctic surface. They form around 1% of the continent's ice area. Blue-ice areas typically form when the movement of both air and ice are obstructed by topographic obstacles such as mountains that emerge from theice sheet, generating particular climatic conditions where the net snow accumulation is exceeded by wind-driven sublimation and snow transports. They are noted for being hard and flat, enabling their use as a runway, in addition to their stability. Ice of up to 2.7 million years in age has been extracted from blue-ice areas. There are also large numbers ofmeteorites accumulated on them, either from direct falls or having been transported from elsewhere byice flow. This NASA photograph shows a blue-ice area in theMiller Range, with a meteorite. Photograph credit: Nina Lanza /NASA Recently featured: |
Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors and hosted by theWikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other volunteerprojects:
This Wikipedia is written inEnglish. Manyother Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.