Minigun

The M134 Minigun is a 7.62×51mm NATO, six-barrel machine gun with a high rate of fire (2,000 to 6,000 rounds per minute). It features Gatling-style rotating barrels with an external power source, normally an electric motor. The "Mini" in the name is in comparison to designs that use a similar firing mechanism but larger shells, such as General Electric's earlier 20-millimeter M61 Vulcan, and "gun" for a caliber size smaller than that of a cannon, typically 20 mm and higher.

The Minigun is used by several branches of the U.S. military. Versions are designated M134 and XM196 by the United States Army, and GAU-2/A and GAU-17/A by the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy.

"Minigun" refers to a specific model of weapon that General Electric originally produced, but the term "minigun" has popularly come to refer to any externally powered Gatling gun of rifle caliber. The term is also used to refer to guns of similar rates of fire and configuration regardless of power source and caliber.

History

Gau

Gau or GAU may refer to:

Places

Military

Schools

Panhole

A panhole is a depressed, erosional feature found on flat or gently sloping rock. Panholes are the result of long-term weathering and are generally seen on bedrock or very large blocks of rock. Similar terms are gnamma (Australia), opferkessel (German, roughly “sacrificial basin”), “armchair hollows”, weathering pans (or pits) and solution pans (or pits). Other German names include kamenitza and kamenica. In Spanish they are tinajita. In Portuguese and Galician are called pias.

In Namaqualand these features are called !gau

These shallow solution basins, or closed depressions, tend to form on bare limestone or silicate rock. They are also found on granitic rock. They are generally characterized by flat bottoms and sometimes by overhanging sides. The initial form may be a closed hollow created by a patch of humus. Diameters are rarely greater than 15 centimeters

In the Sierra Nevada, California these features were termed weathering pits by François E. Matthes, where they are thought to indicate rock surfaces that are unglaciated or escaped more recent glaciations. In Sierra Nevada granitic rocks, these features have a characteristic shape such that they expand more rapidly in width than they grow in depth. One explanation for their conformation is because the most active environment for weathering is the zone of alternate wetting and drying along the margins of the pools that collect in the pits, the margins tend to deepen and enlarge until all points of the bottom are equally wet or dry at the same time, thus producing their characteristic shape.

Gäu District

Gäu District is one of the ten districts of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland, situated in the centre of the canton. It has a population of 19,960 (as of 31 December 2014). Together with Thal District, it forms the Amtei (electoral district) of Thal-Gäu.

Municipalities

Gäu District contains the following municipalities:

Geography

Gäu has an area, as of 2009, of 62.01 square kilometers (23.94 sq mi). Of this area, 27.74 km² (10.71 sq mi) or 44.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 23.36 km² (9.02 sq mi) or 37.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 10.41 km² (4.02 sq mi) or 16.8% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.44 km² (0.17 sq mi) or 0.7% is either rivers or lakes and 0.06 km² (15 acres) or 0.1% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 6.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.0%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.5% of the area Out of the forested land, 36.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 41.9% is used for growing crops, while 1.2% is used for orchards or vine crops and 1.6% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the district is flowing water.