Lake Tai

Lake Tai or Lake Taihu (Chinese: 太湖, p Tài Hú, lit. "Great Lake") is a large freshwater lake in the Yangtze Delta plain near Shanghai, China. The lake belongs to Jiangsu province and the southern shore forms its border with Zhejiang. With an area of 2,250 square kilometers (869 sq mi) and an average depth of 2 meters (6.6 ft), it is the third-largest freshwater lake in China, after Poyang and Dongting. The lake houses about 90 islands, ranging in size from a few square meters to several square kilometers.

Lake Tai is linked to the renowned Grand Canal and is the origin of a number of rivers, including Suzhou Creek. In recent years, Lake Tai has been plagued by pollution as the surrounding region experienced rapid economic growth.

Name

Also translated as Tai or T'ai Lake and as Taihu or T'ai-hu Lake.

Formation

Scientific studies suggest that Lake Tai's circular structure is the result of a meteor impact based on the discovery of shatter cones, shock-metamorphosed quartz, microtektites, and shock-metamorphic unloading fractures. Recent studies have dated the prospective impact crater to be greater than 70 million years old and possibly from the late Devonian Period. However, the evidence for now shows no impact crater structure or shock-mineral at Lake Tai. Fossils indicate that Lake Tai was dry land until the ingression of the East China Sea during the Holocene epoch. The growing deltas of the Yangtze and Qiantang rivers eventually sealed off Lake Tai from the sea, and the influx of fresh water from rivers and rains turned it into a freshwater lake.

Lake

A lake is an area of variable size filled with water, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land, apart from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean (except for sea lochs in Scotland and Ireland), and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are also larger and deeper than ponds, though there are no official or scientific definitions. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams, which are usually flowing. However most lakes are fed and drained by rivers and streams.

Natural lakes are generally found in mountainous areas, rift zones, and areas with ongoing glaciation. Other lakes are found in endorheic basins or along the courses of mature rivers. In some parts of the world there are many lakes because of chaotic drainage patterns left over from the last Ice Age. All lakes are temporary over geologic time scales, as they will slowly fill in with sediments or spill out of the basin containing them.

Many lakes are artificial and are constructed for industrial or agricultural use, for hydro-electric power generation or domestic water supply, or for aesthetic or recreational purposes.

Lake (surname)

Lake is an English surname. Notable people with the surname include:

Pigment

A pigment is a material that changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result of wavelength-selective absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which a material emits light.

Many materials selectively absorb certain wavelengths of light. Materials that humans have chosen and developed for use as pigments usually have special properties that make them ideal for coloring other materials. A pigment must have a high tinting strength relative to the materials it colors. It must be stable in solid form at ambient temperatures.

For industrial applications, as well as in the arts, permanence and stability are desirable properties. Pigments that are not permanent are called fugitive. Fugitive pigments fade over time, or with exposure to light, while some eventually blacken.

Pigments are used for coloring paint, ink, plastic, fabric, cosmetics, food, and other materials. Most pigments used in manufacturing and the visual arts are dry colorants, usually ground into a fine powder. This powder is added to a binder (or vehicle), a relatively neutral or colorless material that suspends the pigment and gives the paint its adhesion.

Taió

Taió is a municipality in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil.

See also

References

Coordinates: 27°06′S 49°59′W / 27.100°S 49.983°W / -27.100; -49.983

Tai (elephant)

Tai (born November 4, 1968) is an Asian elephant best known for playing Bo Tat in the film Operation Dumbo Drop (1995), Vera in Larger than Life (1996) and Rosie in Water for Elephants (2011). Tai is owned by Have Trunk Will Travel, Inc., a privately funded organization that generates income through elephant rides, shows and events, as well as film and commercial appearances.

Career

Tai's first film appearance was a minor role in The Jungle Book (1994), where she scares off some poachers. Tai followed this up playing the major role of Bo Tat in Operation Dumbo Drop in 1995. The American Humane Association rated the treatment of animals in the film as acceptable. The scene in which Tai is sedated she is actually just obeying her trainers instructions to lie down. The sounds of her snoring in the film is not actually coming from Tai, but was dubbed in during post-production. All scenes that show Tai in danger were carefully staged, and the boat in which she travels in the film was pre-tested to make sure it would support her 8,000 pound weight. To ensure she remained healthy, all of Tai's food, drinking water, and even her bathing water, was shipped from the U.S. to Thailand, where filming was taking place.

Tai (comics)

Tai is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe. A Cambodian, Tai was something of a mentor for the New Warriors in the first 25 issues of their first series.

Fictional character biography

Tai is an elderly Cambodian mystic who was indirectly responsible for the formation of the New Warriors. Tai was born into a cult called the Dragon's Breadth. Her people derive mystical energy from a well inside their temple that was a nexus into various alternate dimensions. The temple is constructed around the nexus point where vast amounts of mystic energy are constantly released. Throughout the centuries Tai's people absorb the energy from the well. They devise a detailed program of interbreeding the goal of which was for each successive generation to be able to tap into the energies of the well more than the previous generation had and that eventually one generation would use that power to rule the world (this plan was called 'The Pact'). Tai's generation are actually able to harness the energies of the well. Tai's generation is led to believe that their generation were the ones who would rule the world. Tai refuses to share powers and slays everyone in the cult but six maiden brides and a series of guards for the temple.