- MINTAKA (Delta Orionis). Orion is defined by his great belt, three bright second magnitude stars in a row that the ancient Arabs called “the string of pearls,” which is the meaning of the name of the middle star, Alnilam. The two flanking stars, eastern Alnitak and western Mintaka, both come from Arabic phrases that mean “the belt of the Central One,” the Central One the Arabic personification of our Orion, a woman lost to history.
- Galápagos Microplate (Wikipedia)
The Galapagos Microplate (GMP) is a geological feature of the oceanic crust located at 1°50’ N, offshore of the west coast of Colombia. The GMP is collocated with the Galapagos Triple Junction, which is an atypical ridge-ridge-ridge triple junction. At the Galapagos Triple Junction, the Pacific Plate, Cocos Plate, and Nazca Plate meet incompletely, forming two counter-rotating microplates at the junction of the Cocos-Nazca, Pacific-Cocos, and Pacific-Nazca spreading ridges.