Dollar Chauhan: March 2011

Tenerife, possibly the most popular of the Canary Islands, sits serenely off the coast of exotic Morocco and boasts year round sunshine with warm temperatures. Known for their picturesque beauty, Tenerife’s beaches come in all sorts of variations from pebbles and black sand to the fine golden stuff. The island serves as a haven for holidaymakers to revel in both relaxation and recreation, so those looking for fun in the sun should have towels and beach brollies at the ready as Nadine Hallak outlines the Top 5 Beaches in Tenerife.

For vacationers who dream of privacy and tranquillity, the pale golden sands of El Puertito, set along the bay of a sleepy fishing village, are perfect. This bucolic stretch of beach, located on the western side of the island, surprisingly lies just a stone’s throw away from popular resorts like Playa de Las Américas and Costa Adeje. Nevertheless, if you’re worried these tourist meccas may interrupt your serenity at El Puertito, rest assured that they won’t. This beach remains a sanctuary where you can enjoy nature at its purest, and relaxing days spent sunbathing transition into cool, languid evenings.

Regarded as one of the most beautiful beaches in Tenerife, Playa de las Teresitas lives up to the hype. Originally created as a means of recreation for the people of Santa Cruz, the beach is a year-long destination for swimming and water activities. Its 1.5 kilometres of golden sands come straight from the Sahara desert, but the source of its sand is not the beach’s only alluring aspect. Its magnificent landscape includes the impressive Anaga Mountains as well as the whitewashed houses in San Andrés, one of the oldest villages in the Canary Islands.

With easy access to and from Tenerife airport, Los Cristianos is a fantastic family beach and provides countless fun-in-the-sun activities for both children and adults. You can revel in sunbathing, fishing, water sports, and sailing in glass bottom boats. There are more family-friendly attractions nearby including the Octopus Aquapark featuring water slides, water rides, swimming pools and aquatic performance shows starring some very talented dolphins. Monkey Park, a nearby zoo, is also popular with children and features lemurs, iguanas, different varieties of birds and chimpanzees, among other animals.

This beach in northern Tenerife is a secluded haven beside a fishing hamlet, set inside a protected bay. It’s usually calm location is well suited for families, who can stay in one of the many apartments and rental condominiums nearby. Lined with black, volcanic sand, Playa San Marcos offers beachgoers a great location for swimming and enjoying water activities as well as other amenities including showers and changing rooms. This beach’s laidback charm and wonderful conditions make for a great day out – something of a hidden gem despite cheap flights to Tenerife available from around the UK.

Aside from azure waters and stunning volcanic black sand beaches, Playa Jardin features many gardens for which it is so aptly named. Trees such as palm, fig and laurel as well as hibiscus and frangipani flowers make up this lush oasis, admired for its overwhelming natural beauty. Apart from offering great sunbathing, this northern Tenerife beach is an excellent starting point for enjoying recreational activities at Puerto de la Cruz resort and Loro Park, a wildlife sanctuary and zoo. This post was written by Nadine Hallak, Travel Expert at leading airline ticket deals website Cheapflights.co.uk.

Japan isn’t the first place to have earthquakes, and here are some shots of earthquakes that rocked our world in the past.

April 18, 1906, San Francisco : At 5:12 am in San Francisco there was a major earthquake, whose magnitude was 7.8 on the Richter scale. Tremors were felt even in the middle of Nevada, located deep in the continent. As a result of the disaster, almost 80% of the buildings in the city of San Francisco was destroyed, their homes were 300 000, 3000 – died.

December 28, 1908, Messina, Italy : Epicenter of the earthquake with magnitude 7.5 points located in the strait between Sicily and the peninsula. As a result of this earthquake, which is considered the most powerful European earthquake, were almost completely destroyed the city of Messina and Reggio Calabria. In Messina lost almost half of the residents. The total number of victims is estimated at 70 -100 000 people (some sources name the figure to 200 thousand).

September 1, 1923, Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan : This earthquake of magnitude 8.3 points still called the Great Kanto earthquake, as the Japanese Kanto province most affected by the strike element. For two days there was 356 aftershocks, and the height of the tsunami in Sagami Bay has reached 12 meters. The death toll in the disaster is estimated at 142,800 people.

1936, Quetta, Pakistan : The earthquake completely destroyed the city’s infrastructure, the death toll to nearly 40,000 people, with damage estimated at U.S. $ 25 million.

1939, Concepcion, Chile : Magnitude quake was 8.3 points. Killed 28 000 people, the damage amounted to nearly $ 100 million.

December 26, 1939 Erzincan, Turkey : The city routinely had to endure the powerful earthquake. In 1939, the element has claimed the lives of 36 to 39 thousand people.

February 29, 1960, Agadir, Morocco : An earthquake measuring 5.9 points only lasted 15 seconds, but the death toll was 15,000 people, injured 12,000, 35,000 were left homeless.

1970, Chimbote, Peru : An earthquake measuring 7.7 points seriously damaged the fishing industry enterprises, which caused unemployment and impoverishment of the population for several years. At the time of the earthquake killed 67,000 people, with damage estimated at $ 550 million.

July 27, 1976, Tien Shan, China : This earthquake of magnitude 8.2 in the score is considered one of the largest by number of victims in the history of observations. Then the element has claimed more than 650,000 lives.

February 4, 1976, Guatemala : The earthquake of magnitude 7.5 stars died more than 22 thousand people, and 70,000 were injured. Damage estimated at 1.1 billion dollars.

September 19, 1985 Mexico City, Mexico : This earthquake of magnitude 8.1 score is considered one of the most devastating earthquakes of America. The number of dead was then 9,000 people and injured were 30,000 and 100,000 were left homeless.

December 7, 1988, Spitak, Armenia : Magnitude of a catastrophic Spitak earthquake was 7.2 magnitude. The city of Spitak and 58 villages were completely destroyed. The number of dead reached 25 thousand and 514 thousand were left homeless. Damage was estimated at 14 billion dollars.

October 17, 1989, San Francisco, California, USA : Earthquake, magnitude of which was 7.1 magnitude, occurred just before the baseball game “World Series”, so in the U.S., this earthquake is also called the “earthquake World Series.” In comparison with other earthquake victims was not much: 68 people. Tremors were completely destroyed by a network of roads, and the overall material damage estimated at $ 6 billion.

January 17, 1995, Kobe, Japan : Magnitude quake was 7.3 points. Killed 6,434 people, damage totaled $ 200 million.

August 17, 1999, Izmit, Turkey : Magnitude 7.6 points, the number of victims amounted to 17,217 people, more than 43 thousand were injured. The earthquake triggered a fire at the refinery on fire which took several days. The total damage amounted to $ 25 billion.

December 26, 2004, Indian Ocean : The magnitude was 9.1 points. The earthquake occurred most lethal in modern history, the tsunami that killed nearly 300 000 people. The horrific earthquake changed the Earth’s rotation rate, because of what knocks have become shorter in 2.68 microseconds.

May 12, 2008, Sichuan, China : Magnitude was 8 points. Echoes of this earthquake were felt even in Russia. The number of dead reached 68 thousand people, the damage – 20 billion dollars.

February 27, 2010, Maule Region, Chile : Magnitude of a powerful earthquake in Chile was 8.8 points, the total number of dead had reached almost 800 people. The earthquake occurred tsunami, which reached even to Australia.

March 11, 2011, The island of Honshu, Japan : Magnitude to 9.1 magnitude – is the most powerful earthquake in Japan on record. March 14, official sources reported nearly 5000 dead, but this figure is not final.