Thursday, June 24, 2010

Know the World's Longest Under sea Tunnel - Seikan tunnel + 9 Simple Questions for you

The Seikan Tunnel

The Seikan Tunnel is a 53.85 km (33.46 mi) railway tunnel in Japan, with a 23.3-kilometre (14.5 mi) long portion under the seabed. Track level is about 140-metre (460 ft) below seabed and 240-metre (790 ft) below sea level. It is the longest undersea tunnel in the world, although the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France has a longer under-sea portion. It travels beneath the Tsugaru Strait—connecting Aomori Prefecture on the Japanese island of Honsh? and the island of Hokkaid?—as part of the Kaikyo Line of Hokkaido Railway Company. Although it is the longest traffic (railway or road) tunnel in the world, faster and cheaper air travel has left the Seikan Tunnel comparatively underused. Its claim to the record for the longest tunnel will be taken when the Gotthard Base Tunnel, a European railway tunnel, is completed in around 2018. It is also the deepest rail tunnel in the world.
Surveying started in 1946 and in 1971, twenty-five years later, construction began. By August 1982, less than 700 meters of the tunnel remained to be excavated. First contact between the two sides was in 1983.

The Tsugaru Strait has eastern and western necks, both approximately 20 kilometers across. Initial surveys undertaken in 1946 indicated that the eastern neck was up to 200 meters deep with volcanic geology. The western neck had a maximum depth of 140 meters and geology consisting mostly of sedimentary rocks of the Neogene period. The western neck was selected, with its conditions considered favorable for tunneling.

Geology of the undersea portion of the tunnel consists of volcanic rock, pyroclastic rock, and sedimentary rock of the late Tertiary era. The area is folded into a nearly vertical anticline, which means that the youngest rock is in the centre of the Strait, and encountered last. Divided roughly into thirds, the Honsh? side consists of volcanic rocks (andesite, basalt etc); the Hokkaid? Side consists of sedimentary rocks (Tertiary period tuff, mudstone, etc); and the centre portion consists of Kuromatsunai strata (Tertiary period sand-like mudstone). Igneous intrusions and faults caused crushing of the rock and complicated the tunnelling procedures.
Initial geological investigation occurred from 1946–1963 which involved drilling the sea-bed, sonic surveys, submarine boring, observations using a mini-submarine, and seismic and magnetic surveys. To establish a greater understanding, a horizontal pilot boring was undertaken along the line of both the service and pilot tunnels
Tunnelling occurred simultaneously from both the northern and southern ends. The dry land portions were tackled with traditional mountain tunnelling techniques, with a single main tunnel. However, for the 23.3-kilometre undersea portion, three bores were excavated with increasing diameters respectively: an initial pilot tunnel, a service tunnel, and finally the main tunnel. The service tunnel was periodically connected to the main tunnel with a series of connecting shafts, at 600- to 1,000-metre intervals. The pilot tunnel serves as the service tunnel for the central five-kilometer portion.

Beneath the Tsugaru Strait, the use of a tunnel boring machine (TBM) was abandoned after less than two kilometers owing to the variable nature of the rock and difficulty in accessing the face for advanced grouting. Blasting with dynamite and mechanical picking were then used to excavate.














Try to answer the following nine questions.
This is a quiz for people who know everything!  
These are not trick questions .  
They are straight questions with straight answers.

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?  

3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several   growing seasons.  All other vegetables must be replanted every year.  What are the only two perennial vegetables?

4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

5. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle.  The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way.  How did the pear get inside the bottle?

6. Only three words in Standard English begin with the letters ' dw' and they are all common words.  Name two of them.

7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?

8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter ‘S’







Answers To Quiz: 

1... The one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends: Boxing.

2. North American landmark constantly moving backward:   Niagara Falls.  (The rim is worn down about two and a half feet each year because of the millions of gallons of water that rush over it every minute.)

3. Only two vegetables that can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons: Asparagus and rhubarb.

4. The fruit with its seeds on the outside: Strawberry.

5. How did the pear get inside the brandy bottle?  It grew inside the bottle.  The bottles are placed over pear buds when they are small, and are wired in place on the tree. The bottle is left in place for the entire growing season. When the pears are ripe, they are snipped off at the stems.

6. Three English words beginning with dw: Dwarf, dwell and dwindle...

7. Fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar: Period, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point , quotation mark , brackets, parenthesis, braces, and ellipses.  

8. The only vegetable or fruit never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh: Lettuce.

9. Six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with 'S':  Shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes, stockings, stilts.







Jeba

  

0 comments:

About This Blog

Blog Archive