<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/02e34ed9-242a-4aa9-8b99-1f59685ed7e5/1CC7EBA7-DA01-474A-9ECB-04FC04C544DD/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.oddee.com/item_96656.aspx" href="http://www.oddee.com/item_96656.aspx" style="font-size: 11px;">www.oddee.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.oddee.com/item_96656.aspx"><H1 class="tit">10 Alien-Looking Places on Earth</H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.oddee.com/item_96656.aspx"><H2 class="subtit"> <IMG hspace="3" align="absmiddle" src="http://www.oddee.com/_media/imgs/oddee/top2.gif" /> Socotra Island <SMALL>(Indian Ocean)</SMALL></H2></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.oddee.com/item_96656.aspx"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.oddee.com/img/A1F051D1-AC4F-4E29-AE49-DCF0D245BC5F" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.oddee.com/item_96656.aspx"><DIV> This island simply blows away any notion about what is considered “normal” for a landscape on Earth, you’d be inclined to think you were transported to another planet - or traveled to another era of Earth’s history. <A href="http://www.sinlung.com/juspics/socotra-island.html">Socotra Island</A><SPAN><SPAN>, which is part of <SPAN class="IL_LINK_STYLE">a group</SPAN> of four islands, has been geographically isolated from mainland Africa for the last 6 or 7 million years. Like the Galapagos Islands, the island is teeming with 700 extremely rare species of </SPAN><SPAN class="IL_LINK_STYLE">flora and fauna</SPAN>, a full 1/3 of which are endemic. </SPAN></DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.oddee.com/item_96656.aspx"><DIV><SPAN> The climate is harsh, hot and dry, and yet - the most amazing <SPAN class="IL_LINK_STYLE">plant life</SPAN><SPAN> thrives there. Situated in the Indian Ocean 250 km from Somalia and 340 km from Yemen, the wide sandy beaches rise to limestone plateaus full of caves (some 7 kilometers in length) and mountains up to 1525 meters high. The trees and <SPAN class="IL_LINK_STYLE">plants</SPAN> of this island were preserved thru the long geological isolation, some varieties being 20 million years old. </SPAN></SPAN></DIV></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/1CC7EBA7-DA01-474A-9ECB-04FC04C544DD/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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