In 1981, Polish canoeists (members of the Bystrze Academic Travel Club) made the first journey along the waters of the River Colca in the section located in Arequipa Province (Peru), along which the waters flow in a deep canyon. Information on this sporting achievement – and a description of the Canyon and its surrounding area filled the Peruvian press and tourist publications around the world, ensuring that the Colca Canyon became one of the most important goals for tourists anywhere in Peru from that time on. However, mass infl uxes of tourists, noisy trips, the development of hotel infrastructure and other items required in tourism have generated permanent change in the character of the Colca Valley, and done much to influence the lives of its inhabitants.

The discovery that the Universe is expanding faster than we previously thought is one of the most fundamental findings in cosmology of recent years, but we are still some way from understanding precisely how this expansion occurs. Our team from the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre and the Jagiellonian University is using quasars to try to unravel the mystery.

Neoproterozoic ( c. 640 Ma) amphibolite facies metamorphism and deformation have been shown recently to have affected the Isbj ø rnhamna and Eimfjellet Complex of Wedel Jarlsberg Land in southwestern Spitsbergen. New SHRIMP zircon U−Pb and in situ electron microprobe monazite and uraninite U−Th−total Pb ages are presented here on a pegmatite occurring within the Isbj ø rnhamna metasedimentary rocks. Although the dated zircons are full of inclusions, have high−U contents and are metamict and hence have experienced notable Pb−loss, the new Cryogenian ages are consistent with the age of regional metamorphism of the host metasediments, providing additional evidence for a clear distinction of the Southwestern Province from the other parts of the Svalbard Caledonides.