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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, April 20, 2008

'Good Morning America' exploring 7 wonders of U.S.

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Thor's Hammer, left, is perhaps the best example of odd rock formations, known as hoodoos, in Utah's Bryce Canyon.

Advertiser library photo

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Advertiser library photo

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Fireworks lit up Tuesday's grand opening ceremony of the Flyer.

WONG MAYE-E | Associated Press

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What is so wonderful about the U.S.? Bryce Canyon, for starters. ABC's "Good Morning America" has assembled a panel of experts to name the seven wonders of the United States.

The destinations — natural landmarks as well as manmade wonders — will be announced one at a time in seven shows airing May 5-13. Each show will include a "wonder" segment, reported live from the destination. Panel experts include National Geographic photographer Annie Griffith Belt, Outside Magazine's editor Michael Roberts, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. Also on the panel:

Patricia Schultz, author of "1,000 Places to See Before You Die," and the travel guidebook writer and editor Pauline Frommer.

HAPPY SURVEY

CORAL MAKING A COMEBACK IN BOMB-RAVAGED BIKINI ATOLL

Tuesday is Earth Day, but there's good news from the ocean, too. Huge colonies of porites coral growing up to 26 feet high are flourishing in the vast Bravo Crater in the Marshall Islands' Bikini Atoll. A recent international survey of the mile-wide crater, created in 1954 by the detonation of the most powerful atom bomb ever detonated by the U.S., shows that some coral species have recovered.

"It was awesome to see coral cover as high as 80 percent and large treelike branching formations with trunks 11 inches thick," Zoe Richards of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies said in a statement on the ARC Web site.

However, more than 40 species of corals have not recovered from the devastating event, which vaporized three nearby islands and raised water temperatures to 99,000 degrees Fahrenheit. www.coralcoe.org.au/news_stories/bikini.html.

SINGAPORE

WORLD'S LARGEST OBSERVATION WHEEL OPENS TO THE PUBLIC

Amid fireworks, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong inaugurated the more than 500-foot-tall Singapore Flyer last week, billed as the world's largest observation wheel. Reaching 42 stories high, the Flyer exceeds The Star of Nanchang by 15 feet and the London Eye by 90 feet. Each of the 28 air-conditioned capsules can hold 28 passengers, and a complete rotation of the wheel takes approximately 30 minutes. 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. The 30-minute ride costs about $22. www.singaporeflyer.com.