She and her friend Sita recently boarded a special elephant caravan and traveled over 1,200 miles, day and night, and through heavy rains, to the Elephant Conservation and Care Center run by Wildlife SOS in Mathura, India. Mia and Sita were escaping decades of exploitation at circuses. 

When they weren't performing, Mia and Sita were chained up and could never fully lie down to really rest. When Mia arrived at the sanctuary, she appeared to collapse with joy at finally breaking free of her chains. Recently, Mia was spotted blissfully napping the day away, a luxury that she hasn't enjoyed for decades. But she still popped her head up and flapped her ears for the camera as a videographer approached. She almost seemed to smile for the camera ... before plopping back down in the delicious dirt to continue her doze.

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She’s incredibly loyal, and recently, she proved this in the most beautiful and heartbreaking way. When her dad – or granddad, rather – had to stay at the hospital overnight, she demonstrated just how much she loved and missed him. Earlier this year, Leia’s mom, Katie Snyder, sent Leia to her parents for a little vacation. 

Leia quickly fell in love with Snyders’s mom and dad, but since she’s not excessively cuddly, nobody realized just how deep her connection to Snyder’s dad ran. However, one night, Snyder’s dad experienced some unexpected medical issues and had to go to the hospital. 

Snyder’s parents had been out celebrating their 40th anniversary when Snyder’s dad suddenly had to leave for the hospital, and Snyder’s mother found herself having to return to their home alone. Due to the current situation she wasn’t allowed to stay with her husband in the hospital, but at least she had Leia at home to keep her company. 

But when Leia realized that Snyder’s dad wasn’t coming home, she grew deeply upset and showed just how much she’d grown to love him.

The heartbroken pup sat by the door with her head hanging low and waited for her daddy to come home. She missed him so much and just wanted him to come back to her. 

Seeing how much Leia had grown to love Snyder’s dad, Snyder decided that Leia’s little “vacation” would become permanent. It was clear that for Leia, he was now her dad too. The next day, Snyder’s dad returned home and Leia was overjoyed. The sweet pup was so relieved and happy to have her favourite person back. 

“He is her human now,” Snyder said in an interview with The Dodo. Now, Leia is thrilled to get to spend the rest of her days with her new dad, and it’s more than clear that the two of them were always meant to be together. Dogs are truly the embodiment of love and loyalty. 

The layer of salt became covered with sediments washed down from the mountains by rainwater, and over time, the sediment layer thickened, became compact and weighed down heavily on the salt layer underneath.

Under such circumstances, salt starts to behave like fluid leading to an interesting behavior known as salt tectonics. The weight of thousands of feet of sediments and rocks pushing down on the salt layer causes salt to rise up through the overlying rocks. 

When a weak spot is found in the overlying layer of sediment, the salt will push through it and form domes known as diapir. Sometimes a diapir will breach the surface and spread horizontally becoming a salt glacier. All of these incredible salt formations can be seen in the south, southwest, and central areas of Iran. The best examples are found in the Zagros mountains that run parallel to Iran’s coast on the Persian Gulf.

The Zagros mountains formed when the Arabian Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate leaving lots of ridges and faults for salt diapirs to form.

A salt glacier, about 14 km across, in the Zagros Mountains. Nowhere else in the world such cumulative of salt domes can be seen, according to UNESCO. The site is not yet a World Heritage Site, but is being considered for inclusion. In the southern part of the Zagros Mountains alone, there are more than 130 salt domes which affected the structure of Zagros Mountains as one of the most significant simple folded systems in the world. 

Aside from salt domes, there are salt caves including the longest salt cave in the world at over 6.4 km in the Namakdan Mountain, salt glaciers, salt valleys, karst sinkholes, and salt springs. Iran’s salt domes might be at risk from future oil exploration, as the impermeable rocks found in salt domes frequently traps petroleum beneath other rock layers. 

Salt domes in other regions, such as in the United States, Mexico, the North Sea, Germany, and Romania are already significant source of petroleum and have been tapped for many years now. Source