Intriguing Geography Facts (19 gifs)
"It’s easy to forget how recent some of our research and discoveries are. Though the idea of “continental drift” was first proposed in 1915, the theory of plate tectonics wasn’t really well developed until the 1950s, continuing into the 1970s. And while we currently understand pretty well that an asteroid impact caused most dinosaurs to rapidly go extinct, down to the exact location of the crater and the size of the asteroid and everything, the asteroid-impact theory wasn’t proposed until 1980."
"Palm trees grow in Ireland, at 53 degrees north. In Canada at 55 degrees north there are polar bears."
"Australia is wider than the moon."
"There are 14 mountains over the height of 8000 meters. All of them are in Asia."
"Despite Canada being the US’s “neighbor to the north”, the majority of Canadians live south of Seattle."
"When I worked for FedEx back in the 90’s one of the reasons why they chose Anchorage as a global hub (apart from the fact that aircraft use less fuel due to it being cooler) was that it is one of the only places in the world that is within 10 hours of the three biggest global markets; North America, Europe and Asia! Who would have thought that a place considered in the middle of nowhere is actually the center of the world."
"If you took a boat out of Reykjavík and sailed directly south, the first land mass you’d hit would be Antarctica."
"Not Earth’s geography but Mars’. Olympus Mons (volcano on Mars) is so big that it curves with the curvature of Mars itself to an extent that you cannot see the peak of the volcano if you would stand at the base of it."
"Rubies and Sapphires are in fact, the same mineral, and both of them, as well as Emeralds, are actually rarer then Diamonds."
"Texas is large enough that I could fit Copenhagen, Brussels, Zagreb, and Warsaw with their real life distances from each other inside the State lines. The Great Lakes contain enough fresh water to flood an area the size of Great Britain in over 100 meters of water."
"Antarctica is the world’s largest desert, since it doesn’t get all that much rainfall. Also, if you put a cherry on top of it, Antarctica is the world’s largest dessert."
"Maine is the closest point in the US to Africa."
"The Dead Sea is currently 429 meters below sea level (and sinking about 1 meter a year). I did some work in Jordan, and that caused some GPS receivers to mess up, as they thought the negative height was an error."
"How far north Europe is. I always pictured Europe as roughly parallel to the US, so northern Europe would be the same latitude as Minnesota and southern Europe as Florida. Not even close. The UK is almost entirely north of the lower 48 states and Rome is further north than New York City."
"Not sure it applies but the meteor that brought an end to the dinosaurs was so massive that the crater actually started forming itself before it even touched ground, due to the unbelievable air pressure."
"Australia is the only continent with no active volcanos."
"Ohio is the only state that doesn’t share a letter with the word “Mackerel”"
"Detroit is farther east than Atlanta."
"The distance between the highest point and the lowest point in the contiguous United States is less than 85 miles."
Source
"Palm trees grow in Ireland, at 53 degrees north. In Canada at 55 degrees north there are polar bears."
"Australia is wider than the moon."
"There are 14 mountains over the height of 8000 meters. All of them are in Asia."
"Despite Canada being the US’s “neighbor to the north”, the majority of Canadians live south of Seattle."
"When I worked for FedEx back in the 90’s one of the reasons why they chose Anchorage as a global hub (apart from the fact that aircraft use less fuel due to it being cooler) was that it is one of the only places in the world that is within 10 hours of the three biggest global markets; North America, Europe and Asia! Who would have thought that a place considered in the middle of nowhere is actually the center of the world."
"If you took a boat out of Reykjavík and sailed directly south, the first land mass you’d hit would be Antarctica."
"Not Earth’s geography but Mars’. Olympus Mons (volcano on Mars) is so big that it curves with the curvature of Mars itself to an extent that you cannot see the peak of the volcano if you would stand at the base of it."
"Rubies and Sapphires are in fact, the same mineral, and both of them, as well as Emeralds, are actually rarer then Diamonds."
"Texas is large enough that I could fit Copenhagen, Brussels, Zagreb, and Warsaw with their real life distances from each other inside the State lines. The Great Lakes contain enough fresh water to flood an area the size of Great Britain in over 100 meters of water."
"Antarctica is the world’s largest desert, since it doesn’t get all that much rainfall. Also, if you put a cherry on top of it, Antarctica is the world’s largest dessert."
"Maine is the closest point in the US to Africa."
"The Dead Sea is currently 429 meters below sea level (and sinking about 1 meter a year). I did some work in Jordan, and that caused some GPS receivers to mess up, as they thought the negative height was an error."
"How far north Europe is. I always pictured Europe as roughly parallel to the US, so northern Europe would be the same latitude as Minnesota and southern Europe as Florida. Not even close. The UK is almost entirely north of the lower 48 states and Rome is further north than New York City."
"Not sure it applies but the meteor that brought an end to the dinosaurs was so massive that the crater actually started forming itself before it even touched ground, due to the unbelievable air pressure."
"Australia is the only continent with no active volcanos."
"Ohio is the only state that doesn’t share a letter with the word “Mackerel”"
"Detroit is farther east than Atlanta."
"The distance between the highest point and the lowest point in the contiguous United States is less than 85 miles."
Source
