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Crap About Geography

 

The following are all of the Weekly Droppings that have appeared on Mindless Crap, dating back to the first one posted on October 1, 2000.

 
There are small ice-free patches of land in Antarctica, accounting for .06% of the continent's total land area.
In 1800 only 50 cities on earth had a population of more than 100,000.
The Bay of Fundy, located on the east coast of Canada near Nova Scotia, boasts the highest tides in the world.  The tides are known to reach 60 feet.
More than half (25) of the 48 mainland states have a coastline.
The town of Modesto, California was named in honor of its founders, who were too "modest" to name it after themselves.
At 3,108 square miles, Juneau, Alaska has a greater land area than any other city in the Western Hemisphere.
The Chinese city of Chinkiang, now 150 miles inland, was once a seaport.  Silt of the Yangtze River has built up the land for that distance.
Bangladesh covers approximately the same land area as the state of Wisconsin, yet it ranks in the top ten among all the world's population.
Antarctica is the only continent that does not have land areas below sea level.
If you measure a mountain from its base, the tallest is not Mount Everest; it's the island of Hawaii, which is all mountain.  Hawaii's tallest peak, Mauna Kea, is 13,784 feet above sea level, but it rises from a sea bottom that is 18,000 feet below sea level.  From base to peak, Hawaii is over 31,000 feet.  Mount Everest is 29,000 feet.
Berlin and Warsaw are farther north than parts of Alaska.
If the Nile River were stretched across the United States, it would run just about from New York to Los Angeles.
For 186 days a year the sun is not seen at the North Pole.
Tornados always move in an easterly direction and most often in a northeasterly direction.
The Great Wall of China covers more than 1/20th of the Earth's circumference.
Nobody owns Antarctica,  The 1961 Antarctic Treaty states that since international scientific cooperation on the continent is a priority, no one should be recognized as owning any of it.
The Philippines consist of 2,100 islands.
A person has to travel west to get from Los Angeles, CA to Reno, NV.
Key West, Florida is the southernmost point in the continental United States.  South Point, Hawaii is the country's southernmost point overall.
Patagonia at the southern tip of South America is the only populated land area south of 40 degrees South Latitude.  By comparison, most of Europe, Asia, and two-thirds of North America are north of 40 degrees North Latitude.
Death Valley, California, has a point that is 280 feet below sea level.
Coney Island in New York got its name from rabbits.  In early days it was overrun by rabbits, which were often referred to as coneys.
Of the 3,000 islands in the Bahama chain in the Caribbean, only 20 are inhabited.
Pakistan was named in 1933 and is derived from the first letters of "Punjab," "Afghan," "Kashmir," "Sind," and "Tan."  All of these are districts or states of what is now Pakistan.
In terms of area, Juneau, Alaska, is the largest city in the United States, yet it can only be reached by boat or plane.
In the United States only 80 miles separate the highest point of land and the lowest point in the lower 48 states. Mount Whitney on the eastern border of Sequoia National Park in California is 14,496 feet high, and a pool called Badwater in Death Valley is 280 feet below sea level.
While sailing along the Caribbean coast of South America in 1499, the Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojedo saw Indian houses built on stilts over the water. The area reminded him of Venice, and he named it Little Venice, which in Spanish is Venezuela.
Mount Everest is a foot higher today than it was a century ago, and it's believed to still be growing.
La Pax, Bolivia is a virtually fireproof city. At an altitude of about 12,000 feet above sea level, the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere is barely able to support fire.
All of Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, is heated by underground hot springs.
About 24% of the total ground area of Los Angeles is said to be committed to automobiles.
The lowest point that a person can reach on Earth, outside of riding a submarine or going down a mine shaft, is where the Jordan River enters the Dead Sea. It's 1,290 feet below sea level.
New York City has 570 miles of shoreline.
The driest place on Earth is Calama, in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Nobody has ever seen it rain there.
Greenland has more ice on it than Iceland does. In fact, Iceland has more grass and trees than Greenland does.
It's believed that India gets its name from the Indus River.  The interesting thing is that none of the river is actually in India...it's in Pakistan.
The South Pole is covered with 8,850 feet of solid ice.
More than 80% of all the world's earthquakes occur in the Pacific basin borders.
There are 38 peaks in South America higher than Mt. McKinley, which is the highest point in North America.
El Capitan in Yosemite National Park is the largest visible granite rock in the world. It's twice the size of the Rock of Gibraltar.
Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. It’s just 0.17 square miles.  Monaco is the second smallest at 0.7 square miles.
The deepest spot in any ocean is the Mariana Trench.  It's 36,198 feet below sea level (about seven miles).
Texas is the only state that allows its residents to cast absentee ballots from space.  This is because the Houston Space Center is home to most of the United States' astronauts.
The Sudan is the largest country in Africa. It covers about 967,500 square miles of the continent.
Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico are all a part of the Greater Antilles.
In 1964, Tanganyika and Zanzibar joined together to become Tanzania.
The kangaroo and the emu are shown supporting the shield on Australia's coat of arms.
The Dutch acquired Surinam in exchange for Manhattan Island in 1667.
The five most populated cities in the world are, in order, Tokyo-Yokohama (Japan), Mexico City (Mexico), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Seoul (South Korea), and New York (United States).
The Netherlands is the lowest country in the world. An estimated 40% of its land is below sea level.
The annual Night of the Radishes is held in Oaxaca, Mexico.  It's held on December 23rd of every year as part of a pre-Christmas tradition.  Farmers carve figures from radishes and display them in the city's main plaza.
Lake Michigan is the only one of the Great Lakes located entirely within the United States.
The country of Tanzania has an island called Mafia.
In 1931, Charleston, SC was the first city in the United States to pass legislation establishing a historical district. The city has more than 1,000 buildings that predate the Civil War.
Indiana has a city named Santa Claus.
The Himalayas are the fastest growing mountains in the world. Already the tallest,  the mountain range is growing at a rate of about a half an inch each year.
Marseilles is the oldest city in France. It was settled in about 6,000 B.C. by Ionian Greeks, who called it Massilia.
Portugal is the world's largest producer of cork.
Alaska's borders make it the farthest state east, west and north. Its Aleutian Islands extends across the 180th meridian, which puts the islands chain's end  in the eastern hemisphere.
The largest antique ever sold is the London Bridge. It was sold and moved Lake Havasu City, AZ in 1971.
Damascus, Syria is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world.  Civilization can be traced as far back as 2,000 B.C.
Manhattan Island from end to end is less than one million inches long.
The town of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, is closer to the equator than it is to the North Pole.
The world's smallest and oldest republic is San Marino.  It's 25 square miles and is located mostly on top of a mountain entirely surrounded by Italy.
The principality of Monaco consists of only 370 acres.
The height of the Eiffel Tower in France varies , depending on the temperature, by as much as 6 inches.
The precise geographical center of the North American continent is in a town called Rugby, North Dakota.
With the exception of Antarctica, all continents are wider in the north than in the south.
The Pacific Ocean at the Isthmus of Panama is often 20 feet higher than the Atlantic Ocean.
Panama is the only place in the world where someone can see the sun rise on the Pacific Ocean and set on the Atlantic.
Jacksonville, Florida has the largest total area of any city in the United States. It takes up 460 square miles, almost twice the area of Los Angeles.
More than 25% of the world's forests are in Siberia.
The correct name for the capital city of Thailand is rung Thep, and it's been this way for over 130 years. Foreigners persist on calling it Bangkok.
Mt. Athos, in northern Greece, likes to call itself an independent country.  It has a population of about 4,000...all men. No females of any kind, including animals, are allowed. There are twenty monasteries within a space of twenty miles.
In 1638, Sweden founded a colony in the New World in the Delaware River Valley. It was called New Sweden.
There are 350,000 Italians living in Toronto, Canada, a population about the same as that of Venice, Italy.
North America was called Turtle Island by the Delaware Indians.
The Big Room at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico is 2,500 feet in length, 600 feet wide, and 250 feet high.
The geographic center of the United States is Smith County, KS. The geographic center of North America is Pierre County, ND.
After Canada and Mexico, Russia is the nearest neighbor to the United States.  Siberia’s easternmost point is just 56 miles from Alaska.  In fact, in the middle of the Bering Strait, Russia’s Big Diomede Island and the U.S.’s Little Diomede Island are only two miles apart.
There are thirteen languages spoken by more than 100 million people. They are: Mandarin Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese, Malay-Indonesian, French, Japanese, German, and Urdu.
The lights of Las Vegas at night can be seen from outer space.
The Soviet Caucasus mountain actually moved a mile in 1972. Heavy rains swelled an underground river and the whole mountain salied away over the course of eight days.
The main road in Hershey, PA (where Hershey's candy bars are made) is Chocolate Avenue.
Tallahassee, FL was the only Southern capital east of the Mississippi not captured during the U.S. Civil War.

 

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Mindless Crap is another brainless creation of Glenn "Spot" Weintraub