geography

[el guapo]

The exact geographic center of the United States is near Lebanon, Kansas.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel - which crossing Chesapeake near its mouth, at Norfolk, Virginia - uses a combination of bridge spans and tunnels. Manmade islands allow the roadway to enter the tunnels beneath the Bay's shipping channels.

The only nation whose name begins with an "A", but doesn't end in an "A" is Afghanistan.

Given their sheer volume, ninety-nine percent of the living space on the planet is found in the oceans. The average depth of the oceans is 2.5 miles (4 km). The deepest point lies in the Mariana Trench, 6.8 miles (10.9 km) down. By way of comparison, Mount Everest is only 5.5 miles (8.8 km) high.

Ninety percent of all volcanic activity occurs in the oceans. In 1993, scientists located the largest known concentration of active volcanoes on the sea floor in the South Pacific. This area, the size of New York state, hosts 1,133 volcanic cones and sea mounts. Two or three could erupt at any moment.

According to NASA, the U.S. has the world's most violent weather. In a typical year, the U.S. can expect some 10,000 violent thunderstorms, 5,000 floods, 1,000 tornadoes and several hurricanes.

Zion, Illinois - located on the shores of Lake Michigan north of Chicago - was founded by the followers of John Alexander Dowie, whose Christian Catholic Church disapproved of pharmacies, doctors, theaters or dance halls. Smoking, drinking and the eating of pork also was prohibited in town.

The U-S Park Service says the older Old Faithful gets, the more the geyser at Yellowstone National Park slows down. In the 1950s, it erupted every 62 minutes. Lately, it's been erupting every 77 minutes. Some experts say Old Faithful may someday just stop.

At 840,000 square miles, Greenland is the largest island in the world. It is 3 times the size of Texas. By comparison Iceland is only 39,800 square miles.

According to experts, large caves tend to "breathe"; they inhale and exhale great quantities of air when the barometric pressure on the surface changes, and air rushes in or out seeking equilibrium.

The surface area of the Earth is 197,000,000 square miles.

Forty six percent of the world's water is in the Pacific Ocean. The Atlantic has 23.9 percent; the Indian, 20.3; the Arctic, 3.7 percent.

The state of Oregon has one city named Sisters and another called Brothers. Sisters got its name from a nearby trio of peaks in the Cascade Mountains known as the Three Sisters. Brothers was named as a counterpart to Sisters.

The Dominican Republic was called Santo Domingo when it first gain independence.

The Chang Jiang river is the fourth longest river in the world.

Bore-hole seismometry indicates that the land in Oklahoma moves up and down 25cm throughout the day, corresponding with the tides. Earth tides are generally about one-third the size of ocean tides.

Ireland currently has the fastest growing economy in Europe - the economy grew by 40% from 1993-1997. It is for this reason that the country is referred to as the Celtic Tiger.

There are more psycho-analysts per capita in Buenos Aires than any other place in the world.

The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn in Polynesia, at just 1.75 sq. miles/4,53 sq. km.

Female aristocrats on the island of Portugese Timor in Malaya, indicate their status by notching their ears.

China's largest city is Shanghai.

The U.S. mint in Denver, Colorado is the only mint that marks its pennies.

The original fifty cent piece in Australian decimal currency had around $2.00 worth of silver in it before it was replaced with a less expensive twelve sided coin.

On a trip to the South Sea islands, French painter Paul Gauguin stopped off briefly in Central America, where he worked as a laborer on the Panama Canal.

Guam has seven public elementary schools.

Nepal's flag isn't rectangular. Or square. It's two triangles, sorta.

Newfoundland's time zone is half an hour off of all the others. So are Iran's, bits of India's, Afghanistan's, Burma's, and Nauru's. And some other islands. Like Australia.

The Republic of San Marino is the world's smallest republic (24 sq. miles) and possibly the oldest state in Europe (founded 4th century AD, according to tradition.)

Mount St. Helens dropped 1,313 feet in 1980.

There is a prison in Ossining, New York named "Sing Sing."

Rome is considered "The Eternal City."

If you could cut out the United States, its center of gravity would be at Friend, Nebraska.

In downtown Lima, Peru, there is a large brass statue dedicated to Winnie-the-Pooh.

Antarctica is the only continent that does not have land areas below sea level.

Alaska is the only state without a state motto.

In Brazil, Christmas is celebrated with fireworks.

Portugal is the world's largest producer of cork. The country has regulations protecting cork trees dating back to 1320. During the 1920’s and 30’s, it became illegal to cut down the trees other than for essential thinning and removal of old non-producing trees.

La Paz, the capital city of Bolivia is the highest capital in the world. Ski resorts there operate only on weekends during the South American summer (November to March). At an elevation of over 17,000 feet, it is too cold to operate during the South American winter.

Using satellite-surveying techniques, scientists have determined that Los Angeles, California is moving east. At a rate estimated to be about one-fifth on an inch per year, the city is moving closer to the San Gabriel Mountains.

Montpelier, Vermont is the only U.S. state capital without a McDonald's.

Although people in the majority of countries of the world drive on the right side of roads, there are some fifty nations in which people drive on the left. These include England and many former English colonies such as Australia and New Zealand—but not the U.S. or Canada. There are several non-English countries where people also drive on the left including Japan.

The Hudson River along the island of Manhattan flows in either direction depending on the tide.

Despite a population of over a billion, China has only about 200 family names.

The San Blas Indian women of Panama consider giant noses a mark of great beauty. They paint black lines down the center of their noses to make them appear longer.

The chiao is an official unit of currency in China. Also known as jiao, it is a copper-zinc coin that is one-tenth of a yuan and equal to 10 fen.

There are only three world capitals that begin with the letter "O" in English: Ottawa, Canada; Oslo, Norway; and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Only five countries in Europe touch only one other: Portugal, Denmark, San Marino, Vatican City, and Monaco.

Devon is the only county in Great Britain to have two coasts.

The many sights that represent the Chinese city of Beijing were built by foreigners: the Forbidden City was built by the Mongols, the Temple of Heaven by the Manchurians.

The world's largest democracy is India, with a much larger population than the United States and pretty good turn-out in elections, although it also has lots of election violence. Democracy is the fastest-spreading form of government worldwide.

Reversing Falls is in Canada, where the St. John River flows into the Bay of Fundy at St. John, New Brunswick. The rapids at this juncture flows normally at low tide, backwards at high tide. Between tides there is a 15-minute period in which the river is placid and boaters sail by very quickly.

Iowa has more independent telephone companies than any other state.

Australia is the richest source of mineral sands in the world.

The German Bundestag, or Parliament, has 672 members and is the world's largest elected legislative body.

Dominica, Mexico, Zambia, Kiribati, Fiji and Egypt all have birds on their flags.

The smallest 'country' in the world to have its own top-level domain name is Norfolk Island, off the coast of Australia.

The only borough of New York City that isn't an island or part of an island is the Bronx.

People in Sweden, Japan, and Canada are more likely to know the population of the United States than are Americans.

Shortest Intercontinental Commercial Flight in the world is from Gibraltar (Europe) to Tangier (Africa.) Distance 34 miles, flight time 20 minutes.

The official, neutral name of Switzerland, which has multiple official languages, is the latin "Confederation Helvetica", or the Helvetic Confederation, thus the "CH" on license plates, stickers and e-mail addresses.

[hford]

[QUOTE=jimbo;1069670]thats easy for you too say



How can you say Norfolk Island is the smallest "country" to have a domain name when Pitcairn Island - pitcairn.pn - is far smaller, only one mile wide by two miles long.

[911]

Planning to go on Jeopary, Guapo?

I'll take geography for a 1000, Alex!:D

Very interesting stuff though!