Geography tidbits

@estherlou (5015)
United States
August 19, 2008 9:21am CST
I found this quite interesting. Interesting Geography! More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska. Detroit: Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, carries the designation M-1, named so because it was the first paved road anywhere. Amazon: The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean. The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States. Brazil: Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around. Canada: Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. Ohio & Maryland: There are no natural lakes in the states of Ohio or Maryland, every one is manmade. Antarctica: Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country. Ninety percent of the world's ice covers Antarctica. This ice also represents seventy percent of all the fresh water in the world. However, Antarctica is essentially a desert. The average yearly total precipitation is about two inches. Although covered with ice, Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert. Damascus, Syria: Damascus was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence. Rome, Italy: The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome, in 133 B.C. There is a city called Rome on every continent. Los Angeles: Los Angeles's full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula - and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: L.A. Siberia: Siberia contains more than 25% of the world's forests. Sahara Desert: In the Sahara Desert, there is a town named Tidikelt, which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years. Technically though, the driest place on Earth is in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island. There has been no rainfall there for two million years. Spain: Spain literally means 'the land of rabbits.' United States: The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one-mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies. Now...... ..... Wasn't that interesting?
1 person likes this
10 responses
@slickcut (8140)
• United States
19 Aug 08
I would say that is very interesting...It sure does have a lot of history on that site...What i read in your discussion is very interesting.I cannot imagine no rainfall in 10 years...I wasn't aware of any of these things..Of course we all tend to just stay in our own little worlds,and never really think about what is going on around us...Thanks so much for this history..I would really like to see this site,you did not mention where you seen all this...
@estherlou (5015)
• United States
19 Aug 08
Actually this one came in an email.
@leeloo (1492)
• Portugal
26 Aug 08
A fun fact I can think of is that Los Angeles' original name was El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Portiuncula now that is a mouthful. Also there are two countries that gave the same bird a name yet neither are their country of origin. Turkey and Peru are the name of turkey one in english the other in portuguese. In english the merchants that introduced the turkey to England were turkish and they were known as the Turkish birds, in portuguese it was thought that the country of origin was Peru. Yet the turkey originates in North America.
• United States
19 Aug 08
"The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one-mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies." Additionally, when I was a trucker, the fine print in my log book said the interstate belonged to the government in an emergency and I should report to the nearest military transportation officer with my 18 wheeler for assignment of freight to haul to alleviate the emergency. Not kidding. This probably still is the law.
@ElicBxn (64169)
• United States
20 Aug 08
Now, the one "natural" lake in the state of Texas, was actually caused by a log jam about 200 years ago, and has since been fortified with a concrete dam, Cato Lake. All the rest of the lakes in Texas are actually reservoirs.
@maximax8 (31042)
• United Kingdom
19 Aug 08
These are very interesting facts so thanks for sharing them. I wonder how countries got their names like Brazil. I love to eat Brazil nuts. It is fascinating that Spain means Land of the Rabbits. I have noticed that popular names are in more than one location in the world. I knew about Preston is place name is several places in my home country. I used to live in Canterbury and was intrigued to find one of these in Suburban Sydney and it the area around Christchurch in New Zealand. Talking of Christchurch there is one of those in my home country. It is fascinating that Alaska has so much coastline.
@xcellen (204)
• Indonesia
20 Aug 08
I dont like to study geography, but when you put some interesting fact like that, it can become fun :D
@oriental (1050)
• Uruguay
19 Aug 08
Antarctica - Only one land not owned by any country.
Of course it was! I think the only one fact that I already knew was that Antarctica is the only land in the planet that is not owned by any country.
@Polly1 (12644)
• United States
19 Aug 08
Yes that was very interesting, I enjoyed reading all of that. You learn something new everyday. Thanks for sharing.
@Lakota12 (42600)
• United States
19 Aug 08
Very! every thing I just was wanting to know lol well if no rain there it has to snow right?
@jillmalitz (5131)
• United States
19 Aug 08
Yes it was. Just think of the wealth of information available that we never see.