Geography tidbits
By estherlou
@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...
@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.
@redyellowblackdog (10629)
• 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.
@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.
@jillmalitz (5131)
• United States
19 Aug 08
Yes it was. Just think of the wealth of information available that we never see.










