Friday, May 20, 2011

Geography Myths and Coiba

Way back in elementary school I remember the teacher (I think this was 4th or 5th grade) telling us that Maine was the northernmost state of the lower 48. I immediately disagreed, knowing well that this as Minnesota (thanks to the northwest angle), and that all the states of the 49th parallel with Canada extend farther north than Maine. She again disagreed, then proceeded to get a yardstick to show us on the wall map that it was indeed farther north. The map was not a Mercator where this would have been shown correctly.... I don't recall exactly but I think it was some type of Lambert Projection. I look in disbelief and muttered "you're not measuring it right"... and she kind of went "doh!" and then moved on without explaining about parallels or projections to the class.

But the myth persists. There are still people today who hold this misconception about Maine (which does hold the distinction of having the easternmost point in the United States, at the ironically named West Quoddy Head (it is west of Quoddy Strait between Maine and New Brunswick).

At any rate geography myths are everywhere, even to the point where some towns erroneously claim designations. Some are matters of semantics (i.e., various towns in the Tierra del Fuego region claim to be the world's southernmost town, but it depends on your definition of "town"). Others are just commonly perpetuated myths.

World's Shortest River?

Some friends in Texas told me of a Comal River near New Braunfels which locals proclaim to be the "shortest river in the world". It is around 3 miles long. This is nowhere close, a short investigation revealed a "D" River in Oregon which was measured at 440 feet. It flows out of a coastal lake into the Pacific. They advertised it as such and even put up signs proclaiming it as such. Then a Roe River in Montana was found that flowed some 200 feet from a spring into the Missouri River. Oregon countered by measuring their river at extreme high tide, which they claimed shortened the "D" River to 120 feet. And so on. At some point you have to argue what is a river... (and whether or not starting from a lake which has headstreams counts).

Coiba
Living in Panama I was long aware of its largest island, Coiba. Located in the Pacific off the Azuero peninsula, it was home of a feared prison colony under Noriega but otherwise undisturbed and is now a national park, where one can see Scarlet Macaws and other animals now rare on the mainland. At 503 square kilometers it is easily Panama's largest island... but locals claimed it held a greater distinction: that it was the largest island on the pacific coast of the Americas. As soon as I heard this I immediately knew it to be false... there are plenty of islands far larger on the pacific coasts of Canada (e.g., Vancouver at 31285 sq km) and Chile (e.g. Chiloé at 8394 sq km). But there is a long ways between these, so maybe it held the distinciton of largest between them.

South of Pugest Sound (which has Whidby and the Juan de Fuca islands) there aren't that many notable islands on the Pacific coast of the United States. There are a few notable small ones in San Fransisco Bay (e.g., Alcatraz)... but really the only serious archipelago is the Channel Islands of California. The largest of these is Santa Cruz, which is just under 250 sq km, which makes it about half the size of Coiba.

Moving south into Mexico there are a number of decent-sized islands, the largest being in the Gulf of California, one called Ángel de la Guarda and another called Tiburón. The former is sq 931 km and the latter is 1201 sq km. Both far larger than Coiba. So already we need to curtail the claim to "south of the Gulf of California".

Continuing on there is nothing to threaten it through the rest of Central America or Columbia until we get to Ecuador. Ecuador has the Galapagos Islands which are a fair distance from the coast. The largest island of the chain is Isla Isabela, at 4640 sq km, easily larger than Coiba. But even if you don't venture off the coast, there is Isla Puná, at 865 sq km, located in the Gulf of Guayaquil.

So the proper claim is that Coiba is the largest island on the pacific side of the Americas betwen the Gulf of California and the Gulf of Guayaquil. Or to make it simpler, just call it the largest Central American Island in the Pacific. Or just the largest Central American Island (the largest on the Carribean Coast I can find is Roatan, at around 90 sq km)... though Cozumel in the Yucatan is larger, but Mexico is not normally considered part of Central America.




Tuesday, May 17, 2011

European Capitals by Elevation

This was a fun dataset to compile. Not all cities listed had an official elevation... and many are obviously coastal, so their lowest elevation would be zero... I took standard wikipedia elevations where listed. Where not, the rest mostly comes from CIA factbook or various weather stations. A number of cities have quite a large range in elevation, I gave them benefit of the doubt and used the highest elevation within the city limits where I could. Anyway, some may be surprised to find Switzerland didn't top the list, but they aren't the only mountainous country, and it isn't that high up in the country. There are a few notes at the end....

anyway, our list:

Country Capital ftmeters
Liechtenstein Vaduz 4898 1493
Luxembourg Luxembourg 4327 1319
Andorra Andorra la Vella 3356 1023
Armenia Yerevan* 3246 989
Switzerland Bern*** 2834 864
Georgia Tblisi* 2526 770
San Marino San Marino 2457 749
Spain Madrid 2188 667
Bulgaria Sofia 1804 550
Austria Vienna** 1778 542
Croatia Zagreb 1699 518
Slovakia Bratislava 1686 514
Bosnia-Herzegovinia Sarajevo 1640 500
Czech Republic Prague 1309 399
Greece Athens 1109 338
Poland Warsaw 1076 328
Slovenia Ljubljana 968 295
Belarus Minsk 920 280
Russia Moscow**** 837 255
Macedonia Skopje 787 240
Ukraine Kiev 587 179
Monaco Monaco 535 163
Lithuania Vilnius 410 125
Serbia Belgrade 384 117
Germany Berlin 377 115
Romania Bucharest 295 90
Moldova Chişinău 279 85
Hungary Budapest 246 75
Vatican City Vatican City 246 75
Latvia Riga 240 73
Italy Rome 217 66
Sweden Stockholm 200 61
Portugal Lisbon 184 56
Belgium Brussels 141 43
Estonia Talinn 131 40
France Paris 115 35
Finland Helsinki 85 26
United Kingdom London 79 24
Norway Oslo 62 19
Ireland Dublin 30 9
Denmark Copenhagen 16 5
Netherlands Amsterdam 7 2
Azerbaijan Baku* -92 -28



It should be noted many of the lower elevations are coastal, and obviously descend down to sea level (or below it in the case of Baku, which might be the largest city below sea level in the world (easily larger than New Orleans... might be a topic for a future post). Anyway as mentioned tried to take an average elevation for even these coastal cities... but the differences are generally small, though some have impressive heights despite being right on the sea...

A few other notes:

* = debate on whether south causcus countries are considered European or Asian... even though some area of each country might cross the causcus, the capitals themselves primarily fall on the "asian" side. So disregard if you wish, including for completeness' sake... (the EU seems to consider them valid for membership anyway).
** - Vienna ranges from 151m to 542m
*** - Bern ranges from 480 - 864, average is 542.
**** Moscow weather station is 156m, 255m is highest area (Teplostanskaya Highland)

There are probably quite a few more that need notes, and I should have taken the time to list the source for each. Apologies. Still hope this is interesting. And one day maybe someone else will read some of this blog...

Thursday, May 12, 2011

European Quiz

Thought the other ones were a little US/North American centric... this one uses Europe as its setting.

1. What is the second largest European island?

2. Russia borders more countries than any other European country. Which country borders the second-most?

3. How many seas can you name that are arms of the Mediterranean Sea (or connected to other "arms")? It must have "Sea" in the name (i.e. not "Gulf" or "Bay")

4. What European capital has the highest elevation above sea level? (bonus - which is second-highest?)

5. Ireland as you should know is split between two nations, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. Name another European island that is also divided between two nations.

6. What is the highest mountain on a European island?

7. What is the highest waterfall in Europe? (bonus - what is the largest in terms of water volume?)

8. What is the largest lake in Europe that is not in Russia?

9. Not counting overseas provinces, how many nations have land both on the mainland of Europe and on the mainland of another continent? (by mainland I mean islands do not count) Because the dividing line might be vague leave the boundary in the Causcus Mountains out of it (e.g., do not worry whether Georgia, Armenia or Azerbaijan straddle the boundary).

10. This German island was formerly a british possession and was essentially traded for Zanzibar in east Africa.

10.