International Lakes

This is a lake (by normal geographic definition, so some things with "Sea" in their title are actually lakes (e.g., The Sea of Gallilee) that are shared by more than one country.  Also we are going by standard UN recognized borders.

1.   What lake is shared by the most countries (5)?

2.  There are two lakes shared by 4 countries, what are they?   Note - one of them would only qualify when full which is rather rare these days.

3.  Aside from that I can find 4 other lakes shared by 3 countries.  One of these is pretty obscure (I did not know this until I looked into it).   What are they?  (hint - you need not look in the western hemisphere)

4.  I can find 3 lakes split between two countries on an island.   How many can you name?  (there may be more than I found....)

 

 

2023 quiz

Landlocked Quiz

it's been ages since the last update, here we go:

1.   What is the world's most populous landlocked nation?

2.  What is the most populous landlocked US state?  (note having a port on the Great Lakes/St

 Lawrence Seaway does  not make you not landlocked ).

   Bonus - if having a port on the Segway made you not landlocked, what would be the .out populous landlocked state?

3.  Despite its large size, Canada only has two landlocked provinces.   This should be easy...

4.  Rank the continents by number of landlocked nations they contain.  We'll go by the US standard of 7 continents for this, splitting South and Noth America and Europe separate from Asia.   Yes, there can (will) be a tie...  also only internationally generally recognized nations, no Micronations or stuff only recognized by a couple countries 

5.  What is the most populous city located in a landlocked nation?

that's enough for now.   At the current rate next update will be in 2026 or 2027.

5.   

2020, time for a new quiz.  Today's focus:  Islands.

1.  With the UK leaving the European Union, that leaves only two entirely island nations in the EU.  What are they?

2.  Speaking of the UK, its history as a naval power has left it with many overseas territories also on islands.  While they have had large pieces of mainland territory in the past overseas (including Canada, the United States, India, etc), not to mention Calais, they now retain only two overseas territories that are NOT on islands.  What are they?

3.  Of the members of the EU that are not entirely insular, what nation has the largest percentage of its territory on islands.     Okay, now if you only count territory in Europe, what nation has the largest percentage of its territory on islands?

4.  The UK's departure takes the largest EU island, Great Britain, as well as part of the second largest, Ireland.   What is the largest remaining island in the EU (that is in Europe, not going to wrangle over the quasi-status of Greenland)?

5.  As far as the western hemisphere, the two largest archipelagos are the canadian arctic (which I'm going to lump Greenland in with) and the Caribbean.  The next two largest are also in Canada (Newfoundland and Vancouver).   Aside from Canada (and Greenland) and the Caribbean, where will you find the largest island in the western hemisphere?

here's a fun trivia thing I came up with while looking up something.

Every state has an official motto. e.g., Georgia, where I live, has "Wisdom, Justice and Moderation".

Over half the states, 29, like Georgia, have a state motto in english.

16 more states have state mottos in Latin, e.g., New York's motto is "Excelsior" (latin for "Ever Upward").

That leaves 5 states whose state mottos are not in English or Latin. Without googling, it, anyone care to take a guess on what those 5 states are, and what languages they are in?

Rivers of Time...

Here is a fun US geography trivia question I came up with while looking at a wall map...

How many rivers in the United States can you name that are used for time zone boundaries?

i.e., the time zone is different on each bank for a length.   So you can have an example I will give you one, the Colorado river is the boy dart between Mountain and Pacific along the ArizonazCalifornoa border (and Nevada-Arizona as well).   We will count that even though certain parts of the year Arizona is the same time as California, caused by Arizona not using Daylight Savings Time.

I found 10 on a quick glance search.  We are not gonna count Lake Michigan as part of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

So its been almost 3 years since my last post.   Okay, time for another geography quiz then.   None of that easy stuff.  I try to make them google-proof, though that is increasingly difficult.   Okay, then, without further ado:

1.  What is the longest river to flow through both the United States and another country?

2.  What is the largest island in the Mediterranean which does not belong to a European nation?   By European we mean a nation primarily in Europe.

3.  Not counting Puerto Rico, its outlying islands and the Virgin Islands, the United States owns one other island in the Caribbean.   What is it?

4.  This island, in the indian ocean, is so named not because it is run by the mob, but from a swahili phrase meaning "Heathy Dwelling Place".

5.  A few years after winning independence from the British, India successfully invaded and annexed a colonial territory belonging to which other European nation?

okay, been 3 years, we'll start with a short one.   Post your answers (yeah, right)....

Geography Quiz 2013

Geography Quiz...

1. You should all know that the largest lake island is Manitoulin in Lake Huron. What is the largest island in a lake that is not the largest island in its lake?

2. What is the largest US city that is not on an interstate highway (the Hawaii H- roads are part of the interstate system)

3. The two largest rivers by outflow into the sea the US are the Mississippi and the Columbia. What is third? (going by the amount of water that actually flows from its mouth into the sea)

4. As you should know, Mauna Kea is the highest US peak on an ocean island. Mauna Loa is a close second. Not counting Hawaii, what is the highest US point on an ocean island? (I don't want some glacial pond in colorado claiming it due to the lake being at such high altitude). Bonus question - okay, now not counting Alaska either.

5. What is the largest city (or town or settlement) on an island inside each of the world's oceans. As much as I hate the designation "Southern Ocean", it somehow seems to be more and more accepted these days so I guess we get five:
a. Pacific
b. Atlantic
c. Indian
d. Arctic
e. "Southern"

Count arms of the oceans and attached seas as part of that ocean (e.g., Mediterranean ounts as part of Atlantic). Suez still divides Atlantic from Indian. If in doubt, go by the CIA factbook boundaries not the IHO, as the IHO does not include attached seas. So... as far as Indonesia you can count the southern series of islands (Sumatera, Krakatoa, Java, Bali, Lombok, Komodo, Timor, etc) as being in the Indian, and the northern part (Borneo, Sulawesi, Ambon, New Guinea etc) as being in the Pacific. The abomination called the "Southern" ocean is defined as anything outside of 60 degrees south, so basically Antarctica's associated islands.

6. Same thing, only highest mountain on an island in each:
a. Pacific
b. Atlantic
c. Indian
d. Arctic
e. "Southern"

Middle Earth Map Notes

I've taken a few other fantasy maps to task.  Seeing as I just saw the Hobbit (first film), figured it was time to take a stab at what is basically the iconic map of fantasy literature, Middle Earth.

First, the map:

Middle Earth

Okay basically the area we call middle earth, is an area bounded by Forodwaith, Thun, Mordor, Gondor and the Great Sea.   Note I am not going to try and put all the accent marks and diacreticals in this piece.

Watersheds

In terms of watersheds we have everything west of the Misty Mountains (and south of their extension, the White Mountains, much of which is part of the Greyflood drainage basin... and on the other side we have the Great River Anduin, which flows through a gap between Mindolluin (the mountain above Minas Tirith) and some smaller hills called the Emyn Armen which look like a continuation of the white mountains.  

However, we also have two large enorheic basins which drain into landlocked "seas" (lakes).  All of Mordor is basically one endorheic basin draining into the "Sea" of Nurnen, and you have the larger Rhun basin likewise draining into the "Sea" of Rhun.   While the northern part of Mordor is barren, by accounts the southern part, Nurn, around the Sea of Nurn is actually green and fertile, and that is where Sauron had slave farms producing the food for his vast armies.    Still, as an endorheic basic this means we must have enough rainfall to sustain the rivers that flow into the lake to keep it stable.  If we had more rainfall in theory the lake would enlarge, and in theory enough could have turned Mordor into a giant lake.   Well in theory it would have an outlet in Udun, the one break in the mountains, or at least it would had Sauron not built Morannon (the Black Gate).  There is a tiny piece of Mordor drained by the Morgulduin stream that flows into the Anduin, this stream flows past Minas Morgul.

The Rhun basin includes the Celduin (aka the River Running) and its tributary the Forest River which joins it at Long Lake, and flows across Mirkwood.   In fact its source in the Gray Mountains is very close to the Anduin.  This means for all its might the Anduin does not pull that much a watershed from its eastern bank, at best maybe half of Mirkwood is in its basic, which places a divide running down the middle of Mirkwood.  On the map every tributary of the Anduin (and it doesn't really have any great ones) are short rivers tumbling down the Misty Mountains.   (there is one river that looks like it flows in from the east, the Greylin, but that is actually a source stream of the Anduin.  Its source is very close indeed to the Forest River.   It does perhaps drain the Dead Marshes.

The Celduin is interesting as it commands a huge basin.   It has a tributary called the Carnen (Redwater) whose source is in the Iron Hills, meaning at least part if not all of these hills are inside the Rhun basin.  For more detail of the main branch of the Celduin, we turn to the map from the hobbit:

Hobbit Map

This confirms even more of the Mirkwood being in the Rhun basin as we have a tributary of the Forest River, the Enchanted River also being part of the watershed.    We do see some mountains in wood (aptly titled "Mountains of Mirkwood".   I'm going to hazard a guess that the watershed south of these mountains is more towards Anduin, and north more towards the Celduin (River Running).  But that is just a guess.

and for more detail, Thror's map which was carried by Thorin Oakenshield.

Thror's map

Note that North is to the left in this map.   One intersting note is that the Forest River is depicted as a larger river than the Running River (Celduin).  Implying that it may be the principle source.   This would make sense, as it is longer, flows through a green vegated landscape and has a long tributary of its own.   The Running River on the other hand...  Its source is depicted as basically Erebor.  The Lonely Mountain.     Which is a presumably volcanic peak standing alone in a flat plain, miles from anything higher than it.   Which begs the question what kind of water table exactly could it hold, such to source a river like the Celduin.  The mountain's upper peak is apparently snowcapped, it must be to source such a river.  Even so it would not have that much to draw upon.   So I conclude the Forest River is actually the parent stream, though this may be obfuscated by the fact they both meet in Long Lake, and the natural inclination may have been to map it as if the stream in the same direction were.

Volcanos

It is notable that at least two prominent peaks... Erebor and Doom both appear to be volcanic in origin.  Erebor has all the signs of volcanism, arms that appear to have been "flows" and being isolated from any other mountain.   (if you really want to debate whether it is volcanic, I suggest this thread.    Further, its steep flanks point to a thicker, less hot magma than the basaltic variety we see in Hawaii, that would result in a much more gradual shield volcano (unlesss it subsequently eroded which is possible).     This might explain why its lava was unsuitable to destroy the one ring.   Only problem is Mount Doom itself does not appear to be a shield volcano either.  Unless Sauron just willed it that way.   But if you cop that out, you can use that for anything (e.g., the mountains around Mordor for example)./

Anyway those are just some quick observations.   There's a ton more to break down, will see if i feel the urge to continue...

Revolution Map Fun part 2

More revolution map stuff.

This week's episode sees our heroes encounter a bridge at "Freeport". Apparently that is the only bridge over the river because the Militia blew up all the other ones.   We are told this is 290 miles from Philadelphia.     Okay, there is a Freeport, Pennsylvania.   Which is on the Alleghany River, presumaby the river they are talking about, and the headstream of the Ohio River.  Which according to google maps is 288 miles from Philadelphia on foot.   They river is depicted as a raging torrent.   They also say that if they can't use this bridge (which is full of Monroe Militia) the nearest crossing is in Morgantown, 100 miles away.  Presumably they mean Morgantown West Virginia.   Which is not on the Allegany, but is on the Monongahela River, which joins the Alleghany to form the Ohio river.   The junction of these river is a little town called Pittsburgh.

The Militia would have had their work cut out for them blowing up every bridge between Freeport and Morgantown including every bridge in Pittsburgh, as well as presumably ones upstream the Alleghany (which granted does run a long while).  Also this bridge does not have a railroad.   We saw the train just a couple episodes ago run all the way to Philadelphia.  Why not walk along the tracks, presumably they cross the river, no?

Eventually after an option to find a guy with a boat fails.. they get the bright idea of swimming across which is made up to be dramatic (presumably it is a raging torrent the entire distance), but is accomplished in short order.

The purpose of this blog is not to go over the non-geographical failings of the show (I could go on about the bad guy a supposed tactical genius picking an ambush spot in some woods as the only place that provided sound tactical cover, a small area with junked cars), just to highlight the geographical stuff.

We also got some more shots of a wall map.

Some towns are in Red, some are in Black.    My initial guess was the ones in red are destroyed, but we did see that Chicago, while dangerous was inhabited and living off of fish from Lake Michigan.   Maybe the black ones are?  or maybe it indicates the presence of a militia garrison, who knows at this point.   Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Toledo, Cincinnati, Akron, Lansing and Milwaukee are among the ones I could make out at a quick glance.

The camera also briefly pans over stuff farther west:

Here we see the California Commonwealth.   And the western portion of the Plains Nations along with the wasteland between th em.   Note the Plains nation goes well into and past the rockies into the great basin, to a large lake.   At first I thought this was meant to be the Great Salt Lake, but its shape isn't quite right...   it is also way too big to be Tahoe.   You can seen the San Fransisco Bay area to the left... I guess it has to be the Great Salt Lake, perhaps the perspective of the camera throws us off a bit.  Also as for the shape it is an endoheric lake meaning increased rainfall levels could cause it to swell (unlike Tahoe which while part of an endoheric basin (meaning its waters do not reach the sea) it has an outlet, the Truckee river, which flows into Pyramid Lake which would be more prone to such fluctuations).

At one point the dialogue mentions the Monroe Republic is sending a diplomatic delegation to the California Commonwealth, a journey which could take years, and "those heathens" might send the delgation home in a box.

Overall this seems a remarkably large area to hold together in a "republic" without modern means of communication.   Especially one seemingly built on fear and backstabbing and paranoia of its dictator.   We don't see any means of long distance communication other than the train, no smoke signals, mirrors, semaphor, horns, etc.

Anyway not sure if we'll have much more to look at.  Apparently the show had enough budget to buy usage of Led Zepplin music next episode, which apparently was where the show needed money spent to fix its problems...

Revolution Map Analysis

Revolution Map Analysis.

We got an interesting glimpse at a map used by the NBC show "Revolution" (nutshell - all electricity stops working, 15 years later people vie for control of resources and people) of how much of North America is now constituted...

Alright.   Making up what was once the US:

• The Monroe "Republic" - where our show is set.  Capital revealed as Philadelphia, Independence Hall.  Consists of:  Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Parts of Virginia, The Mid-Atlantic States, New England, The Maritime Provinces, and parts of southern Québec.. up to the Gaspar peninsula.
• The Georgia Confederation - one of the main rivals of the Monroe Republic.  Term Confederation can't be accidental, implying it is somehow tied to the confederacy.  Consists of Kentucky, the rest of Virginia, and everything south.. including eastern Louisiana (more on that in a bit).
• The "Plains Nation" - sounds like a rather boring name, but also sounds like they imply it is somehow tied to indians (i.e., the "plains nations".Basically everything west of the Mississippi, although oddly hewing to the Minnesota / Wisconsin state line (St Croix river and whatever it goes overland).  Runs basically to the rockies.
• Texas.  Boundary between them and the Plains Nation appears to be the Arkansas River.  Includes most lf Louisiana, though not on the current Mississippi course. (again more on that below).   Interestingly Texas extends well down into Mexico.   But calls itself Texas implying Texas controls this area, not Mexico.
• Wasteland.   Assume this is an area that no one governs and no one wants.   This seems to include much of the Mountain time zone.  Also includes the Sonora area of Mexico.  Hard to tell but it looks like it also contains a larger Great Salt Lake.   Hard to tell for certain but Washington state looks to be about the same shade, so it might be an extension of Wasteland.
• California Commonwealth - California, Oregon, and parts of Nevada.   A notebook or something was set over its northern boundary so not sure on its extent.  It   Also includes all of Baja California.

Notes:

•  Overall I find it odd how many boundaries stick to old state boundaries, as well as the US-Canada boundary.
• In what I take to be some actual forethought on the part of the show, they show it not using the current Mississippi route through New Orleans and into the Mississippi River Delta.  They show it going basically along the Atchafalaya River route that the Mississppi "wants" to take, that the US Army Core of Engineers prevented with the Old River Control Structure.     I take it they have concluded in the absense of maintenance by the federal government the Mississippi overcame the Old River Control Structure and rerouted (as it used to do before the levees) to the Atchafalaya River route.  An act which would lead to the inevitable erosion of the delta perhaps as far back as New Orleans itself.    
• Nothing is really said about Canada at all... though it is odd that the Monroe Republic seems to respect the sovereignty of Ontario.   Despite having two (former?) metropoli right on the border... Detroit and Buffalo... it does not extend into Ontario at all.   Further east however it incorporates New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, presumably Prince Edward Island and what looks like Québec south of the Saint Lawrence, up to and including the Gaspar peninsula.   This strikes me as odd, there is a language difference and Québec has always struck me as an area that would abosutely stick together on its own if things came to that.   Of course this could just be an idle map of "claimed" territory.  Perhaps the Monroe Republic is interested in claiming the Saint Lawrence seeway given its ports on the Great Lakes.  But if so, why stay out of Windsor, Niagara, etc?   
• The Plains Nation sticks mostly to the US-Canada Border, being either the 49th parallel or the Rainy River/Lake of the Woods in Minnesota...except a significant chuck that appears to follow the Red River of the North up to Winnipeg, then the Assinboine River until roughly Regina (Saskatchewan), then back southeast along the Souris River (the upper part of the river, not further east where it joins the Assinboine).   This rather odd shape would bisect both Winnipeg and Regina.   
• There is also an odd shape between the Plains Nations and the northern parts of "Wasteland".  Doesn't seem to follow the continental divide.  Almost looks like it stretches near yellowstone.  I may need to overlay another map to verify what this is.

Sorry for the long delay.

Not dead yet...

Just need a good topic for a new geography-related post.

Miraflores locks

This is a pic of the miraflores locks, one of two sets on the pacific side of the Panama Canal. .  
Butbmostly just a test blogbpost from my phone.

Capital Proximity

Offhand the closest two distinct national capitals I can think of are Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly known as Zaire) and Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo), which are located opposite each other on the banks of the Congo river. While the river has some breadth I expect the townships border each other. If you want to split hairs you could measure the distance from the capital building of each to get a distance.

So... anyway for the sake of this exercise... what are smallest distance between three national capitals? To define this we'll imagine a triangle connecting the three and take its... perimeter. I put it this way so if by some miracle three capitals are in a perfect line we don't get someone trying to say that triangle has zero area. Just add the distance from capital A to capital B, then B to C, then C back to A. That is your combined distance.

As part of this exercise we can repeat this with four capitals.. and five.. and so on.

But let's just focus on the 3, 4 and 5 for now. Some of them might be the same. I would imagine we'd be looking at smaller nations here, perhaps in carribean isles. I have not looked this up yet, am just posting it then hopefully will answer later. Since I'm getting almost no responses to things here I'll cross-post this in e-sam and maybe copy some of the replies back to here.

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.

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	ft	meters
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...

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.

Lake Islands farthest from shore...

This is something I've been working on for awhile, as I don't believe this information is available online anywhere.

The answer to the question: What lake island is farthest from shore?

First, some clarification. I'll accept any lake including saline or endorheic lakes. By farthest from land I mean if you take the shortest distance between any point on that island to any point on the border of the lake, what is the longest resulting distance you might have? This would count against a large lake island whose far side was far from the lakeshore, but might have a near side very close by (e.g., Manitoulin for example). Secondly I do mean from the lake shore, not closest other land (which might well be another island of a chain).

Right off the batch I started looking for large, wide lakes, as opposed to long narrow ones. e.g., Lake Tanganyika is a very large lake, but you can't get that far from shore because it is a very long, relatively narrow lake.

The Caspian seemed a logical place to start, but its islands seem to be entirely coastal. Kulaly Island seems to be the farthest from shore I could find.

There are two other logical locations to search: The Great Lakes of North America... and Lake Victoria in Africa.

First, the Great Lakes. Glancing at a map there are a few large islands that jump out immediately, Isle Royale in Lake Superior... and the Beaver Island Archipelago in Lake Michigan. Isle Royale is a little to close to shore, the others looks a little more interesting. There are a number of islands surrounding Beaver Island, and trying to determine which is farthest from land is a bit tricky. Actually the nearby Fox Islands might be better.

However, my candidate for lake island farthest from shore in the great lakes is Caribou Island in Lake Superior. There are actually several islands with that name including at least one other in Lake Superior, in the Thunder Bay area. But the one I mean is located at 47° 21′ 33″ N, 85° 48′ 36″ W.

Caribou Island appears to be about 30 miles from the closest shoreline of Lake Superior, which is to the East-Northeast in Superior Provincial Park in Ontario. There is a closer shoreline in the form of Michipicoten Island, but as I noted we're not counting other islands.

Now as for Lake Victoria... it is a very large lake (as well as generally acknowledged as the source of the White Nile). There are many islands in the lake... At first glance closest to the center appears to be Nabuyongo Island. At second glance it seems a peninsula from the southeastern end of the lake extends towards it reducing its distance... but looking closely you see the end of that peninsula is actually an island itself (named Ukerewe), separated by a narrow channel. A quick eyeball test puts it at between 50 and 60 miles from the closest point on that peninsula.... and about the same distance to the western shore of the lake.

Anyway this is my candidate for lake island farthest from shore in the world. I havent' gone and calculated actual distances via GPS coords or anything, the difference seems to be large enough to justify it as nothing else I've found comes close. Anyone have another candidate worthy of consideration?

FWIW Nabuyogo Island was the site of a naval battle that took place on Lake Victoria during World War II.

US State Capitals

This is another US-based one, based on US state capitals. A short quiz

We'll do state capitals today.

1. What is the smallest state capital, population-wise?

2. Most state capitals are relatively central to their state. Only three are actually adjacent to the state border. Two of those border another state, one actually borders another country. Which are they?

3. What river (or rivers) has the most state capital on its banks?

4. Six state capitals are on the sea (I'm not counting ones on navigable rivers that can allow ocean ships to reach them, it must border on actual salt water. (e.g., Albany does not count).

5. What state capital has the highest elevation inside its city limits?

6. Five state capitals do not currently have an interstate highway within their city limits. Which are they?

#2 quiz

Finding superlatives is easy with google. Want to know what the longest river in California? It is easy to find that.

Hopefully these types of questions prove a little more challenging. I mean by all means use google (or whatever your search engine of choice may be). But some of these things take a bit of digging, and the end result is more geography knowledge.

So, anyway, here we go. I'm not getting any responses on these yet but hopefully one day we will then these will still be here for people to take... sticking to North America and mostly the US for this quiz. Don't worry, will cover most of the planet in others.

1. What is the second highest mountain in the United States?

2. What is the second highest mountain in North America?

3. What is the second highest mountain in the 48 contiguous states?

4. What is the second largest island in the United States?

5. What is the second largest island in North America?

6. What ist the second largest island in the 48 contiguous (well apart from being an island of one of them) states?

7. What is the second longest river in the United States? (to qualify it must be entirely inside the US)

8. ditto for North America

9. What is the second largest lake in the United States? (must exist entirely in the US to qualify)

10. What is the second longest river to exist entirely inside one state?

For bonus points, answer #9 hydrologically. (it is not the same answer if you do).

Limpopo River

A friend of mine named Angrist related a somewhat lengthy pun that goes as follows:

One day, Henry Stanley was going through the jungle, looking for Dr. Livingston. He came to a clearing and there was Tarzan, Lord of the Apes painting lines on everything, the tree's, animals, what have you. "What a strange thing" he thought to himself and continued on.

10 years later, Stanley was again touring darkest Africa looking for the source of the Great Gray-Green Greasy Limpopo River. He came to the same clearing, and there was Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, painting lines on everything. "Ok, that's a bit off" he thought to himself. But again carried on because progress waits for no man.

30 years later, Stanley was nearing death and he wanted to die in the jungle, exploring. He came to the same clearing he had visited in the past. There again was Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, painting lines on everything. Finally, he had enough curiosity and called over one of his native porters. "I don't understand. When I came looking for Dr. Livingston, Tarzan was painting lines on everything. I came back looking for the source of the Great Gray-Green Greasy Limpopo River, and again I find Tarzan painting lines on everything. Here I am, 50 years later, and I find him once again painting stripes on everything. I don't understand.

His porter looked at him quizzically and says "You mean you've never heard Tarzan stripes forever?"

Rather than acknowledge the pun, I felt the appropriate response was to conduct what I call a "geography check":

The Limpopo (which is indeed known as "great grey-green greasy limpopo river" in the story The Elephant's Child by Kipling) is a river in southern africa, and it forms the border between South Africa and both Zimbabwe and Botswana. Its lower basin is navigable, but once you move beyond that (moving towards its source) it flows through increasingly arid land and eventually the Kalahari desert. The upper reaches do not flow most of the time during dry years.

The Limpopo River Basin

Area map with national boundaries for reference

This is not the kind of area that Tarzan, Lord of the Apes would have been found. Tarzan, whose was raised by gorillas, would either have been in an area of Gorillas. Gorillas are found in central africa, in two areas, the mountain ones (as in the Sigourney Weaver / mist movie) and an area along the western coast of the congo. It was almost certainly the latter as the tarzan stories begin with the Greystokes being marooned on the west coast of africa by mutineers.

Gorilla Habitats (lowland in orange, mountain in yellow)

I should point out that Burroughs mentions the species of Apes that raised tarzan were a fictional third species called the "mangani", but the rest of it with marooned off west africa would put him nowhere near the Limpopo. Even if he were that far south and they were apes that died out, there were never any jungles at the latitude of the Limpopo. The southernmost african rain forest (even allowing for areas that have been lost since that time) was found in Madagascar (and much of that is gone). The bulk of it is up in the Congo (kinshasa). And the pun does say he was in "the jungle" and "darkest africa" (which is a title Stanley used for his account of his epic mission to rescue Emin Pasha (epic catastrophe in most accounts other than Stanley's) in which he travelled up the Congo river and then cut across to Equatoria).

Rain Forests of Africa (present day)

Thus we must conclude that if this story is accurate, Stanley was hopelessly lost. ;)