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Topic: Interesting Geographic Facts

Bob Maar
(Maar stands for Maartini)

Posts: 28608
From: New York City & Newport, RI
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 11-15-2005 10:19 AM

Interesting & Amazing Geographic Facts

Alaska

* More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska.

Amazon

*The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% the world's oxygen supply.

* 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.

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.

* As strange as it sounds, however, Antarctica is essentially a desert. The average yearly total precipitation is about two inches.

* Although covered with ice (all but 0.4% of it, i.e.), Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.

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.
* Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village."

Chicago

* Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.

Detroit

* Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan carries the designation M - 1, named so because it was the first paved road anywhere.

Damascus, Syria

* Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.

Istanbul, Turkey

* Istanbul, Turkey is the only city in the world located on two continents.

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.

New York City

* The term "The Big Apple" was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930s who used the slang _expression "apple" for any town or city. Therefore,to play New York City is to play the big time - The Big Apple.

* There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin, Ireland; more Italians in New York City than in Rome, Italy; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv, Israel.

* Percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28. Percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38.

Ohio

* There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio, every one is manmade.

Pitcairn Island

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

Rome

* The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome,Italy in 133 B.C.

* There is a city called Rome on every continent.

Siberia

* Siberia contains more than 25% of the world's forests.

S.M.O.M.

* The actual smallest sovereign entity in the world is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (S.M.O.M.).It is located in the city of Rome,Italy, has an area of two tennis courts, and as of 2001 has a population of 80, 20 less people than the Vatican. It is a sovereign entity under international law, just as the Vatican is.

Sahara Desert

* In the Sahara Desert, there is a town named Tidikelt, which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years.

Spain

* Spain literally means 'the land of rabbits.'

St. Paul Minnesota

* St. Paul, Minnesota was originally called Pigs Eye after a man named Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant who set up the first business there.

Roads

* Chances that a road is unpaved in the U.S.A.: 1%, in Canada: 75%.

Texas

* The deepest hole ever made in the world is in Texas.It is as deep as 20 empire state buildings but only 3 inches wide.

Waterfalls

* The water of Angel Falls (the World's highest) in Venezuela drops 3,212 feet (979 meters). They are 15 times higher than Niagara Falls.

YOU THINK YOU KNOW EVERYTHING?

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

Butterflies taste with their feet.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.

The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.

..............Now you do know everything

[ 11-15-2005, 02:44 PM: Message edited by: Bob Maar ]