Category: Geography

The largest island-in-a-lake-on-an-island-in-a-lake-on-an-island in the world

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 29, 2021
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There’s an island within a lake that is situated on an island located in a lake on an island in the Philippines called Vulcan Points. But, it’s not the largest such island. Vulcan Points is about 50×80 meters in size (about 164×262 feet). “The largest island-in-a-lake-on-an-island-in-a-lake-on-an-island in the world ” title belongs to an island named Third Order Island: it’s about 110×120 meters in size (about 361×394 feet). Third Order Island is located in an unnamed lake that is situated on an unnamed island that is located in an unnamed lake on Victoria Island, Canada.

Geography Planet Earth

10 Fun Geography Facts

Fun geography facts: Greenland vs Iceland meme — Greenland vs Iceland meme

Earth is an amazing place. Not only it is a beautiful oasis in the vast, cold space, it also has many interesting and even strange features. Here are 10 fun geography facts.

Geology Geography

What are lost continents, and why are we discovering so many?

Post author By The Conversation
Post date November 26, 2019
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Lord Howe Island is one of the few places where the lost continent of Zealandia is exposed above sea level. Zealandia on Google Maps. Zealandia, also known as the New Zealand continent or Tasmantis, is an almost entirely submerged mass of continental crust that sank after breaking away from Australia 60-85 million years ago, having separated from Antarctica between 85 and 130 million years ago. Lord Howe Island is a tiny Australian island in the Tasman Sea east of Port Macquarie. It's characterised by sandy beaches, subtropical forests and clear waters. In the south, a trail winds up soaring Mount Gower, with sweeping views. Ned's Beach in the north has calm fish- and coral-rich waters. The island is home to seabird colonies, including masked boobies. Dive sites surround the nearby Admiralty Islands.

For most people, continents are Earth’s seven main large landmasses.

But geoscientists have a different take on this. They look at the type of rock a feature is made of, rather than how much of its surface is above sea level.

In the past few years, we’ve seen an increase in the discovery of lost continents. Most of these have been plateaus or mountains made of continental crust hidden from our view, below sea level.

Maria Seton, University of Sydney; Joanne Whittaker, University of Tasmania, and Simon Williams, University of Sydney

Geography Planet Earth

5 Geography Facts that Will Blow Your Mind

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date November 29, 2018
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An old map and a compass — Historically, the magnetic compass was an important tool for navigation. So, how can you find the true north (geographic north) with a compass, since the location of North magnetic pole always changes? Detailed maps typically tell you how much local deviation there is between magnetic north and true north (magnetic declination). You then offset your compass by that many degrees, and you're all good. These type of maps (for example, military maps) are get updated in every few years or so. Image: PXHere

From stunning landscapes to awe-inspiring vistas, our earth is a unique beauty in the immensity of space. To explore its beauty and diversity is an exhilarating honor and humbling adventure. To us, the greatest wonders flow from Earth’s beauty, power, and magnificent intricacies. Explore with us some of its unforgettable features with this list of five geography facts that will blow your mind.

Geography Climate Earth from Space Global Warming

18 Largest Islands on Earth

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date July 15, 2018
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Australia, New Guinea, Borneo, Sumatra and Java. New Guinea is a large island off the continent of Australia. The eastern half of the island is the major land mass of the independent state of Papua New Guinea. The western half, referred to as Western New Guinea or West Papua or simply Papua, formerly a Dutch colony, was annexed by Indonesia in 1962 and has been administered by it since then. The western half of the island of New Guinea contains the highest mountains in Oceania, rising up to 4,884 meters (16,024 ft) high (Puncak Jaya). The highest peaks contain permanent equatorial glaciers, which have been retreating since at least 1936 due to the global warming. Except in high elevations, most areas possess a warm humid climate throughout the year, with some seasonal variation associated with the northeast monsoon season. New Guinea has an immense biodiversity. A high percentage of New Guinea's species are endemic, and thousands are still unknown to science. Borneo, a giant, rugged island (the largest in Asia) in Southeast Asia's Malay Archipelago, is shared by the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, Indonesian Kalimantan and the tiny nation of Brunei. It is known for its beaches and ancient, biodiverse rainforest, home to wildlife including orangutans and clouded leopards. Antipodal^{Notes 2} to an area of Amazon rainforest, Borneo is itself home to one of the oldest rainforests in the world. Sumatra is a large Indonesian island in Southeast Asia that is part of the Sunda Islands. It is known for its rugged tropical terrain, wildlife and smoldering volcanoes. The island has a wide range of plant and animal species but has lost almost 50% of its tropical rainforest in the last 35 years. Java is famous for its volcanoes, which run through the island’s center like a spine. Many are active, intermittently spewing plumes of ash into the atmosphere. But the white areas surrounding the volcanoes in the top image do not have a fiery origin: they are clouds. However, they were influenced by the volcanic topography.

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. It is believed that there are over 100,000 islands in the world. It’s difficult to put a figure to the exact number as there are different kinds of them in various water bodies including oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers. There is even an island within a lake that is situated on an island located in a lake on an island. Only 322 of them are larger than 1000 km² (386 sq mi). Here are the top 18 largest islands on Earth. Why 18? Because this is the number of islands that have a land area of greater than 100,000 square kilometers (38,610 square miles).

Prehistoric Animals Evolution Geography Geology Insects Life on Earth Planet Earth Plants

Here’s What did Ancient Earth Look Like

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date April 5, 2018
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Ancient Earth (280 million years ago). Permian period. The concept of the Permian was introduced in 1841 by geologist Sir Roderick Murchison, who named it after the Russian city of Perm. The Permian witnessed the diversification of the early amniotes into the ancestral groups of the mammals, turtles, lepidosaurs, and archosaurs. The world at the time was dominated by two continents known as Pangaea and Siberia, surrounded by a global ocean called Panthalassa. The Carboniferous rainforest collapse left behind vast regions of desert within the continental interior. Amniotes, who could better cope with these drier conditions, rose to dominance in place of their amphibian ancestors. Extreme conditions such as polar ice caps and deserts limited the extent of plant life, but amphibious tetrapods and reptiles diversified where plants grew. Oceans teemed with fish and invertebrate life.

I stumbled upon an amazing web page showing what did ancient Earth look like. On the “Dinosaur Pictures and Facts” web page (dinosaurpictures.org), there’s also an interactive animation. On this page, you can either select the years (i.e. 600 million years ago) or jump to a particular event (i.e. first multicellular life) and see how ancient Earth did look like then. You can also remove the clouds and stop the Earth’s rotation if you want to.

Geography Oceans Places Planet Earth

7 Most Remote Places on Earth

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date March 24, 2018
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One of the most remote places on Earth - The South Pole of Inaccessibility. A bust of Lenin stands there. — One of the most remote places on Earth - The South Pole of Inaccessibility, Antarctica's most remote point, lies at 83°06'S 54°58'E, 878 km (546 miles) from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. First reached in 1958 by the Soviet Antarctic Expedition, it has an elevation of 3,800 meters and the coldest year-round average temperature of -58.2°C (-72.8°F). A buried Soviet station with a bust of Lenin marks the site, now a historic monument. Its last visit was in 2011 during a transcontinental Antarctic crossing by Sebastian Copeland and Eric McNair-Landry. Image: Wikipedia

How far away can you get from everybody else on Earth? The answer is “actually quite far”, there are a lot of extremely remote places left in the world and some of them have actually yet to be reached by anybody in all of history. The world is an enormous place. Here are the most remote places on Earth.

Geology Geography Planet Earth

Here’s how Earth will look in 250 million years [video]

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date January 21, 2018
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Earth, 250 million years in future: Pangaea Ultima — According to the Pangaea Ultima hypothesis, the Atlantic and Indian Oceans will continue to get wider until new subduction zones bring the continents back together, forming a future Pangaea. Most continents and microcontinents are predicted to collide with Eurasia, just as they did when most continents collided to Laurentia.

Earth’s outer shell is divided into multiple plates that slowly glide over the mantle. The movement of these plates slowly changes Earth’s surface over time by merging, or separating, continents. 250 million years from now, consistent with the supercontinent cycle (see notes 1), there will be a possible future supercontinent called Pangaea Ultima.

Hypothesized by Christopher Scotese, a geologist at the University of Texas at Arlington, Pangaea Ultima earned its name from its similarity to the previous Pangaea supercontinent, which was formed about 335 million years ago, and began to break apart about 175 million years ago. Here is a beautiful video published by the Tech Insider channel showing the formation of this supercontinent and how Earth will look 250 million years from now.

Geography

AuthaGraph [Probably the Most Accurate World Map Ever]

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date June 15, 2017
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Despite its unusual and a bit weird look, the AuthaGraph World Map may be the most accurate world map ever. It is created by the Japanese artist and architect Hajime Narukawa and won the Good Design Grand Award in 2016.

Since the 16th century, we use Mercator Projection in most maps we used to see pinned on classroom walls and in Atlases – a cylindrical map projection presented by the Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator (5 March 1512 – 2 December 1594) in 1569. It is very useful for ocean navigation since it preserves “true compass bearings between any two points”.

But, the Mercator projection greatly distorts the shape of the lands. The closer the land to the poles of the Earth, the bigger it looks. For example, Greenland looks almost as big as Africa on a world map using Mercator projection, but actually, Africa is 14 times bigger than Greenland. Another example; Canada looks way bigger than the continental United States, but in fact, it is only about 1.2 times bigger.

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Antarctica Facts: 36 Interesting Things about the Frozen Continent

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date June 7, 2017
1 Comment on Antarctica Facts: 36 Interesting Things about the Frozen Continent

Why is Antarctica so cold? It is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, with temperatures dropping to -89.2 °C (-128.6 °F). — Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, covering 14 million square kilometers (5.4 million square miles). Almost twice the size of Australia, it contains the geographic South Pole. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice averaging 1.9 km (1.2 miles) thick. It is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, with temperatures dropping to -89.2 °C (-128.6 °F).

Antarctica, the southernmost continent, is a vast and virtually uninhabited land of extremes, entirely covered by ice and surrounded by some of the planet’s most treacherous waters. Despite its icy conditions, this frozen wilderness holds the title of the largest desert on Earth due to its minimal precipitation. Its unique environment, harsh climate, and isolated position have fascinated explorers and scientists alike for centuries. From its staggering ice sheets to its remarkable wildlife, Antarctica is a place full of mystery and wonder. Here are some fascinating facts about this extraordinary continent that will give you a deeper insight into the coldest place on the planet.