Geography? Some interesting things for "trivial pursuit"

[Groomlakearea51]

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

Amazon
The Amazon rain forest 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 State.

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, ie.), 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, so named 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' 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 1930's 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.

Ohio
There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio; every one is man made.

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. 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. 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.'

St. Paul, Minnesota
St. Paul, Minnesota , was originally called Pig's 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.

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.

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.

[CECAA850]

Fascinating, I think I'd only heard 2 of those facts before.

[jacksonbart]

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.

Not sure about the rest of the claims, but the above one appears to be pure bunk.

http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/mayjun00/onemileinfive.htm

[Groomlakearea51]

Maybe it was "bunk"ers every five miles, maybe!? LOLOL!!![]

[jacksonbart]

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

First paved road anywhere? I know Roman paved their roads, the Appian Way? I guess that was N-1?

http://curbstone.com/_macadam.htm

[Islander]

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

Actually, it's less than 60%, and 70% of those are in three sparsely-populated western provinces. There aren't many unpaved roads in Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia, the provinces with the largest populations.

Roadway System in Canada

There are over 900,000 kilometres of two-lane public roads in Canada, making up the principal infrastructure for the domestic movement of passengers and freight. This vast network enables the annual movement of an estimated 400 million tonnes of freight.

Approximately 318,000 kilometres of this network are paved, with 17,000 kilometres (less than 2%) built to freeway standards.

Almost two-thirds of Canada's public roads (about 585,000 kilometres) are located outside the country's most densely populated areas. These roads are either gravel, treated or of earthen design. Significant to prairie agriculture, almost 400,000 kilometres of these unpaved roads (close to 70%) are located within the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

[Groomlakearea51]

I think it's a context problem... the question probably oughta be the first "concrete" paved road with a three color stoplight..... But they'd been slapping asphalt (macadam) down for a long time elsewhere.

[Invidiosulus]

United States
The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as Dragstrips in times of war or other emergencies.

Fixed

[Islander]

First paved road anywhere? I know Roman paved their roads, the Appian Way? I guess that was N-1?

From Wikipedia:

"Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate news.^[2] The Roman road system spanned more than 250,000 miles (400,000 km) of roads, including more than 50,000 miles (80,500 km) of paved roads.^[3][4] When Rome reached the height of her supremacy, no fewer than 29 great military highways radiated from the city.^[5]"


Roman roads have a few different types of paving. Some would be described as cobblestone, with big stones well-fitted together. Many of those roads are still in use.

[Daddy Dee]

cool stuff to know.

[Islander]

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

Next to Rome, Toronto has the largest Italian population in the world.

[capo72]

Isn't there a "Great" big lake in Ohio?

[Groomlakearea51]

The dryest place on earth - Lake Fryxell in the Dry Valleys in Antarctica. The region is a series of arid valleys created by the advances and retreats of glaciers through the trans-Antarctic Mountains. With no rain for 2 million years, they are covered with partially frozen saltwater basins, forming one of the most extreme deserts in the world. The area looks so similar to the surface of Mars -- rocky hills with multicolored stones -- that NASA tested out its interplanetary probes here.

[Groomlakearea51]

The wettest place on earth - Mawsynram, India with a yearly average rainfall of 12 meters. Cherrapunji, is only 16 kilometers away and is in competition with Mawsynram for the wettest place on Earth. Both are situated in North East India in Meghalaya State.

Each town has held the record during the last decade; there's only a difference of 1000 millimeters between the two for each year that goes by. Both are located in the Khasi Hills; which is a contributing factor to their high rainfall. The monsoon season hits these areas pretty hard. One reported going a 2 year stretch with no break from the rain! Surprisingly, the high rainfall is a result of their elevation and not the monsoon season. Huge amounts of warm air condense and fall as rain when they encounter the Khasi Hills. The topography of the region forces the very moist clouds up and down getting them to empty their water over the region.

Ironically, both towns suffer from severe water shortages. Because of deforestation in the region, the soil has no absorption ability. The water runs down to Bangladesh; who really doesn't need the extra.

[Groomlakearea51]

The coldest place on earth - The site, known simply as Ridge A, is nearly 14,000 metres high and is located deep within the Antarctic Plateau. It has an average winter temperature of minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 70 degrees Celsius) and is so remote that it is thought that no human has ever set foot there.

[Groomlakearea51]

How did they find Ridge-A?

A team of American and Australian scientists identified Ridge A from satellite imagery and climate models during an exhaustive search for the best observatory site in the world. The site is within the Australian Antarctic Territory, nearly 90 miles from an existing international robotic observatory. Will Saunders, the study leader, noted that as well as the extremely low temperatures, the site has a very low level of water in the air. He said: “It's so calm that there's almost no wind or weather there at all.” All these elements combine to make the perfect recipe for an astronomical observation post: “The astronomical images taken at Ridge A should be at least three times sharper than at the best sites currently used by astronomers," Mr Saunders said. “Because the sky there is so much darker and drier, it means that a modestly-sized telescope there would be as powerful as the largest telescopes anywhere else on earth.” The team believes that a telescope at the site could take nearly as good photos as those from the space-based Hubble Telescope.

[Groomlakearea51]

So you think it's hot where you are?

The Hottest Place on Earth ever recorded was El Azizia in Libya where the temperature reached a scorching 136 degrees Fahrenheit (57.8 Celsius) on Sept. 13, 1922 -- the hottest ever measured.

The second hottest place recorded on earth was in Death Valley, California, USA, where it got up to 134 Fahrenheit (57.8 Celsius) on July 10, 1913.

Dallol, Ethiopia, is the warmest place on earth with an average yearly ambient surface air temperature of 307.55 kelvin (34.4°C = 93.92°F).

[Groomlakearea51]

Not geography, but.....

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12345678987654321

[Groomlakearea51]

Summer on Uranus lasts 21 years.....

[Groomlakearea51]

The earth is slowing down.... In a few million years we may not have a leap year....