Geography — Page 5

Mount Everest is not the tallest mountain on Earth when measured from base to peak. That title belongs to Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

Although Mount Everest has the highest elevation above sea level, Mauna Kea in Hawaii is taller when measured from…

Australia is wider than the diameter of the Moon.

The distance from east to west in Australia is almost four thousand kilometers, while the lunar diameter is only…

In Longyearbyen, the sun does not set for over four months.

Located in the Svalbard archipelago, the town experiences the midnight sun from April to August due to its extreme…

We know the surface of Mars better than the ocean floor.

Only about twenty percent of the ocean floor has been mapped in detail, while the entire surface of Mars has been…

The Dead Sea is ten times saltier than the ocean.

With a salinity of about thirty-four percent, it is nearly impossible to sink in its extremely dense waters.

There is snow at the Earth's equator.

The Cayambe volcano, in Ecuador, has perpetual snow at its summit despite being exactly on the equator line.

The water level of the Dead Sea drops by more than one metre per year.

Extreme evaporation and the diversion of water from the Jordan River for agriculture and human consumption have…

Lesotho is the only independent state located entirely above one thousand metres in elevation.

This landlocked country in South Africa has its lowest point at one thousand four hundred metres, giving it the title…

Russia spans eleven different time zones.

Due to its enormous territorial extension from east to west, the country covers almost half the globe, requiring the…

There is not a single bridge crossing the Amazon River.

Despite being one of the largest rivers in the world, the extreme width of the river in the rainy season and the…

There is a piece of land in Africa that no country in the world claims.

Bir Tawil is a two thousand square kilometre desert area between Egypt and Sudan. Due to discrepancies in borders…

France's longest land border is with Brazil.

Due to the overseas department of French Guiana, France shares a seven hundred and thirty kilometre border with…

Saudi Arabia imports sand and camels from Australia.

Despite having vast deserts, local sand is too smooth and rounded by wind to be used in concrete, and Australian…

The Atlantic Ocean is growing wider every year.

The drifting apart of tectonic plates at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge continuously creates new oceanic crust, pushing the…

The country of Nauru has no official capital.

This small island in Micronesia never formally designated a capital, although the district of Yaren serves as the…

There is a volcano in Antarctica that maintains a bubbling lava lake.

Mount Erebus is the southernmost active volcano in the world and manages to maintain a rare liquid lava lake in its…

Mount Thor in Canada has the greatest vertical drop of any cliff on Earth.

The face of this granite peak on Baffin Island drops abruptly 1250 meters without interruption. It is a purely…

The Diomede Islands are less than 4 km apart but separated by 21 hours.

The International Date Line passes exactly between Big Diomede in Russia and Little Diomede in the US. This means…

The Sahara desert is not mostly made of sand, but rather gravel and rock.

Only about 25 percent of the Sahara is covered by sand dunes. Most of its surface is made up of gravel plains, rocky…

Iceland is one of the few inhabited places in the world that has no mosquitoes.

Despite having a damp climate and cold temperatures similar to other Nordic regions where mosquitoes thrive, the…

Ulaanbaatar, in Mongolia, is the coldest national capital in the world.

It sits about 1,350 metres above sea level, far from the sea and exposed to Siberian air. The average yearly…

Bhutan absorbs more carbon dioxide than it emits, and its Constitution requires 60% of the country to stay forested.

Forests now cover about 70% of the territory. Almost all its electricity comes from hydropower, much of which is sold…

Only two countries are doubly landlocked, surrounded solely by countries that also have no coast: Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan.

Liechtenstein borders Switzerland and Austria, while Uzbekistan borders Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan…

Kiribati is the only country in the world that lies in all four hemispheres.

Its 33 islands and atolls are spread over more than 3 million km² of the Pacific Ocean, on both sides of the equator…