Geography — Page 9
Wonders of our planet
220 facts
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…
The Diomede Islands are four kilometres apart but have a twenty-one hour time difference.
The International Date Line passes exactly between them, making the Russian island almost a full day ahead of the…
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…
Point Nemo is the ocean location farthest from any landmass.
Located in the South Pacific, it is so isolated that the closest people to it at any given time are often 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…
Mount Thor in Canada has the highest and steepest vertical drop on Earth.
The west face of this mountain on Baffin Island has a purely vertical drop of one thousand two hundred and fifty…
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…
In the Norwegian town of Longyearbyen, it is illegal to die.
Due to the permafrost, bodies buried in the local cemetery do not decompose and can preserve dangerous viruses…
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…
Mount Everest grows about four millimetres a year due to the movement of tectonic plates.
The Indian plate continues to push against the Eurasian plate, forcing the Himalayan mountain range to rise slowly…
Iceland is one of the few inhabited places in the world where there are no mosquitoes.
Iceland's oceanic climate, with rapid temperature variations and mild winters followed by sudden cold, prevents…
There is a region of Antarctica that has not seen rain or snow for about two million years.
The McMurdo Dry Valleys are considered the most extreme desert on Earth. Katabatic winds evaporate all moisture and…
Sudan has more pyramids than Egypt, with more than two hundred structures discovered.
The kings of ancient Nubia built about 255 pyramids in places like Meroe, many of them smaller and steeper than the…
There is not a single bridge crossing the Amazon River along its entire course.
Despite being more than six thousand kilometres long and passing through several major cities, the Amazon has never…
Mount Everest grows about four millimeters taller every year.
The continuous collision between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates pushes the land upwards. Although erosion…