Geography fun facts and oddities: Difference between revisions

* [[Geography bee|Geography bee]]

* [[Geography vocabulary|Geography vocabulary]]

* [[Category:Geography]]

* [[Category:Geography bee]]

=== Earthquakes ===

* 5-largest recorded earthquakes by magnitude:

# [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Valdivia_earthquake 9.4-9.5 1960 Valdivia earthquake, Chile]]

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Virginia_earthquake Virginia earthquake, 2011 (wiki)]]

</div>

=== Mountains ===

* Kirkjufell, Iceland

** a mountain formed of volcanic rock, but not itself a volcano

** known for it serene waters which reflect the mountain and beautiful seasonal waterfalls (thus the name)

** was location for two seasons of "Game of Thrones" series

* Vinicunca, Peru

* located in southern Peru, two hours from Cusco

* it was covered by an ice cap until the 1990s

* as the ice melted, its unique, colored stripes were revealed

=== Volcanos ===

* '''Mt. Mayon, Philippines'''

** a stratovolcano that has a near-perfectly symmetric, or "perfect", cone

** traditionally worshipped

** see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayon

* '''Cueva de los Verdes ("the cave of Verdes")'''

** world's longest "lava tube" was created 3,000 years ago by the eruption of Monte Corona, Canary Islands

** a Coast Guard helicopter was dispatched to observe the eruption and instead saw a man standing by spray-painted show reading, "APRIL FOOL."

** see https://www.iflscience.com/environment/the-greatest-april-fools-day-prank-of-all-time-took-four-years-to-plan-and-involved-a-volcano/ Greatest April Fools Day Prank of All Time (iflscience.com)]

=== Rocks ===

==== Famous rocks ====

* '''Devil's Tower'''

** a butte formation in Wyoming that abruptly juts out of the landscape 1,267 ft high

** the name comes from an English misinterpretation of the Native American name for it

*** the native name is "bear's house" (among others) and was understood in English by a US Army expedition leader as "Bad God's Tower," thus "Devil's Tower"

*** a Native American legend of its origin is that young girls where chased by bears, and their prayers for salvation were answered by the "Great Spirit" by lifting the rock they sat upon into the air, out of reach from the bears, whose claws scratched marks into the sides of the rock while trying to reach them.  

* '''Independence Rock'''  

* '''Pompy's Tower" (Pompey's Pillar National Monument)'''

** famous for inscription by William Clark from 1806

<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">

** <pre>“This rock which I shall Call Pompy's Tower is 200 feet high and 400 paces in secumphrance… The nativs have ingraved on the face of this rock the figures of animals &c. near which I marked my name and the day of the month & year.”

** he named it "Pompy's Tower" after his nickname for the son of his translators, Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau</pre>

</div>

* '''Three Sisters''' or '''Three Sisters Islands'''  

** three rocky islands in the Potomac River in Washington, DC

*** three Native American sisters who died crossing the river there while trying to rescue their brothers who had been kidnapped by another tribe

See: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sisters_(District_of_Columbia) Three Sisters (wiki)]]

</div>

==== Glacial erratic rocks ====

* rocks that are moved to one place from another by glaciers

** and that are dissimilar (not like) the rocks where they are found

** it is of granite, while there is no other granite nearby

*** thereby, we can know it was moved to that location by glaciers

see  

* https://www.nhstateparks.org/visit/state-parks/madison-boulder-natural-area

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacial_erratic

=== Sinkholes ===

* sinkholes are holes or caves in the ground caused by erosion or a collapse of a lower, below-ground surface, usually because of water drainage

** sinkholes may also be caused by a drainage of water, such as a water table decline

** a sinkhole on the coast of Cape Perpetua, Oregon, that drains at high tides

* '''Golly Hole''' in Alabama is considered the largest sinkhole in the US.  

** also known as the "December Giant," it formed in 1972 after water drainage at a nearby quarry,  

** it is 325 ft long, 300 ft wide, and 120 ft deep

* source: [[https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-largest-sinkhole-united-states?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products What is the largest sinkhole in the United States? (usgs.gov)]]

* For more on sinkholes:

** [[https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/sinkholes?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects SinkHoles (USGS.gov)]]

** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinkhole Sinkhole (wiki)]]

=== Tsunamis ===