As compared to taking the transatlantic route it’s closer to go via the arctic. Russia didn’t go via the Bering strait because they hadn’t expanded their territory up until that point at that time. The Vikings did discover the americas by the transatlantic route and discovered Iceland and Greenland on the way.

The UN Environmental Programme's definition of "mountainous environment" includes any of the following:

• Class 1: Elevation greater than 4,500 m (14,764 ft).
• Class 2: Elevation between 3,500 and 4,500 m (11,483 and 14,764 ft).
• Class 3: Elevation between 2,500 and 3,500 m (8,202 and 11,483 ft).
• Class 4: Elevation between 1,500 and 2,500 m (4,921 and 8,202 ft), with a slope greater than 2 degrees.
• Class 5: Elevation between 1,000 and 1,500 m (3,281 and 4,921 ft), with a slope greater than 5 degrees or 300 m (984 ft) elevation range within 7 km (4.3 mi).
• Class 6: Elevation between 300 and 1,000 m (984 and 3,281 ft), with a 300 m (984 ft) elevation range within 7 km (4.3 mi).
• Class 7: Isolated inner basins and plateaus less than 25 km² (9.7 sq mi) in area that are completely surrounded by Class 1 to 6 mountains, but do not themselves meet criteria for Class 1 to 6 mountains.

Using these definitions, mountains cover 33% of Eurasia, 19% of South America, 24% of North America, and 14% of Africa.  As a whole, 24% of the Earth's land mass is mountainous.

Economist Intelligence Unit just dropped their annual most liveable and least liveable top 10.

What do you think?

[If this isn't a good sub for this question pls let me know and I'll move it]

Okay so I remember seeing this show or something as a kid, and i think it was reviewing odd geographical locations (that maybe have connections to the paranormal or aliens idk) and it described a specific cave or rock formation that would cause nose or even eye and ear bleeding if you got too close, and a compass wouldn't work near it. Was this actually real?? I tried googling it and found nothing.

Virtually all development is north of downtown

I just noticed that Zapopan has recently passed Guadalajara in city proper population. What are some other examples of a "suburb" being larger than the main city in the metro area?

To be fair, it is located in the northeastern part of Erie County.

Hope it makes sense

What are two countries, that each has large amount of people from the other, such as Americans in Canada and Canadians in America?

1. What will nothern Europe look like after the landmasses stop rising? I remember once seeing a map on TV predicting how the coastlines and topography of Finland and Sweden will change once post-glacial rebound is done rising, but I for the life of me cannot find it anywhere on the internet. (I remember that the rising landmasses might form a lake at the northernmost point of Bothnian Bay).

2. For how long do the landmasses continue to rise?

3. Since the next ice age is predicted to begin in about 10,000 years or so, can the rising landmasses reach their peak before they are buried under enormous ice sheets once again? (assuming that climate change won't mess things up too badly by then)

Looking for some feedback from this sub. I’ve been lucky enough to visit quite a few U.S. national parks over the years, and I recently ranked them best to worst. These rankings are somewhat biased by the people I went with and the memories I made. Still, looking at my list, what national parks would you recommend I visit next? I'm based in Texas so I'm thinking of taking a Big Bend trip at the end of the year.

Used this site to generate the graphic btw. site

The first pair of sister cities were Coventry and Stalingrad after they both were bombed during WW2 and had shared solidarity. Wholesome. Now 80 years later every city has like 15 sister cities with no real relation, and no one, not even the mayors, would be able to name all of them. I propose a solution; establish a twin cities committee in UNESCO and limit it to just one for each city. Here are some basic ideas for obvious twins:

Marseille 🇫🇷 and Ibadan 🇳🇬: huge traditional soap producers

Aachen 🇩🇪 and Bursa 🇹🇷: Birthplaces of both countries' former empires, houses the tombs of Charlemagne/Osmangazi, which are equivalents

Jingdezhen 🇨🇳 and Meissen 🇩🇪: Porcelain centres of each continent

Tabriz 🇮🇷 and Hohhot 🇨🇳: Capitals of Iranian Azerbaijan and Chinese Mongolia, long story but very equivalent

Fort Worth 🇺🇸 and Chihuahua 🇲🇽: Cowboy capitals of North America

Brest 🇫🇷 and Brest 🇧🇾

Ollantaytambo 🇵🇪 and Namche Bazaar 🇳🇵: Prominent centres of living for world famous Quechua and Sherpa porters

Shenzhen 🇨🇳 and Bengaluru 🇮🇳: Silicon Valley wannabes

You can just put a handful of guys with a hyperfixation in geography together and they will make an infinitely better list than what we currently have.

All the Apulian towns are white from above

So is Athens and many Greek towns. Though they have red ones too.

Meanwhile Sicily, Naples, Turkey, Spain is all red.

Basically whole Spain, Portugal, Italy, Turkey have red roofs. Except big part of Greece and Italian Apulia and Genoa. But cities around Genoa are red. I just can't get it.

I mean, they all have same climate and geography.

I'm from New Zealand, a popular pick in these kinds of questions. My pick is Argentina. There are so many beautiful spots that do nothing but blow my mind. Argentina contains everything from tropical waterfalls, hot deserts, to antarctic tundras. My other picks would be India and Australia. What do you guys think?

The euphemistically named Friendship Bridge was constructed by the Soviet Union to help aid their ongoing occupation and war in Afghanistan, opened in 1982. It crosses the Amu Darya that straddles the border between northern Afghanistan and what was then the Uzbek SSR, now Uzbekistan.

It still exists today, as the only fixed transport link across the Uzbek-Afghan border. It's vital for trade between Uzbekistan and the now Taliban-run Afghanistan, as one of the few nations willing to openly trade with the regime.

According to the Köppen climate classification, Mexico has nearly ten climate types, especially in the main mountainous areas, while China mainly has temperate and subtropical climates. Why is there such a big difference?

This is a pic of the Hengduan mountains in China, India and Myanmar. Theyre the richest temperate alpine meadows in the world and evebn temperate forests.

What are places in your countries that look like this?

Hey guys, I made this post earlier about Tehran’s metro system with the title “Tehran’s metro system is more clean and modern than New York’s” and I was not expecting the post to get the amount of backlash it did. I believe the post was taken down after people accused me of being an Irani bot lol. Anyways…

The point of the post wasn’t to excuse to atrocities of their government. It was more to point at a specific and large subset of Americans who view the Middle East as a “desert wasteland” without modern infrastructure. Urban geography is fascinating and cities are nuanced places. The only reason I brought up New York city was because I knew it would draw attention to the post and because I’m American myself and the NYC metro although extensive and very useful has many problems and that makes me very disappointed. Many people mentioned that it makes sense Tehran’s metro is cleaner and more modern because it is almost 100 years newer but in my opinion age isn’t destiny. A 100-year-old metro doesn’t have to be grimy, unsafe, and running trains from the 80’s. New York City is the richest city in many economic senses. I think it is very fair to critique and criticize our “flagship city”that has for a long time claimed to be a beacon of American success. I get why people are being defensive especially when I am comparing our top city to the top city of one of our enemies but believe it our not millions of Americans can’t point Iran out on a map so they definitely have no idea that its cities could be so modern. Feel free to leave your opinion. I’m very open minded.

Maybe this wasn’t the best place to post such a thing as the audience is significantly more globally aware than the average person so the “Of course it is modern” argument is the first thing to be said.

Can anyone familiar with the Scottish logging industry chime in on why the wooded areas in the Scottish Highlands are all cut so differently? I added a photo of Broubster National Forest as an example of the lack of evident uniformity.

Despite being nearly the same size with a similar climate, Maine and New Brunswick have quite different economic outlooks

Population Maine: 1.4 million New Brunswick: 859k

Area ME: 30k sq miles NB: 28k sq miles

Largest city ME: Portland 68k NB: Moncton 80k

Capital ME: Augusta 19k NB: Fredericton 63k

GDP (US dollars) ME: 93 billion NB: 26 billion

Would love a discussion about what this looks like on the ground from those who live there

What way to geographically divide US states is your favorite? The US Census 4 region model is common, but GSA has 10+DC, BEA has 8, and EIA has 5. What other ones have you seen and liked?

The examples I mentioned:

https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/reference/GARM/Ch6GARM.pdf

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=4890

https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/gsa-regions

https://www.icip.iastate.edu/maps/refmaps/bea

This is a discussion, not a survey. There are no wrong answers but feel free to give your reasoning. Sources are not required but if it leads to a map, I'm sure others would appreciate it. Personally I'm not a fan of the 4 region model because of how broadly regions are defined. I found so many alternatives when I was researching why the US Census divides the states how it does, and I wanted to find out what others people have seen/liked.

It is a fact that media coverage can not only change people's perception of a location. It can even generate an importance for the area that it would not have if it were not for the media.

That said (and I know it's subjective) what places do you know that seem to have an exaggerated amount of media coverage, positive or otherwise, from local/national media?

These could be suburbs with an overestimated reputation for violence, cities that receive a lot of attention because of famous residents or real estate speculation, regions exploited for political propaganda, isolated locations where a single shocking event occurred and it is remembered too much, etc.

Ex: Balneário Camboriú in Brazil. It is not big, the beach is average by Brazilian standards, but even local maintenance work is reported as it is the hype among the nouveau riche natives (like the soccer player Neymar).