Weird Geography Facts

[KidSilverhair]

India is all one time zone, but it is adjusted 30 minutes. India time is 11-and-one-half hours ahead of Iowa time. When it is 8:00am in Iowa, it is 7:30pm in India.

Bangladesh is even weirder (or it used to be). When I visited Dhaka, their time was adjusted to the quarter hour, so they were 11-and three-quarter hours ahead of Iowa time. When it is 8:00am in Iowa, it was 7:45pm in Bangladesh. That was disorienting. I didn't know until I got in a cab and thought his clock was broken. Maybe it is a daylight savings thing or something has changed because I see that right now it seems that they are 12 hours ahead of us.

China is all one time zone. Clocks read the same in far eastern China (east of Korea, the same longitude as central Japan) as they do in western China (almost directly north of Pakistan). The country spans what should be seven time zones, but is all on one. When you cross the Afghanistan-China border, you have to change your clocks by three and a half hours.

On July 1 sunrise is 3 am in eastern China, with sunset at 7 pm. In western China the sun rises at 7:30 am and doesn’t set until nearly 11:30 pm. The winter is fun, too - on January 1 the sun doesn’t come up until after 10 am in the west, and it sets at 3:15 pm in the east.

 

[KidSilverhair]

I’ve always been interested in flying and airplanes. I ended up getting my pilots license but rarely use it. I jump on the FlightAware app from time to time to check things out. One day I’m outside and see a massive jet flying straight south (rarely see that) so I check it out. It was an Airbus 380 that was flying from Dubai to Dallas and it flew over the top of world. I had no idea that was faster way. When the plane went over NC Iowa it was 14 hours into a 16 hour flight.

In eastern Iowa you can sometimes see big jets directly over Cedar Rapids on flights from Paris or London headed for Texas. I’ve also seen one or two of those Persian Gulf-area departures overhead, as well.

 

[IcSyUclone]

I'm always surprised when I see videos of people hiking in the Arizona mountains and it's below freezing, or at least close to it and there is snow. I've never been to Arizona, but I picture the entire state as being a furnace year round.

Grand canyon elevation is about 1,500' higher than Denver, CO.

 

[CySmurf]

half past a monkey's ass is a quarter to his balls

Good Lord, you're not in Middle School anymore.

 

[jackrabbit]

Grand canyon elevation is about 1,500' higher than Denver, CO.

The San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff (but south of the Grand Canyon) are over 12,000 ft tall and have some ski slopes. What is really mind blowing is the Mt Lemmon Ski Valley. It is near Tuscon, AZ - SOUTH OF PHOENIX. It has between 80-100 days of skiing on average (at least according to google).

 

[KnappShack]

The San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff (but south of the Grand Canyon) are over 12,000 ft tall and have some ski slopes. What is really mind blowing is the Mt Lemmon Ski Valley. It is near Tuscon, AZ - SOUTH OF PHOENIX. It has between 80-100 days of skiing on average (at least according to google).

Around Mammoth I seem to remember being about 9,000 ft up. Coming from a place basically at sea level it was a trip.

Not saying this came into play, but I hear it's true

This is Why You Fart So Much at Altitude

It’s called high-altitude flatus expulsion, and yes, it’s a real thing.

www.backpacker.com

 

[dirtyninety]

Geography factoid I saw on tv recently: "Ames isn't for everyone".

 

[jackrabbit]

The San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff (but south of the Grand Canyon) are over 12,000 ft tall and have some ski slopes. What is really mind blowing is the Mt Lemmon Ski Valley. It is near Tuscon, AZ - SOUTH OF PHOENIX. It has between 80-100 days of skiing on average (at least according to google).

Another interesting fact: When you think of volcanoes in the USA you think of the Hawaii, Alaska and the Cascades in the Pacific NW. However, somewhat recently in geological terms, Sunset Crater in Arizona (a few miles northeast of Flagstaff) erupted between the years 1000 and 1100 AD. Sunset Crater is a small National Monument and worthy of a visit.

 

[aeroclone08]

The highest point in the contiguous US (Mt. Whitney, 14,505') and lowest point (Death Valley, -282') are 85 miles apart.

 

[clonedude]

Geography factoid I saw on tv recently: "Ames isn't for everyone".

You mean FocusTown??

 

[20eyes]

I noticed someone used the term “juts out” which is a reference to the peninsula of Denmark that connects to Germany and continental Europe…Jutland.

 

[CoachHines3]

Good Lord, you're not in Middle School anymore.

Maybe I am

 

[MeanDean]

Geography factoid I saw on tv recently: "Ames isn't for everyone".

That's alright. There isn't enough housing for 8,200,000,000 people anyway. Even if you did put a few in Huxley.

 

[MeanDean]

Maybe I am

That's why his mom gets so much action. She's still pretty young.

 

[Cycsk]

The Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal is west of the pacific entrance.

Huh? The Panama Canal doesn't run north/south ... or does it?

 

[keepngoal]

Application Mountain chain once was part of a mountain range that now resides in 3 continents.

 

[BCClone]

fwiw, the gray duck territory encroaches at least one layer of counties into North Iowa.

Also, in the winter, we like to take our cars out and "whip shitties" on ice covered parking lots. Have not heard that term outside of North Iowa and Southern Mn

H

We were goose in Winnebago county. So I disagree that they all were grey duck.

 

[Die4Cy]

Huh? The Panama Canal doesn't run north/south ... or does it?

 

[Cycsk]

The highest point in the contiguous US (Mt. Whitney, 14,505') and lowest point (Death Valley, -282') are 85 miles apart.

Similarly, I seem to recall that the place with the highest annual rainfall is just a few miles from the place with the least annual rainfall. I don't remember the details, but I think it is in Kauai, Hawaii.

 

[Icky_Mettle]

I like goofing around with this site.

Compare Countries With This Simple Tool

Drag and drop countries around the map to compare their relative size. Is Greenland really as big as all of Africa? You may be surprised at what you find! A great tool for educators.

www.thetruesize.com