While your teachers may have spread lies about planetary plates shifting and causing the continents to separate, Dan Meth is brave enough to share the truth with us. Pangaea occurred when the continents were cuddling with one another, but when tensions started to rise and the honeymoon phase ended, the happy group had no choice but to split up.

Link

What would America look like if various secession movements of the past had been successful? The company Urban Mapping created maps that follow 30 such movements, and what the results may have been. Link to story. Link to interactive map. -Thanks, Ian!

Atlas Obscura took many readers on trips around the world without leaving their computers in 2011. They’ve compiled a list of their most popular places -to read about, if not to travel to- over the past year. Some you read about here; others may be new to you, but all are fascinating. Shown is Cactus Dome in the Marshall Islands, a concrete cover over a nuclear crater left after US weapons tests, just one of the ten places you can visit online. Link

You can see penguins in zoos all over the world, but to enjoy these birds in their natural habitat, you want to go to where they live. And you don’t have to go to Antarctica. Penguins thrive in twelve nations that are much easier to get to -as far north as Ecuador! Read about each of them and the penguins they have at The World Geography. Link -Thanks, Bosko!

Atlas Obscura had a great success earlier this year with Obscura Day, a project to get people all over involved in their local geography and interesting places. It was so successful that they are now forming The Obscura Society, a club in which people not only explore places, but share their experiences with others.

Born of the success of Obscura Day, this real-world exploration arm of Atlas Obscura will be seeking out secret histories, unusual access, and opportunities to explore strange and overlooked places hidden all around us, all year round – and we could not be more excited about it.

New York City today, everywhere tomorrow. We are starting with five regional chapters, but we are looking forward to our slow but steady takeover of the world, with help from you, our curious explorers, armed with knowledge of that one abandoned building at the edge of town and the desire to take a bunch of people out with you to investigate it.

The other initial chapters are in the San Francisco Bay area, Boston, Detroit, and Los Angeles. Links to the local chapters and more information can be found at the Atlas Obscura blog. Link

Office toys go on a road trip the only way they can, with the help of Google Street View and stop-motion animation in this animation by Tom Jenkins. Read more about this video at the Atlantic. Link -via Metafilter

Randall Munroe of xkcd  presents a dozen different ways to project the earth onto a map, and analyzes the fans of each. My favorite (after the globe, of course) is the Robinson projection, which pegs my lifestyle pretty well. Link -via the Presurfer

The summit of the Chimborazo is the fixed point on Earth which has the utmost distance from the center – because of the modified ball shape of the planet Earth which is “thicker” around the Equator than measured around the poles.[note 3] Chimborazo is one degree south of the Equator and the Earth’s diameter at the Equator is greater than at the latitude of Everest (8,848 m (29,029 ft) above sea level), nearly 28° north, with sea level also elevated. Despite being 2,580 m (8,465 ft) lower in elevation above sea level, it is 6,384.4 km (3,967.1 mi) from the Earth’s centre, 2,168 m (7,113 ft) or 2.168 km (1.347 mi) farther than the summit of Everest (6,382.3 km (3,965.8 mi) from the Earth’s center).[note 4] However, by the criterion of elevation above sea level, Chimborazo is not even the highest peak of the Andes.

Imagine that! Link -via reddit

It all depends on how you define “continent,” and that’s where things get sticky. -Thanks, tom tom!

Playing the “what if” game, here are the names Thomas Jefferson thought would be nice for the states of the American Midwest: Sylvania, Michigania, Chersonesus, Assenisipia, Metropotamia, Illinoia, Saratoga, Polypotamia, Pelisipia, and Washington. Aren’t you glad he didn’t get his way? It was hard enough to learn how to spell Mississippi! Link -via 22 Words

Mental_floss continues to have fun with the latest US Census data in today’s Lunchtime Quiz.

Of the 150 most populous cities in the United States, 11 have names that are only four or five letters long. How many can you name in five minutes?

Let’s see… two. And then of course I felt stupid when the answers came up. Surely you will do better! Link

Get this: According to the 2010 Census report, ten of America’s 100 largest cities have names that starts with a “C”. How many can you name in five minutes? That’s the challenge of today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. I only got five of them (and would have never come up with the other five). Maybe you will get them all! Link

Even driving down the highway can be a virtual experience! With this Google Earth application, just enter your location and destination, hit “go” to find your route, then go to the simulator panel and hit “start.” You can adjust your speed as you drive along. Now, slow down and enjoy the scenery! Requires the Google Earth plug-in. The screenshot shown here is where I’m either getting on the Brooklyn Bridge or plunging into the East River. Link -via Metafilter

If you stand at the South Pole and walk in any direction, you’d be walking north, wouldn’t you? So how do people in Antarctica read a map or give directions? Minnesotastan looked it up, and the answer is: they throw out the directions from the globe and make up a system. The continent is labeled with “East Antarctica” and “West Antarctica” in this map, but of course you must go south to get to either. There are actually two conventions for mapping the continent, as you’ll read in this post at TYWKIWDBI. Link

Atlas Obscura is hosting the second annual International Obscura Day on April 9, 2011, in partnership with Hendrick’s Gin. This is a day set aside for “expeditions, back-room tours and hidden treasures” in places near or not-so-near. Events will take place in 61 cities (so far). Here are some of the most popular:

In London Go out for adventure films and cocktails in the historic Royal Geographical Society Map Room

In San Francisco The National Parks Service is leading an exclusive, behind-the-scenes tour of Alcatraz followed by drinks at a speakeasy

In Los Angeles Wander the Magic Castle and mingle with Magicians while sipping Cocktails

In Brooklyn Marvel at a recreation of Coney circa 1910, see the worlds best sideshow performers, and meet the stars of Discovery’s Oddities

In Florence Explore the macabre and beautiful La Specola anatomical museum

In Paris Join an expedition into the abandoned ruins of a Victorian-era tropical botanical garden

In Rome Go underground to explore ancient catacombs

In New Zealand Tour the museum of extraordinary visual design company WETA best known for their work on the Lord of the Rings Trilogy

In Antartica Join in a celebration of the hundred year anniversary of the heroic (and tragic) Amundsen and Scott race to the South Pole.

If none of these events are near you, there are plenty more to find at Atlas Obscura. Make a point to participate in an expedition you’ll never forget! Link

You’ll be forgiven if you first read that as “The Eye of Sauron.” Astronauts were the first to notice this 50-kilometer wide geological formation in Mauritania, in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Read about it and other wonders of nature in the post 13 Most Incredible Geological Wonders on Earth at Environmental Graffiti. Link

We once featured an Euler diagram that explained the British Isles, the United Kingdom, and Great Britain. This video explains all that clearly but quickly, then goes on to explain the British Empire, the Crown Colonies, Crown Dependencies, and other terms that confuse Americans and others who don’t deal with such geographical concepts every day. If this goes too fast for you, the script is available from C. G. P. Grey. Link -via reddit

What a neat idea! Type the name of each state in the US into the Google search field one at a time, and see what autocomplete suggestions come up. Then make a map of them. That’s what happened at Very Small Array, which resulted in this. I would have guessed Kentucky easily. See a larger version of this map at the site. Link -via The Daily What

For a very long time, the source of the abrasions on this cave’s walls remained a mystery.  Some speculated ancient peoples, possilby Eygptians, were responsible. But no, the carvings in the cave weren’t man made at all… elephants had been the culprits all along! The cave is the elephant equivalent of drunk college students raiding their fridge at midnight. Late at night, the Pachiderms go into the cave, get their salt lick on under the cover of darkness, and emerge unseen. Take that, Egyptians!  (Unfortunatly the cave is also the site of the deadly Malburg virus, so, visiting the cave is ill advised.)

Link -via Dark Roasted Blend

The Landsat 5 and Landsat 7 satellites are sending back images of Earth in false color. Not only are they useful to scientists and cartographers, but they can also be called works of art. The image here shows phytoplankton swirling around the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. Yes, I thought of Van Gogh’s Starry Night when I saw this as well as you did. See 22 such images at Wired. Link

During a recent automobile trip to Washington, D.C., the author noted with alarm that two cities, Washington and Baltimore, appeared to be moving away from each other.

Figure 1

Materials and Methods

The author made his observations while driving on route I-70 from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C.

I used the following equipment:

1) a 1996 Saturn 4-door sedan (silver) equipped with an in-dash chronometer; and

2) a 35-millimeter camera.

Time measurements between road signs were taken, and photographs of the road signs were made using 400-speed color film.

A bag of tortilla chips was consumed during the experiment. Later mathematical modeling and analysis showed both the bag and the chips to be unrelated to the main results of this study.

Results

Two observations tell the story.

An interval of 48 minutes, as recorded by the in-dash chronometer, elapsed between the taking of the photographs that are here labeled Figure 1 and Figure 2.

Figure 2

In the first observation (see Figure 1), it is clear that Washington and Baltimore were 125 and 127 miles distant, respectively. The two cities were—at that time—separated from each other by a distance of 2 miles.

The second observation (see Figure 2) was made just 48 minutes later. At that time, Washington and Baltimore were 67 and 71 miles distant, respectively. The separation between the two cities had increased from 2 miles to 4 miles.

A simple calculation shows that, during that 48 minute period, a drift of 2 miles had occurred between the cities. The drift rate was a whopping 220 feet per minute (2.5 miles per hour).

Interpretation

A late-twentieth-century USGS topographical map of the northeastern United States, including the Baltimore-Washington region. This map may have to be revised.

Ruling out time dilation effects (which we can do because our Saturn automobile never exceeded the 65 miles-per-hour legal speed limit, which is several magnitudes of order below the speed of light), the most likely explanation is the existence of a previously unknown tectonic plate, with a fault line lying somewhere between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland.

The discovery of this plate (call it, say, the “Palucka Plate”) and the associated fault line (which I propose to call “Not Palucka’s Fault”) marks a new chapter in the history of geotectonic research.

Discussion

The drift rate greatly exceeds reported drift rates of other tectonic plates, which are generally on the order of 1 inch per year. This has many implications. The most immediate is that the White House, the Capitol, the Smithsonian Institution and other government buildings will become beachfront property in just a matter of days from now. This implication itself has implications, which unfortunately are beyond the scope of the current paper.

_____________________

This article is republished with permission from the November-December 2007 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!

Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.

Click here for larger image

This map rearranges the world by correlating the population of a country to actual size. Some countries (the United States, Yemen, Brazil and Ireland) remain in their original location. India has replaced Canada on the map. I’d better start packing my bags because Canada is located way over in Pakistan.

Link – Via Frogsmoke

Andrew Shears created this US Map with a TV show to go with each state. It’s good to see that TV sometimes happens outside of New York and California! Shears also explains why he choose each show. You can enlarge the picture at Thinking Pseudogeographically. Link -via The Daily What

Click Andrew’s name to enlarge his work.

via Twisted Sifter

The above map shows the border between the United Arab Emirates (yellow) and Oman (green). Inside the UAE is a tiny enclave of Omanese territory called Madha. It consists of about 29 square miles. Inside that enclave is another enclave of UAE territory called Nahwa, which is under a square mile in area. At the link, you can view pictures of this enclave within an enclave.

Link via Dan Lewis | Map: National Geographic Society

Columbus’ crew may have been fearful and unruly, but not because of any fear of an edge to the earth.  They were concerned because they were sailing south – into the “torrid zone” – where they thought the heat might evaporate the water to render the seas too shallow for their ships.  They also may have been concerned that a westward voyage to reach the Indies was impossible because they didn’t have enough food and water to cover such a distance (and they were correct – they didn’t have enough provisions for a voyage to Asia and would in fact have died had they not bumped into the Americas).

Link

Malice in the Palace(1949) is set in a fictionalised, funnified Middle East, where Moe, Shemp and Larry run the Cafe Casbah Bah. Two of their customers, Gin-A Rummy and Hassan ben Sober, are plotting to steal a giant diamond from the tomb of Rootentooten. However, when they discover the diamond is already in the possession of the Emir of Schmow, they start yammering and are kicked out of the Cafe. The Stooges then decide to retrieve the diamond themselves, using a map left behind by the unsuccessful plotters.
The map, shown briefly in the film, is of a continentful of countries with strange names and odd shapes, clearly designed to look and sound ‘foreign’. What does this ‘Map of Starvania’, designed merely for the purpose of unsophisticated comedy, unconsciously reveal of mid-20th-century America’s attitudes towards the exotic, the un-American?

Link – Via J-Walk

The Great Seattle Fire of 1889 put an end to the first Seattle, with civic leaders making two important decisions. The first was a building ordinance specifying that all new constructions must be of brick or masonry. The second was to elevate the new city above the tideflats, effectively turning the second story of buildings into the new ground floor. Shop-keeps quickly rebuilt, and sidewalks and streets were planted one story higher than before, creating underground passageways lined with the original storefronts.

There are 15 other places and stories as well at Nile Guide. Link -via Holy Kaw!

(Image source: Sights in Seattle)

I love a good geography quiz! The United States has 23 states that border the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, or the Gulf of Mexico. In this quiz from mental_floss, you are challenged to name all 23 in three minutes. I did it with a half-minute to spare! And I would have done it faster if I could type as well as I read a mental map. Link

This is the third Beer Geography quiz from Mental_floss (see the earlier quizzes here and here). Do you know where your favorite (and not-so-favorite) beers are brewed? I, no beer expert, was lucky to score as high as 44%. You can beat that! Link

American pioneer Daniel Boone also had a thing for the “sylvania” suffix. If he’d had his way, Kentucky would have been called Transylvania and we’d be placing bets on horses at the Transylvania Derby. Boone hoped to call the colony’s capital Boonesborough, but much to the explorer’s chagrin, North Carolina and Virginia voted against Transylvania’s existence.

Read about more of these “lost states” at NPR. Link -via Metafilter

Mental_floss has posted plenty of quizzes about US geography, but Canadians will have an edge in today’s Lunchtime Quiz. How well do you know Canadian geography? I scored 70%, not bad for someone who has never been to Canada. Link

The US has its share of strange town names. If you’ve made a few road trips, you’ve no doubt encountered some of them. Test your knowledge of these strangely-named cities in this Lunchtime Quiz from mental_floss. I scored 67%. Note: be sure to read the questions carefully! Link

Its first president, lawyer Gardiner Green Hubbard, was the father-in-law and early financier of inventor Alexander Graham Bell, another founding member. Hubbard was also the first president of the Bell Telephone company, known today as AT&T.

The society’s publication, National Geographic magazine, began printing just 10 months after that founding meeting. It was initially a drab-looking scholarly journal sent to 165 charter members. Now its hallmark photography and more mainstream writing reach the hands of more than 40 million people per month.

Wired takes a look at the history of the Society and how it grew from its humble beginnings into a multi-faceted organization that includes the magazine and its various spinoffs, a TV channel, research grants, educational programs, and a vast website. Link

(image credit: Steve McCurry/National Geographic)

Geographers at the University of Delaware have developed a geographical information system (GIS) that can identify the location that would best suit your winter sport needs, whether you want a small, exclusive resort or a large, mass market venue.

Professors Jordan Silberman and Peter Rees have taken into account humidity levels most likely to produce snow, as well as road accessibility, slope geometry (to avoid avalanches), threats to wildlife, likely erosion from tree felling, and the availability of electricity to run the lifts.

“This lets us rank the locations for skiing, snowboarding, ice-climbing and snowmobiling,” says Silberman.

So before you break ground for that chalet, consult this GIS-based model. It beats a Magic 8-Ball.

Links: io9, New Scientist, Applied Geography; image via Freaking News

Infographics are not new, they are just easier to make and pass around on the internet. BibliOdyssey has a collection of posters, pages, and pamphlets from the Victorian era that make information into an art form. Pictured is the Tableau De L’Histoire Universelle (History of the Universe Chart).

This is a fold-out print depicting all of human history from the time of creation (4693 BC = Adam & Eve; the great flood = 3300 BC) up to the date of publication (1858 by Eug. Pick, Paris). Vignettes of historically significant people, places and buildings etc are arranged along the borders.

The designer has employed something of a metaphorical display choice: civilisations are presented as a series of rivers — the widths likely imply the comparative population level of each group versus the world’s population — which ‘flow’ down through history.

See also graphics on geography, biology, astronomy, and more. The pictures are all linked to larger Flickr versions. Link