Our planet is filled with many wonderful geographical and geological anomalies and mysteries. So many so, that we may never truly unlock all of the secrets that nature has tucked away. This is a list of 15 of the more unusual or outright bizarre facts relating to geography, geology, and the earth.
1. The second Longest geographical name that is accepted in the world is “Taumatawhakatangihangak oauauotamateaturipukaka pikimaungahoronukupokaiwhe nua kitanatahu” (85 letters) which is a hill in New Zealand – it is a maori phrase which translates to “place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as land-eater, played his flute to his loved one”. It was the longest until recently (though the Guinness Book of Records still regards it as the longest); it has most likely now been supplanted by Krung thep maha nakorn amorn ratana kosinmahintar ayutthay amaha dilok phop noppa ratrajathani burirom udom rajaniwesmahasat harn amorn phimarn avatarn sathit sakkattiya visanukamprasit in Thailand (163 letters).
2. Lesotho, Vatican City, and San Marino are the only countries completely surrounded by one other country. Lesotho is completely surrounded by South Africa, and Vatican City, and San Marino are both completely surrounded by Italy.
3. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll llantysiliogogogoch is the longest village name in the world (and third longest geographical name). it is located in Wales, and yes there are four l’s in a row!
4. The Shortest place name is ‘Å’ it is located in both Sweden and Norway. In Scandinavian languages, ‘Å’ means “river”. The image above is one of the newly replaces road signs for the area – they are frequently stolen for their novelty value.
5. The Vatican city is the smallest country in the world at only .2 square miles. That is smaller than the average city! The largest country is (surprise surprise) Russia.
6. The largest city in the world – based on surface area, is Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia which is 263,953 km squared.
7. The hottest temperature recorded on earth is El Azizia Libya at 136 F, the coldest was -134 degrees fahrenheit in Vostok Antarctica. The hottest average temp is in western Australia, it is 96 degrees year round on average.
8. San Marino claims to be the world’s oldest constitutional republic – it was founded in 301 by a Christian stonemason fleeing persecution under Emperor Diocletian. Its constitution of 1600 is the oldest written constitution in the world. San Marino is pictured above.
9. Though Mt. Everest is the highest altitude in terms of sea level on the planet, Mount Chimborazo is the closest to the moon. The Marianas Trench is the lowest place on earth.
10. Alaska is the most Northern, Eastern, AND Western state in all of America. It is the only state that enters the “Eastern Hemisphere” making it also the most eastern lying and western lying state.
11. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the Longest mountain chain on earth (at 40 thousand kilometers). It is located along the middle of the Atlantic. Iceland is the only part of this chain that is above water. The Andes form the longest exposed mountain range at 7,000 kilometers.
12. Mount Circeo on Cape Circaeum on the western coast of Italy was once called Aeaea (5 vowels in a row with no consonants). It was believed in mythology to be the home of the witch Circe. Two other vowel-only geographic locations are the town of Aiea in Hawaii, and Eiao – one of the Marquise Islands.
13. Glaciers store between 70% and 80% of all the freshwater on the planet. 99% of those glaciers are in the Arctic and Antarctic.
14. In 1811 and 1812, three earthquakes measuring around 8 on the richter scale, caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards. These earthquakes also created Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee.
15. The deepest hole ever drilled by man is the Kola Superdeep Borehole, in Russia. It reached a depth of 12,261 meters (about 40,226 feet or 7.62 miles). It was drilled for scientific research and gave up some unexpected discoveries, one of which was a huge deposit of hydrogen – so massive that the mud coming from the hole was “boiling” with it. The borehole is pictured above.
Contributors: Schiesl, JFrater
Wow! I remember reading about that hill in New Zealand in my Geography class in Middle School! Long time ago…haha
Also in #15 it might be interesting to add that all helicopter traffic over the hole is suspended because the suction has caused several crashes
Great list once again.
Items 3 and 12 are the only ones I didn’t know about already… I think I spend too much time on the Internet
Is the problem with the first sentence of item 9 one too many conjunctions?
Great list ,thank you! Wasn’t the Kola Borehole responsible for the Sounds from Hell hysteria a while back?
From what I have read, Chimborazo is located furthest from the centre of the Earth, because our planet is not a perfect sphere.
I absolutely love reading about bizarre location names-thanks for that.
4 is bull*****. well, somewhat. Å is just a letter, it is pronounced like the A in All. elv means river. so i kinda want to know who told you it means that. XD
- norwegian guy (“fluent” in swedish and danish as well)
Can't know a whole lot in Swedish since Å means river in Swedish. Assuming you mean Älv and not Elv right? Yeah that's also river in Swedish but it's not unusual to have more than one word for something, plus Älv is probably not as commonly used these days.
“Å” means “river”, but “elv” is used more often.
( From a Norwegian girl who actually know her language)
Not sure if they are synonymous in Norwegian (I doubt it);
but in Swedish anyway, “älv” means “river” whereas “å” means “creek”.
Not same thing.
wow cool list
i want to visit that hole! and drop something in it . . hmm . . haha and i want to visit that hill . . hoorayy to being a kiwi
That picture isn’t the Kola Superdeep Borehole (which looks fairly uninteresting from the surface). It’s the Mir diamond mine near Mirny in Siberia.
Great list!
However, “Marianas Trench” doesn’t require a possessive apostrophe. (#9)
Krung thep etc in Thailand is otherwise known as ‘just’ Bangkok
Number 9 reads weird.
I thought the hole in Russia was originally for extracting diamonds…
Swedish entry word
å [å:] ån åar noun
mindre vattendrag; ström
English translation
stream, small river – Institutet för språk och folkminnen
I have only been learning Swedish at a free immigrant school for 7 months here in Sweden.
Pretty please next time can we have the temps in Celsius too?
136F = 57.77C
-134F = 92.2C
Yeah?
-134F = -92.2
Kiribub, I think the apostrophe is acceptable in that case. “Mariana Trench” is also correct.:)
Interesting list again. I can’t imagine what the conditions are at the bottom of that hole must be. I’ve worked at the bottom of one of the deepest gold mines (3km) in South Africa and it was immensely hot, at least 45 deg C, which was in a ventilated area. What was really scary was that I also felt heavier than on the surface.
Glad i’m not working there anymore.
That’s right Phil
These aren’t anomalies…..I was expecting something actually strange, yet most of these are man-made, not nature-made.
@YashaMaru:
In danish “Å” actually means “small river”, so its not all bulls…
/Danish Guy
i don’t understand #9. if Mount Chimborazo is the closest to the moon, how does Mt. Everest have the highest altitude?
The hottest recorded temperature was actually recorded in my bathroom. It was 212F (100C for all you non Americans ^-^), at which point all my bathwater turned to steam, and I jumped twice my height in the air.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll llantysiliogogogoch is a pokey little village and not a city
He says village – please read correctly.
Only two of the 48 contiguous United States share a border but have no direct road from one to the other. Kentucky and Missouri.
How ’bout that?
Dischuker… The earth is not a perfect sphere, like a basket ball. it is more egg shaped just not so elongated. the Poles are kinda pancaked in and the equator sticks out. So the closer to the equator you get, the closer to the moon it is. Since Mount Chimborazo is closer to the Equator than Mount Everest, and its height, it makes Mount Chimborazo closer to the moon.
mregan. kinda yes but there is a road that passes over the state boarder. Only thing is, those on the Kentucky side have no road connecting them to the rest of the state. They have to drive into Missouri just to leave their neighborhood. (Wolf Island Rd. is across the river from Columbus)
Number #15 is actually my ex girlfriend. Her nickname, by the way, is Mariana Trench.
Val, I haven’t – do tell
Awesome! I love these “facts” lists.
Anyone heard of Magnetic Hill in New Brunswick? Might be interesting for another list like this. ^_^
Detroit, MI. is the only city in America that by traveling due south can you reach Canada.
What about Anchorage?
I’m psychic
Hulunbuir is 263,953 km squared = 69,671,186,209 sq km ? I think you meant 263,953 sq km.
what a square you are
Tempyra-
hahaha! Psychic indeed…
You can drive down the hill with your car, turn it off, and it will go back up the hill… there’s some kind of natural magnet in the ground. =)
Val: actually the whole thing with magnet hill is a natural optical illusion. The surrounding horizon visually alters what is there. The hill actually rolls downhill with the appearance of being uphill. No magnets!
Bondles (8) – interesting supplimental article about the borehole. Lots of good info. Then, right near the end of it is this gem: “The last of the cores to be plucked from from the borehole were dated to be about 2.7 billion years old, or roughly 32 million times older than Abe Vigoda.” Hilarious!! lol
It is, in fact, the Marianas Trench. That is the only one true, right name.
Now, what I’d like to know is, what’s at the bottom?
If the organisms which live in the darkness of the sea floor, just above the Marianas Trench are as strange as they are (and believe me, they are strange indeed!), how much stranger might be those living in even more bizarre conditions?
Otherwise, interesting list! I’ve got to check out Magnetic Hill in New Brunswick, too.
So many things to learn, so little time in one life!
‘Though Mt. Everest is the highest altitude in terms of sea level on the planet, but Mount Chimborazo is the closest to the moon.’ is a horribly written sentence. FAIL! How about…
Although Mt. Everest is the tallest mountain on earth in regard to it’s height above sea level Mount Chimborazo is closest to the moon.
That only took me five seconds. You shouldn’t say ‘but’ when you have already said ‘though’ You didn’t even state a fact! You just said though then but. Good lord! Anyway, I do love this site and I just wanted to be a douche bag. Let the abuse commence!
Also ‘segue’ you are a n00b. It is Mariana Trench. Do some research, even the official site states it as Mariana Trench. Marianas Trench is a band and sometimes the Mariana Trench can be known as the Mariana’s Trench but only when people feel sorry for you because of the headgear you have to wear to stop you from hurting yourself when you bash your face on cupboards.
@ No. 1.
What do you mean it’s most like supplanted “NOW”. That name is a Thai name for Bangkok for over a hundred years. I think Guinness Book doesn’t count it because its English name is Bangkok, not Krungthep.
I thought the lowest point on the earth was in the dead sea? They even have a sign floating at the lowest point
Bondles is right. That picture is not of the Kola Superdeep Borehole. THe Kola borehole is actually covered by buildings, the tallest part of which contains the drilling apparatus. You should teke down the image or replace it with one of the real borehole. You can find a small image of it at http://www.icdp-online.org/contenido/icdp/front_content.php?idcat=695
At any rate, Kola is not even the deepest hole on Earth any longer. It was surpassed (barely)in May by one drilled by Maersk Oil in the Al Shaheen Field offshore of Qatar.
Hey, good list but the Llanfairpwllgwyngyll etc is the longest rail station name. I’m not sure if it’s a city though. I think it’s more of a small town. Also they dont say have a nickname for it which is “Llanfair p.g.” By the way “ll” is a letter in itself in the Welsh Language. The name means “St.Mary’s church in the hollow of the White Hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the church of St.Tysilio near the red cave.” From what I remember of learning Welsh, “goch” is red and “pwll” is pool. Hope that was useful
Another one that does not read….
I love fun facts. Thanks for the list guys. Here is another one I found interesting.
Over the past century the magnetic pole has moved 685 miles (1,100 kilometers) from Arctic Canada toward Siberia, at its current rate the pole could move to Siberia within the next half-century.
When I get lost I always tell my wife “how do you expect me to find this place when the magnetic poles keep moving around?” She’s not buying it.
Fantastic list. I love Mondays….er Tuesdays!
Awesome Jfrater, great additions!
Dischuker, Everest is further from the moon because it is further away from the equator then Mt. C. Therefore it is much farther away overall.
I knew number 10 for most my life…. *snickers* I am Alaskan after all!
Bongo Mongo:
Your ‘corrected’ sentence contains an error
I find the Alaska fact the most interesting, nice list regardless.
There is a hill close to where I live (near Los Angeles)that has the magnetic or optical illusion thing.
nice list. these are really new facts on my trivia bank.
This list WINS because it is the list that most mentions my name in the comments!!! I feel so special ^_^
(My name is Mariana)
*basks in the glory of it all*
Instead of saying “nearest the Moon”, it would be clearer and more accurate to say, “furthest from the centre of the Earth.”
And llandfair… isn’t a city, it’s barely a town!
For some time, I believe Lake Webster in Massachusetts, USA, was the longest sounding geographical place (until the found the others, of course). It’s true name is Lake Chargoggagoggmanchaugagoggagoggabunegungamogg. That’s probably not the correct spelling, but I’ve memorized the pronunciation.
Great list! I liked it.
Oh, and Bongo Mongo, segue may have gotten that fact wrong but you’re an *****.
I am actually laughing more at the comments than the list! XD
Good one, JFrater, I’m doing geography GCSE this year and might just print this list off and amaze my teacher! And yeah, fix number 9. Any way you want.
the icelandic word for river is in fact a, with an accent mark over the a. it may be a is an archaic swedish words as well not used anymore.
YashaMaru:
Don’t know about norwegian but in danish Å actually means river
In Kimberly that is in SA there is an unused mine – they started digging there in the 1920s ( diamonds ).
They call it the big hole – today it attracts many tourists.
For you guys that are interested the hole is 1 kilometer deep and the surface area is 17 hectares
Just adding my pennies worth.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantysiliogogogoch is not a city, its a village, and trains dont often stop at the railway station
Can you not read either?
Okay – all typos/images fixed.