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Geography Trivia

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Forty six percent of the world's water is in the Pacific Ocean. The Atlantic has 23.9 percent; the Indian, 20.3; the Arctic, 3.7 percent.

The state of Oregon has one city named Sisters and another called Brothers. Sisters got its name from a nearby trio of peaks in the Cascade Mountains known as the Three Sisters. Brothers was named as a counterpart to Sisters.

South Africa produces two-thirds of the world's gold.

St. Petersburg, FL once had 427 consecutive days of sunshine.

The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn in Polynesia, at just 1.75 sq miles/4,53 sq km.

The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined.

Surprisingly, there was a time that the Vatican owned shares of the Watergate complex in Washington DC, the Pan American building in Paris, and the Hilton hotel in Rome.

If global warming forecasts are true, the island country of Tuvalu might cease to exist within 100 years.

Pennsylvania has more covered bridges than any other state. Vermont, a much smaller state, claims a greater density of covered bridges. (More bridges per square mile). Parke County, Indiana, claims more covered bridges than any other county, but Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, comes in second.

Arguably the largest state in the world, Western Australia covers one-third of the Australian continent. It spans over 2.5 million square kilometers (1 million square miles).

On international license plates Spain is represented by the letter E for Espana.

"Exurbia" is the mostly rural residential area beyond the suburbs of a city.

"Oceania" is a name for the thousands of islands in the central and southern Pacific Ocean. It is sometimes referred to as the South Seas.

A bar of sand or other sediment linking an island to the mainland or another island is called a tombolo.

Acapulco got its start as a major tourist destination during the early days of World War II. German U-boats threats off the eastern United States compelled the wealthy to find new places to vacation. At one time, one had to be a millionaire to enjoy Acapulco, but that hasn't been the case for years.

According to research presented in National Geographic, Toronto's name was derived from a Mohawk word meaning “poles in the water,” a reference to an old fish weir in the area.

According to the U.S. Naval Observatory, the first populated land where the Sun will rise on a new day is at Kahuitara Point (44° 16' S 176° 9' W) on Pitt Island in the Chatham Islands, a dependency of New Zealand.

Afghanistan has been known by different names. It was called Ariana or Bactria in ancient times and Khorasan during the Middle Ages.

Although "Holland" is a popular name for the Netherlands, North Holland and South Holland are actually two provinces in the Netherlands.

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