Geo-Joint

Geek that I am, this Geo-Joint involves two of my favorite things: words and geography. The etymology of today's word/place name ties together location and a bit of history, and not surprisingly wanders off into rabbit holes of hard-to-verify factoids. What we know for sure is that the name "Guinea" pops up in a trio of West African country names, to wit: Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Equatorial Guinea, the last of which sits on the Gulf of Guinea.

The post Geo-Joint: Guinea appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

I’ve been keen on geology and biology for a long time, but despite what some say, I didn’t actually witness the initial development of single celled life. Nor was anybody there to start a stopwatch when the Earth was formed, but with clever methods, geo-chemists have pegged the age of the Earth at about 4.54 billion years...

The post Geo-Joint: Ancient Zircons appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

They're tiny, they're easy to miss, and they have very little physical strength. But they have the power to knock you flat and bring big changes to our way of life. Today, the story of these little invaders.

The post Geo-Joint: ‘Skeeters appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

The versatility of palm oil is impressive. It is used in countless foods, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, biofuel, and industrial applications. It has become a mainstay in the economy of many tropical countries. The race to develop this crop is headlong, and the costs of its unchecked growth are sobering. Palm oil production occurs throughout the tropics on huge monoculture farms which are planted on land formerly occupied by rainforest...

The post Geo-Joint: Palm Oil Fires appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Early humans (and their predecessors) wandered all over the landscape for thousands of years, noting mountains, and rivers, and big trees, and rock formations to give them an idea of where they were and where they were going.

The post Geo-Joint: Celestial Navigation – Then and Now appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Yellowstone National Park is justly famous for its geysers, steaming pools and mudpots. The hot geologic features of the park are the remnants of three enormous volcanic explosions that left three calderas covering nearly 1,000 square miles.

The post Geo-Joint: Yellowstone’s Explosive Potential appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Birds build nests. So do rats. Termite mounds are pretty impressive. But what other animal (nevermind us) builds anything so impressive as does the beaver?

The post Geo-Joint: Beaver Back on the Job appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Some countries expand their size by taking over neighboring territory. But in the South China Sea, China is simply making new land.

The post Geo-Joint: New Islands in the South China Sea appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Geographic name changes for large expanses of the earth’s surface aren’t all that common. The breakup of the Soviet Union presented such a moment decades ago, and the one we’ll focus on today isn’t breaking news either. It cropped up 15 years ago and isn’t universally accepted yet. But its story is interesting and illustrates the tenacity of established geographic ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: The Southern Ocean appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

As with almost every geographic "biggest" or "longest", there are seven different ways to tabulate the results. The longest border between two countries would seem to be that between the U.S. and Canada. In total, it's about 5,526 miles.

The post Geo-Joint: Longest Borders appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

This is the story of a big deal with a big footprint. During the end of the last Ice Age in North America, starting around 20,000 years ago, glaciers would advance and retreat with global temperature changes.

The post Geo-Joint: Lake Missoula appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

It takes a special set of circumstances: rain, of course, with some clearing for the rays of a low-angled moon coming from a direction opposite the rain, a dark sky, plus the added requirement of a moon in full or nearly-full phase.

The post Geo-Joint: Moonbows appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Growing tall gives a tree the edge on capturing sunlight before some other tree shades it out. But the taller it gets, the harder it is for water to get drawn up all the way to the top.

The post Geo-Joint: Giant Ash appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

With the exception of the Inuit and other hardy souls of the Far North, the deep Arctic stood as a formidable outland for centuries and even the bravest non-natives only utilized its periphery for fish and furs from the resident four-legged or flippered animals.

The post Geo-Joint: Arctic “Land Rush” appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

A hundred years ago those familiar drought conditions were plaguing San Diego. In 1915, San Diego was a small but growing city and its water needs were also growing. The rainfall records of that year don't indicate severe drought conditions, and in fact by year's end there was even more rain than average. But the city fathers were concerned about future needs and were looking for ways to increase the amount of stored water.

The post Geo-Joint: The Rainmaker appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

The project was informally called The Third Straw. All it took was drilling a 24-foot diameter tunnel through three miles of rock underneath the bottom of Lake Mead. Piece of cake. It did, however, take three years to eat it. The hydraulics of this scheme are, of course, complex, but they went more or less as follows.

The post Geo-Joint: Lake Mead’s Third Straw appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

There are residents of the exclusion zone who never left. Those would be the plants and animals whose ancestors had lived there for thousands of years and didn't get the memo that the place was now glowing with radiation.

The post Geo-Joint: Chernobyl and the Red Forest appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Get the corkscrew! Twist the cap! Unseal the spigot! Let's have a glass of wine right now!

The post Geo-Joint: Deep wine storage appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

There really is a place no more than 28 miles off the coast of Great Britain where not only do palm trees grow, but actual white sandy beaches and azure waters do a pretty fair imitation of the Caribbean tableau.

The post Geo-Joint: British Palm Trees appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Which country has the least population density? The answer to this question turned into a muddy mess of questionable statistics and bad math.

The post Geo-Joint: The Least Dense appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Lascaux cave was open to the public for 15 years before it became apparent that the body heat and mere breath of visitors was causing chemical reactions with the pigments of the drawings.

The post Geo-Joint: Cave Art appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

A lot of people have contemplated that question and more than a few have whittled the number of key destinations down to their list of "100 places to see before you die."

The post Geo-Joint: 100 Places to See Before You Die appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Mustard comes in a variety of species which hybridize, so there are a lot of different kinds of the plant out there. One of the most common along the coast is Brassica nigra, or black mustard, which grows quite tall and is the stuff you probably see the most of as you (locals) drive up the Gaviota Coast.

The post Geo-Joint: Mustard appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

The earth has been around for something like 4.5 billion years, and life has been dated back to around 3.8 billion years. In all that time, one thing has been constant—change.

The post Geo-Joint: A World of Stability appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

way out in southwest North Dakota lies the Enchanted Highway, running north-south for 32 miles between the mega-cities of Regent and Gladstone.

The post Geo-Joint: The Enchanted Highway appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

At a depth of over two miles, liquid Lake Vostok has sat unseen for perhaps 35 million years.

The post Geo-Joint: Lake Vostok appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

A wooden sled sheathed with a metal bottom is the vehicle of choice. At the back end on the bottom, a one-use sheet of plastic is attached, and by leaning back and pulling on the rope attached to the front of the sled, you can reduce your contact point to nothing but this slick surface, achieving speeds of 50 to 60 mph!

The post Geo-Joint: Volcano Surfing appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Sharks have fairly salty interiors so they are at home in the ocean. Even the ones that dine on small fish prefer to keep to the ocean and avoid freshwater.

The post Geo-Joint: Freshwater Sharks appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

In 1900, sponge divers off the Greek island of Antikythera found a strange clockwork-like mechanism made of bronze in the wreck of an ancient ship.

The post Geo-Joint: The Antikythera Mechanism appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

There are scores of different New Years observations and celebrations around the world - this is but a very short list.

The post Geo-Joint: New Year’s Day appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

The North Pole may seem remote to us nowadays, but back before anyone had been there, it might as well have been on the moon.

The post Geo-Joint: The North Pole appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Unlike the melting of the tundra in faraway Alaska, Glacier National Park is a highly visible and closer-to-home example that our world is changing rapidly.

The post Geo-Joint: Glacier National Park appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

A long time ago, Timbuktu was pretty far from anything else. It still is. Timbuktu is in Mali, Africa, and while there are scattered towns at some distance to the south, to the north is the vast emptiness of the Sahara Desert.

The post Geo-Joint: A Trip to the Middle of Nowhere appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Deepsea drilling rigs poke holes in the sediment under the ocean to find oil and gas, but there is another trove of treasure that has long been known, and only recently targeted.

The post Geo-Joint: Deep-Sea Mining appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

The towns that once made their living from the sea have gone away, their fishing boats left high and dry, now miles from the shoreline.

The post Geo-Joint: The Aral Sea appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Transylvanian nights are as dark as any others, and they do get a fair amount of rain and cool temperatures, but the reputation for scary evil is nothing more than the result of a novel written by an Irishman in the late 19th century.

The post A Bloody Good Time in Transylvania appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

China devised a way to tame the Yangtze. In a narrow part of its course, where it would drown three famous gorges, a massive dam would rise.

The post Geo-Joint: Three Gorges Dam appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Here in sunny California we have a gem of a mountain range, the Sierra Nevada. And in the southern part of that range stands Mt.Whitney, the tallest mountain in the lower 48.

The post Geo-Joint: Mt. Whitney appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Go to the northeastern coast of Australia and look east - you can't miss it. Except it's underwater, mostly.

The post Geo-Joint: The Great Barrier Reef appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.