2008 GEO QUIZ

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2008 Geo Quiz By: John Flinn John Flinn writes a weekly column and feature articles for the award-winning San Francisco Chronicle travel section. He has journeyed on assignment to more than 20 countries, including Bhutan, Cuba, the Cook Islands and Croatia, and written more than 400 travel articles. Prior to his job at the Chronicle, Flinn was a feature writer for the San Francisco Examiner, where he was paid to, among other things, fly with the Blue Angels, climb El Capitan, wrestle a bear and go on a date with Miss America. Last Christmas I brought over the Chronicle’s annual Geo Quiz to share with my family. It was a real hit! I’ve been looking forward to this all year long. So in two installments – today and tomorrow, I would like to share this year’s Geo Quiz, courtesy of the SF Chronicle’s John Flinn. ~ Alex McMurray Alex: Thanks for the kind words. Glad you like the quiz. Other than leaving out question #31 this year, it was pretty clean. My "corrections and clarifications" follow-up will be blessedly short this year. All best wishes, John Flinn

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1. Little Diomede Island was discussed constantly during the recent presidential election, although almost never by name. What is its claim to fame? 2. It’s officially known as the Archipelago of Ecuador. What do we more commonly call it? 3. If you’re in Windsor, Ontario, but would rather be in Detroit, which direction should you head? 4. What is greater – the height of Mount Everest or the depth of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean? If Mount Everest were placed at the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean, its peak would still be a mile underwater. 5. What island looks like a soccer ball about to be kicked by the boot of Italy? You can see Russia from this island in the Bering Strait. The Galapagos Islands North. Sicily.

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6. Name the only two nations in South America that don’t share a border with Brazil? 7. Semantically speaking, there are only 46 states in the United States. The other four are commonwealths. Can you name them? We’ll even spot you two – Massachusetts and Virginia. 8. What’s bigger: the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, or the island of Manhattan? 9. Mount Elbrus is the highest point of one of the seven continents. Which one? 10. Half of all the world’s lakes are located in a single country. Which one? Disney World is 43 sq mi – about twice the size of Manhattan.

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11. Where is the Bridge of Sighs, what does it cross, and why was it given that name? It was named by Lord Byron because it connects the interrogation rooms of the old Doge’s palace to the prison. The view of Venice was the last thing the convicted saw before they were locked up, hence the sighs. There are lesser known Bridges of Sighs in New York, Peru, Germany, and Britain. 12. In what country do the majority of the world’s Portuguese speakers live? Brazil has 190 million. Portugal has 10.6 million. 13. Newfoundland didn’t join Canada until 1949. To whom did it belong before that? 14. Global warming has exposed something that countless explorers, from John Cabot to Captain Cook, tried in vain to find. What is it? 15. What are the world’s northernmost and southernmost capitals? Reykjavik, Iceland and Wellington, New Zealand

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16. Approximately how big is the world? a. 97 million square miles b. 197 million square miles c. 297 million square miles d. 397 million square miles 17. Roughly what percent of the Earth’s surface is land? 18. Which is larger – North America or South America? 19. Which of the world’s continents has both the lowest high point and the highest low point? 9.3 million sq mi 6.8 million sq mi Mount Koskiusko: 7,310 feet above sea level Lake Eyre: 62 feet below sea level 20. More countries begin their name with this three-letter combination than any other. Which one? a. Bel b. Bur c. Mal d. Cam Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, and Malta. Bel is a close second: Belarus, Belau, Belgium, and Belize.

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21. The surface levels of at least three of the world’s seas are below sea level. Name them. Sea of Galilee 22. What do you call the strait that connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara? (Hint: It also cuts right through Istanbul.) The Bosporus 23. Where on Earth would you find the Mountains of the Moon? Ptolemy thought they were the source of the Nile. He was wrong. Ruwenzori Mountains of Central Africa. 24. Where is the only place outside California (and a tiny swath of Oregon) where you can find native redwood trees? Dawn Redwood Dead Sea Caspian Sea

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25. It’s more than 8,000 feet shorter than Everest, yet the summit of the 20,565-foot-high volcano called Chimborazo is the farthest point from the center of the Earth. Why is that, and where would you find the mountain? The Earth is not a perfect sphere; like many of us, it bulges at the middle (the equator). It’s been calculated that Chimborazo’s top is 3,967.08 miles from the Earth’s center, 1.7 miles farther than Everest’s. Chimborazo, incidentally, was first climbed by Edward Whymper, conqueror of the Matterhorn.

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PART II ~ Tomorrow!