Geo-Joint

International borders often separate territory of great value and strategic importance between countries. Other times, they just run across vast stretches of wasteland. That doesn’t mean the lines aren’t still argued over. As with so many border disputes, the problem can start when an outside power sticks its nose into local business and declares an arbitrary boundary. Though all this ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: The Hala’ib Triangle and the Land Nobody Wants appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

People don’t go to the beach to see the kelp. The sun, the sand, the cool water, the people-watching, and a host of sports and games are what they came for. The kelp is just in the way. In some coastal towns, the Beach Dept. does “beach grooming,” to rake up all that nasty, fly-attracting, funny green/brown stuff so you ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Clearcutting in the Kelp Forest appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

As Maps.com’s editor, I have to check a lot of map data for accuracy. Though names for streets and buildings often change, the currently accepted form is usually a settled affair. What you might think of as less variable are figures given for mountain heights. Of course, an earthquake here, or an eruption there might add a few inches or ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Taking the Measure of the Mountain appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Half Dome, the Matterhorn, the Grand Canyon, Kilimanjaro, Uluru—these names bring up an instant mental image, invariably tied to their general location. Mt. Fuji is also in that company, and goes a step further—the serenely snow-covered peak is the essential symbol of the country of Japan. Revered by all Japanese citizens, it is woven into the national religion of Shinto, ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Mt. Fuji—Symbol of Japan appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Sometimes the most stunning treasures can be pulled out of the Earth from some pretty desolate areas. Those prizes are usually remnants created by the conditions at those places a long, long time ago. And so it was, that a long, long time ago, the sea and the land in what we today call Australia went through a dance that ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Digging into Coober Pedy appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Nature is messy. There are a billion sub-systems within an ecosystem, and there are so many variables that things don’t run like clockwork. However, the wonder of nature is that while excesses and scarcities of resources and populations continually occur, the overall function is to pull the operation back toward balance. The concept of homeostasis in a population says that ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: The Great Sardine Crash appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

A while back, the Geo-Joint looked at the end of the sugar industry in Hawai’i. Though sugar cane had been carried to the islands on canoes with the earliest settlers, it wasn’t a major crop until the arrival of European and American businessmen. They brought the concept of capital-A agriculture, as opposed to subsistence farming. In their eyes, Hawai’i was ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Hawaiian Taro Rises Again appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Color is everywhere, at least for the 91 percent of us who are not colorblind. Even for those who can’t discern all the variations of the spectrum, there is some color available. It results from the different wavelengths of light reflecting off of surfaces. Colors of all kinds occur in nature, though some, like the green of plants and the ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: The Reign of Purple appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Not too terribly far beneath our feet, the Earth is a very different place from the pleasant zone we live in. The deepest mines, which can reach down to depths of a mere two and a half miles, are very hot jobsites. Just another handful of miles deeper (depending upon your location) puts you at the outermost zone of the ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Lusi the Mud Volcano appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

 When you imagine a cityscape, or even a suburban scene, it’s quite likely that your mind’s eye would envision buildings large and small, streets running along those buildings, maybe some trees or parks, streetlights, traffic signs, and inevitably, traffic. Whether the occasional car in a quiet neighborhood, or bumper-to-bumper madness on downtown streets or the freeway, cars are just a ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Where the Streets Have No Cars appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

You’ve heard about Paul Bunyan, and probably the Chupacabra, and the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine. Cultures make up stories that become legends, in order to entertain, amuse, teach lessons, and to say something about the people who pass them on. They are told and retold countless times until they help define a culture’s personality and history. But by and large, ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: A Boiling River in the Amazon appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Sitting in a state that most people have probably not been to is a region that doesn’t necessarily sound inviting. The state is South Dakota, and in its southwestern stretches is the ominously named Badlands. They didn’t pick up the moniker from the quick judgment of explorers or pioneers just passing through, but from the Lakota people, who had lived ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: The Badlands of South Dakota appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Some lakes are known for their stunning clarity, while others are as green as grass, from bright green to dull olive. Lake Tahoe has long been extolled for its deep blue color due to the clearness of its water, although over time it has diminished, and the pressures of development, sedimentation, fire, and more, mean trouble for its future. Most ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Lake Michigan’s Overdeveloped Mussels appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

 Everybody knows that people get crazier when the moon is full. And more babies get born then. And the moon is hollow, and full of aliens. OK, maybe none of that is true. But the moon surely makes the tides go in and out and helps birds and moths navigate, and tells grunion when to spawn, and encourages sweethearts to ... Read More

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

The Geo-Joint recently prattled on about the grand phenomenon that built the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Though it would be quite a sight, most of its very long, sinuous outline is well undersea and out of viewing range for tourists. A striking exception to this is the little country on the sizeable island called Iceland. Iceland is built of the magma rising ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Iceland’s Cool Story appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

The origins of Venice are rooted in simplicity and desperation. Simple, because the earliest inhabitants of the many lagoon islands at the northern end of the Adriatic Sea were those making a basic living off the sea—fishermen and sea salt miners. But as the Roman Empire came under attack by invaders from the north, desperation became a motivation. People from ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Venice—Treading Water and Waiting for a Life Preserver appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Anybody with half a brain idly spinning a globe will notice that the coastlines of eastern South America and western Africa are pretty similar. And that’s just the most obvious coastline match-up, of which there are many. It has always seemed like a logical notion that the two continents were at one time connected, but then there’s that part about ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Continents Drifting Toward Plate Tectonics appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

The Hawaiian Islands are built of lava. Some of it is fresh and flowing, some of it is cooled, some eroded into pebbles and soil, but it all started as molten lava. The first thing a tourist learns, especially if they are visiting Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island, is that there are essentially two forms of lava ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Lava Tubes—Hot Conduits and Cool Caving appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Rivers flow where gravity pulls them, and they effortlessly seek the easiest path. In steep mountain canyons, they tumble down sharply defined channels—there’s no doubt of their course. But when the land is flatter, it’s a good deal easier to influence that fluvial path. As a river meanders through territory of low relief, its course may wander back and forth ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Movin’ the Mighty Mississip’ appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

From the beaches of Santa Barbara you can see them anchored a half-mile offshore: giant, white, floating boxes called cruise ships. They are enormous, but nothing compared to the behemoth tankers and container ships that ply the ocean road between the mainland and the local Channel Islands. Though they appear tiny on the horizon, their astounding size is evidenced by ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Shipbreaking in Southern Asia appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Robert Frost sagely noted that good fences make good neighbors, an admission that keeping a healthy distance and clearly marking my territory versus yours can keep trouble from starting. It developed kind of the other way around in Northern Ireland. In the early part of the 20th century, forces in Ireland banded together to fight for Irish independence from the ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Northern Ireland’s Peace Walls appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

There are a lot of ways to establish records. Hairsplitting a category can make for multiple “biggest” or “tallest” or “oldest” of whatever. Just ask Guinness—it keeps them in business. So it is with the oldest living things. There are various kinds of organisms, even if you narrow the categories down to just trees. We’ll save some of the other ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: The Enduring Bristlecone Pine appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Beauty is a subjective thing, but almost everyone agrees that the settings of Polynesia are among the most pleasant and soothing in all the world. The warm water helps, but the colors of the sea and sky, and the rich green plant life and colorful sea life all add to the beauty. It’s also nice not to have to dodge ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: South Pacific Atolls appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Besides its far-flung “empire” of island territories and possessions distant from its mainland, the United States includes a large number of relatively nearshore islands off its several coasts. Of course, our two youngest states, Alaska and Hawaii, are totally separate from the Lower 48, but today’s subject is not so obvious. The area in question isn’t along our southern border, ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Disconnected USA – the Northwest Angle and Point Roberts appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

As human beings go, Hitler was pretty much the bottom of the barrel. He may have dressed neatly and been educated, but the workings of his mind were a plague upon humanity. Given all that, he put together a concept in pre-WWII years that actually brought some benefit, although not quite as he envisioned it. Hitler, uncharacteristically, developed a healthful-seeming ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: The Colossus of Prora appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Two hundred years ago, the country witnessed the birth of a profound mark on the national landscape—on that oh-so-American date of July the Fourth. That was when Chief Engineer James Geddes began construction on the Erie Canal. As a piece of American history, the Erie Canal is probably as well known as the Liberty Bell or The War of 1812. ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: The Erie Canal—The Water Road to Expansion appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Even if you’re not sure where it is, you’ve heard of the name or seen it on an insurance logo. The Rock of Gibraltar has an iconic status as something solid and prominent, which it definitely is. And you may know that it lies at the very western end of the Mediterranean Sea, on the (duh) Strait of Gibraltar. Along ... Read More

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

Even when our earliest ancestors (including those who had a lot more hair and longer arms) were wandering around the planet, there was probably an understanding of place. Humans aren’t good at detecting territory defined by urine the way animals with better noses can, so there were most likely more physical markers. They might have included man-made marks on trees, ... Read More

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

A forest fire is a huge spectacle, as towering trees explode in flame, and thick smoke billows away from the roaring inferno. Though they sometimes burn for weeks or months, the hard work of fire crews, retardant-dropping airplanes, or the change of seasons that brings rain and snow eventually wins out over the flames. Not so with peat fires. Peat ... Read More

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

Automobiles as we more or less know them got their start in the late 1800s. As you might imagine, there were any number of transportation contraptions invented before Karl Benz introduced his Benz-Patent Motorwagen in 1886, but his is considered the first basic motor car. By 1900, there were something on the order of 8,000 automobiles in the U.S. of ... Read More

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

It’s often a surprise, when out on a hike, to find a footbridge. You might be under the impression that the trail you’re hiking has just always been there or simply maintains itself (both erroneous notions), however, seeing a bridge makes it clear that some serious effort and design skill has been employed by persons unknown to you, in order ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Fearless (and fearful) Footbridges appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Nothing beats elevation when you want to get away from the madding crowd (huge deserts and ocean floors are good too, but hard to live in). High mountain peaks also fill the bill, but the Orthodox Christians of mid-15th century Greece, wanting solitude, had some unusual geology close at hand. Near the western edge of the Plains of Thessaly in ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: The Monasteries of Meteora appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Australia is a huge land, harboring many kinds of animals. But before 1788, rabbits were not among them. The initial group of boats that carried settlers from England to Australia, known as the First Fleet, brought domesticated rabbits along as a source of food. They were confined to the pens where they were raised. Wild rabbits were also brought to ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Australia’s Rabbit Proof Fence appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Lake Tahoe isn’t the world’s deepest lake, but it’s in the top twenty. 1645 feet deep at its lowest point, it averages 1,000 feet over its 191 square-mile surface. Surrounded by the wooded slopes of the Sierra Nevada, it is a treasure nestled between California and Nevada, right where their shared straight line borders form a roughly 130 degree angle. ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Peering into Lake Tahoe appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Perhaps you have stood on a beach at a lagoon mouth and watched what happens when a stormy sea breaks through the sand berm that had sealed off the lagoon. It starts as a small stream, but soon turns into a rapid torrent as the sand wears away, and the higher lagoon water heads downhill to the sea. Something like ... Read More

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

This may be an unbelievable thing to younger readers of the Geo-Joint, but 30 or 40 years ago people only very rarely drank water out of a personal container other than a glass or a cup. Sure, there were army surplus canteens, and bottles you could fill with water to take with you on a hike. But outside of some ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Plastic Water Bottles appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

The natural delights of the world range from gorgeous sunsets for the eyes, to powder snow and peeling waves for ecstatic motion, to the music of bird calls for the ears. But for pure sensory immersion, little beats the blissful relaxation of soaking in natural hot springs. Long before the advent of the Jacuzzi, hot springs provided comfort for the ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Hot Springs—Nature’s Soothing Soak appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

The Geo-Joint brings up the subject of borders every once in a while because they’re so basic to how humans define their place on earth. We solidify our styles, foods, cultures, and even our gene pools according to borders that define “us” and “them.” So as artificial as they often are, their importance can’t be denied. We’ve also talked about ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Delaware’s Twelve-Mile Circle appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

The buried gold of pirate stories is the dream of every 8-year-old kid, but historians say pirates were not particularly prone to putting their plunder in a hole and covering it. It’s documented to have happened a few times, though the goods were not commonly buried and left behind unguarded. Burying helped obscure the holdings until the diggers could return ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: The Lost Nazi Gold Train appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Does any bit of ground change its appearance on a seasonal, weekly, daily, or even hourly basis as much as the beach? The tide comes in and goes out a couple of times a day in most places, narrowing and widening the margin between land and sea. Different days produce greater or smaller piles of washed-up kelp, flotsam, and jetsam, ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Sandy Beaches on the Move appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Almost any road, even one crossing a flat valley floor, is the product of careful engineering and hard work. If that road goes over water or through some hills, that much more planning and effort is involved. True mountain roads are really a challenge, but their basic route may follow old game or first-inhabitants’ trails. Rock can be blasted to ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Les Grands Goulets appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

The dinosaurs. What a crazy bunch, huh? Rule the world for millions of years and then check out in one fell swoop. But if things had been just a liiiiittle bit different, they mighta coulda kept their crown. Maybe. The story of the downfall of The Big Reptiles is pretty well known. Unlike the hapless mega-lizards in Fantasia, succumbing to ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Chicxulub Asteroid and the End of the Big Dinosaurs appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Farmers know their fate is tied to the natural cycles of rain, heat, cold, and insect invasion. They know their soil type limits the crops they can hope to grow, and that birds and varmints may take a bite out of their harvest. Nature is a kind of frenemy, but there are rules a farmer can expect to operate within—until ... Read More

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

Though it’s hard to imagine when looking at it now, San Francisco was once empty hills, undeveloped beaches, and open wetlands. Its protective bay made the place a natural for the safe mooring of explorers’ ships, and eventually a small town developed. As we know, the discovery of gold in the mountains east of the city led to explosive growth ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: The Golden Gate Bridge appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Lightning can, and does, strike in the same place—not only twice, but many, many times. Of course, it helps if that place is the tip of a skyscraper in the Midwest. Tall, especially metallic objects, will provide the shortest and most attractive path for a charged cloud to let loose its abundance of electrical energy. Electrical and broadcast towers are ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: The Sky on Fire – Catatumbo Lightning appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Source: Wikimedia: EncMstr (CC 4.0) You never know what you’ll find at the beach. Just about anything man-made can wash up, and you’ll always find the local shells and kelp. When the currents sometimes wander a little off course and the winds take odd turns, unexpected items can roll in with the waves. Recently, Pacific Coast beachwalkers from Oregon north to ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Pelagic Pyrosomes Present to the Playa appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Source: Wikipedia: Northwest Boreal LCC (CC 2.0) It’s that time of year again, when the sun has crossed over the equator, and spring is bringing everything in the Northern Hemisphere to life. The storms abate, the temperatures rise, and if you live where it’s cold enough in winter, you see the snow and ice begin to melt away. If you ... Read More

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

The earth has a way of swallowing things up. Flood deposits, growing vegetation, landslides, tsunamis—plenty of ways to bury the past. Life moves on, people forget, mysteries are formed. This was especially true of some events of World War II. Massive scenes of destruction were played out worldwide, and when it was over, many of the participants went back to ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: The Swamp Ghost and Kee Bird appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

Geography affects commerce. The lay of the land determines how we move, and how we transport goods. Sometimes nature sets up a fiendish tableau, as it forces people to travel through dangerous landscapes to carry on business. One such convergence of goods, politics, enmity, and travel is in the Strait of Hormuz, at the south end of the Persian Gulf, ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: The Strait of Hormuz appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.

The Geo-Joint has often focused on the intricate balance of natural systems and how they are thrown off-kilter by the introduction of foreign species. In some cases, the invaders do not survive because of climate extremes in the new land; other times they are able to find a niche that is not too disruptive to those organisms already functioning there. ... Read More

The post Geo-Joint: Raiders in the Amazon appeared first on Journeys by Maps.com.