Snipfact:

  The Americas are named after the explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1451 –1512). Africa was perhaps originally a Berber tribal name. This was adopted by the Romans as the name of their province and later spread to the whole continent.   The name of Europe may simply mean mainland. Asia is probably from the Assyrian, asu, meaning  sunrise or east. Australia is Latin for southern; Australia, with New Zealand and other islands, is also considered as part of Oceania, a name invented by the geographer Conard Male-Brun (1775 –1826). Antarctica is Greek for opposite the Arctic.Arctic comes from the Greek for bear, because the region lies under the stars of the Great Bear constellation.

    Geysers are jets of boiling water and steam that erupt from beneath the ground where water is heated by volcanic activity. The name geyser comes from a hot spring called Geysir at Haukadalur, Iceland. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA has more geysers than anywhere else. There are 500 active ones including Steamboat, which erupts to a height of 120 m, and Old Faithful , which erupts about every 91 minutes.

  Sea level is the average height of the sea at a point midway between high and low tides. The shore of the Dead sea is the lowest exposed ground below sea level. Some land in Antarctica is 2,538 m below sea level, but is covered by 2,100m deep ice cap.   1 Dead Sea, Israel/Jordan –400, below sea level 2 Lake Assa, Djibouti –156 m below sea level 3 Turfan Depression, China –154 m below sea level 4 Qattara Depression, Egypyt –133 m below sea level 5 Mangyshlak Penninsula, Kazakhastan –132 m below sea level

  An island is a piece of land surrounded by water. Australia is so large it is a continent, not an island; otherwise it would rank first. The Smallest island is Pitcairn, at 4.53 sq km(1.75 sq miles).   1 Greenland (Kalaatdlit Nunaat) –2,175,600 sq km 2 New Guinea – 789,000 sq km 3 Borneo –751,000 sq km 4 Madagascar (Malagasy Republic) –587,041 sq km 5 Baffin Island, Canada –507,451 sq km 6 Sumatra, Indonesia –422,200 sq km 7 Honshu, Japan –230,092 sq km 8 Great Britain –218,041 sq km 9 Victoria Island, Canada –217,290 sq km 10 Ellesmere Island, Canada –196,236 sq km 11 Celebs, Indonesia –179,000 sq km 12 South Island, New Zealand –151,971 sq km 13 Java, Indonesia –126,900 sq km 14 North Island, New Zealand –151,971 sq km 15 Newfoundland , Canada –108,860 sq km 16 Cuba –104,945 sq km 17 Luzon, Philippines –104,688 sq km 18 Iceland –102,819 sq km 19 Mindanao, Philippines –94,630  sq km 20 Ireland –84,406 sq km (Area excludes of...

    People used to think that Kangchenjunga in Nepal/India was the highest mountain . Then the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India measured all the country’s land features. The survey was completed in 1852 and showed that Everest (then called peak XV) was the world’s highest mountain. Everest’s height was then reckoned to be 8.840 m (29,002 ft). This has since been adjusted as improved measuring methods have been used. The mountain’s name was suggested in 1865 as a tribute to Sir George Everest, the Surveyor General of India, who had led the survey. 1 Everest, Nepal/China – 8,850 m 2 k2 (Chogori), Pakistan/China – 8,607 m 3 Kangchenjunga,Nepal/India – 8,598 m 4 Lhotse, Nepal/China – 8,511 m 5 Makalu I, Nepal/China – 8,481 m

  The height of mountains is usually measured from sea level. Mauna Kea in Hawaii is only 4,245 m (13,957 ft) above sea level, but it rises a total of 10,203 m (33,44 ft) from the floor of the Pacific Ocean, Making its real height 1,353 m (4,439 ft) greater than Mount Everest!

  Deserts cover about a third of the world’s land area. They range from extremely arid and barren sandy deserts (about four per cent of the total land surface of the globe), through arid (15 per cent) to semi-arid (just under 15 per cent). Most deserts have features of all these, with one zone merging into the next, so the start and finish of any desert is not exact. Many of the world’s largest deserts are broken down by geographers into smaller desert regions –the Australian Desert includes the Gibson, Great Sandy, Great Victoria and Simpson, for example. 1 Sahara Northern Africa – 9,100,000 sq km 2 Australian, Australia (Includes Gibson, Great Sandy, Great Victoria and Simpson) – 3,400,00 sq km 3 Arabian Peninsula, Southwest Asia (Includes an-Nafud and Rub al khali) – 2,600,000 sq km 4 Turkestan, Central Asia (Includes Kara-Kum and Kyzylkum) – 1,900,000 sq km 5 Gobi, Central Asia – 1,300,000 sq km 6 North American Desert, US/Mexico (Includes Great Basin, Mojave, So...