153
votes
Accepted
What place on Earth is closest to the Sun?
This is an interesting question, but it lacks a key factor that is crucial to the answer: TIME.
The point on Earth closest to the Sun varies through time, so the question can be asked about any ...
- 17.3k
84
votes
Are there any saltwater rivers on Earth?
The water in any river draining the sea is infinitely recycle-able (from rain replenishment), whereas the salt from any terrestrial source is not. So salty rivers, if any, won't exist permanently. ...
- 14.1k
50
votes
Accepted
What is the line crossing the Pacific Ocean that is shown on maps?
It's the international date line and marks the boundary between the time zones that are +12 and -12 hours from UTC / Greenwich. It should follow the +/-180 degree meridian line, but zigs and zags to ...
- 745
46
votes
Is there any river that does not discharge into larger body of water?
The Okavango River is a good example of this. It drains into a swampy delta in the middle of the Kalahari desert:
The Okavango Delta, CC BY Justin Hall.
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39
votes
What is the line crossing the Pacific Ocean that is shown on maps?
Mkennedy's answer is right at identifying that line as the international date line and explaining how it works. However, I'd like to add on the main weird points of the line. North to south:
In the ...
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36
votes
Is there any river that does not discharge into larger body of water?
The Colorado River frequently fails to reach the Gulf of California, mostly due to diversion to agricultural and metropolitan uses upstream.
This National Geographic post from 2014 elaborates on the ...
- 3,189
34
votes
Are there any saltwater rivers on Earth?
The already accepted answer is already covering the "real" answer as far as I'm concerned, and while you won't find many (any?) saline rivers in the traditional sense, we do have underwater &...
31
votes
What is the deepest we have ever gone into the Earth?
Probably a bit over 4 km, in this South African mine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mponeng_Gold_Mine But as the link mentions, the mine operators go to considerable lengths to reduce the mine ...
- 1,698
31
votes
Accepted
How do oases form in the middle of the desert?
Oasis are places where aquifers are connected to the surface. The source of the water in the aquifer however can be hundreds of miles away in areas that do get significant rainfall.
The trick is ...
- 6,679
29
votes
Are there any saltwater rivers on Earth?
The Pecos River in Texas, USA may arguably fit the description of a "saltwater river". A point of argument is what is considered to be "saltwater". For comparison, here are some ...
28
votes
Accepted
Where is the calmest place on Earth?
The main resistance that winds have to their movements comes from the topography and surface obstacles. Therefore, as a general rule the closer to the surface the less wind you will find. But I guess ...
- 17.3k
28
votes
Is there any river that does not discharge into larger body of water?
The concepts you are looking for are two categories of drainage basins, endhoreic basins and cryptorheic basins.
Endhoreic basins are drainage basins that do not drain to the oceans, either above ...
- 22.4k
26
votes
Is there any river that does not discharge into larger body of water?
There are rivers that don't flow into seas or lakes if you consider influent rivers. Which are rivers that loose water to the ground (seeps into aquifers). For example "big lost river" of ...
- 390
25
votes
Are there any saltwater rivers on Earth?
Water from the Caspian sea, with a salinity of 1.2%, is constantly flowing into Garabogazköl, where the water eventually evaporates and leaves the salt behind. Of course, the situation is not ...
22
votes
Accepted
Does gravity differ from place to place on Earth
There is an entire field of Geophysics called gravimetry dedicated to measuring the magnitude of the gravitational field.
First, we should distinguish between weight (a force) and gravity (an ...
- 15.3k
20
votes
How to quickly or easily prove the world is spherical?
I'm sorry that this answer will be unsatisfactory and, strictly spoken, off topic, but I want to give it anyway.
The answer is: You can't. Don't waste your time. Your relative has developed a paranoia....
20
votes
How much distance does $0.001^\circ$ in latitude or longitude represent?
I don't understand the last sentence about decimal places, but I can tell you about the relationship between lat, long and distance.
Over two centuries ago, the meter was defined as one ten-millionth ...
- 1,207
19
votes
Accepted
How to quickly or easily prove the world is spherical?
To answer my own question based on the useful comments here, my favorite methods were:
The earth's shadow cast on the moon during an eclipse. It is easy to observe and the flat earth counter argument ...
- 401
19
votes
What is the deepest we have ever gone into the Earth?
Since you termed it based on sea level, the gold mines in South Africa are not the deepest, they begin at an elevation of ~1500 m, meaning their 4 km depth is only 2.5 km below sea level.
The Kidd ...
- 291
19
votes
Other than tectonic activity, what can reshape a world's surface?
Erosion is a powerful but slow and time consuming process that can make dramatic changes. The best example of this is the Grand Canyon. Carved by a river over at least 17 million years, 5000 to 10,000 ...
- 23.1k
18
votes
Are there any saltwater rivers on Earth?
Here in New York City we have a salt "river". It is called the "East River" and it separates part of Long Island (Brooklyn and Queens) from the island of Manhattan and the mainland (The Bronx).
...
- 297
18
votes
Other than tectonic activity, what can reshape a world's surface?
Asteroid strikes. Anything from a smallish crater to re-liquefying the surface of the planet.
- 197
17
votes
Accepted
What is this weird looking structure in Ethiopian desert?
Zoom in for the clues. The lines are not radiating out from the village, but from the cattle kraals. These kraals are irregular enclosures built of acacia thorn, agave and other thorny bushes. The ...
- 14.1k
17
votes
Accepted
How did the Ural mountains form?
The Ural mountains are one of the oldest mountain ranges on Earth. They started forming about 300 Ma ago by the subduction of the oceanic crust once attached to the Kazakhstania plate under the ...
- 17.3k
17
votes
Other than tectonic activity, what can reshape a world's surface?
Glaciers come to mind. Their movements over hundreds or thousands of years can
abrade rock and debris from their substrate to create landforms such as cirques [enclosed valleys from which the ...
- 3,271
15
votes
In the northern hemisphere only, what percentage of the surface is land?
I get 40.4%
With a workflow using a tiny bit of Python.
After Polygorial‘s comment I am adding (Updated on Feb 17, 2021) point zero to state more explicitly that this method requires a map like the ...
- 649
15
votes
Are there any saltwater rivers on Earth?
I live near a river named Salz, flowing both warm and salty on the north slope of the Pyrenees south of Carcassonne. In historical times it was boiled dry for salt. See Les Sources de Salz
- 151
15
votes
Accepted
Are there seamounts as close as 100 m to the water surface and not inside any Exclusive Economic Zone?
Yes, there are many. According to the seafloor topographic data of ETOPO (1 arc second resolution), and the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) database of marineregions.org. There are at least 157 ...
- 17.3k
14
votes
Accepted
Is Atacama Desert cloudy or cloudless most of the year?
The Atatacma desert comprise a very large area of more than 100,000 square kilometers, that host very different climates. The main factors driving the climatic variability are the distance to the ...
- 17.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible