It’s been a common mistake to hear that Mount Everest, located in Nepal and Tibet, is considered to be the tallest mountain in the world. It does stand at 29,029 feet at its summit, which is the highest point above the global mean sea level on Earth.

But Mauna Kea, a volcano located in Hawaii and found underneath the Pacific Ocean measures more than 33,500 feet or more from its base to its peak. That’s 4,000 feet taller than Mount Everest.

Look at a map and you’ll see that the majority of the countries are bordered by multiple other nations or by a body or bodies of water. Try to locate Lesotho, San Marino, and Vatican City though as they are completely surrounded by just one country.

Lesotho is landlocked within South Africa. Italy surrounds both San Marino and Vatican City. The only 3 to share that fact.

If you paid attention in Geography class, you’ll know that Alaska is both the northernmost and the westernmost state in the US. But not everyone realizes that it is also the easternmost of all of the states.

The Aleutian Islands belongs to both Alaska and the Russian territory of Kamchatka Krai. They stretch across the 180th meridian, the one that divides the world into the Eastern and Western hemispheres.

One of the Aleutians, Amatignak Island, is the westernmost point in the US, which makes Semisopochnoi Island the easternmost point in the country.

They say that “everything is bigger in Texas”, so take a look at King Ranch.

There was a man named Richard King in 1853 who purchased land located in the Wild Horse Desert area of Texas. At the end of the Civil War, King’s property covered 146,000 acres. Impressive at the time but today, it is at the current size of 825,000 acres, or around 1,290 square miles, making the ranch actually larger than the state of Rhode Island.

Rhode Island boats of just 1,034 square miles.

King Ranch breeds and raises cattle and horses. Among the latter was 1946 Triple Crown winner Assault. King Ranch also had its Santa Gertrudis brand of cattle in 1940, which was recognized by the US Department of Agriculture as the first beef brand produced in America. The massive ranch was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

Colorado does look to be in the shape of a rectangle. But the state has 697 sides, which makes it a hexahectaenneacontakaiheptagon. That’s a real word too.

A 2018 BigThink.com article puts the blame on 19th century surveyors tasked with establishing borders by hand. Colorado officially became a state 3 years after 1879. That was when a group of surveyors set out from the Four Corners (where Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico meet), placing markers at every mile on the border with Utah until getting to Wyoming.

By the time later surveyors discovered the errors, the borders had already been accepted as official. Changing them would require Colorado and Utah to agree on a new border, which also needs approval from Congress. So nothing was done to correct the errors.

The border between the United States and Canada was set at the 49th parallel north in 1846. It intersected a peninsula, which had the land becoming part of Canada and of the States. The town of Point Roberts was on the part of that peninsula, landing on the US side of the border.

Historian Mark Swenson says the division was deliberate. The US wanted the valuable fishing and crabbing rights while the property could also serve as a military outpost. The US government granted the land to settlers in 1908.

Point Roberts is located about 25 miles south of Vancouver, Canada. Geographers call the place a “pene-exclave“, which is an area of one country that can only be reached by passing through another country. The tiny town is home to approximately 1,500 residents and can be driven to by passing through Canada.

Getting to Point Roberts from somewhere else in the US means passing through two international border checkpoints. There’s one to get into Canada, and another to get back into the US at Point Roberts itself.

Rumors have persisted for years that due to the town’s inaccessibility, the US Federal Witness Protection Program relocated dozens of people to the area.

Point Roberts’ unique geography has resulted in it being economically devastated by COVID-19. A regulation requiring people to be tested for COVID before visiting Canada was waived. That allowed for the town’s residents to travel through the country to get essential services since there is no hospital or pharmacy in town. But Canadians, who drive the area’s economy, weren’t allowed across the border.

In early 2021, Point Roberts’s business had declined by about 90%, with half of the permanent residents leaving town.

Australia may be the smallest of the world’s seven continents with a land area of approximately 7.7 million square kilometers but even though it is around 60% the size of the second-smallest continent, Antarctica, it is wider than the planet’s moon.

Earth’s moon has a land area of approximately 38 million square kilometers. Five times the size of Australia.

The numbers don’t seem to make sense but Australia is slightly wider. The moon’s equatorial diameter is about 3,476 square kilometers. But there is about 3,600 square kilometers from Brisbane to Perth.

The continent of Antarctica covers approximately 5.4 million square miles. It is the largest solid ice mass on Earth, with about 90% of the total volume of ice on the planet, including 70% of the planet’s total fresh water supply.

If all of that ice melted, it would raise the global sea level by around 200 feet. That’s how much water it actually has.

The Dead Sea is bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and Palestine to the west. It’s a lake whose surface is more than 4,200 feet (or 1,400 meters) below sea level. That’s the lowest point on earth.

The lake is very dense and mineral rich and is eight or nine times saltier than any of the world’s oceans making it the saltiest body of water in the world. But at a rate of 3 feet per year, it is shrinking thanks to a combination of the arid climate and the lack of available water.

There’s not enough to replenish the Dead Sea and to irrigate the farmland in the region. This has caused dangerous sinkholes to form on its shores.

Israel and Jordan signed a $900 million water sharing pact in 2015. The Dead Sea would be replenished by water from the Red Sea, supplying both Israel and Palestine with water at the same time. The project has since stalled. Either way, it would not be enough to fix the water shortage in the region.

The Dead Sea continues to recede. It won’t entirely disappear, as it will reach a point of equilibrium and stop shrinking.

The Sargasso Sea, named for a type of seaweed known as sargassum, is located within the Atlantic Ocean. Or more specifically within the Northern Atlantic Subtropical Gyre.

The Sargasso is unique since it is the only sea in the world that isn’t bordered by land. Its boundaries are defined by the Gulf Stream to the west, the Canary Current to the east, the North Atlantic Current to the north, and the North Atlantic Equatorial Current to the south.

It has been described as a “golden floating rainforest” since the Sargasso plays a crucial role as a habitat, spawning and foraging ground, and migratory corridor for lots of endangered or threatened species.

Researchers in 2017 submitted a study about a mostly submerged landmass located east of Australia which covered approximately 1.9 million square miles. They argued that it should be designated as a continent.

It’s called “Zealandia”, with 94% of the landmass located underwater. Only New Zealand and the island of New Caledonia rises above sea level. It was once classified as a microcontinent, but the research team argued that the size of its landmass means it should be classified as a continent since that fact distinguishes Zealandia from other microcontinents.

Led by geologist Nick Mortimer, the team argued that any landmass that covers at least 386,000 square miles should be defined as a continent.

Another obstacle for Zealandia is that it is submerged. A continent is commonly defined as a landmass surrounded by water.

“My judgment is that though Zealandia is continental, it is not a continent,” Christopher Scotese, a Northwestern University geologist, stated. “If it were emergent, we would readily identify it with Australia, much like we identify Greenland with North America and Madagascar with Africa.”

Mortimer’s team pointed out that if Antarctica wasn’t covered in ice, much of the western half would be under water.

No consensus has been reached yet but in 2021, it was determined that the landmass is approximately 1 billion years old. That makes it twice as old as researchers had previously thought.

This is Vulcan Point. This geographical and geological oddity is found in the island of Luzon in the Philippines. A large body of water called Lake Taal sits there and the lake contains Taal Volcano. It is one of the most active volcanoes in the world with 33 recorded eruptions.

Drive up to Tagaytay City in the province of Cavite and you’ll see Volcano Island. 10,000 feet above Lake Taal, is Main Crater Lake. Inside of that lake is Vulcan Point Island. That’s an island within a lake within a volcano within a lake within an island.

On January 12, 2020, Taal Volcano erupted, leading to the Main Crater Lake drying up.

The tiny nation of Kiribati (pronounced “keer-ruh-bass”) is located in the South Pacific areas of Polynesia and Micronesia. That’s about halfway between Hawaii and Australia. It consists of Banaba Island and 32 atolls spread across three groups of islands, namely the Gilbert, Phoenix, and Line Islands.

It is one of the poorest countries in the world with a population of just a little over 100,000. Kiribati was once under the dominion of the United Kingdom, before gaining its independence in 1979.

Kiribati is the only country in the world located in each of the four hemispheres. The Phoenix Islands are found in the Southern Hemisphere while the Gilbert Islands sit in both the Northern Hemipshere and the Southern Hemisphere.

The prime meridian is what separates the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere, and that cuts through the nation. Kiribati’s easternmost point lies in its southern Line Islands, while Banaba Island marks the nation’s westernmost point.