The Earth In Geographical Facts

"The Blue Planet" is a huge source of curiosities when it comes to its geography. The facts below are just a few examples:

- Sudan's GDP is about the same with that of the US state of Idaho (approximately 54 billion $).

- The total world GDP reached 70 trillion $ in 2011. In comparison, the world GDP in 2010 was about 63 trillion $.

- Approximately 40% of the total area of Brazil (or 3,3 million square km / 1,274 million square mi) is covered by the Amazon rainforest.

- Indonesia is the country with the most active volcanoes (over 130).

- In the last 100 years, Chile has experienced about 8 earthquakes rating at least 8.0 magnitude including the 1960 Valdivia earthquake which was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded on Earth rating a magnitude of 9.5.

- There are 100 million privately owned cars in China.

- There are over 6,300 ships that are registered in the country of Panama.

- Lesotho is an enclave and a landlocked country that is completely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa.

- The present Croatian city of Dubrovnik was known in the Middle Ages as the Republic of Ragusa.

- Greenland is the world largest island and the least densely populated country or territory in the world.

- Russia and Bangladesh have the same number of inhabitants (approximately 142 million), but the area of Bangladesh is 115 times smaller than the area of Russia.

- Armenia has one of the oldest Christian community in the world - it was the first country that adopted Christianity in 301 AD.

- Yosemite Falls is the highest waterfall in North America (739 m / 2,425 ft).

The Geography Of The World In Facts

I hope you will enjoy the following list with geographical facts about our world:

- Canada is home to 10% of the world's forests and holds 20% of the world's freshwater.

- The North American Great Lakes have a total area of 244,106 sq km / 94,250 sq mi and represent 21% of the world's surface fresh water.

- Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area (68,800 sq km / 26,600 sq mi).

- Vatican City is the world's smallest country (0.44 sq km / 0.17 sq mi) and the world's least populated country (about 800 people).

- Tristan da Cunha is the remotest inhabited island in the world. This island has a population of 264 people and it is located in the South Atlantic Ocean, at a distance of 2,816 km (1,750 mi) from South Africa and 3,360 km (2,088 mi) from South America.

- The Chilean city of Puerto Williams is the southernmost city of the world.

- The Irish name of the Ireland capital of Dublin is Baile Atha Cliath.

- The Swiss city of Zurich was known in the past as Turigus, Turegus, and Turicum.

- The Qinghai-Tibet railway is the world's highest railway. The highest point of this railway is reached at the Tanggula Pass (5,072 m or 16,640 ft above sea level).

- The Rub'al - Khali area in Saudi Arabia is the world's largest sand desert (647,500 sq km or 250,001 sq mi).

General Remarks on the Chemistry of the Metals

Although the number of the metallic elements is much greater than that of the non-metals, the chemistry of them is much simpler and comparatively less diverse. This is due to the fact that by far the largest number and the most important of the compounds of the metals are of a saline character. Now, we have seen generally that the properties of the salts in aqueous solution are conditioned essentially by the properties of their ions. If, therefore, a metal, e.g. silver, forms only one kind of cation, the behaviour of all its salts in aqueous solution is known, if that of this particular cation is known; a knowledge of the anions, which have mostly been treated in the chemistry of the non-metals, is hereby supposed given.

So far, then, as the behaviour in aqueous solution is concerned, the chemistry of the metals is essentially given with the knowledge of the metal ions. In analytical chemistry we are concerned almost entirely with aqueous solutions, and to what we there learn it is generally sufficient to add a statement of the solubility relations of certain difficultly soluble salts, in order to obtain the foundation of analytical chemistry. For general chemistry, however, it is necessary to add a knowledge of the compounds in the solid state as well as of the non-saline or indifferent compounds which also exist in the case of the metals, whereby greater diversity is produced.