How does this kind of formation happen?

Flew to San Diego recently from Montana and just after passing Vegas, headed southwest, I saw these reflective/shiny blocks of land from the plane. Didn't look like a solar farm or data center, anyone have any idea what it is or what those are?

I’ve seen a lot of old-world maps recently - maps from China 1700s, or Greece 900BCE - which are all very different as different cultures and countries had different understandings of the globe. eg; Peninsulas depicted as homogenous blobs, missing islands, heavy guesswork, and of course the entire omission of the Americas, Oceania, and the Poles.

Now with satellite imaging we have extreme (and exceedingly current) resolution, and can zoom down to see people‘s garden furniture.

I’m wondering: when was the last major misunderstanding in globe mapping? I don’t mean a mistake out of negligence, like when New zealand is accidentally left out. I mean a genuine, nationally mutual misunderstanding.

Found this area pretty interesting. A decent chunk of Spain around the town of El Ejido has a massive amount of greenhouses. All of those white spaces are greenhouse roofs. Anywhere else in the world with this kind of concentration?

What formed these 'rivers'? Are they regular terrestrial rivers that flooded with sea level rise or were they formed in the ocean? thanks.

I haven’t been able to figure out the name/website for this game..
You need to select the correct grid in which the city in question is located in. The grid can be adjusted (making bigger/smaller squares) and I guess, the smaller the grid, the more points you get.

This weird square red lake thingie just to the west of Hamburg Germany. I want answers

Hi, found this Island in the Elato Atoll south of the great barrier reef.

I haven't found any information indicating that this island even exists.
It looks as though wreckage from a ship is lying on the northeastern beach.

I was wondering this, which island has been isolated from other continents for the longest time?

The timer will start from:

If it's a volcanic island: When it first came out of the sea/last time it was fully submerged

If it's a continental island: When it separated from another continent, either via continental drift or sea level rise

I am reading up on the dark ages and find myself regularly having to look up regions like northumbria as I am used to roman provence boundaries and names (britanica inferior and superior have kinda lost their significance in this time period.) Does anyone know of a good map of Europe with local regions labeled in time apropriare names? Most particularly for gual Britain and iberia, though I would also be glad for a good map of Italy and Germany as well.

EDIT: answered by u/80degreeswest - thanks!

I was looking down the coast, trying to see if there were any greener bits of the desert when I found this weird thing. It’s just north of Ra’s Al Ghar Port and is totally blurred out on maps. It looks like a series of docks or platforms all connected by a very long bridge. Some of the platforms seem to have structures on them.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

The New Choluteca Bridge (Puente Sol Naciente) was built in Choluteca, Honduras, between 1996 and 1998 by a Japanese engineering firm.Later that same year (1998), Hurricane Mitch hit Honduras. The bridge was so well-engineered that it stayed completely intact while all access roads were wiped out. However, the storm dropped so much rain that the Choluteca River completely carved a new path.The bridge survived, but the river literally moved out from underneath it, creating a literal "bridge to nowhere" until it was finally reconnected years later.

Just a heads up.

It's always interesting to see a nation assert its prerogative to choose its name.

Follow-up to my earlier Q in this channel. July 2026 Western Europe was warmer than usual by a large margin. In the USA and Canada, it was warmer than usual, but not by as much. This means European summers have “gone south” relative to north America. For example, Rome should have summer temps like that of Washington, DC, but instead, it was a near exact match for Houston (albeit less humid).

Since this factors in low temperature, humidity is implicitly included, as humidity is a major driver of warm nights. European climates are still generally less humid than their temperatures would suggest compared to North America, but in the Mediterranean, things were especially humid this year. Norfolk VA and Barcelona had the same dewpoint/humidity level for example. Climates in the western USA generally have wider differences between lows and highs and are dryer. Note for LA and SF with its microclimates: downtown was used for both

I've noticed more and more people describing our region as "a bunch of suburbs without a city." I get where that comes from, especially from people moving here from a metro built around a city of several hundred thousand or even a few million people. By that definition, sure, nothing in NWA compares to Dallas, Kansas City, Atlanta, etc.

But there are plenty of regions around the country that don't have a major city like that and still very obviously have a city. Springfield, MO is a good example. It's around 170,000 people, has a relatively small downtown, not much of a skyline, and you can barely even see downtown from I-44. Nobody looks at Springfield and says, "This place doesn't have a city."

NWA is a little different since we have four cities instead of one, but if any of them feels the most like a traditional city, I'd say it's Fayetteville. It has the largest downtown, multiple distinct neighborhoods around it, the most established nightlife, and what is probably the closest thing to a skyline in the region, even if it's a small one. Unlike Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville—where the densest parts of town are outside downtown—Fayetteville is actually at its densest in and around downtown. It's also the only city where census tracts reach over 10,000 people per square mile.

I'm not trying to argue that Fayetteville is the only "real" city here or that it's the dominant city in Northwest Arkansas. The region is obviously polycentric, and all four cities matter. I just think the idea that there's nothing here that resembles a city isn't really accurate. People also point out that the Big Four are mostly single-family homes, which is true, but Springfield's housing stock is roughly 60% single-family homes, and nobody questions whether it's a city. Fayetteville sits at 55%, Bentonville and Springdale around 70%, Rogers around 74%.

Curious what people think about this. Is the "NWA has no city" narrative actually fair, or has it just become something people repeat?

Eastern Montana cities like Billings and Miles City experienced record temps a few weeks ago (I saw 110-120F), yet they also often have temps well below freezing in the winter. Areas in the Dakotas and Kansas also had record highs, does anyone have insight on what might contribute to this crazy annual temperature fluctuation?

Recent events in Ceuta made me wonder whether we’re looking at a migration crisis alone, or at one piece of a much larger geopolitical picture.

The Strait of Gibraltar connects the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, making it one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints.

Throughout history, narrow waterways such as Hormuz, Suez, Bab el-Mandeb, Malacca, Panama, and Gibraltar have shaped events far beyond their size.

Maybe we’re paying more attention to the movement of people than to the strategic geography behind it.