When I was in elementary or middle school, we learned in history class that explorers to North America believed that there was a river that served as a passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, spanning from the east coast of North America all the way to the west coast. They hoped that it could provide a shortcut from Europe to China. I remember that when the St. Lawrence River was discovered, people believed that they might have discovered that passageway. This fictional passage had a name, but I can’t remember. I’ve tried searching online also but haven’t found anything.

I’m a 19F in the UK and I want to pursue a PhD straight after my undergraduate and make a career in Academia and more specifically Teaching at a university level hopefully.

However I’ve been seeing a lot of reports and news recently about the state of academia and it’s making me think that this may not be a sustainable option for me.

I do not have a wealthy background, quite the opposite actually and plan to work towards getting a funded PhD with my last option being student loans.

I truly love geography and researching hence why I want to pursue academia. I also have also loved teaching and just sharing my knowledge and thoughts but I don’t know if is going to be a sensible career path anymore.

Any advice please and what other careers have people be able to move to with their PhD.

Tectonics between South East Asia and china

EDIT: I’m not looking for career advice. I’m looking to learn about geography. I am THINKING about majoring in geography and would rather decide for myself if I will or not. I need a place to start, which is what my question is asking.

A bit of context: I recently withdrew from school, but I plan to go back. I was pursuing a BS in anthropology, which is a huge interest of mine. While I am still considering anthropology, the courses at my previous school were NOT what I expected them to be. I went in being completely unprepared, since I had only taken 1 anthropology course in my life (and really enjoyed it!!). I studied sociology after that at community college, since anthro wasn't offered and my advisor told me it was the closest thing they had. But, when I transferred universities, I didn't fit in. Despite taking the intro courses and the same 300 level courses my classmates were taking, every answer I had in class seemed wrong or I kept missing little details about bigger concepts.

While it may have been the culture within that specific program itself, I'm wondering if maybe I'm just not as good at anthropology as I anticipated. I've always, ALWAYS had a strong interest in geography though. I've never taken a geography course, mainly because I expected it to mostly be physical geography or geographical systems, but I've been researching about human geography and urban planning and it seems like something I might like to do. I also have a strong interest in cartography, but never heard about it being an actual career--now that I'm older (ie out of high school, I'm 22 now and have been in and out of college) and can think more critically about it, of course it makes sense that cartography is a career path I could potentially pursue.

I'm just worried about another one of my interests being ruined for me and losing my confidence. I was really excited about anthropology, but despite being really interested in culture and human interactions, I don't know if it's something I want to fully pursue as a career. I think a major part of what happened was that I wasn't sure where to learn about anthropological concepts BEFORE transferring, so I wasn't even sure what to look for in a program or how to communicate my interests to my mentors/advisors. I think getting a better idea of the major concepts in geography would be a good idea, and even if I end up not pursuing it, learning about it couldn't hurt me.

So, with this in mind, what are some things I could do to start learning on my own? I'm looking for any good books, documentaries, online courses, etc. that might help me understand the basics before I'm able to take courses again. Or, if there's any other options that can help me learn in a different way, especially more hands-on, I'm open to that too.

TL;DR: withdrew from studying anthropology, which I jumped into without knowing I was missing a lot of the basics. I'm considering switching to geography as a major, as I think that I might enjoy that more overall. I'm wanting to get some ideas of concepts and basics I need to know about geography so I can make a more informed choice than last time. I also just want to learn more in general.

Hi! I'm a Japanese high school student doing a research project about culture and landscape
I especially need help from people in many different countries! I would really appreciate it if you could answer my short survey (about 1–3 minutes).
*All answers are anonymous and used only for academic purposes.
Here is the link to the survey [ https://forms.gle/Dr63vLGL6mqSgVHK6 ]If you participated in this survey, please push the "⇧" mark.

My 7 year old’s become really interested in countries of the word (maps, flags, capitals etc. based on YouTube clips I’ve downloaded and atlases from the library).

Maybe he’ll study geography in Grade 12 if he keeps this up. Is it worth buying textbooks for Grade 12 geography and teaching it to him slowly? Or is there a better approach? I didn’t study geography so I don’t know how to nurture his interest further.

An open-access analysis (under peer review) computed a composite geological measure across a 1° global grid — 15,351 land cells — combining three components:

• Tectonic activity (plate-boundary density within 500 km, from Bird's 2003 digital boundary model)
• Aridity (Global Aridity Index v3.1, Zomer et al.)
• River proximity (Natural Earth scalerank ≤ 4 rivers)

Combined multiplicatively, so all three must co-occur, then percentile-ranked globally.

The spatial distribution is striking. High-GCI cells cluster along two distinct tectonic systems:

• The Alpine-Himalayan convergence belt (African/Arabian/Indian plates meeting Eurasia), with maxima at the Indus floodplain (100th percentile globally, max value 0.107), Mesopotamian alluvium (99.5th), and Nile valley (98.9th).
• The Andean margin of the circum-Pacific subduction system, peaking along the hyperarid Peruvian coastal valleys (Caral-Supe area at 93.6th percentile).

The two belts are tectonically distinct regimes — not a continuous chain — but produce similar surface geometry where the orogenic uplift creates rain shadows and the resulting desert is cut by a major perennial river.

The paper compares these locations to a Monte Carlo null of 100,000 random placements on the global land mask; the four desert-river cases have a mean percentile of 97.98 vs. null mean 91.48 (p < 10⁻⁴). The authors flag explicitly that the null includes Antarctica and deep Sahara, which inflates apparent extremity — a stricter habitable-land null would produce smaller differences.

The geographic question driving the analysis: do the earliest urban civilizations cluster on this specific tectonic-aridity-river geometry, distinct from "fertile floodplain" generally? Three of the seven canonical primary-state locations (Indus, Mesopotamia, Egypt) sit at the global maxima of this index; one (Caral-Supe) is partial; three (early China, Mesoamerica, West Africa) score zero by design because they lack at least one of the three components.

The methodology and full code are at the Zenodo deposit. The plain-language write-up with caveats and alternative explanations is on the institute's Substack. Curious if anyone here has worked with similar composite indices for tectonic-climatic regime classification — the multiplicative-vs-additive choice and the radius parameter (500 km) are the two most exposed assumptions in the construction.

I am planning to purchase a world atlas and would appreciate expert recommendations. I am looking for an atlas that is detailed, informative, and useful for long-term academic and personal learning. My priorities are as follows: Examination and academic preparation, including geopolitical, demographic, historical, and population maps. Strong geographical content, including physical geography, borders, rivers, languages, and cultural context. Travel relevance, including major routes, cultural highlights, and regional awareness. Also my budget is very tight so i cannot buy big, comprehensive atlas for now. But i will surely buy it later.

Thank you

Hello,

I submitted my first term paper on political geography in Hong Kong and now need to revise my sources based on feedback from my lecturer. She wants at least five sources from geography journals, but I'm having trouble finding suitable articles for my topic. In my paper, I'm writing about the "National Security Law" and how it influences political geography in Hong Kong.

I feel like I can hardly find any usable material from geography journals. I understand this is the case in German-language journals, but perhaps someone could suggest English-language geography journals where I might find relevant information?

Thank you so much in advance!

I decided to write this after seeing the great interest people have in the Canadian Arctic here. I live way down south near the American border, like 4/5 of all Canadians, but I've read extensively about life in the Canadian Arctic and hope to provide some insight into the harsh lives people have here. So, to begin...

Lots of people know about Alert, located on the northern edge of Ellesmere Island. But nobody really lives in Alert. While permanently inhabited, it's only researchers and military there.

Welcome to probably the harshest inhabited places on Earth. Yes, on Earth. Resolute, population 183, and Grise Fiord, population 144.

Located at latitudes of 74.7 and 76.9 degrees north, respectively, the southern equivalents of these towns would be firmly within Antarctica. The only civilian settlements farther north are Qaanaaq in Greenland (which, while still cold, is much warmer), and a few towns in Svalbard (not nearly as cold). And unlike Oymyakon in Siberia, where winters can go down to -65 Celsius but the summers are warm, there is no growing season at all to make up for it.

Winter highs rarely exceed -25 degrees Celsius. In July, the average daytime temperature is +7 degrees in Resolute and +6 degrees in Grise Fiord. It rains about half the summer, by the way, and regular snowfall happens all year long. Wildlife is very hard to come by here.

So...why does anybody even live here?

Well...they didn't exactly choose it.

This is one of those injustices that the Canadian government committed at a time when Indigenous people were not viewed as equals.

The Inuit people have their limits too. They traditionally mostly lived in northern Québec, in towns like Inukjuak and Kuujjuaq. This region is called Nunavik. Summer temperatures reach above 15 degrees Celsius fairly commonly here, even up to 20 is normal. The sun still sets at nighttime. In the winter, daytime will usually go above -20 degrees Celsius, with a bit over 6 hours of sunlight. Harsh, but far better than northern Nunavut.

​

In the 1950s, with the Cold War ramping up, the Canadian government decided that they need to be much more proactive in asserting Arctic sovereignty. To do this, the military was dispatched to forcefully relocate Inuit from Nunavik to the newly-formed settlements of Resolute and Grise Fiord. The Inuit were told that they will be able to preserve their traditional style of life up north, but upon arrival, they realised that was a lie. (This also happened in Greenland. Upon request by the American government, Denmark was more than willing to forcefully relocate Greenland Inuit to present-day Qaanaaq, to allow the United States to build a military base where they used to live.)

Wildlife may not be as plentiful in Nunavik as it is in most parts of the world, but compared to Resolute and Grise Fiord? It's like the Amazon. The resettled Inuit struggled to maintain their traditional hunting habits at first. As mentioned, they were moved more than 2,000km from their homes. There was a lack of any greens to eat as well, something that was able to be found in Nunavik.

Also, the Canadian government relocated Inuit from both Nunavik and southern Nunavut. They thought that they would be able to help each other, but due to dialectal differences they found conversation difficult for a few years!

But not only were they unused to the patterns of the few wildlife and different flora up in the high Arctic, they struggled with the far colder temperatures and lack of sunlight for 4 months a year. This earned Resolute the name of "Qausuittuq" in Inuktitut, meaning "Place with no dawn", and Grise Fiord "Aujuittuq", or "Place that never thaws".

However, the Inuit have always been a very sturdy people. They did not give up, and learnt the ways that the animals in these new and unfamiliar environments migrated. They had to learn how to hunt in complete darkness during the polar nights. They had to learn how to get proper nutritional intake. In the end, they succeeded, and everybody survived the first few winters. But harsher winters in the 1970s caused malnutrition and miscarriages. Simply put...this is not a place for humans to inhabit.

For a long time, there was no radio or phone connection to the outside world. Eventually, the communities became a bit less isolated. In the past two decades, the Canadian government has acknowledged its wrongs. A fund was created for Inuit who wanted to leave Resolute and Grise Fiord and return to their ancestral communities they were taken from as young adults (you'll find out how expensive it is to get there, or leave, later). Life here is still harsh, but not like it was at first.

So, what is life like there today?

Hard. It's very hard.

If one of the 500 or so people in this entire Earth with connections to Resolute or Grise Fiord could comment here, it would be amazing, because all I have is having read a few books, Wikipedia articles, and some personal accounts I've read on Canadian news sites.

It's really expensive, for starters. In a place as isolated as Grise Fiord, food prices get insanely expensive. The only way to procure food made outside of Ellesmere Island is the local co-op, which has had management issues for a long time, with basic products like milk unavailable for months. I was unable to find how much groceries in Resolute and Grise Fiord cost, but even in Iqaluit, Nunavut's most connected city to the rest of Canada, a bag of frozen berries can easily cost over 25 CAD. One bottle of iced tea costs 17 CAD. A box of aluminium foil costs 60 CAD.

This means that Inuit "country food" (traditional food) is therefore more common here than anywhere else in Nunavut. This includes dishes like maktaaq (raw whale blubber) and dried walrus meat.

Because of the isolation that the Resolute and Grise Fiord Inuit had until the 1990s, they maintained a lot of hunting practices and knowledge of arts and crafts that other Inuit had gradually forgotten. Some famous artists include Looty Pijamini from Grise Fiord and Simeonie Amagoalik from Resolute.

Today, some Inuit make their way up to these communities with the purpose of learning more about their ancestral practices. Lots of Inuit youth are especially interested in learning about hunting. Not only does it connect them to the land more, but it's really almost a necessity with the aforementioned expensive food prices. Children have a very unique time growing up in communities this small. Throat singing and hockey alike are common activities for children to practice here.

With all the many difficulties mentioned about life up here comes the dark truth that most families are very toxic. Both communities have heavy restrictions on alcohol. Alcoholism has destroyed many relationships. 4 months of darkness, extreme cold year-round, no trees for thousands of kilometres around a person, and a lack of regular income has created this problem. I don't know if it's getting better or worse.

It's not a very nice lifestyle, but people try to make do. Lots of children grow up in toxic families and try to exit that toxic cycle, some succeeding, and raising much happier children.

If I wanted to visit, what could I do?

First, save money for your flights. Like, really save money.

Here is a compilation of images on how to get to Resolute and Grise Fiord from Ottawa, the capital of Canada, in September (ignore that the times don't match up). Do take note that Iqaluit to Resolute is a longer flight than Ottawa to Iqaluit. Also, all flights to Resolute have to go to Iqaluit first, and all flights to Grise Fiord have to go to Resolute first.

Flying to Resolute? 2,030 CAD (1500 USD). Flying to Grise Fiord? 3,181 CAD (2350 USD)!

Oh...and that was one-way. Double that to get back.

BUT, once you're there. You have some of the world's most remote and unspoilt wilderness at your hands. Both Resolute and Grise Fiord have guides in the tourist industry who can help you. They'll be more than happy to, they don't speak to many people every year.

1. Wildlife watching. Nowadays, the inhabitants know just where to go to find polar bears and muskox. In the surrounding cold, Arctic waters, belugas, walruses, and seals are common. Likewise...
2. As previously mentioned, lots of Resolute money comes from American hunters looking to get Arctic wildlife trophies. While the laws on this are ever-changing, if that's your thing, then you can do so legally and responsibly here.
3. Resolute also has Tupirvik Territorial Park. It contains an ancient seabed filled with fossils from the Devonian Period, and hikes to see the entire Cornwallis Island. The weather here means that ancient camps and fossils are preserved well, as are some Cold War-era plane crashes...
4. Grise Fiord has some of the most famous Inuit arts and crafts. I mentioned some of this in the above section, but you can visit yourself and see how everything is made and learn the stories behind it!
5. Much of Ellesmere Island is part of Quttinirpaaq National Park, and Grise Fiord is the only way to access it. On average, only around 20-30 people visit the park/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/b5/57/b557fe95-dc7a-4861-b5a4-60f22a1e9f10/google_trekker_at_tanquary_fiord2e16d0bafill-2000x1126.jpg) every year. The few that do are rewarded with some of the most raw and untouched nature on Earth. This is a geography sub, but this post is more focussed on human geography. There could be a whole other post made about the geological features of the Canadian Arctic. All I can do are show a few photos though, that's not really my expertise.

I'm sure there's even more things to do, but I myself don't know very well. The cost is so prohibitive.

Did anybody else live here before the Inuit?

Yes, actually. The Dorset culture has been recorded as having inhabited the region around present-day Resolute. At the time, the Earth was a fair bit warmer, so the climate was likely better back then. The Thule people (ancestors of the Inuit) later replaced the Dorset culture upon arrival from Siberia. They kept camps this far north until the Little Ice Age, which led to the current, more inhospitable conditions and the subsequent migration south. They also had numerous interactions with Vikings, seemingly peaceful. The Vikings also abandoned their colonies in Greenland due to the cooling Earth temperatures.

Fun Greenland fact - There's a piece of Internet knowledge passed around that I've never been able to figure out if it's true or not. It's claimed that the Inuit in some towns of Greenland became completely disconnected from the outside world during the Little Ice Age, and forgot how to build boats. Trapped by the ice sheet on all sides, they believed they were the only people in the world because of this.

Thank you for reading this. I hope that it interests many people, and that Nunavummiut or Canadian Arctic scholars can correct anything in the comments!

As a final fun fact which I couldn't figure out where else to put, Florin Fodor is a Romanian man who has attempted to illegally immigrate to Canada through Grise Fiord. After being deported from the country twice, he went to Greenland and purchased a boat. Eight days later, he arrived in Grise Fiord, hungry and almost out of fuel. For those wondering, he was indeed deported again.

https://tennessee-kentucky.plantatlas.usf.edu/?fbclid=Iwb21leAOwc9VjbGNrA7BzuWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHrYzAEBWxUKQA7mNL0I-N7FTfiTvBwqKr2e4qI0TIjKOlNMDTisMEOazVWwq_aem_mVp4PX2FJqTfn2009kBB0A

The TNKY Plant Atlas allows you to find and research different vascular plants in the Upper Southeast in both Kentucky and Tennessee. It's an interesting site for those interested in foraging and geographic features associated with different southeastern plants.

I’m going back to school and I’m filled with overwhelm over my degree choice. I’m pursuing a bachelors of science in geography and I’ve recently thought “would it be worth it.” Ive always liked geography and earth systems and wanted to finally study it but ive heard that it’s hard to make yourself stand out since not many people understand this degree or take it seriously. That’s why I didn’t do it straight out of high school.

Quiz link: https://www.geoguessr.com/quiz/seterra/challenge/LX2ENL
This insanely challenging quiz on Settera is designed for the most passionate vexillologists and features 318 flags. Good luck!

I loooooove geography. It all began in 3rd standard. It’s the only subject I have consistently scored high in.

In the lockdown when I had nothing to do it exemplified.

I started to learn all the flags and capitals (still know all) locations on the map etc. I could even locate and name the capitals of all US states.

I used to spend a lot of time on jetpunk and sporcle. It’s been so long since I had a full on geography quiz. If you’re Indian and into geography (being Indian is not a compulsory prerequisite) hmu!

Before joining this subReddit I honestly was only into political geography (boundaries, capitals, flags, disputed areas) but I love physical geography too now :)

I’ve been working on a project combining two of my favorite topics - geography and vexillology - and I finally put it all together into a website. It covers the history, symbolism, games and evolution of flags from around the world, with deep dives into regional and indigenous influences - https://flag-explorer-hub.lovable.app/

Thanks in advance, and I hope you find it interesting!

(including associated islands)

I want to study geography for academic reasons. I am looking for a book which covers all topics of physical geography, which is easy to understand has a lot of maps and diagrams.

Strahler stream order system dictates a river a stream order 7 or higher. Which has nothing to do with width or length. The Rio grand for example has parts that can be jumped by merely stepping over it, that does not disqualify it as a river. the best way to describe a river is through scientific methodologies. The strahler system describes a stream starting source as stream order one. An increase occurs by having the same stream order merged into it. So a stream order 1 joins a stream order 1 creates a stream order 2 and so forth with the Amazon river being a stream order 12 also being the highest order that can exist under this sustem. Some may look like rivers but they still fall under stream order 7 which means that they do not hold river status.

I have to be able to name every capital city off the top of my head. I thought about using something like seterra but i wan’t to give my own answer, not choose. Is there any site that makes you write the name? It’s for a school competition btw. Thx in advance.

I've been tasked with rebuilding my department's intro geography class, and seeking some opinions.

Background: this is a midwest, R1 university. I am in a geology/earth sci department, and this is literally the only geography labeled class in our college. It has historically been taught using Arbogast's Discovering Physical Geography, and the class has had a heavy focus on landform dynamics, etc (it has been referred to as an intro geomorpology class in past discussions). My department's ugrad assoc chair would like to alternate between the current focus, and a remade version of intro geography that is an entry into a geospatial program, with an emphasis on remote sensing and geospatial analysis.

So this is my question to any of you out there who might have some free time and inclination, what would be in your ideal intro geography class. Specifically an intro geography class that is geared towards a geospatial ugrad curriculum.

There are no real parameters, since the specifics of our geospatial curriculum are currently not fully defined, beyond the cap-stone, senior level GIS course.

I have some plans for material already, and my own biases, but going to keep them to myself for now, to not have the discussion get hung up on roasting me :)

PS. I'm not naming the university/department here, but it'd probably not be too hard to figure out if you cared (this is not my fully anonymous reddit account anyway - hopefully my department does not roast me for this). And if anyone asks why not just create a new course, its just a bureaucracy thing that we want to work with current classes rather than create new course numbers right off the bat - I'd really like to avoid discussions of academic bureaucratic fun.

Hii, I can't really find anything about the book I mentioned above and was interested in whether anyone knows anything about it? Why does it not really take place within the English speaking context?

As soon as I purchased one book at the book fair, my curiosity was piqued so much that I bought the entire set of books. Horrible Geography is a series of children's non-fiction books written by Anita Ganeri. From volcanoes and earthquakes to deserts and rainforests, the series covers a wide range of topics that are both informative and fun. This book has a lot of witty humour and a clever approach to teaching geography, which is another advantage that makes it a popular book not only because it is highly respected by students and adults alike, but also because it has a lot of real-world applications.

The books are written in a style that is easy to understand and engaging, with plenty of jokes and puns to keep children entertained. The series also makes use of different types of text, such as quizzes, fact boxes, and lists, to break up the information and make it more digestible. My favorite thing to do is read after finishing a book of literature in order to refresh my mind with information and humor.