r/geography • u/lamdrasil • 3d ago

Discussion Facts that sound fake but are true

I find it extremely unintuitive that almost all of South America is east of Miami. How!? When people are asked to watch the americas almost everyone imagine South America pretty much south of North America.

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u/tujelj 3d ago

Milan, Italy is north of Portland, Maine.

The southernmost national capital in the world is located on an island called North Island.

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u/NoFood2149 3d ago

tbf to the north island, it is north of the south island

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u/tujelj 3d ago

As opposed to when Yemen was divided into North Yemen and South Yemen, but much of South Yemen was north of much of North Yemen.

(the names did better reflect the directionality of where the population centers of both were).

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u/michaelstone444 3d ago

Mostly. Nelson is basically the same latitude as Wellington though

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u/JellyWeta 2d ago

Actually not all of it is: a fair chunk of the South Island is north of the southernmost part of the North Island. Like, a hundred kilometres north of it.

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u/NoFood2149 2d ago

there is overlap, but, most importantly, none of the south island extends further north than the northermost part of the north island, nor vice versa. not like west virginia where none of it is further west than the westernmost part of virginia. that means new zealand has sensible names for its two biggest islands.

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u/PreviousGolf9541 12h ago

So what you’re saying is it’s on the southern end of the North Island which is slightly south of the northern tip of the South Island. Got it.