Fun topic. I've won in national high school competition in Geography 4 times in a row. AMA!
Daniyar Yeskaliyev
9 replies
Beware: I finished school 11 years ago, so I might need to google some stuff.
But you can still ask anything, like what shape is Earth and why seasons change. I have a pretty solid knowledge of the fundamentals, for every part of the world.
P.S. no geopolitics questions please, let's stick with Physical Geography, Biodiversity, Climate zones, fun facts
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Krishna Kumar@kkumarkg
Not sure if it is linked to Geography. Why are Penguins seen only in the southern hemisphere?
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Castofly
@kkumarkg for kinds of animals that are only seen in one hemisphere or in one region the answer always comes down to 2 factors:
1. Climate zones
2. Physical accessibility.
For example, when Eurasia and North America were actually physically connected by land and year-long ice surface, people and animals migrated freely, building a look-alike ecosystem.
Trees, plants, animals are very similar in Alaska and Far East of Russia.
But isolated ecosystems, like Australia, have a so-called endemics - kinds of plants and animals that can only be seen in that region only. Koalas, kangaroos, platypus - are all endemics of Australia (plus maybe seen in New Zealand but it was one continent at some point).
That's why we can see penguins in Antarctica, but not in Arctica. Same applies to a polar bear that only lives in the northern hemisphere, but not seen in Southern. They're just too far away and have oceans in between.
Castofly
@kkumarkg penguins are a form of birds, and they just happened to fit better to Antarctica.
Arctica isn't really a continent, it's just a bunch of ice in the middle of the ocean, but Antarctica actually has a solid ground under it - that's why it's considered a continent.
Penguins live in the southern part of South America, Australia, New Zealand and Africa.
The funniest and unluckiest are penguins in Namib Desert - it's a ocean shore desert in south west of Africa. They are proven to be locked there due to the Namib stream in the ocean that is directed from South to North. They probably got caught in the stream and had to travel all the way up north, and they can't escape it due to the same stream.
They've adapted to live on the rocky sea shore. Namib desert is a cold desert with a really dry climate, but penguins have adapted because of the cold ocean and plenty of fish.
Castofly
What is coreolis effect?
Castofly
@chetan_natesh there's no quick answer to that question, but thanks for asking.
Coriolis force is a physical force that is affecting moving objects on a rotating surfaces or objects.
When it comes to geography, Coriolis force affects how Air and Water change direction due to fact of the Earth's rotation. Basically there are many scheme and videos on the web, but long story short - it causes winds and ocean stream to bend toward specific direction.
Hurricane and water flashing or whirpools rotate towards one or another direction based on which hemisphere you're at, and the closer you're to one of Poles, the more clear the effect is.
When combines with Key Climate Zones - Equatorial, Tropical, Temperate and Polar - this force has a huge affect on how Regular Winds are formed. Climate zones tend to have a pattern of Low and High air pressure zones that toggle one after another.
Equator has low pressure, and the air goes up bringing humid air up and causing them to condensate as rains - thus we have hot days near the equator with instant intensive showers. Tropical zone have higher air pressure zones with enough of Sun Light, causing dry areas - Namib, Kalahari, Sahara deserts are all in tropical regions. Tropical regions can be humid if they have enough air and water streams that bring water there, but generally they tend to be try due to this main reason - high air pressure causing humid air to stay lower and not condensate as rains.
So, Coriolis Force combined with Low - High - Low - High air pressure zone causes repetitive patterns or air and ocean streams, which generate areas that are always dry, or always humid.
Of course bigger and predictable patterns are only applicable to big streams and regions, and smaller events can't be forecasted that easily. But in general we can say that Sahara will be dry on average, and Equatorial Countries will always have a lot of rains.
Why I still don't have 20 degrees every day, I don't want this rain and snow, I want sunshine. I only remember the worst moments when I studied, like a lot of assignments that no one wants and the worst is writing something. I graduated recently so I had to do an essay on cyber bullying without understanding what to write there, I managed to find a couple of examples and do something with them. Modern problems require some kind of modern solutions, but how is it still possible in our time I do not understand. So I don't even know what to ask, it's much more interesting to find out what you wouldn't remember from your school days and such a memory happened to float in your head, I have this with any mathematics more complicated than ordinary equations.
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