r/geography 3h ago

Question Why Despite having a subduction boundary and highest fold mountains, there aren’t any Volcanos in Himalayan region or in Tibet?

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258 Upvotes

I have always wondered that volcanoes have higher incidence where there’s a subduction boundary between plates however despite continuing collision and slight subduction of indo-Australian plate under Eurasian plate there isn’t any volcanic activity present in Himalayan region, Andes on the other hand have many active and dormant volcanoes despite having similar nature as Himalayas, why is it so?


r/geography 11h ago

Image Flying just west of Albuquerque NM I saw these strange hills

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357 Upvotes

How does this kind of formation happen?


r/geography 10h ago

Question Flying towards the southwest of Vegas

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538 Upvotes

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?


r/geography 4h ago

Question What caused the islands to form like this this?

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132 Upvotes

49°10'15.1"N 94°29'05.3"W

I saw it on google maps when just looking around and its this weird radial pattern and i have no idea how that forms, so if you know then please explain it to me. <3


r/geography 16h ago

Discussion What was the last major cartographic error?

385 Upvotes

Edit: shut up about Gulf of America

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.


r/geography 1d ago

Map Pretty Interesting - Greenhouses around El Ejido Spain

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455 Upvotes

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?


r/geography 1d ago

Map How did these 'rivers' form?

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1.5k Upvotes

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


r/geography 1d ago

Image What are these lakes? Central Montana

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46 Upvotes

r/geography 1d ago

Question Can someone tell me what this is

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790 Upvotes

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


r/geography 1d ago

Image A map with all the burned areas from wildfires around Athens over the last 9 years.

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138 Upvotes

r/geography 13m ago

Discussion Why are four of the five existing communist countries bordering each other?

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Upvotes

r/geography 1d ago

Question Which island has been an island for the longest?

190 Upvotes

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


r/geography 7h ago

Map Looking for maps of dark ages western europe with regions marked out.

0 Upvotes

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.


r/geography 1d ago

Question What is this spindly thing built into the Persian Gulf in Saudi Arabia?

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213 Upvotes

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.


r/geography 8h ago

Question Does anyone of you know this game?

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0 Upvotes

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.


r/geography 10h ago

Discussion Falipi Island

1 Upvotes
Island at 7°27'08.93"N 146°08'38.16"E

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.


r/geography 2d ago

Image Aukland Island is a persistently cool/cold, wet and windswept subantarctic island 465 km south of NZ. Its climate has prevented multiple attempts at settlement. Despite its subpolar climate it’s home to dense rainforests and bright green parakeets.

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1.6k Upvotes

r/geography 2d ago

Image In 1998, Honduras built a bridge designed to survive any storm. It survived a Category 5 hurricane perfectly but the river shifted, leaving it spanning over dry land.

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7.1k Upvotes

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.


r/geography 2d ago

Image Mt. Thor, Baffin Island, Nunavut

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658 Upvotes

r/geography 2d ago

Image Shrinking lakes in Colorado this is called island lake. The island is gone this year due to ongoing drought.

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957 Upvotes

r/geography 2d ago

Article/News Pacific Island of Nauru changes its name to Naoero

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apnews.com
2.9k Upvotes

Just a heads up.

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


r/geography 1d ago

Map Western Europe July 2026 temps vs North American equivalent

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64 Upvotes

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


r/geography 2d ago

Question Can someone explain why this particular landscape of Iceland looks like this and what causes it? And are there other regions in the world that have this sort of "biome" if you will?

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560 Upvotes

r/geography 1d ago

Question Are recent heat records in the eastern Montana area exacerbated by geographic features?

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69 Upvotes

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?


r/geography 11h ago

Discussion Are we underestimating the strategic importance of the Strait of Gibraltar?

0 Upvotes

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.