The world is top-heavy
Konrad and I had a look at Google Earth tonight, and we discovered, it seemed, that here, in St. Andrews, 56° 34' North of the equator, we are further north than the southern-most part of the world is south. (Excepting Antarctica). But the size of the difference is astonishing: the southern-most part of the world is in Chile, and is 56° 32'S.
On closer inspection, I saw that this is not quite right, for reasons I must explain. But it's okay: it's to the end of expansion of geographical knowledge.
Between the most southerly tip of South America and the Antarctic Peninsula is a sort of archipelago along the underwater ridge which connects this two peninsulas. This peninsula looks like a hugely elongated Greek capital Omega, tilted 90° clockwise. Some of these islands can fairly be said to be a part of Antarctica - and so my original claim about St. Andrews can be said to be true(ish) - but others are less clearly so. South Georgia - at about 54°S 37°W is certainly not clearly Antarctica, but is less southerly than St. Andrews is northerly. But what's more interesting are the South Sandwich islands, on the tip of this Omega. These are eight or nine tiny islands all in a row, stretching from 56° 17'S 27° 35'W to 59° 30'S 27° 21'W. The arc of the islands is such that the easternmost point is about 26° 14'W. (Remember that the tip of the South American peninsula is only 65°W!) And, at 59°S, they are further south than St. Andrews is north. These are the only non-Antarctic landmasses of which this can be said. Their total area can only be a few miles square. Cook Island, the most southerly, is barely three miles wide.
Right: all very interesting, but not so very surprising, as, after all, that there is an underwater ridge between these two peninsulas is unsurprising, as is that this ridge should occasionally rise above sea level. But something much more surprising is directly below the Indian subcontinent, at about 51°S 71°E.
Here there some islands in the middle of goddamn nowhere. Australia is 2,400 miles away, Antarctica over 1,000, and Madagascar 2,000. 900 miles North-North-East is a tiny island called Martin-de-Viviès, but it is completely unrelated geologically to these islands.
These islands being the French Southern and Antarctic Islands, which have a load of photos on Google Earth, and which look really very beautiful. There is seasonal snow, and a lot of greenery otherwise (isn't it amazing how grass gets everywhere!). France, which owns the islands, keeps between 50 and 100 scientists and such there always, according to Wikipedia.
And South of these and to the East, there is Heard island and the McDonald islands. There was a weather station on Heard island, but now there are just computerised thingies. These are found at about 53° 6'S 73° 32'E.
So, the point is: St. Andrews is not more northerly than anywhere in the world is southerly. But it's a damn close call. Isn't it so strange that beyond about 56°S, there's nothing habitable? Think of it on a protractor. That's a massive amount of surface area! Beyond 56°N, there is half of Edinburgh, most of the Scandinavian countries (including Copenhagen), Iceland, Estonia, St. Petersburg, basically all of Alaska and Siberia, and most of Canada.
On closer inspection, I saw that this is not quite right, for reasons I must explain. But it's okay: it's to the end of expansion of geographical knowledge.
Between the most southerly tip of South America and the Antarctic Peninsula is a sort of archipelago along the underwater ridge which connects this two peninsulas. This peninsula looks like a hugely elongated Greek capital Omega, tilted 90° clockwise. Some of these islands can fairly be said to be a part of Antarctica - and so my original claim about St. Andrews can be said to be true(ish) - but others are less clearly so. South Georgia - at about 54°S 37°W is certainly not clearly Antarctica, but is less southerly than St. Andrews is northerly. But what's more interesting are the South Sandwich islands, on the tip of this Omega. These are eight or nine tiny islands all in a row, stretching from 56° 17'S 27° 35'W to 59° 30'S 27° 21'W. The arc of the islands is such that the easternmost point is about 26° 14'W. (Remember that the tip of the South American peninsula is only 65°W!) And, at 59°S, they are further south than St. Andrews is north. These are the only non-Antarctic landmasses of which this can be said. Their total area can only be a few miles square. Cook Island, the most southerly, is barely three miles wide.
Right: all very interesting, but not so very surprising, as, after all, that there is an underwater ridge between these two peninsulas is unsurprising, as is that this ridge should occasionally rise above sea level. But something much more surprising is directly below the Indian subcontinent, at about 51°S 71°E.
Here there some islands in the middle of goddamn nowhere. Australia is 2,400 miles away, Antarctica over 1,000, and Madagascar 2,000. 900 miles North-North-East is a tiny island called Martin-de-Viviès, but it is completely unrelated geologically to these islands.
These islands being the French Southern and Antarctic Islands, which have a load of photos on Google Earth, and which look really very beautiful. There is seasonal snow, and a lot of greenery otherwise (isn't it amazing how grass gets everywhere!). France, which owns the islands, keeps between 50 and 100 scientists and such there always, according to Wikipedia.
And South of these and to the East, there is Heard island and the McDonald islands. There was a weather station on Heard island, but now there are just computerised thingies. These are found at about 53° 6'S 73° 32'E.
So, the point is: St. Andrews is not more northerly than anywhere in the world is southerly. But it's a damn close call. Isn't it so strange that beyond about 56°S, there's nothing habitable? Think of it on a protractor. That's a massive amount of surface area! Beyond 56°N, there is half of Edinburgh, most of the Scandinavian countries (including Copenhagen), Iceland, Estonia, St. Petersburg, basically all of Alaska and Siberia, and most of Canada.