• @[email protected]
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    342 years ago

    Alt-text OP inexplicably refused to give us:

    Running for office in Minnesota on the single-issue platform ‘dig a permanent channel through the Traverse Gap because it will make this map more satisfying.’

    • OtterOP
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      2 years ago

      I deserve this, even promised to remember last time

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      Fun fact, that traverse gap separates the red river of the north from the MINNESOTA river - which eventually drains into the Mississippi. The Mississippi starts at Lake Itasca.

      Fun fact #2, the Minnesota/Mississipi drains into the Atlantic via the Gulf, but the red river eventually drains into the Arctic Ocean via the Hudson Bay!

      • FaceDeer
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        82 years ago

        Another fun fact; the Red River is very prone to spring flooding because it flows such a great distance north. The headwaters thaw out and start flowing while the river’s outlet is still frozen over. Many cities and towns in Manitoba have dikes around them and turn into islands during the spring flood. Winnipeg has a flood diversion canal to guide the floodwaters past it each spring.

        I think I just ran out of fun facts about Manitoba.

      • Kichae
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        22 years ago

        Funny, I thought the Red River drained into Fargo.

    • @[email protected]
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      12 years ago

      I wonder if they were connected, hypothetically, if the Hudson would drain into the Caribbean or the other way around. The North American plains bisect the entire continent so it’s feasible; I just don’t know if the two bodies of water are at the same elevation, and due to gravitational effects, etc, large bodies of water aren’t always at sea level.

  • @[email protected]
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    32 years ago

    XKCD is usually more astute. The lack of the Colorado River, and The Grand Canyon, is a glaring omission.

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      “XKCD is usually more astute. The lack of the Colorado River, and The Grand Canyon, is a glaring omission.”

      Does the Colorado cut off a land mass? I don’t think the Colorado even reaches the sea anymore, let alone psuesocleave apart a part of the continent.

      That was a fun last sentence to say.

      • @[email protected]
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        22 years ago

        What could possibly cleave the continent more than the Grand Canyon? In many places it’s a barrier that can’t be crossed except by flight.

        It’s a prominent river until Yuma, AZ, which is not too far from the Gulf of California. And even if the water doesn’t always flow, it forms the boundary between the Mexican states of Baja and Sonora.

        • @[email protected]
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          42 years ago

          Yes, but you fail to understand the difference between a peninsula and a psuedo-island (a piece of land entirely surrounded by any body of water, artificial or manmade).

          The Colorado River starts in Colorado is does not flow over the continental divide.

          • @[email protected]
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            12 years ago

            No river can be traced all the way up to a dividing ridge. As the contributing drainage area gets smaller it will be a stream, then creek, trickle, gulley, and by the time it’s on a mountain ridge it’s nothing.

  • @[email protected]
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    142 years ago

    So what I’m hearing is that Lewis and Clark were idiots and you totally can go from coast to coast in a canoe

  • @[email protected]
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    2 years ago

    Chehalis-Blacklake is pretty dubious. It’s a long stretch of wetlands. There is a sign and everything and technically it counts but there’s development and roads going through it without bridges.

    • Kichae
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      02 years ago

      Yeah, I’m wounded by the commission omission of Cape Breton. But I think it’s just that there’s nothing dubious about our islands.

      Edit: Sausage fingers and rogue autocorrect.