While most are familiar with the concept of river tributaries, the streams that feed into a larger river, there is a less-common situation where a river divides into smaller streams. This is known as bifurcation and the resulting streams are known as distributaries. Geography Intern Dimitar Zhelev tackles the concept of stream bifurcation and its three main types. (Image: The Nile River bifurcates in the famous Nile Delta. Getty Images.)

Here are a few of my favorite geographical news stories, culled from my continual postings on my Twitter feed:

• In 50 to 200 million years, the new super-continent of Amasia (a merger of North America and Asia) will converge around the North Pole, forming a successor continent to Pangea.
• China, the world's most populous country, is planning on building a super-mega-city of 42 million people that would be about twice the size of New Jersey.
• Geographer Martin Lewis wrote a series of posts about the Caucasus on his GeoCurrents blog. His latest asks the question, should the Caucasus be considered to be a separate geographic region?
• Also from GeoCurrents is an interesting article on the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. He writes about Sochi's less-than-ideal winter climate for the Olympic Games (especially since Sochi's average winter temperatures are well-above freezing). Here's a listing of past Winter Olympic Games cities, most of which are more climatically appropriate.
• Here's a strange one! Lawmakers in Azerbaijan are considering changing that country's name to North Azerbaijan. This change would upset Iran, which would then be home to South Azerbaijan.
• Maybe this is stranger? News sources are reporting that WikiLeaks is considering moving their Internet servers to the not-a-country abandoned oil platform known as Sealand. In case I wasn't clear: Sealand is not a country.

  
  

The Strait of Hormuz, located between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman of the Arabian Sea, has been in the news lately as the United States and Iran wrangle for control of the chokepoint. Learn all about the Strait of Hormuz in this great new geographic overview from Amanda Briney.

In her latest article, Xanthe Webb Aintablian explores the place of geography within the sciences. She discusses the foundations of the discipline and its modern-day growth and use of technology to solve real-world problems.