Geography

One of the seven wonders of the natural world and an incredible light show put on by our home planet, the aurora borealis and aurora australis (known as the Northern Lights and Southern Lights, respectively) are caused by the collision of gas particles in the Earth's atmosphere with charged electrons from the sun's atmosphere.  It's a sight to see and this new article from Amanda Briney tells you everything you ever wanted to know about these amazing lights in the atmosphere.

Harm de Blij is one of the world's most notable geographers. He had a career as a geographer on television and has written dozen of books. He is familiar to most young geographers as the author of a classic textbook for world regional geography courses at universities. This biography and overview of Harm de Blij's innovative structure of the world should shed light on this remarkable geographer.

Tea is the world's most popular beverage. Tea production is a multi-billion dollar industry and many countries' economies are tied to it. Learn about the geography of tea and the different types of teas from this new article from geographer Ping Zhou.

More than 99.7% of voters in the Falkland Islands voted in Sunday and Monday's referendum to maintain the status quo and remain part of the United Kingdom. There were 1,513 votes in favor of remaining part of the UK and a mere three votes against. Argentina claims the islands as Las Malvinas yet the residents seem to overwhelmingly wish to remain a British overseas territory.

It would appear that Bing Maps has renamed the Mississippi River as the Mississippi Flowage. As of this writing, if you look at this map the Mighty Mississippi is labeled as the Mississippi Flowage. If you navigate on Bing Maps upstream and downstream, you'll see the "Mississippi Flowage" name repeated regularly. MapQuest correctly labels the river as the Mississippi River while on Google Maps, it's difficult to find any label whatsoever. Just for clarification, in geographic terms a flowage usually refers to a body of water purposely dammed (like a reservoir); the Mississippi River does not generally meet this definition. If you have any thoughts or information on this renaming of the Mississippi River, I'd love to hear them in the comments below! (Thanks to reader Bob for pointing this out!)

The Dutch East India Company was a company whose main purpose was trade, exploration and colonization throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. It is considered to be one of the first and most successful international corporations. At its height the Dutch East India Company established headquarters in many different countries, had a monopoly over the spice trade and it had semi-governmental powers in that it was able to begin wars, prosecute convicts, negotiate treaties and establish colonies.

In this brand-new article, Claire Y. Weber writes about the development and geographic distribution of fjords. Fjords are U-shaped glacial valleys that are submerged, which form impressive topography.

Synonymous with green beer and "Kiss Me I'm Irish" t-shirts worldwide, St. Patrick's Day was originally founded as a religious holiday honoring Ireland's patron saint. Today, St. Patrick's Day, while based on the memory of an Irish saint, has become a true global holiday that celebrates Irish culture through parades, food and drink, and religious services. Learn about St. Patrick's Day celebrations around the world in this latest article from Jessica Leigh Rosier.

In the United States, we've struggled with geography's place in education. It's not part of the core of our education system as it is in many other countries. Learn about the importance of geographic literacy in our ever-connected planet from this latest article on geographic literacy from geographer Brian Baskerville.

Modern food trucks have emerged as a distinct culinary sensation. In many cities in the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe, food trucks have surged in popularity in the past decade. They distinguish themselves with gourmet, highly specialized food, acting as a miniature restaurant on wheels, offering fare such as Korean barbeque, gourmet cupcakes, or inventive ethnic-fusion food.