Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Terrain

  • Longest Natural Straight Line

    I once featured a stretch of completely straight railroad track across the Nullarbor Plain. It ran an amazing 478 kilometres (297 miles), in Australia’s Longest Straight Line. I’ve also focused considerable attention on the Canada-United States border. That one hugs the 49th degree of latitude north for something like 2,000 km (1,250 mi) — although…

  • Natural Bridges

    A natural bridge or natural arch appears as advertised. These geological formations erode in such a way as to leave behind an opening beneath stone that continues to stand. Water seems to be the most common denominator. Before today I never realized that a Natural Arch and Bridge Society existed “to support the interests of…

  • Hazy Hedge Maze Memories

    I poked around that place where Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands share a common border, better known as the BEDENL tripoint, using Google Maps satellite view the other day. I noticed an interesting topiary feature. Labyrint Drielandenpunt I found a hedge maze! I’ve seen them called garden mazes, labyrinths and various other terms, too. They…

  • John Day’s Day

    Bill Williams’ Fingerprints appeared on the Twelve Mile Circle about a year ago. Mr. Williams was “one of the classic mountain men of the old west”. His name carried forward to various geographic features throughout Arizona, as I noted at the time. This inspired longtime reader Pfly to comment, “This post makes me think about…

  • Loudoun Wine Adventure

    Fair warning. This article is going to resemble a travelogue more than a discussion of geo-oddities. I figure I can change the rules occasionally for self-indulgent reasons so I hope you don’t mind. Come back in a couple of days if you’re more a fan of the usual content on Twelve Mile Circle. The in-laws…

  • Natural Forces: Nuclear

    My series on Natural Forces seems to be a dud based on the (lack of) comments. Usually they are rather robust in terms of both quantity and quality on Twelve Mile Circle. It goes to show that I have no idea which articles will resonate with an audience. And that probably explains why 12MC readership…

  • Deepest Lakes

    It often seems to start with the simplest of questions before turning hopelessly complex. What’s the deepest lake? That doesn’t sound too difficult. It’s straight-forward. It seems to beg an easy answer, and it even provides one. Sort-of. Maximum depth or mean depth? Does it have to poke above the surface? What if it’s covered…

  • Gravity Hills

    Many years ago I had an acquaintance who was an accomplished magician. Fortunately I got to see him practice various magic ticks as he perfected his craft. So of course I learned the secrets behind many of the illusions. The human brain likes to believe what it thinks it sees. The magic tricks often reveal…

  • As the Bird Flies

    There are people who read Twelve Mile Circle from places located literally around the globe. It’s hard to believe in an era of instantaneous worldwide communication that pigeons were once considered a viable method to pass information in certain specialized instances. Often these were for specific military or governmental purposes. However, I’m not quite as…

  • Highpoint Tripoint

    I was discussing highpoints with 12MC reader Michael from Atlanta recently. He mentioned the curious situation of North Carolina. Its highpoint is Mt. Mitchell. No dispute there. However, curiously the mountain summits that form highpoints for South Carolina (Sassafras Mountain) and Tennessee (Clingmans Dome) are also right along their respective borders with North Carolina. Thus,…