Category: Elevation

  • When Categories Collide!

    Here I explore a mashup of two wonderful topics covered in previous posts. I’ll combine the County Highpointers Association and the epilogue to my Smallest County Series. I decided to see whether I could reach the highpoints of both the smallest self-governing county in the United States and the smallest “county equivalent” location recognized by…

  • Australia’s Highest Elevation

    The highest point of elevation on the Australian continent is Mount Kosciuszko of the Great Dividing Range at 2,228 metres (7,310 feet). What is lesser know, however, is that’s it’s not actually the highest point in the country of Australia. The nation does encompass territory beyond the continent. That honour goes to Mawson Peak, the…

  • County Highpointers Association

    Twelve Mile Circle features another extremely specialized geography website today, this one hosted by the County Highpointers Association. It’s easy to find information on the highest point in a country or even one of the individual United States. This information is scattered across the Web in a million different places. But that’s not the case…

  • Highest Elevation in Portugal

    So the highest elevation in Portugal is not on mainland Europe. It exhibits an unexpected twist of Strange Geography. Actually, it sits on an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, some 1,500 kilometers (950 miles) from the Portuguese capital city of Lisbon. The island of Pico (literally “peak”) with its dominant stratovolcano of…

  • Google Maps Terrain Button

    I noticed that within the last few days, Google Maps added a “Terrain” button that shows general elevations by using different shades and shadows. Obviously it has its greatest impact where there are rapids changes in elevation such as mountain or canyons. I’ve had a lot of fun playing around with the feature as in…