Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Nature

  • Bill Williams’ Fingerprints

    Peering at a random spot on a map — one of my favorite hobbies — showed a river with a name so ordinary it seemed unusual. I realize that’s an oxymoron so bear with me a little while and hear me out. Rivers often carry the names of the topography that surrounds it. Sometimes it’s…

  • English Whitewater

    Speaking of clapper bridges… we were talking about clapper bridges, right? They’re not all confined to Devonshire. The Tarr Steps clapper bridge is a notable exception located in Somerset at Exmoor National Park. Unlike the clapper bridges of Devon that date primarily from the middle ages and later eras, the Tarr Steps clapper may date…

  • Saint Martin Observations

    I led-off with Saint Martin geo-oddities as one would expect on Twelve Mile Circle. However, with that obligation safely behind me I can now begin to act more like a “normal” tourist, or as close to normal as I can muster. I’m not typical when it comes to holiday travels, as you’ve undoubtedly learned while…

  • Geo-Oddities of Portland, Oregon

    Every once in awhile I’m honored to share content or even an entire guest post written by a loyal Twelve Mile Circle reader. We are very lucky today. Marc Alifanz contributes his expert knowledge of Geo-oddities in Portland, Oregon. Marc is an experienced blogger both in his professional and personal life and as he demonstrates…

  • Turlough

    Sometimes odd geography intersects with odd geology. One particularly rare example occurs on the island of Ireland. It’s called a Turlough or Turlach. Described very simply, it’s an ephemeral lake that appears during the wetter months of autumn through springtime and dries-up during the summer. Most of the examples happen west of the River Shannon.…

  • A Helpless Bystander

    Snow hit the Washington, DC metropolitan area yesterday evening (January 26, 2011). It wasn’t a bad snow, certainly nothing compared to last year’s “Snowmageddon.” However, the timing was awful. It hit right at the height of rush hour in an area with the worst traffic congestion in the United States even on a perfect day.…

  • Improbable Connections

    What do the following three entities all have in common?: An obscure Union general from the American Civil War A well-known advertising icon A poisonous weed Improbably, a single tenuous thread actually connects each of these items. I imagine that it’s nearly impossible to associate these widely varied topics unless one stumbles upon the answer…

  • Northernmost Southern Hemispheric Glacier

    I discussed the southernmost glaciers in the northern hemisphere in the last installment and found some surprising answers. Today I take the opposite tack and examine the northernmost glaciers in the southern hemisphere. Let’s start again by reviewing the worldwide glacier map I discovered on the U.S. Geological Survey site. Maybe Cayambe Again? To recap…

  • Southernmost Northern Hemispheric Glacier

    My trip to Alaska got me thinking about snow, ice and glaciation. There were glaciers aplenty on the Kenai Peninsula but that’s not unexpected at sixty degrees north of the equator. Where, I wondered, was the southernmost glacier in the northern hemisphere? It’s not the first time my mind has wandered in this basic direction.…

  • Texas Borderlocking

    It’s been a long time since I’ve touched upon the borderlocking phenomenon. Many new readers have entered into the Twelve Mile Circle in subsequent months. Of course they have no idea what I’m talking about. Others may have a vague recollection but might need to refresh their memories. Go ahead and open Layers of Borderlocking…