Geodata.book Page iv Tuesday, October 15, 2002 8:25 AM GEO-DATA: THE WORLD GEOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA Project Editor Imaging and Multimedia Manufacturing John F. McCoy Randy Bassett, Christine O'Bryan, Barbara J. Nekita McKee Yarrow Editorial Mary Rose Bonk, Pamela A. Dear, Rachel J. Project Design Kain, Lynn U. Koch, Michael D. Lesniak, Nancy Cindy Baldwin, Tracey Rowens Matuszak, Michael T. Reade © 2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale For permission to use material from this prod- Since this page cannot legibly accommodate Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, uct, submit your request via Web at http:// all copyright notices, the acknowledgements Inc. www.gale-edit.com/permissions, or you may constitute an extension of this copyright download our Permissions Request form and notice. Gale and Design™ and Thomson Learning™ submit your request by fax or mail to: are trademarks used herein under license. 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Errors brought to the attention of the of Digital Stock (Taj Mahal, center left), Digi- publisher and verified to the satisfaction of hereon may be reproduced or used in any tal Vision (Fall trees, top left; Waterfall, top form or by any means--graphic, electronic, or the publisher will be corrected in future edi- right; Water carriers, center; City in smog, tions. mechanical, including photocopying, record- center right), and PhotoDisc (Pink buttes, top ing, taping, Web distribution, or information center; Mountains, bottom). storage retrieval systems--without the written permission of the publisher. All of the maps appearing in this book were created to order by XNR Productions, Inc., of Madison, WI. Maps are the property of Gale, © 2002, all rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Geo-data : the world geographical encyclopedia / John F. McCoy, project editor.-- 3rd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-7876-5581-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Gazetteers. I. McCoy, John, 1976- G103.5 .G36 2002 910'.3--dc21 2002010926 Printed in the United States of America 10987654321 Geodata.book Page ix Tuesday, October 15, 2002 8:25 AM PREFACE Gale is pleased to present the third edition of Geo-Data: island of Taiwan and the continent of Antarctica have their The World Geographical Encyclopedia. This is the first own entries, as do 13 dependencies: Anguilla, Aruba, Ber- new edition of Geo-Data since 1989, and it represents a muda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, complete revision and updating of that work. The pur- French Guiana, Greenland, Guadeloupe, Martinique, pose of the book remains unchanged: to provide the Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, the Turks and Caicos reader with the most detailed and comprehensive Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Smaller, less popu- descriptions available for the physical geography of coun- lated, and more remote dependencies, such as the Cook tries. Islands, Palmyra Atoll, and Svalbard, are discussed in the Geo-Data’s focus and design is unique. Many encyclo- entries of their parent states. pedias, atlases, and other books provide some informa- Although all countries and dependencies are tion on geography, but it is usually secondary to history, described in detail, entries can vary greatly in length. current events, or other topics. In these sorts of refer- This is often due to the obvious reason that some coun- ences physical geography receives a few paragraphs of tries are much larger than others. However, countries coverage per country at best, compared to pages in Geo- with particularly complicated geography, such as Nepal, Data. Among the few books that can rival Geo-Data cov- may have longer entries than much larger countries with erage, none can match its ease of use. There is no need to fewer outstanding features, such as Libya. Countries with hunt from one end of a dictionary or gazetteer to another, a large number of dependencies, such as France or the searching for details on a country's many different fea- United Kingdom, also have longer entries than compara- tures. In Geo-Data everything is presented in one place. bly sized countries. Each of Geo-Data’s entries gives the reader a complete portrait of a country's mountains, fields, forests, deserts, Names and Measurements rivers, seas, wetlands, and other features, with additional Geography is an imprecise science. Knowledgeable information on population distribution and natural experts, most of whom have lived, worked, or studied resources. Key facts and statistics are highlighted at the extensively in the countries about which they wrote, pre- beginning of each entry. In addition to the country pared the entries for this new edition of Geo-Data. Gale entries, Geo-Data features a World Rankings Appendix, editors have relied on authoritative sources such as Mer- listing the world's tallest mountains, longest rivers, deep- riam Webster’s Geographical Dictionary, 3rd ed., The est oceans, largest lakes, most populous countries, and World Factbook 2001 of the CIA, The Columbia Gazetteer other outstanding features. of the World, and the statistics and geographic divisions of the United Nations and various countries to check our Selection Criteria facts. However, the reader should be aware that it is diffi- Geo-Data features 207 entries, each describing a single cult if not impossible to measure exactly such large and country or dependency. Every entry includes a relief map irregular features as mountains, lakes, and rivers. Even depicting the country or dependency. There is a separate authoritative sources often vary slightly in their informa- entry for each of the world’s 192 countries, including the tion. Population information can be even more difficult new nation of East Timor. In addition, the autonomous to determine accurately, as many countries do not mea- GEO-DATA: THE WORLD GEOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA ix Geodata.book Page x Tuesday, October 15, 2002 8:25 AM Preface sure this scientifically and on a regular basis. While basic in the Overview. Next, Mountains and Hills describes the population statistics are present in every entry, detailed major elevations of the country. Inland Waterways then tables and other breakdowns are present only in those describes the country’s lakes, rivers, and wetlands. The entries for which accurate and reasonably current infor- Coast, Islands, and the Ocean gives information on the mation was available. bodies of water that border on the country, the country's coasts, and its major islands. Climate and Vegetation It is common for a single geographical feature or describes the country’s temperature and rainfall patterns, country to be called by many different names, depending as well as its forests, grasslands, deserts, and other ground on the source and context. In Geo-Data we have cover. Human Population outlines the major concentra- attempted to use the names that will be most familiar to tions of people in the country. Then Natural Resources the majority of our readers. These are most commonly identifies the most important resources found within the English-language names, but widely used names in other country. Finally, the Further Readings rubric gives an languages and names which have no English equivalent interested reader suggestions on where to find more also appear frequently. In addition, the reader will often information. find alternative names for the same feature given in parentheses after it is first mentioned in the text. All eight rubrics appear in every entry, in the order given above, making it easy to navigate within entries and In the case of country and dependency names, the edi- to compare information across countries. Entries are tors have again opted for using the most easily recognized written as a narrative, so the reader looking for the com- versions of their names. Thus the reader will find Brazil plete picture on a country should find the entire entry an under B, not under F for Federative Republic of Brazil or R enjoyable read. Rubrics are clearly denoted in the text, for República Federative do Brasil. Full, formal, names are however, so a reader looking for specific information can used with the two Congos and the two Koreas, but these find it easily. Throughout the text, major features are countries still appear under C and K, respectively. identified by name, and their height, length, or other When discussing geography it is impossible to avoid dimensions are provided whenever possible, both in controversy. There are many regions around the world imperial and metric units. Sidebars highlight particularly whose ownership is disputed, sometimes violently. unusual and interesting facts. Although Gale does not support or seek to legitimize the Geo-Data’s entries are greatly enhanced by their views of any of the parties of these disputes, for the sake maps. Every entry in the book includes a relief map. of completeness it was necessary to include these dis- These maps were created specifically for their entries and puted regions in one entry or another.