Geography Quiz: Geography of the Americas and Australia

Denali, which was earlier called Mount McKinley, stands in Alaska in the United States and is the highest peak of North America at about six thousand one hundred ninety metres; the name means the high one in the local Athabaskan language and was officially restored in 2015.

Aconcagua rises to about six thousand nine hundred sixty metres in the Andes in the province of Mendoza in Argentina, close to the border with Chile, and it is the highest peak of both South America and the southern hemisphere, as well as the highest mountain outside Asia.

The Angel Falls drops about nine hundred seventy-nine metres from the Auyan Tepui table mountain in the Guiana Highlands of Venezuela and is the highest uninterrupted waterfall in the world; the local name is Kerepakupai Vena.

Lake Titicaca lies on the Altiplano plateau of the Andes at a height of about three thousand eight hundred metres and is shared by Peru and Bolivia; it is the highest lake in the world on which steamers ply, which is the exact reason it is called the highest navigable…

The Atacama lies in northern Chile between the Andes and the Pacific coast, and it is the driest desert in the world because the cold Peru or Humboldt current chills the air along the coast and the Andes block moisture from the Amazon side; the desert is also known for…

Death Valley lies in eastern California within the Mojave desert region and its floor at Badwater Basin is about eighty-six metres below sea level, the lowest land point of North America; it is also one of the hottest places recorded on the earth.

The Great Barrier Reef stretches for over two thousand kilometres in the Coral Sea along the north-eastern coast of Queensland, is the largest coral reef system in the world, and was placed on the list of World Heritage sites in 1981; the warm shallow tropical water of the continental shelf…

The Murray rises in the Snowy Mountains of the Great Dividing Range and, with its long tributary the Darling, drains the south-eastern interior of Australia; the basin is the country's chief farming region for wheat, fruit and sheep, and it is supported by the Snowy Mountains water scheme and by…

The Pampas spread over the plains of Argentina and extend into Uruguay, and they are the home of wheat and alfalfa farming, of large cattle ranches called estancias and of the herdsmen known as gauchos; the grassland owes its growth to moderate rainfall and the cool season of the mid…

The Panama Canal was opened in 1914 across the narrow isthmus of Panama, it is about eighty kilometres long and uses a system of locks and the artificial Gatun Lake, and it saves a ship sailing between New York and San Francisco the long voyage around Cape Horn at the…

The Great Artesian Basin lies below the dry interior of eastern Australia, mainly under Queensland and parts of New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory, and it is the largest artesian basin in the world; water enters the porous rock where it is exposed near the Great Dividing…

Bolivia lost its coast on the Pacific to Chile in the War of the Pacific in the nineteenth century and now reaches the sea only through the ports of its neighbours, while Paraguay lies in the interior and depends on the Parana and Paraguay rivers for an outlet, which is…