erkhyan | Entries tagged with geographic geekery

The lack of knowledge of Malagasy people about prominent features of their own landscape amazes me:

Humpback-shaped mountain south of Arivonimamo, so tall it is visible from 30 miles around despite the hilly, rugged terrain: nobody can tell me the thing's name. (All I know is that it's one of the foothills of the Ankaratra massif, with a tremendous topographic prominence on its eastern side)

Apparent fault system starts on the eastern side of the island's northern tip, runs between the Montagne d'Ambre and the Tsaratanana massifs, joins the northwestern coast, then digs a huge gash on the northwestern plateau between the Ampasindava peninsula and the Bongolava hills: nobody can tell me what it really is, either. (see this picture; the feature I'm talking about appears as a green gash on the elevation map, that runs roughly parallel to most of the northwestern coast - heck, the thing is even visible on the vegetation maps and some satellite images!)