Russia wins the 10th National Geographic World Championship
by Google Earth Blog on Jul.28, 2011, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA
For the past decade, National Geographic has held a "World Championship" to test the geography skills of students from around the world. The 2011 event, sponsored by the Google Earth Team, just ended and the team from Russia was crowned champions. The Google Earth folks have sponsored this event for the past several years, but this is the first time they hosted the event at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.
The winning question: "This island has a population of about 57,000 people, with the most settlements concentrated on the west coast. Very little of this island is suitable for agriculture." It's certainly an easy one to answer if you're online, but certainly more difficult when put on the spot. Congrats to the Russian team for knowing the answer (Greenland), and more importantly -- for winning the championship!