# Peninsular orientation **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 11, 2000, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063 "2000-02-11T15:55:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rahul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f14d63/32.png) [@Rahul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rahul)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/1 "2000-02-11T15:55:00Z")
Why do most peninsulas point southward? ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/2 "2000-02-11T16:13:00Z")
Do they? I don’t know if they do or not. A glance at a map of the Arctic Ocean reveals a few of opposite direction, and you can probably guess which way the Antarctic penninsula “points.” Flipping through an atlas and sampling, hmmm…, Michigan, New Guinea, Yucatan, South America; I don’t catch a clear trend. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/3 "2000-02-11T16:25:00Z")
## I can think of plenty that don’t: [ul][li]Lower peninsula of Michigan (N)[/li][li]Upper peninsula of Michigan (E)[/li][li]Cape Cod (E/N)[/li][li]Northern Queensland, Australia (N)[/li][li]Yucatan, Mexioc (N)[/li][li]Alaska, US (W)[/li][li]Eastern Siberia, Russia (E)[/li][li]Qatar (N)[/li][li]Oman/United Arab Emerates (N)[/li][li]North Cyprus (NE)[/li][li]Antarctic Peninsula (N)[/li][li]Turkey, Asiatic part (W)[/li][li]Turkey, European part (E)[/li][li]Denmark (N)[/li][li]Southwestern England (WSW)[/li][li]Olympic Peninsula, WA (NW)[/li][li]Horn of Africa, Somalia (NE)[/li][li]San Francisco, CA (N)[/ul][/li] What would Brian Boitano do / If he was here right now / He’d make a plan and he’d follow through / That’s what Brian Boitano would do. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/4 "2000-02-11T16:25:00Z")
Gravity pulls them downward. ---
**Author:** ![batgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3bc359/32.png) [@batgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batgirl)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/5 "2000-02-11T16:29:00Z")
I don’t have a map handy, but IIRC the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal) points sort of South West. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/6 "2000-02-11T16:56:00Z")
Cause if they pointed northward they would be called ‘turgids.’ ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/7 "2000-02-11T20:08:00Z")
Wait a minute. The OP has a point. Look at a map of the world and you notice that most bodies of land seem to “droop” or “drip” to the south especially the most prominant peninsulas: The Alaskan Penn. Baja Calif. Florida Norway/Sweden Italy The Balkans Saudi Arabia Malaysia Korea Kamchatka Also notice that the sothern extemes of North/Central America, South America, Africa, Greenland, India and SE Asia are “pointy” at the bottom (south) and blunt at the top (north). * * * Elmer J. Fudd, Millionaire. I own a mansion and a yacht. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/8 "2000-02-11T20:21:00Z")
My peninsular dresses to the lect but as far as geography goes I think it’s a myth because most of the peninsulas you are familar with point south. It’s similar to the folklore surrounding the fact that relatively few rivers in the continental U.S. flow North. I’ve met a few people who are convinced the _Santa Cruz_ river in Arizona flows **uphill**. Does Canada have an opposite set of myths? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/9 "2000-02-11T20:39:00Z")
How 'bout this: Land is heavily over-concentrated in the northern hemisphere, so that it’s shaped sorta like an umbrella. So, since there’s a lot more land surface area at the bottom, it stands to reason that there’s more opportunity for “ragged edges” (ie, peninsulas) at the bottom. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/10 "2000-02-11T20:41:00Z")
OK, I said “surface area,” but I meant “coastal area.” ---
**Author:** ![Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/11 "2000-02-11T20:59:00Z")
Non-Euclidean geometry + asymmetric distribution of land. By far, most of the land on earth is in the northern hemisphere – North America and Eurasia. Approximate these as rectangles (on a spherical surface). They stop, on average, around 20 deg N latitude in the southern direction and around 70 deg N latitude in the northern direction. Thus, our rectangles have cos(20 deg)/cos(70 deg) = 3 times more southern coastline than northern coastline ==\> 3 times more northern-pointing peninsulas. Of course, there is land in the southern hemisphere that makes up for some of this. Antarctica is one obvious example, as it has roughly cos(70)/cos(90) = infinity 🙂 times more northern-pointing peninsulas than southern-pointing ones. Tiny Australia helps a little, too, but neither of these has the latitude-spanning power of the northern land masses. -P ---
**Author:** ![Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/12 "2000-02-11T21:00:00Z")
Non-Euclidean geometry + asymmetric distribution of land. By far, most of the land on earth is in the northern hemisphere – North America and Eurasia. Approximate these as rectangles (on a spherical surface). They stop, on average, around 20 deg N latitude in the southern direction and around 70 deg N latitude in the northern direction. Thus, our rectangles have cos(20 deg)/cos(70 deg) = 3 times more southern coastline than northern coastline ==\> 3 times more northern-pointing peninsulas. Of course, there is land in the southern hemisphere that makes up for some of this. Antarctica is one obvious example, as it has roughly cos(70)/cos(90) = infinity 🙂 times more northern-pointing peninsulas than southern-pointing ones. Tiny Australia helps a little, too, but neither of these has the latitude-spanning power of the northern land masses. -P ---
**Author:** ![Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/13 "2000-02-11T21:03:00Z")
Looks like you beat me to the punch, Mjollnir. -P ---
**Author:** ![funneefarmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@funneefarmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funneefarmer)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/14 "2000-02-11T22:56:00Z")
I always thought it odd that they pointed towards bodies of water. ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/15 "2000-02-11T23:14:00Z")
Ah, peninsulas. Reminds me of the line on one of the early Jefferson Airplane albums (IIRC, it was After Bathing at Baxter’s), in which a voice shouts several times with psychedelic-style echo, “No man is an island” and a quieter voice replies, “He’s a peninsula.” \ –Hometownboy * * * Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run. —Mark Twain ---
**Author:** ![labradorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@labradorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labradorian)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/16 "2000-02-11T23:26:00Z")
Turn your map or globe so that east, south, or west are towards the top, and see if you notice the same phenomenon. The Yucatan, Ungava, Boothia, Brodeur, Danish, Cape York, Arnhem Land, Antarctic, and Jamal peninsulas point north, and they’re all pretty major. * * * **Dee da dee da dee dee do do / Dee ba ditty doh / Deedle dooby doo ba dee um bee ooby / Be doodle oodle doodle dee doh** [http://members.xoom.com/labradorian/](http://members.xoom.com/labradorian/) ---
**Author:** ![tbea925](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@tbea925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tbea925)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2000, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/17 "2000-02-12T00:50:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Rahul: > **Why do most peninsulas point southward?** I would guess that, if you accept pasta’s statement that most land masses are in the northern hemisphere, and that these land masses are on floating plates which move (primarily from east to west, if you accept the notion that eastern South America used to press against the western shore of Africa), possibly they move at a higher rate of speed at the equator? This might cause tings southward in the northern hemisphere to spread apart a bit. Just a WAG. ## And why do the plates containing the North and South American continents seem to travel from east to west, anyway? This sig not Y2K compliant. Happy 1900. ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2000, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/18 "2000-02-12T03:14:00Z")
But this man is an isthmus. Get the connection? So, you wise ones, why is there more land in the northern hemisphere? 'Cause the north magnetic pole is stronger than the south one? 😉 God spent the first few days on top of the world with his project, but then ran out of dirt when he got down in the dumps? (Not sure whether that theory would make the Aussies happy or angry.) Additionally, though, please explain to me how you guys arrived at the assumption that peninsulas must be distributed at a fixed frequency per unit surface distance along a coastline. Surely variances in the crust of the earth, at the same or different stages, must’ve varied a lot. The shapes of all the peninsulas seem to vary all over the place. Ray (Isthmuses are more uniquer.) ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2000, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/19 "2000-02-12T03:18:00Z")
But since coastlines are essentially fractals, I don’t really know what sort of measure of distance you would use to settle the issue I raised. Ray ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2000, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peninsular-orientation/7063/20 "2000-02-12T06:12:00Z")
True penninsulas are LONG narrow bodies of land jutting out into water. By this definition neither the Balkans or Iberia qualifies. But for every Italy you can find a Denmark. Though I agree the larger ones tend to go south.