Geo answer

Better brush up on your hydrography for today’s Geo Quiz!

Table of geography, hydrography, and navigation, from the 1728 CyclopaediaTable of geography, hydrography, and navigation, from the 1728 Cyclopaedia

You might be wondering: what’s hydrography doing sneaking into a quiz about geography? Geography provides ‘a view of the whole’ earth by “mapping the location of places.” That’s how ancient geographer Ptolemy put it.

Hydrography on the other hand is the science of mapping our bodies of water. So who’s exactly in charge of mapping the oceans and seas?

Author Simon Winchester has been investigating:

“They classify what the oceans and seas are, they’re the body that says the Atlantic ends here and the Pacific begins in such and such a place, they decide things about the nature of the mapping of the oceans bottom and the oceans’ edges.

So we want you to name the organization that probes these deep ocean matters. Is it UNICEF? or the Circuit de Monaco? Maybe the National Geographic Society? Hmmm.

If you’re a ship’s captain or a sailor you probably came up with the answer to our Geo Quiz.

We were looking for the name of an organization based in Monte Carlo that oversees the seas. It’s called the International Hydrographic Organization. Journalist Simon Winchester recently visited this maritime organization’s headquarters. He’s researching a new book, which he says will be a BIOGRAPHY not of a person, but of an ocean — the Atlantic Ocean.

Listen to the interview: