Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Seven Natural Wonders of the USA

 The T4L list of the Seven Natural Wonders of the USA.

What makes something a natural wonder? 

Natural of course means that it's not man made. Not the Great Arch of St Louis, the sky scrapers of CA, the Golden Gate Bridge of SF, or the sculpted faces on Mount Rushmore.  A wonder is something that upon first visual impact and after some reflection, continues to make people go WOW!  And it should be relatively unique in the world.   So our amazing beaches around the county might count as inspiring and natural but there are really tons of great beaches much like them around the world. Here in our view are the seven great natural wonders of North America. Those that combine the visual WOW with a sense of how unique it is.

  1. The Redwoods Trees of California - Tallest Trees on Earth
  2. Niagara Falls of NY - Largest volume of a high waterfall
  3. Glaciers of Alaska
  4. Everglades of Florida - Totally unique
  5. The Grand Canyon of Arizona
  6. The Rocky Mountains of Colorado
  7. The Mammoth Caves - world's longest known cave system, with +400 miles explored
  8. Mt McKinley - Third highest peak in the world.

The Alaskan glaciers are perhaps the one to come off the list.  
Should the Mississippi River be added.
Do the Rockies really count? What makes them unique?

As an educational exercise, this could be set up as a question in which the student has a list with pros and cons of being on the list and then, the student gets to decide.

There could also be the 7 Man Made Wonders:

Great Arch
Mount McKinley
Backwards flowing river
Hoover Dam
Bridges?
Manhattan's Sky Scrapers
Washington Monument
Space Needle
Brooklyn Bridge


Seven American Tech Accomplishments in the 21st Century

SpaceX
Iphone
Human Genome (American)

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