Everything about 45th Parallel North totally explained
The
parallel 45° north is an imaginary
circle of latitude that's 45
degrees north of the
Earth's equatorial plane. The 45th parallel north is often called the halfway point between the
Equator and the
North Pole, but the true halfway point is actually 16.2 kilometers (10.1 miles) north of the 45th parallel because the
Earth is
oblate, that is, it bulges at the equator and is flattened at the poles.
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North America
In
North America, the 45th parallel roughly marks the
border between the
United States and
Canada between the
St. Lawrence and
Connecticut rivers (the northern borders of the
U.S. states of
New York and
Vermont with the
Canadian province of
Quebec), where the parallel is sometimes called the "Canada line". The actual boundary of Vermont lies approximately 1 km (5/8 mi) north of the parallel due to a
cartographic error. The boundary here intersects
Lake Champlain, which is shared by the two nations, with most of the lake lying in the United States.
The 45th parallel makes up most of the boundary between
Montana and
Wyoming. It also passes through the U.S. states of
Oregon,
Idaho,
South Dakota,
Minnesota,
Wisconsin,
Michigan,
New Hampshire, and
Maine. It also passes through the Canadian provinces of
Ontario,
Quebec,
New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia.
In
Michigan, the
Old Mission Peninsula in
Grand Traverse Bay ends just shy of the 45th parallel. Many guidebooks and signs at the
Mission Point Lighthouse describe it as being halfway between the equator and north pole. When the
Grand Traverse Bay recedes below normal level, it's possible to walk out to the exact line.
Farther west, the line roughly bisects the
metropolitan area of
Minneapolis-St. Paul. (The center line of east-west Broadway Avenue in Northeast Minneapolis was deliberately laid out by city planners to be coterminous to the 45th parallel - for example, if you're standing in the middle of the street, you're literally standing on the parallel line.) In the
Western United States, the parallel passes through the
Great Plains and
Rocky Mountains, intersecting the
Pacific coast in
Oregon. Throughout the United States the parallel is marked in many places on highways by a sign proclaiming that the location is halfway between the North Pole and the equator.
Cities and communities
The parallel intersects or slightly bypasses:
major cities are highlighted.
Asia
Continuing west, the parallel passes over vast stretches of the North Pacific Ocean before passing through
Rishiri-Rebun-Sarobetsu National Park on the northern tip of
Hokkaidō, the northernmost of
Japan's main islands. It continues through the northern part of the
Sea of Japan, entering the Asian mainland on the coast of
Primorsky Krai in
Russia, north of
Vladivostok.
At
Khanka Lake it enters northeastern
China, passing just south of the city of
Harbin in
Heilongjiang and continuing through part of
Jilin and eastern
Inner Mongolia. Transecting southern
Mongolia it passes through the provinces of
Sükhbaatar,
Dornogovi (and its capital
Sainshand),
Dundgovi,
Övörkhangai,
Bayankhongor,
Govi-Altai, and
Khovd. In northwestern China it passes through the
Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in
Xinjiang and its oil city of
Karamay.
The parallel passes through southern
Kazakhstan, intersecting the city of
Burylbaytal at the southern tip of
Lake Balkhash and the city of
Qyzylorda further west. At the border with
Uzbekistan it bisects the
Aral Sea and its toxic
Vozrozhdeniya Island peninsula, site of an abandoned Soviet
bioweapons laboratory. It skirts the northern edge of the
Ustyurt Plateau, entering back into Kazakhstan before cutting across the northern tip of the
Caspian Sea and into
Europe and
Russia.
Europe
In
Europe the 45th parallel stretches between the Caspian Sea coast of the Russian
Caucasus in the east and
Bay of Biscay coast of
France in the west. In Russia it runs from the west coast of the Caspian Sea to the east coast of the
Black Sea, through the
Republic of Kalmykia,
Stavropol Krai and its capital
Stavropol, and
Krasnodar Krai and its capital
Krasnodar. In
Ukraine is crosses the
Crimea and its capital
Simferopol.
Further west is passes through the
Balkans:
Romania (just north of
Ploieşti, and through
Târgu Jiu), the
Serbian autonomous province of
Vojvodina, the eastern tip of
Croatia, the northern edge of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a section of
Adriatic Croatia.
In northern
Italy it parallels the
Po River, passing just south of
Turin before passing into
France in the
Cottian Alps.
In southern France, it crosses the
Rhone River just north of
Valence, Drôme and continues across the
Massif Central and into the
Aquitaine region. The city of
Bordeaux is just south of the parallel.
Further Information
Get more info on '45th Parallel North'.
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