"Given
sufficient rise in sea level":
What a
nice concept! Given sufficient rise in sea level I would - virtually - be the
winner, having been on top of Cerro di Aconcagua, highest peak of the Americas
and the entire world outside of Asia, on the 17th January 1997. And knowing all
America drowned - no further comment.
Wolfgang
PS:
Didn't mean this personally, Lowell
I was
totally wrong earlier tonight when I wrote that the first break between
the
Americas, given sufficient rise in sea level, would be at the
approximate
location of the canal in Panamá.
Before the excavation
of the Culebra or Gaillard Cut across the lowest point in
the Panamanian
cordillera, the elevation there was 333.5 feet. A few hundred
miles
to the northwest, however, one can go from the Caribbean Sea, up the
Río
San Juan, and into Lake Nicaragua, which has a natural surface
elevation of 110
feet and a bottom well below sea level. This lake is
separated from the Pacific
Ocean by the narrow Isthmus of Rivas, the lowest
point on which is only 154 feet
above sea level. This, then, is where
the Central American Land Bridge would
first breech if sea level were to
rise.
Since I am hardly prepared to accept Costa Rica as a South
American nation, I
will revert to the narrowest point on the Isthmus of
Panamá, a dozen or so miles
east of the canal, as the appropriate
division.
To accept the juncture of the tectonic Caribbean and South
American plates as
the limit between North and South America would put the
northern fringes of
Colombia and Venezuela in the former. I don't
think that we want to do that
either. Furthermore, this plate
juncture is invisible on the surface.
Lowell G. McManus
Leesville,
Louisiana, USA
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