-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Seeking The True Land Area of the USA, If It Exists
Date: Wed, 03 Sep 2003 09:48:07 -0700
From: Brian Bach <[log in to unmask]>


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I approach you all with a question submitted to me by a talented,
capable, and thoroughly web-literate patron, who was rather embarrassed
to admit that he could not find a proper declaration of what the current
land area of the USA is.

These sources stated:

National Geographic (1999)
9,629,091 sq km
or
3,717,796 sq mi

Goode's World Atlas
3,787,425 sq mi ( (perhaps discrepancy includes Panama Canal Zone,
though data is c.2000)

CIA World Factbook, 2002
9,158,960 sq km (metric only, and conspicuously less than NGS!)

US Census Bureau
reverts to non-metric, as of 2000:
3,537,438 sq mi


What gives? Are hourly readings taken by untold satellite coverage,
which perhaps vary according to the tides on USA beaches or something?
Pacific atolls mutating?

Many thanks,

Brian

Brian P. Bach
Maps Specialist
Documents/Maps
Central Washington University Library
400 E. University Way
Ellensburg, WA 98926-7548
USA
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