The Geo Awards

Well, the Oscars were last week, and everyone is in the award-giving mood. Even the geography community doles out annual awards - who would have thought? Let's see who was this year's winners of a Mappy.

1. Best Ocean - Atlantic. This was a bit of an upset, as most people had picked the Pacific to take it this year.
2. Best Sea - Meditteranean. With its warm and wonderful climate, the Med is always a contender.
3. Best Lake - Loch Ness. Total surprise. There are bigger, deeper, and wetter lakes, but none of them have prehistoric monsters living in them.
4. Best Bay - Bay of Bengal.
5. Best America - North. You can blame it on the ethnocentric West.
6. Best Firth - Firth of Forth. Not much competition in this one.
7. Best Canal- Suez. Erie shut out again.
8. Best River - Thames. It had 8 HRs in a row at one point last year.
9. Best Reef- Great Barrier, in Australia
10. Best Gorge- Red River, in Kentucky
11. Best Canyon - Fraser, in British Columbia. Major, major upset
12. Best Wharf - Fisherman's, in San Francisco. expected winner
13. Best Pier - Navy, in Chicago, Illinois. Edged out Palace Pier, in Brighton, England
14. Best Strait- Bering, between Alaska and Russia. This is the first win for the Bering, having knocked off the Gibraltar and Magellan powerhouses.
15. Best Isthmus - Panama. The competition was a bit weak in this category this year.
16. Best Cape - Good Hope. In the year of hope and change, what else? This was, however, a surprisingly strong category, including Capes of Cod, Verde, Canaveral, and Fear.
17. Best Lick - Big Bone, northern Kentucky. Beat out French and Salt.
18. Best Dune - Sleeping Bear, along Lake Michigan
19. Best Delta- Mississippi. Edged out Nile
20. Best Aurora - Australis.