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Earth
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Earth is the third planet from the Sun. It is the largest of the solar system's terrestrial planets, and the only planetary body that modern science confirms as harboring life. Scientific evidence indicates that the planet formed around 4.57 billion (4.57×109) years ago, and shortly thereafter (4.533 billion years ago) acquired its single natural satellite, the Moon.
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Geography
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Physical Geography
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The Water Cycle
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The water cycle—technically known as the hydrologic cycle—is the circulation of water within the earth's hydrosphere, involving changes in the physical state of water between liquid, solid, and gas phases.
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Geography
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Physical Geography
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The World
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Globally, the 20th century was marked by: (a) two devastating world wars; (b) the Great Depression of the 1930s; (c) the end of vast colonial empires; (d) rapid advances in science and technology, from the first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (US) to the landing on the moon; (e) the Cold War between the Western alliance and the Warsaw Pact nations; (f) a sharp rise in living standards in North America, Europe, and Japan; (g) increased concerns about the environment, including loss of forests, shortages of energy and water, the decline in biological diversity, and air pollution; (h) the onset of the AIDS epidemic; and (i) the ultimate emergence of the US as the only world superpower.
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Geography
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Country Information
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Antarctica
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Speculation over the existence of a "southern land" was not confirmed until the early 1820s when British and American commercial operators and British and Russian national expeditions began exploring the Antarctic Peninsula region and other areas south of the Antarctic Circle.
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Geography
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Country Information
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Australia
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Aboriginal settlers arrived on the continent from Southeast Asia about 40,000 years before the first Europeans began exploration in the 17th century.
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Geography
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Country Information
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Samoa
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New Zealand occupied the German protectorate of Western Samoa at the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
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Geography
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Country Information
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Cook Islands
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Named after Captain Cook, who sighted them in 1770, the islands became a British protectorate in 1888.
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Geography
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Country Information
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Fiji
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Fiji became independent in 1970, after nearly a century as a British colony. Democratic rule was interrupted by two military coups in 1987, caused by concern over a government perceived as dominated by the Indian community (descendants of contract labourers brought to the islands by the British in the 19th century).
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Geography
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Country Information
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China
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For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation.
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Geography
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Country Information
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Korea, South
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Korea was an independent kingdom for much of the past millennium.
Located in
Geography
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Country Information
