Boxing the compass in the context of Azimuth

An earthquake occurred in the province of Sichuan, China at 14:28:01 China Standard Time on May 12, 2008. Measuring at 8.0 M_s (7.9–8.3 M_w), the earthquake's epicenter was located 80 kilometres (50 mi) west-northwest of Chengdu, the provincial capital, with a focal depth of 19 km (12 mi). The earthquake ruptured the fault for over 240 km (150 mi), with surface displacements of several meters. The earthquake was also felt as far away as Beijing and Shanghai—1,500 and 1,700 km (930 and 1,060 mi) away, respectively—where office buildings swayed with the tremor, as well as Bangkok, Thailand and Hanoi, Vietnam. Strong aftershocks, some exceeding 6 M_s, continued to hit the area up to several months after the main shock, causing further casualties and damage. The earthquake also caused the largest number of geohazards ever recorded, including about 200,000 landslides and more than 800 quake lakes distributed over an area of 110,000 km (42,000 sq mi).

Over 69,000 people lost their lives in the quake, including 68,636 in Sichuan province. 374,176 were reported injured, with 18,222 listed as missing as of July 2008. The geohazards triggered by the earthquake are thought to be responsible for at least one third of the death toll. The earthquake left at least 4.8 million people homeless, though the number could be as high as 11 million. Approximately 15 million people lived in the affected area. It was the deadliest earthquake to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, which killed at least 242,000 people, and the strongest in the country since the 1950 Assam–Tibet earthquake, which registered at 8.6 M_w. It was the 4th deadliest natural disaster of the decade. It is the 18th deadliest earthquake of all time. The economic loss of the earthquake was 845.1 billion yuan (US$130 billion). On November 6, 2008, the central government announced that it would spend 1 trillion yuan (about US$146.5 billion) over the next three years to rebuild areas ravaged by the earthquake, as part of the Chinese economic stimulus program.

The Ebro (Spanish and Basque [ˈeβɾo] ; Catalan: Ebre, Western: [ˈeβɾe], Eastern: [ˈeβɾə]) is a river of the north and northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, in Spain. It rises in Cantabria and flows 930 kilometres (580 mi), almost entirely in an east-southeast direction. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea, forming a delta in the Terres de l'Ebre region, in southern Catalonia. In the Iberian peninsula, it ranks second in length after the Tagus and second in discharge volume, and drainage basin, after the Douro. It is the longest river entirely within Spain; the other two mentioned flow into Portugal.

The Ebro flows through many cities (Spanish: ciudades): Reinosa in Cantabria; Frías and Miranda de Ebro in Castile and León; Haro, Logroño, Calahorra, and Alfaro in La Rioja; Tudela in Navarre; Alagón, Utebo, and Zaragoza in Aragon; and Flix, Móra d'Ebre, Benifallet, Tivenys, Xerta, Aldover, Tortosa, and Amposta in the province of Tarragona (Catalonia).
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The Trifid Nebula (catalogued as Messier 20 or M20 and as NGC 6514) is an H II region in the north-west of Sagittarius in a star-forming region in the Milky Way's Scutum–Centaurus Arm. It was discovered by Charles Messier on June 5, 1764. Its name means 'three-lobe'. The object is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars, an emission nebula (the relatively dense, reddish-pink portion), a reflection nebula (the mainly NNE blue portion), and a dark nebula (the apparent 'gaps' in the former that cause the trifurcated appearance, also designated Barnard 85). Viewed through a small telescope, the Trifid Nebula is a bright and peculiar object, and is thus a perennial favorite of amateur astronomers.

The most massive star that has formed in this region is HD 164492A, an O7.5III star with a mass more than 20 times the mass of the Sun.This star is surrounded by a cluster of approximately 3100 young stars.

The A30 is a major road in England, running 284 miles (457 km) WSW from London to Land's End.

The road has been a principal axis in Britain from the 17th century to early 19th century, as a major coaching route and post road. It used to provide the fastest route from London to the South West by land until a century before roads were numbered; nowadays much of this function is performed by the M3 (including A316) and A303 roads. The road has kept its principal status in the west from Honiton, Devon to Land's End where it is mainly dual carriageway and retains trunk road status.

Lerwick (/ˈlɛrɪk/ LEH-rik or /ˈlɜːrwɪk/ LER-whik; Old Norse: Leirvik; Norn: Larvik) is the main town and port of the Shetland archipelago, Scotland. Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick had a population of about 7,000 residents in 2010. It is the northernmost major settlement within the United Kingdom.

Centred 123 miles (200 km) off the north coast of the Scottish mainland and on the east coast of the Shetland Mainland, Lerwick lies 211 miles (340 km) north-by-northeast of Aberdeen; 222 miles (357 km) west of the similarly sheltered port of Bergen in Norway; and 228 miles (367 km) south east of Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands. One of the UK's coastal weather stations is situated there, with the local climate having small seasonal variation due to the maritime influence. Being located further north than Saint Petersburg and three of the four mainland Nordic capitals, and on the same latitude as Anchorage, Alaska, Lerwick's nights in the middle of summer only get dark twilight and winters have less than six hours of complete daylight.

51°30′42″N 0°8′14″W / 51.51167°N 0.13722°W / 51.51167; -0.13722

Golden Square, in Soho, the City of Westminster, is a mainly hardscaped garden square planted with a few mature trees and raised borders in Westminster flanked by classical office buildings. Its four approach ways are north and south but it is centred 125 metres east of Regent Street and double that NNE of Piccadilly Circus. A small block south is retail/leisure street Brewer Street. The square and its buildings have featured in many works of literature and host many media, advertising and public relations companies that characterise its neighbourhood within Soho.

Carrara (/kəˈrɑːrə/ kə-RAR-ə; Italian: [kaˈraːɾa]; Emilian: Carara, Emilian: [kaˈɾaːɾa]) is a town and comune in Tuscany, in northern Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some 100 kilometres (62 mi) west-northwest of Florence. Its motto is Latin:"Fortitudo mea in rota" ("My strength is in the wheel"), a reference firstly to the marble shipping industry from Roman times onwards.

During the contemporary era, the city and the surrounding region are closely linked to the history of the anarchist movement, with a significant part of its population being anarchist and many congresses being held there—one of the most notable being the Congress of Carrara (1968), which founded the International of Anarchist Federations (IAF), one of main anarchist organizations to this day.

The London postal district is the area in England of 241 square miles (620 km) to which mail addressed to the London post town is delivered. The General Post Office under the control of the Postmaster General directed Sir Rowland Hill to devise the area in 1856 and throughout its history it has been subject to reorganisation and division into increasingly smaller postal units, with the early loss of two compass points and a minor retraction in 1866. It was integrated by the Post Office into the national postcode system of the United Kingdom during the early 1970s and corresponds to the E, EC, N, NW, SE, SW, W and WC postcode areas. The postal district has also been known as the London postal area. The County of London was much smaller, at 117 square miles (300 km), but Greater London is much larger at 607 square miles (1,570 km).

The mean center of the United States population is determined by the United States Census Bureau from the results of each national census. The Bureau defines it as follows:

After moving roughly 600 miles (966 km) west by south during the 19th century, the shift in the mean center of population during the 20th century was less pronounced, moving 324 miles (521 km) west and 101 miles (163 km) south. Nearly 79% of the overall southerly movement happened between 1950 and 2000.

Lympne (/lɪm/ ), formerly also Lymne, is a village on the former shallow-gradient sea cliffs above the expansive agricultural plain of Romney Marsh in Kent, England. The settlement forms an L shape stretching from Port Lympne Zoo via Lympne Castle facing Lympne Industrial Park then via the main settlement to Newingreen in the north, centred 11 km (7 mi) west of Folkestone, 2.3 mi (3.7 km) west of Hythe and 13 km (8.1 mi) ESE of Ashford.

The Longyear Valley (Norwegian: Longyeardalen) is a valley and ravine in Svalbard. It slightly winds 40 kilometres (25 mi) WNW ending in Adventfjorden, facing west, the broadest inlet of Spitsbergen, the main landmass. It has a few wind gaps to the south and north-east over small glaciers, under which small streams form. It is between mountains Platåberget and Gruvefjellet. The town of Longyearbyen is at its foot, which is named for the American industrialist John Munro Longyear. The Longyear River is, like all the island's rivers, silted from surrounding glaciers.

Campo del Cielo ("Field of Heaven" or "Field of the Sky" in English) refers to a group of iron meteorites and the area in Argentina where they were found. The site straddles the provinces of Chaco and Santiago del Estero, located 1,000 kilometers (620 mi) north-northwest of Buenos Aires, Argentina and approximately 500 kilometres (310 mi) southwest of Asunción, Paraguay. The crater field covers 18.5 by 3 kilometres (11.5 by 1.9 mi) and contains at least 26 craters, the largest being 115 by 91 metres (377 by 299 ft).

The craters are estimated to be four to five thousand years old. They were reported to the general public in 1576, but were already well-known by aboriginal peoples. The craters and surrounding areas contain many fragments of an iron meteorite. In total, approximately 100 tonnes of fragments have been recovered, the most of any meteorite finding.