Geography
Located at 14°40' N 121°3 E, Metro Manila is situated on an isthmus bounded by Laguna de Bay to the south-east and Manila Bay to the west. The metropolitan area lies on a wide flood plain composed mainly of alluvial soil deposits. The area is bounded by Bulacan to the north, Rizal to the east, Laguna to the south and Cavite to the southwest. The swampy isthmus on which the western metropolitan area partly lies has an average elevation of 10 meters. The eastern area lies on a ridge gradually rising towards the foothills of the Sierra Madre and overlooks the Marikina River valley, which is part swamp.
The Pasig River bisects the isthmus and links the two bodies of water. From Laguna de Bay, it enters Taguig, and flows east-west through Pateros, Pasig, Makati, Mandaluyong and Manila before draining in Manila Bay. Its main tributary, the Marikina River, originates in the Sierra Madre mountain range in Rodriguez to the northeast of the city. The Marikina River runs north-south and meets with the Pasig in Pateros. Traversing the course of the Marikina River is the Marikina Valley Fault System, part of the seismically active network of fault lines surrounding Metro Manila placing it at serious risk of earthquakes.
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Famous quotes containing the word geography:
“Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay, you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; and, if we tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it, only, that thyself is here;—and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not absent from the chamber where thou sittest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic, is a man-made fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to change the figure, total science is like a field of force whose boundary conditions are experience.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“Ktaadn, near which we were to pass the next day, is said to mean “Highest Land.” So much geography is there in their names.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)