The 40th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 40 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean.
At this latitude the sun is visible for 15 hours, 1 minute and 28 seconds during the summer solstice and 9 hours, 20 minutes during the winter solstice. [1] On 21 June, the maximum altitude of the sun is 73.44 degrees, while it's 26.56 degrees on 21 December.[ citation needed ]
The maximum altitude of the Sun is > 35.00º in October and > 28.00º in November.
The 40th parallel north is the southern baseline for Canada's National Topographic System.
Starting in Spain at the Prime Meridian and heading eastwards, the parallel 40° north passes through:
The parallel 40° north formed the boundary between the Kansas and Nebraska territories, as per the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854. It remains the boundary between the modern states of Kansas and Nebraska.
The parallel 40° north formed the original northern boundary of the British Colony of Maryland. A subsequent royal grant gave the Colony of Pennsylvania land north of the 40th parallel but mistakenly assumed it would intersect the Twelve Mile Circle, which it does not. Pennsylvania's border was thus unclear and the colony pushed for a border far south of the 40th parallel. The Mason–Dixon Line was drawn between 1763 and 1767 as the compromise boundary between the overlapping claims of these two colonies.
The parallel 40° north passes through the cities of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Boulder, Colorado, and Columbus, Ohio; as well as northern suburbs of Indianapolis, Indiana and the southern suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The parallel goes directly through the John Glenn Columbus International Airport, with runway 10L-28R lying immediately north of the line, runway 10R-28L lying slightly south of it, and the line going through the northernmost edges of the terminal. It also passes through the main campus of The Ohio State University; specifically, it cuts directly across the Oval greenspace, between University Hall and the William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library. Ohio Stadium, one of the largest stadiums in the world, barely misses the parallel 40° north (6 seconds or 185 metres (607 ft) above 40° north).
Baseline Road in Boulder, Colorado, traces the parallel 40° north.
Thistle, Utah, a ghost town since 1983, is slightly (30 seconds or 956 metres (0.594 mi)) below 40° north.
The 41st parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 41 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean.
The 42nd parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 42 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean.
The 37th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 37 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Africa, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean.
The 45th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 45 degrees north of Earth's equator. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean. The 45th parallel north is often called the halfway point between the equator and the North Pole, but the true halfway point is 16.0 km (9.9 mi) north of it because Earth is an oblate spheroid; that is, it bulges at the equator and is flattened at the poles.
Baseline Road is a major east-west street in Boulder, Colorado that extends east of the city through parts of four counties. The western terminus of Baseline Road is at Flagstaff Mountain in the City of Boulder Mountain Parks. The eastern terminus is at 16800 Watkins Road, about 6 miles (9.7 km) east of Lochbuie on the boundary between Adams and Weld Counties. The total length of Baseline Road is approximately 38 miles (61 km), all of which is within the Denver-Aurora-Boulder Combined Statistical Area in Colorado. Baseline Road runs almost exactly along the 40th line of latitude.
The 39th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 39 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean.
The parallel 36°30′ north is a circle of latitude that is 36 and one-half degrees north of the equator of the Earth. This parallel of latitude is particularly significant in the history of the United States as the line of the Missouri Compromise, which was used to divide the prospective slave and free states west of the Mississippi River, with the exception of Missouri, which is mostly north of this parallel. The line continues to hold cultural, economic and political significance to this day; the Kinder Institute for Urban Research defines the Sun Belt as being south of 36°30′N latitude.
The 35th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 35 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America and the Atlantic Ocean.
The 34th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 34 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America and the Atlantic Ocean.
The 55th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 55 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean.
The 20th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 20 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Africa, Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean.
The 40th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 40 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, Oceania, the Pacific Ocean and South America. Its long oceanic stretches are the northern domain of the Roaring Forties.
The 60th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 60 degrees south of Earth's equatorial plane. No land lies on the parallel—it crosses nothing but ocean. The closest land is a group of rocks north of Coronation Island of the South Orkney Islands, which are about 54 km south of the parallel, and Thule Island and Cook Island of the South Sandwich Islands, which both are about 57 km north of the parallel.
The 25th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 25 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Africa, Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, North America and the Atlantic Ocean.
The 26th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 26 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Africa, Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean.
The 51st parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 51 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean.
The 80th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 80 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane, and 10 degrees south of the North Pole, in the Arctic. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, Europe, Asia, the Arctic Ocean, and North America.
The 48th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 48 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean.
The 57th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 57 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean.
The 38th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 38 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean. The 38th parallel north formed the border between North and South Korea prior to the Korean War.