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In geography, a quadripoint is a point on the Earth that touches four distinct regions. A "four corners" is a type of quadripoint but not every quadripoint can be called a "four corners". (For example, imagine a straight line running east-west, with one single region to the north of the line while to the south, three regions meet at a point on the line. This would be a quadripoint, but it would have at most three corners, not four.)
Quadrinational quadripoints
At present there are no generally recognized quadripoints involving four different countries, although a weak argument could be made that one exists in the Zambezi River, to the west of Victoria Falls, involving Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botwana and Namibia.
Close calls
Where two tripoints occur very close to each other, they can look like a quadripoint on a map with a sufficient scale. For example, the Kazakhstan/Russia/People's Republic of China tripoint is very close to the Russia/Mongolia/People's Republic of China tripoint. It may look like a quadripoint when seen from a high altitude (but close up, it is clear that Kazakhstan and Mongolia never touch ([http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&om=0&ie=UTF8&ll=49.04,87.4&spn=10,10).
Similarly, the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea borders four countries, but does not contain a quadripoint of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel.
Previously existing four-country point
Between 1839 and 1919 there was a four-country point at the convergence of Belgium, Prussia/Germany, the Netherlands, and Moresnet. This is the only quadrinational quadripoint point that has ever existed on Earth. [http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afbeelding:Vierlandenpunt.jpg
Secondary quadripoints
A secondary quadripoint (or "quadrisecondary point") is the meeting of four political subdivisions (for example, provinces, states, or cantons). The four subdivisions may all belong to one country, or they may involve two or three different countries.
The Four Corners is the only point in the United States of America where four states meet: Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona.
In Canada, the point at may be a true quadripoint, as indicated on some maps but it might just be a close call, as indicated by other maps Four Corners (Canada)). The political units involved are two provinces, Saskatchewan and Manitoba (soutwest and southeast of the point, respectively) and two territories, Northwest Territories and Nunavut (northwest and northeast of the point, respectively). Before the creation of Nunavut in 1999, this was a tripoint. In the legal definition of Nunavut [http://canlii.org/ca/sta/n-28.6/part252511.html" target="_blank" >*, it appears that the Parliament of Canada did intend to create a true quadripoint. However, it is questionable whether the boundary of Saskatchewan and Manitoba falls precisely on the meridian of 102°W under the WGS84 geodetic system.
The three German states Bavaria, Saxony, and Thuringia, do not form a quadripoint with the Czech Republic; nevertheless it is frequently commented on.
On the border of Sweden and Norway, at , there appears to be a binational secondary quadripoint where two Counties of Norway, Nord-Trøndelag and Nordland, meet two Counties of Sweden, Västerbotten County and Jämtland County. *
At , there appears to be a trinational secondary quadripoint: to the northwest is Russia (specifically the Russian exclave Kaliningrad Oblast); to the northeast Lithuania; and to the southwest and southeast two Voivodships (provinces) of Poland: Warmian-Masurian Voivodship and Podlasie Voivodship. *
At or around , there appears to be another trinational secondary quadripoint: to the north is Saudi Arabia, to the southeast is Oman, and to the southwest two Governorates of Yemen: Hadhramaut Governorate to the westsouthwest and Al Mahrah Governorate to the southsouthwest.
By analogy, one could speak of tertiary quadripoints ("quadritertiary points") where, for example, four different towns meet at one point. However, these are not considered particularly interesting.
Quadripoint
At a quadripoint four border lines touch each other at one point, but there are none with four countries. The Belgian enclaves H1 and H2 in Baarle-Hertog touch each other at one such point, while the Netherlands also also crosses it.
Moreover one finds a quadripoint in Austria. The town of Jungholz lies totally within Germany except that it borders Austria at one single point.
Cooch Behar in India is linked with Bangladesh at one point.
References
This article was originally translated from the Dutch-language wiki article nl:Vierlandenpunt, as of 2006-06-20 with the assistance of [http://www.systranbox.com SystranBox online machine translation.
See also
- Tripoint
- Tri-state area
- Land borders
- Four Corners (Canada)
- Four Corners (United States)
- Four Corners Monument
- Moresnet
- List of countries that border only one other country
- Borderless country
External links
"Quadripoint"