Places named by mistakes
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Places Named by Mistakes — Daily trivia Monday, April 6, 2026: questions and answers
All 10 questions with answers and explanations. Play this daily
Q 01Because Columbus thought he had reached Asia, the Caribbean archipelago he landed in still carries what name?
- AWest Indies
- BSunda Islands
- CWindward Isles
- DNew Spain
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West Indies
The West Indies carry Columbus's mistake: believing he had reached the Indies of Asia, he called the islanders Indios, and Spain later split its 'Indies' into East and West.
Q 02What is the primary reason the Dead Sea cannot support most life?
- AHigh levels of toxic heavy metals
- BExtreme salinity
- CLack of oxygen in its waters
- DExtremely cold temperatures year-round
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Extreme salinity
Extreme salinity keeps fish and plants out of the Dead Sea, yet the name overstates it: bacteria and microbial fungi live in its water, and algae bloom after rainy winters.
Q 03Which name did Martin Waldseemüller's world map print for the first time, honouring Amerigo Vespucci?
- AAntillia
- BVespuccia
- CHesperia
- DAmerica
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America
America first sat only over South America; Waldseemüller named it for Vespucci, whom a published letter credited as discoverer, though critics said Vespucci stole Columbus's credit.
Q 04Which mostly ice-covered land did Erik the Red give a pleasant name to tempt settlers?
- AGreenland
- BIceland
- CSvalbard
- DFaroe Islands
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Greenland
Erik the Red named Greenland, the saga says, because 'people would be attracted to go there if it had a favourable name', and settlers from Iceland followed him.
Q 05Pliny the Elder wrote of huge dogs on which Atlantic archipelago?
- AAzores
- BMadeira
- CCanary Islands
- DCape Verde
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Canary Islands
The Canary Islands' name probably comes from Latin for 'island of dogs', though some trace it to a Berber people; the songbird was named after the islands, not the reverse.
Q 06John Meares named Cape Disappointment after mistaking the mouth of which river for a bay?
- AFraser
- BColumbia
- CSacramento
- DKlamath
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Columbia
Meares decided the river didn't exist; four years later Robert Gray crossed the bar and named it the Columbia after his ship, the Columbia Rediviva.
Q 07False Pass, Alaska, got its name because early sailors thought its strait was impassable for which vessels?
- ASmall fishing boats
- BDeep-draft ships
- CPaddlewheel steamers
- DNative skin kayaks
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Deep-draft ships
Sailors judged the northern end of Isanotski Strait impassable for deep-draft ships, so they called it a false pass, and the fishing town beside it kept the name.
Q 08In the 16th-century Spanish romance that gave California its name, which legendary women lived there under Queen Calafia?
- AValkyries
- BAmazons
- CSirens
- DGorgons
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Amazons
Montalvo's Las Sergas de Esplandián pictured California as a land of black women living like Amazons, and Spanish explorers later gave its name to Baja California.
Q 09What geographical feature did many early European explorers believe the Gulf of California to be?
- AA deep ocean trench
- BA vast inland lake
- CA strait to the Pacific
- DA major river mouth
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A strait to the Pacific
Maps showing California as an island drew the Gulf as a strait to the Pacific, and the myth persisted for well over a century after Ulloa proved it was a peninsula.
Q 10Which explorer, convinced an inland sea lay at Australia's centre, instead found the stony desert that bears his name?
- ACharles Sturt
- BJohn Oxley
- CEdward Eyre
- DLudwig Leichhardt
Show answer
Charles Sturt
Charles Sturt was so sure of an inland sea that he left Adelaide in 1844 with a boat; the dunes of the Simpson Desert finally made him give the idea up.
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