On making a 3D globe

[twewing (Timothy Ewing)]

Using GeoZoomLevel → 1 with PlotPoints → {1000, 500} works. Also, using GeoZoomLevel → 3 with PlotPoints → {500, 250} works.
Rotating the resulting globes causes the previously noted screen flickering issue ( thread ). Edit: clarification that the code works without crashing Mathematica.

Thanks for the suggestions J.M.