near the poles
The Mercator projection is a cylindrical map projection that distorts the size of land masses as they get closer to the poles, making areas near the poles appear larger than they actually are. This projection is commonly used in marine navigation due to its ability to maintain straight lines of constant bearing.
Land masses of the Earth refer to the large continuous areas of land that make up the Earth's surface, such as continents and islands. These land masses play a crucial role in shaping the planet's geography, climate, and ecosystems.
Asia is the largest of Earth's land masses. It covers approximately 30% of Earth's total land area.
When continents break apart into separate land masses, it is called continental drift or plate tectonics. This process is driven by the movement of the Earth's lithosphere plates, leading to the separation of previously connected land masses.
The most accurate way to show Earth's continents and bodies of water is by using a map projection that minimizes distortion, such as the Winkel Tripel projection or the Robinson projection. These projections aim to represent the true sizes and shapes of land masses and bodies of water as accurately as possible.
The equal-area projection shows size of various land masses.
Equal-Area projection
A mapmaking method that minimizes distortion of land masses is the Equal Area projection, which preserves accurate relative sizes of land areas. Examples include the Mollweide and Goode's Homolosine projections.
The Mollweide Projection shows areas that land masses are larger and they are larger. The disorts are shape of land and direction.
The Mollweide Projection shows areas that land masses are larger and they are larger. The disorts are shape of land and direction.
The cylindrical map projection, such as the Mercator projection, shows all latitude and longitude lines as parallel. However, this projection distorts the size of land masses the further they are from the equator.
Because of distortion
Mercator projection distorts the size of land masses, resulting in high distortion near the poles. Equal area projections maintain accurate land area proportions, making them useful for representing data like population density.
Gerardus Mercator, a Flemish cartographer, is famous for creating the Mercator projection map in the 16th century. This projection greatly helped in maritime navigation but distorts the size of land masses as they get closer to the poles.
Greenland appears larger on a Mercator map projection compared to a Robinson map projection. The Mercator projection distorts the size of land masses as they near the poles, resulting in Greenland appearing much larger than it actually is.
It's the location. 'A projection is a system for mapping the round Earth on a flat surface. The Mercator projection map shows the accurate locations of the continents and oceans. The land and water areas, however, are greatly distorted toward the North and South Poles.'
The Mercator projection distorts the size of land masses as it represents the Earth's curved surface on a flat plane. This projection maintains angles and shapes, making it useful for navigation, but it stretches areas near the poles significantly. As a result, regions like Greenland and Antarctica appear much larger than they are in reality, while equatorial regions are shown more accurately. This distortion occurs because the projection uses a cylindrical method, which cannot perfectly represent the spherical shape of the Earth.