how to map out the course of a planet centuries ago

by Dr. Macey Pouros 6 min read

How many years are on the ancient Earth interactive map?

May 06, 2018 · Traveling further in time, we decided to stop by and see how our planet looked like 430 million years ago, during the Silurian Period. The interactive map tells us that a mass extinction took place, wiping out nearly half of marine invertebrate species. The first land plants emerge, starting at the edge of the ocean.

What makes the ancient Earth interactive map easy to use?

Mar 20, 2017 · The Camerio map, created in 1502 uses a spherical grid, even though people in the middle ages still believed our planet was in fact… flat. The Iehudi Ibn ben Zara map, drawn in 1487 displays remnants of glaciers in Britain. The map also includes extremely detailed depictions of islands in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas.

How did ancient world maps change over time?

Out of a possible 4.6 billion years – the age of our planet – 410 million years of Earth’s tectonic history has already been documented by the team in remarkable detail using this ancient ...

Are ancient world maps accurate?

Sep 13, 2020 · A new interactive map allows anyone to trace their hometown's geographic shifts through millions of years of Earth's history. Entitled Ancient Earth, the site is easy to use.Users simply begin by dropping a pin in a location of their choice. They can then choose from a range of dates stretching back to 750 million years ago and observe how the landmasses carrying their …

How maps were drawn in the past?

Maps of the ancient world were made by using accurate surveying techniques, which measures the positions of various objects by calculating the distance and angles between each point.

How do you make a planet map?

1- Draw the boundaries of continents and islands. 2- Add geographical features on the map for example rivers, lakes, mountains, forests and deserts. 3- If there are different tribes or countries on the planet, draw boundaries for them and write their names in those boundaries (like writing room names). 4- You are done!Oct 17, 2015

How was the world mapped?

English mathematician and cartographer Edward Wright was the first to perfect the Mercator projection—which takes the Earth's curvature into consideration. Otherwise known as a Wright-Molyneux world map, this linear representation of the earth's cylindrical map quickly became the standard for navigation.Jul 22, 2019

What are four stages in the history of cartography?

Eschewing a chronological organization, but always forthcoming on the timing of the maps under discussion, Jacob divides his argument into four stages: (1) the "discovery of the [cartographic] object, its properties, and its visual and intellectual effects; (2) the visual components of a map, which include "geometry, ...Dec 4, 2007

Can Wonderdraft make city maps?

Wonderdraft is not hard to learn, since its author is a genius at interfaces and ease-of-use for the user, but it is not meant to make cities.Dec 20, 2020

How do you trace in Wonderdraft?

1:349:40Transferring Hand Drawn Maps into Wonderdraft - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipClick on the trace tool and then select where your image is going to be taken from now I've put mineMoreClick on the trace tool and then select where your image is going to be taken from now I've put mine on the desktop.

When was the first world map?

6th century BCGreek academic Anaximander is believed to have created the first world map in 6th century BC. Anaximander reportedly believed that Earth was shaped like a cylinder, and that humans lived on the flat, top portion.

Which is the oldest map?

the Imago MundiMore commonly known as the Babylonian Map of the World, the Imago Mundi is considered the oldest surviving world map. It is currently on display at the British Museum in London. It dates back to between 700 and 500 BC and was found in a town called Sippar in Iraq.Jul 18, 2017

What did the first map look like?

History's earliest known world map was scratched on clay tablets in the ancient city of Babylon sometime around 600 B.C. The star-shaped map measures just five-by-three inches and shows the world as a flat disc surrounded by an ocean, or “bitter river.” Babylon and the Euphrates River are depicted in the center as a ...Nov 21, 2016

What is map in cartography?

map, graphic representation, drawn to scale and usually on a flat surface, of features—for example, geographical, geological, or geopolitical—of an area of the Earth or of any other celestial body. Globes are maps represented on the surface of a sphere. Cartography is the art and science of making maps and charts.

How was map created?

The first maps were made by hand, by painting on parchment paper. As you can imagine, trying to draw the exact same map over and over was very difficult. This meant early maps varied in quality. The amount of time and energy it took to create just one map also meant there weren't many maps produced.

What is map design process?

Cartographic design or map design is the process of crafting the appearance of a map, applying the principles of design and knowledge of how maps are used to create a map that has both aesthetic appeal and practical function.

Who created the maps of the ancient landmasses and seas?

The maps of the ancient landmasses and seas (known as paleoglobes) were developed by geologist Christopher Scotese. Computer scientist and paleontologist Ian Webster then visualized them using GPlates, a software that models plate tectonics.

How long ago did the Earth's landmasses move?

They can then choose from a range of dates stretching back to 750 million years ago and observe how the landmasses carrying their location have shifted, combined, and separated on Earth's tectonic plates. Aside from tracking their own location, users can scroll through millions of years of history.

How many years ago was New York City on the Ancient Earth?

New York City pinned on the Ancient Earth interactive map set to 430 million years ago.

When was New York City pinned on the Ancient Earth map?

By Madeleine Muzdakis on September 13, 2020. New York City pinned on the Ancient Earth interactive map set to 120 million years ago. A new interactive map allows anyone to trace their hometown's geographic shifts through millions of years of Earth's history. Entitled Ancient Earth, the site is easy to use.

What does Webster say about the Earth?

Speaking to CNN about the project, Webster noted, “It shows that our environment is dynamic and can change.”. He elaborated, saying, “The history of Earth is longer than we can conceive, and the current arrangement of plate tectonics and continents is an accident of time.

When did the first land plants appear?

For example, the first land plants appeared 430 million years ago during the Silurian Period. During this pivotal time, a mass extinction threatened marine invertebrates. And around 120 million years ago, the first flowers evolved—but not in all parts of the modern United States.

How old is the Earth?

We know that the Earth – which is currently 4 543 billion years old, give or take a few – has changed dramatically since its early days. Tectonic plates shift, continents break up, it’s a whole process.

What does Webster's map illustrate?

Webster explains that his map illustrates “complex and interesting scientific data in an interactive and easy-to-use way”. He hopes that it “sparks fascination and respect for the scientists that work every day to better understand our world and its past”.

How long ago did Pangea form?

The map also allows you to “go through” different time periods and show how the early continents first moved together to form Pangea, the supercontinent, 335 million years ago before breaking apart 175 million years ago.

When did dinosaurs first roam the planet?

Travel through time, for lack of a better phrase, and virtually visit the Cretaceous period when dinosaurs first roamed the planet, or move along to 130 million years ago when land animals started trotting around. Using this interactive map is a good start.

What is the oldest map in the world?

Imago Mundi Babylonian map, the oldest known world map, 6th century BCE Babylonia. Now in the British Museum. A Babylonian world map, known as the Imago Mundi, is commonly dated to the 6th century BCE.

What is the oldest known map of a territory in the world?

This would make the Saint-Bélec slab the oldest known map of a territory in the world.

What is the Christian topography?

Around 550 Cosmas Indicopleustes wrote the copiously illustrated Christian Topography, a work partly based on his personal experiences as a merchant on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean in the early 6th century. Though his cosmogony is refuted by modern science, he has given a historic description of India and Sri Lanka during the 6th century, which is invaluable to historians. Cosmas seems to have personally visited the Kingdom of Axum in modern Ethiopia and Eritrea, as well as India and Sri Lanka. In 522 CE, he visited the Malabar Coast (South India). A major feature of his Topography is Cosmas' worldview that the world is flat, and that the heavens form the shape of a box with a curved lid, a view he took from unconventional interpretations of Christian scripture. Cosmas aimed to prove that pre-Christian geographers had been wrong in asserting that the earth was spherical and that it was in fact modelled on the Tabernacle, the house of worship described to Moses by God during the Jewish Exodus from Egypt.

What is the surviving text of Ptolemy's geography?

Surviving texts of Ptolemy 's Geography, first composed c. 150 , note that he continued the use of Marinus's equirectangular projection for its regional maps while finding it inappropriate for maps of the entire known world. Instead, in Book VII of his work, he outlines three separate projections of increasing difficulty and fidelity. Ptolemy followed Marinus in underestimating the circumference of the world; combined with accurate absolute distances, this led him to also overestimate the length of the Mediterranean Sea in terms of degrees. His prime meridian at the Fortunate Isles was therefore around 10 actual degrees further west of Alexandria than intended, a mistake that was corrected by Al-Khwārizmī following the translation of Syriac editions of Ptolemy into Arabic in the 9th century. The oldest surviving manuscripts of the work date to Maximus Planudes 's restoration of the text a little before 1300 at Chora Monastery in Constantinople ( Istanbul ); surviving manuscripts from this era seem to preserve separate recensions of the text which diverged as early as the 2nd or 4th century. A passage in some of the recensions credits an Agathodaemon with drafting a world map, but no maps seem to have survived to be used by Planude's monks. Instead, he commissioned new world maps calculated from Ptolemy's thousands of coordinates and drafted according to the text's 1st and 2nd projections, along with the equirectangular regional maps. A copy was translated into Latin by Jacobus Angelus at Florence around 1406 and soon supplemented with maps on the 1st projection. Maps using the 2nd projection were not made in Western Europe until Nicolaus Germanus 's 1466 edition. Ptolemy's 3rd (and hardest) projection does not seem to have been used at all before new discoveries expanded the known world beyond the point where it provided a useful format.

Which era was the Greek map created?

The developments of Greek geography during this time, notably by Eratosthenes and Posidonius culminated in the Roman era, with Ptolemy's world map (2nd century CE), which would remain authoritative throughout the Middle Ages .

Who was the Greek philosopher who measured the circumference of the Earth?

Posidonius (or Poseidonius) of Apameia (c. 135–51 BCE), was a Greek Stoic philosopher who traveled throughout the Roman world and beyond and was a celebrated polymath throughout the Greco-Roman world, like Aristotle and Eratosthenes. His work "about the ocean and the adjacent areas" was a general geographical discussion, showing how all the forces had an effect on each other and applied also to human life. He measured the Earth's circumference by reference to the position of the star Canopus. His measure of 240,000 stadia translates to 24,000 miles (39,000 km), close to the actual circumference of 24,901 miles (40,074 km). He was informed in his approach by Eratosthenes, who a century earlier used the elevation of the Sun at different latitudes. Both men's figures for the Earth's circumference were uncannily accurate, aided in each case by mutually compensating errors in measurement. However, the version of Posidonius' calculation popularised by Strabo was revised by correcting the distance between Rhodes and Alexandria to 3,750 stadia, resulting in a circumference of 180,000 stadia, or 18,000 miles (29,000 km). Ptolemy discussed and favored this revised figure of Posidonius over Eratosthenes in his Geographia, and during the Middle Ages scholars divided into two camps regarding the circumference of the Earth, one side identifying with Eratosthenes' calculation and the other with Posidonius' 180,000 stadion measure.

Where did the T and O maps come from?

The medieval T and O maps originate with the description of the world in the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville (died 636) . This qualitative and conceptual type of medieval cartography represents only the top-half of a spherical Earth. It was presumably tacitly considered a convenient projection of the inhabited portion of the world known in Roman and Medieval times (that is, the northern temperate half of the globe). The T is the Mediterranean, dividing the three continents, Asia, Europe and Africa, and the O is the surrounding Ocean. Jerusalem was generally represented in the center of the map. Asia was typically the size of the other two continents combined. Because the sun rose in the east, Paradise (the Garden of Eden) was generally depicted as being in Asia, and Asia was situated at the top portion of the map.

Who was the first to add longitudinal and latitudinal lines to his map?

Ptolemy 's world map, designed in 150 AD. Ptolemy was the first to add longitudinal and latitudinal lines to his map in the world. Wikimedia Commons. The center of the Tabula Peutingeriana, a 4th century Roman map outlining the road network of the Roman Empire.

Who created the T and O map?

A fanciful rendition of the "T and O" map developed by Isidor of Sevilla in the 7th century. These maps divided the world into three, perfectly divided parts: Asia, Europe, and Africa, with Jerusalem at the center of the world. This version of the map was drawn by Jean Mansel between 1459-1463. Wikimedia Commons.

When was the Mer des Hystoires map drawn?

The Mer des Hystoires world map, drawn in 1491. Even during the age of exploration, some monks continued to make T and O maps, with Jerusalem at the center of the world and paradise as a real location in the eastern side of the world. Wikimedia Commons. 25 of 30.

Which two countries were discovered by explorers?

The Americas were slowly charted, Australia and New Zealand began to appear, and explorers slowly revealed the world in its full scope. After this look at ancient world maps, check out more fascinating maps from the ancient world, or these 33 maps that explain America better than any textbook.

Who made the clover leaf map?

A later Christian map, the Bunting Clover Leaf Map, drawn by Heinrich Bunting in Germany in 1581. This map is not meant to depict the world as it is, but instead the world as an extension of the Christian trinity, with Jerusalem as the center that holds the world together. Wikimedia Commons. 11 of 30.

How many maps are there of the world's drug problem?

33 Maps That Explain The World's Drug Problem. 1 of 30. The oldest known world map was made in Babylon in the 6th century BC. The map shows Babylon in the center of a world that extends no further than the edges of Mesopotamia. Around the world is a round "bitter river.".

When did the continents collide?

By, say, 250 million years ago , most of the continents were together.

How long ago did the continents drift apart?

This final of the three global sequences shows the continents drifting apart, in reverse, from 260 million years ago to 600 million years ago . There was still nearly 4 billion years of tectonic evolution prior to where these maps begin.

What are the same regimens that modern climates follow?

Not in detail, of course—there’s a lot of controversy about certain paleoclimates. But, basically, paleoclimates follow the same kinds of regimens that the modern climates are following: where the oceans are, where the equator is, where the mountain ranges are, and so forth.

How long ago did the Colorado Plateau end?

This second sequence, also showing the evolution of the Colorado Plateau, begins with the Triassic and ends roughly 5 million years ago—basically the present day, in geological terms. All maps by Ron Blakey.

How long did the Atlantic Ocean last?

That’s where you now get the Labrador Sea; that is actual ocean crust. So that was the Atlantic Ocean for thirty or forty million years — but then it jumped again, this time over between Greenland and what is now the west coast of Europe.

How long ago was the West Coast of North America?

The west coast of North America, depicted as it would have been 130 million years ago; the coast is a labyrinth of islands, lagoons, and peninsulas slowly colliding with the mainland to form the mountains and valleys we know today.

Where did Ron Blakey's interview take place?

The next two sequences of images, followed from left to right, top to bottom, illustrate the gradual evolution of the Colorado Plateau, where, in its modern day incarnation, this interview with Ron Blakey took place (specifically, in Flagstaff, Arizona).

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