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ocean
Maps / 11 weeks ago
How the Pacific Ocean outsizes all the continents combined
Imagine placing Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, Australia and Antarctica into one huge basin and still having room to sail around. That’s essentially what a recent World in Maps illustration suggests: a silhouette of the Pacific Ocean overlaid with the outlines of entire continents. Covering about 63 million square miles (163 million km²), roughly one‑third of Earth’s surface, the Pacific Ocean is big enough to fit all the world’s landmasses and still leave spare space. It’s not just wide; it stretches about 12,300 miles (19,800 km) from west to east.
Maps / 22 weeks ago
Is the world map we've known all our lives really a lie?
In a fascinating exposé, a visual campaign reveals that the familiar world map we all grew up with is more illusion than fact—an artefact of history, power, and convenience rather than an objective depiction of our planet’s true proportions. Most of us recognise the Mercator projection—the rectangular world map that lines classrooms, textbooks, and even boardrooms.
