this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2024
315 points (97.3% liked)

Map Enthusiasts

3606 readers
29 users here now

For the map enthused!

Rules:

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

TranscriptionA map of the world with vertical lines marking the time zones from UTC-12 to UTC+12. It has a legend:

Wrong Time

"Natural time zones" are 15° in longitude. Land in red observes a time other than the zone it lies within. Smaller islands depict their 12 nautical mile territorial sea, for visual effect. In some cases this includes a state's archipelagic waters.

Plate Carrée projection, WGS-84 datum. December 2018 © International Mapping, all rights reserved.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This map really brings home how awful this projection is for this map's purpose and how awful most projections really are near the poles. Greenland isn't that big. I know this map is Plate Carree, not Mercator, but the size issue of an equirectangular projection is really similar when comparing longitude and size for the entire globe from pole to equator. 15 degrees of longitude for a timezone stops making sense that close to the poles. Greenland would mostly fit in the central time zone of the United States for example. Given its sparse population, dividing it up into 3 timezones seems unnecessary.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago

15 degrees of longitude for a timezone stops making sense that close to the poles

Yeah exactly. The concept of time zones themselves really starts to break down at those latitudes, and I don't think it matters what map projection you show it on (though something like Robinson or Winkel-Tripel, with curved time zones, would definitely make things clearer), it's a fundamental aspect of the way in which light is hitting the Earth's surface.