The first thing to keep in mind is that ocean currents are very thin compared to the diameter of Earth. They’re only about four kilometers (13,000 feet) deep at most, and surface currents can be just ...

A global game reveals that our idea of the size of continents is more accurate than classic maps and their distortions ...

Think about a map of the world. The image you're picturing will most likely resemble the Mercator projection—a 2D representation of the globe created in the 1500s which most maps you commonly come ...

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. Still, though, a map of a planet with semi-permanent storms around its belt, with a ...

It was a curious little book. When a few copies began resurfacing, in the 18th century, nobody knew what to make of it. One hundred and three pages long and written in Latin, it announced itself on ...

It's a problem that has plagued cartographers for centuries: How do you accurately represent a round world on a flat map? The most common world map used today, designed almost 450 years ago, is highly ...

Some social media users are saying that Alexander Gleason’s 19th Century “New Standard Map of the World” is proof that the earth is flat and that Antarctica is not a continent but an ice ring that ...

Has anyone ever asked you whether New Zealand is part of Australia — or where exactly it sits on the world map?

Back when mapmaking was still a fledgling profession in the U.S., cartographers had a trick up their sleeves: they would insert fake towns into the maps they drew. Not to screw up travelers trying to ...

The Roman Empire might have been bigger than we first thought. The uncovering of a hidden road network demonstrates the ...