Cartography
5 questions tagged Cartography — spanning every one of the seven Ws.
Whose map first used the name America?
Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 world map is the first known map to use the name America for the New World. He named it after Amerigo Vespucci.
Whose work first mapped the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in detail?
Marie Tharp was the key cartographer behind the detailed mapping of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Her work helped reveal the ridge’s rift valley and global extent.
Whose studies explained why earthquake belts trace plate boundaries?
Marie Tharp's seafloor mapping helped reveal the mid-ocean ridge system in the 1950s and 1960s. That mapping supported the idea that earthquakes cluster along plate boundaries.
Whose map first clearly showed the Himalayas as a distinct mountain system?
Indian and British surveyors of the 19th century, especially through the Great Trigonometrical Survey, produced maps that established the Himalayas as a major range.
How do maps show the shape of the Earth on a flat page?
Maps use projections to convert Earth’s curved surface into a flat image, but every projection distorts something. Some preserve area, others shape, distance, or direction better than the rest.