this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2026
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The two "maps" are wildly out of proportions anyway. Looks like Sweden is the size of the entire US West Coast. When in reality it's about the size of California
Given how the US border is distorted (Maine is north of the 49th parallel) I'm guessing this is one of those maps that distorts things as you move them around to keep the area constant. Like look how big Greenland looks up in the corner.
Greenland is not in the image
Then what is the unlabeled landmass at the very top left, northeast of Iceland?
The landmass in the very top left on the image in this post. Is Iceland.
Greenland is not northeast of Iceland either. It's northwest.
I meant this one, from earlier in this thread.
Right. Sorry, my bad.
One of the most common criticisms of the Mercator map is that it exaggerates the size of countries nearer the poles, while downplaying the size of those near the equator
For example, let's move Russia towards the equator
Mercator does compensate for that by introducing reference rectangles. But of course, that doesn't help when people making posts using those maps, are unaware of how to read them. And also just remove said reference rectangles