Idea Blog (02-10-10): Maps

In my geography lab, we have been going over latitude and longitude, which I used to believe was easy. However what elementary, middle and even high school didn't prepare me for was college geography and geology. I find environmental science incredibly interesting but the difficulty of it is ridiculous. Nevertheless, I am always intrigued and fall more in love with nature and its complexity with each class.

Humankind's existence is extremely miniscule compared to the age of the Earth, it's almost as if we are merely guests here. However, in our time here, we have severely damaged it. One thing my teacher said that struck me was that in comparison to how long the universe has been around, Pangea was like a month ago (something along those lines anyway). But basically, we cannot even conceive how short our planet has been around. This of course isn't anything new to me, but to really study it is something else. I personally do not believe in the Big Bang Theory, however I do believe that the Earth went through a process after it was created. And this process is illustrated below. Notice how mammals and present day are only two notches away from each other (each notch stands for one hundred million years).

Thinking about all this and having to study maps, I have become interested in looking at them more. Today I spent awhile on Google Earth and started screen-capturing the patterns in nature. Then, I took places that were so different, and merged them. In the photo below, its a merge between New York City and Yosimite National Park. However, I think I want to start to research heavily populated areas and see what their antipodes are.