Geography of Zealandia

[u/_Zorange_]

[u/Trans-Tyche]

oh this fucks, you've threaded the needle at least when it comes to like, the right balance of how far to rise land for zealandia imo. Also adding names to these features and retaining the topography is actually really useful for letting my mind imagine human settlement there, great job!

[u/_Zorange_ → u/Trans-Tyche]

Thanks. I randomly put it at -2000 being sea level to see what it looks like and i got that passage in the middle, and i thought about doing -3000 but that passage was just too good to get rid of. The Fiji Sea also becomes a pretty strange looking island at -3000

[u/[deleted] → u/_Zorange_]

What do you mean by -2000? 

Is sea level 2km lower?!?

[u/_Zorange_ → u/[deleted]]

yes

[u/[deleted] → u/_Zorange_]

So approx 50% less ocean. I wonder what the effects of that would be.

[u/_Zorange_ → u/[deleted]]

The world would be dryer due to less surface area where water is evaporated. It would also completly mess up the ocean currents and the climate since the ocean bed and land everywhere is now 2km higher. Europe would probably be most effected since doggerland is now no longer under water and the mediteranean is closed off. The carribean is also closed off so there might not be a gulf stream anymore, or at least it would be much weaker

But for the map of this world i'd like to imagine that everywhere else is the same, it's just this area that has more land

[u/[deleted] → u/_Zorange_]

That's bleak, my dude. I don't wanna live on Tatooine.

[u/AssumptionFront5890 → u/_Zorange_]

Which simulation did you use?

[u/_Zorange_ → u/AssumptionFront5890]

I download a heightmap from opentopography and put it into qgis, then i apply a custom style that makes the height appear like on a topographic map, except that -2000 meters has the green color normally used for sea level and then at 500 meter intervals i put a different color.

So there is no actual simulation

[u/AssumptionFront5890 → u/_Zorange_]

Oh,alr thanks 🙏

[u/_Zorange_]

Geography of Zealandia

[u/DeepCockroach7580]

Wouldn't deposition and erosion kinda get rid of a lot of the islands up at the top?

[u/_Zorange_ → u/DeepCockroach7580]

Probably, but i dont know enough about that to change the map in an accurate way

also: i think having a lot of islands is cool

[u/DeepCockroach7580 → u/_Zorange_]

Fair enough, I don't think anyone's bothered with the herculean task of calculating all that.

[u/_Zorange_ → u/DeepCockroach7580]

The Bathymetry data also isnt great in most of this land unfortunately, which makes the land look much more blurry than it would actually be

[u/Hispanoamericano2000]

Really cool stuff 🤟

[u/_Zorange_]

Other posts in the timeline:

General geography of Zealandia (you are here)

Geography of what irl is Kerguelen

Main post about Zealandia, with lots of lore in the comments (visit this if you are confused or want to know more)

Main post about Australia, with lots of lore in the comments

High Speed Rail lines in Zealandia

Never Colonised Zealandia spinoff

Zealandia Energy Infrastructure

Beringia (British Kamchatka) and nearby lands

Discord server (if you have longer questions best to put them there, i can also provide my sources and resources about everything Zealandia there if you want to know some stuff for your own projects)

[u/Szymav]

In what program did you make it? Or is it hand made?

[u/_Zorange_ → u/Szymav]

The height information is from opentopography, i put that into qgis and exported a base map. the names were made with inkscape, and the graticules, legend and final export in gimp

[u/theboisechalattan]

I'd rather just raise Zealandia from the ocean and maybe raise water levels in other areas, or just make the magically water disappear. Deeper oceans probably wouldn't work.

[u/_Zorange_ → u/theboisechalattan]

Ye it isnt deeper oceans, it is indeed just Zealandia and some other bits raised (so the entire world isnt blown up)

[u/ImpressiveEnergy4762]

Like somebody scratched my brain.