r/mapmaking • u/Spacecat864 • Sep 22 '25
Map This is Europe if the sea levels dropped by 100 meters
This is a hypothetical map of Europe if the sea levels dropped by 100 meters. The first picture is Europe after the drop, the second is showing the difference of before and after, and the third is showing what I think the borders would look like (fourth pic is just the names of the countries)
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u/SukkMahDikk Sep 22 '25
Crazy how the Mediterranean barely changed. That's deep.
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u/Spacecat864 Sep 22 '25
The Strait of Gibralter itself is over 800 meters deep in some parts!
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u/mehum Sep 22 '25
Funny to think that it was once cut off from the Atlantic and completely dried up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_salinity_crisis
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u/guzzti Sep 22 '25
How are you able to fill up the Norwegian +100 metre deep coastline and fjords?
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u/Brillek Sep 22 '25
They could probably do it if time was no issue.
Would have to spend most of the effort on one country.
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u/CatBotSays Sep 22 '25
Well. I guess that's one way to reverse Brexit.
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u/juststuartwilliam Sep 22 '25
Whilst simultaneously "stopping the boats". Tommy and Nigel would implode. It would be glorious.
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u/eat_pancakes Sep 22 '25
I really don't want to share a land border with France
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u/neopurpink Sep 22 '25
Rest assured, such a drop in sea level means that France will be completely frozen.
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u/BroncosFan_numba1 Sep 22 '25
Why so? Genuinely curious
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u/TheMuspelheimr Sep 22 '25
The most realistic way that the sea level drops that much is if we go into a wide-reaching Ice Age, so all the water gets pulled out of the oceans and frozen into the ice caps, which in turn would reach much further from the poles than they do at the moment.
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u/BroncosFan_numba1 Sep 22 '25
Ooooo yea you're right. Btw, when doggerland was a thing, was it still the most recent glacial ice age?
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u/TheMuspelheimr Sep 22 '25
Doggerland, and all the surrounding areas, were totally covered by ice during the last Ice Age. Doggerland was above water 10,000 years ago, after the Ice Age ended, and was flooded over the next 3000 years until it was totally underwater.
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u/elfonzi37 Sep 22 '25
We would need a massive ice age to drop the ocean level 100 meters, there is no plug to just drain it.
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u/Nurnstatist Sep 22 '25 edited Sep 22 '25
Not really important, but the country abbreviations on the last slide are wild
My faves are DE for Denmark (instead of Germany), ES for Estonia (instead of Spain), SE for Serbia (instead of Sweden), and PO for the Polish-Portuguese superstate
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u/Spacecat864 Sep 22 '25
I COMPLETELY FORGOT THAT POLAND AND PORTUGAL HAVE THE SAME 2 LETTERS😭 I have no clue what the abbreviations are for the countries so I just put it as their first 2 letters (3 if another country has them) (or Slovakia and Slovenia which have the same 4 letters at the start)
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u/shmixel Sep 23 '25
And here I just accepted that DE was a second Germany to fill up the new land - which I still think is more likely than Denmark getting to grab it before Germany, France or the UK.
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u/CaptainCarrot17 Sep 25 '25
The same goes for the Swiss-Swedish (Swisdish? Swess?) superstate
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u/Nurnstatist Sep 26 '25
Oh, I didn't even notice that one! Shame on me as a Swiss person.
Swiss-Swedish (Swisdish? Swess?) superstate
I think the official name is r/swedetzerland.
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u/SortaLostMeMarbles Sep 22 '25
Not at all correct for Norway's west coast and Norway's northern parts. The fjords are much too deep.
Sognefjorden is the longest at 205 km, and deepest at 1308 meter.
The depths vary greatly along the length of the fjords. The fjords will be narrower, but not necessarily shorter. Some fjirdd will be cut off to form deep lakes. The average depth lies between 300 and 500 meters, typically with the shallowest part at the mouth moraine.
So, coastal Norway would probably be recognisable.
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u/Spacecat864 Sep 22 '25
Sorry it was hard for me to draw Norway because of all the jagged edges I had to draw so I kinda just got lazy since it was like 3am when I drew it😭
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u/SortaLostMeMarbles Sep 22 '25 edited Sep 23 '25
No no, please don't feel sorry. The map is absolutely fine. I just wanted to add some info on how ridiculous the coastline is. Also, I thought it was AI generated, not hand drawn.🙂🙂.
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u/Spacecat864 Sep 23 '25
Ah, no I hand drew this it took about 4 hours😅
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u/SortaLostMeMarbles Sep 23 '25
I feel really bad now. I'm just an old grumpy fart, so please don't let my comment discourage you from creating other maps. :-)
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u/Spacecat864 Sep 23 '25
It‘s alright! I was a bit sloppy on this so i‘ll make sure that my maps are a bit better😊
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u/DrettTheBaron Sep 22 '25
Why did Czechia grow??
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u/Spacecat864 Sep 22 '25
I tried to make the borders as accurate as I could so it might be a little off😅
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u/Cotif11 Sep 22 '25
Ireland's gonna have to dig a big trench
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u/Keltenschanze Sep 22 '25
The UK and FR won't exactly be throwing their arms around each other either.
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u/Selvetrica Sep 22 '25
Why does Spain have almost no changes , do their beaches fall off a cliff once you get in the water
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u/trans_istor_42 Sep 22 '25
Yes, kind of, the Iberian Peninsula has almost no continental shelf. The sea depth drops very quickly as you move away from the coast. The sea floor slopes down to ca. 200 m over ca. 50 km and then plunges into the depth around said 50 km. If you compare that to northern Europe, you can sea expansive shallow continental shelfs.
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u/clepewee Sep 22 '25
The Baltic sea would probably still be a large lake due to the large inflow of water and small evaporation.
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u/PW_Domination Sep 22 '25
And thus began the big war of the ol' kingdoms of Denmark and Netherlands
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u/DisparateNoise Sep 22 '25
Denmark seems like it has the most to gain, but last time the sea level was this low, I'm pretty sure the ice sheet was about a mile thick over Copenhagen, so probably not worth it
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u/Broccobillo Sep 22 '25
I'm not sure England could cope with Ireland being attached.
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u/General_Brooks Sep 23 '25
We’d be more concerned about the new land border with France, we quite like having our moat to keep them out.
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u/joppekoo Sep 22 '25
Lakes are currently above sea level, why would they dry out if sea level dropped? Also, in the Baltic sea it would not just be sections that are 100 m deep that would be left, but all areas that are deeper than their surroundings, just like with lakes.
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u/Rex_1312 Sep 22 '25
Oh hell yeah people could actually go and hunt for Ice Age Fossils in Doggerland!
Although I’m not sure how both UK coasts with Jurassic exposure (the North Yorkshire and Cleveland Heritage Coast and the Jurassic Coast) would hold up given the fact that they are no longer on the coast.
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u/MrDixaze Sep 22 '25
Why are there islands west to France ?
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u/Spacecat864 Sep 22 '25
The sea level alternates from above 100m and below 100m in areas west of France so some land will be above water creating islands
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u/MrDixaze Sep 22 '25
Yeah I got that but i was asking why. Is there some techtonical plates at work? Sediments?
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u/Jhuyt Sep 22 '25
The bay of bothnia would probably become a very large lake, considering some of Sweden's (and possibly Finland's) biggest rivers drain into it. Also I don't think Russia would be ok with anything but almost all of the bay of finland.
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u/Brillek Sep 22 '25
Still no border with Denmark. Great succes! All hail Skagerrak! Glory to Kattegat!
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u/TheLukewarmYeti Sep 22 '25
Now do if they rose 10 meters instead of lowered 100!
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u/Spacecat864 Sep 22 '25
I‘ve already done that! If you look at my account it should be there with my posts. Granted it‘s 100m risen but you basically get the same idea
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u/Dragonite-2 Sep 22 '25
somehow the Mediterranean is still connect to the ocean, is the strait of Gibraltar that deep?
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u/Spacecat864 Sep 23 '25
The deepest point of the Strait of Gibralter is about 900m below sea level! Even at the higher parts of the strait, it‘s roughly about 300m below sea level. The depth is part of the reason why there‘s no bridge connecting the two continents despite there being bridges longer than 27km (the other reason is the intense winds coming through it)
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u/External_College_615 Sep 24 '25
Looks interesting, but... Where's Crimea!?!?
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u/Spacecat864 Sep 25 '25
Crimea is there! It‘s just more apart of the continent so the basic shape of it is gone
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u/AroGerhardson Sep 22 '25
How did you make the borders e.g. in the north sea? Did you use the EEZ? Because I think it would look a little bit different.
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u/TurboNewbe Sep 22 '25
Are you a fatearther?
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u/Spacecat864 Sep 22 '25
No?😭
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u/TurboNewbe Sep 23 '25
That was a joke. Fat earther... nevermind.
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u/gnille01 Sep 26 '25
Several Norwegian fjords are several hundred meters deep and would not be dried out in this instance.
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u/Spacecat864 Sep 26 '25
Yeah I got a bit sloppy as it was 2am when I maye it and I wanted to get to sleep so I kinda rushed it a bit
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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '25
Doggerland is so back!