The Lost Subways of North America

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Book cover: The Lost Subways of North AmericaThe Lost Subways of North America, in which Jake Berman looks at the successes and failures of 23 North American transit systems, is out now from the University of Chicago Press. The book’s text is accompanied by a hundred or so of Berman’s own maps, and is based on his series of maps of discontinued and proposed subway systems: see the online index for what made it into the book. On his blog, Berman is posting “deleted scenes”: city chapters that were cut from the book for length, like Denver and Portland.

See the Guardian’s interview with Berman (thanks, Michael); the Strong Towns interview focuses specifically on Los Angeles.

Amazon (Canada, UK) | Bookshop

A Stranger Quest: A Documentary About David Rumsey

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Map collector David Rumsey—he of the eponymous website and Stanford map center—is the subject of a new documentary directed by Italian filmmaker Andrea Gatopolous. A Stranger Quest premieres at the Torino Film Festival later this month and is scheduled for a 2024 release. The trailer, above, doesn’t reveal much. [Kottke]

Earthquake Swarms and an Imminent Eruption in Iceland

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
Two maps showing geological deformation in Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland, from the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
Icelandic Meteorological Office

A swarm of thousands of earthquakes have been recorded on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula over the past three weeks. It’s a strong indication that a volcanic eruption is imminent. The town of Grindavík has been evacuated as a result. The Icelandic Meteorological Office has a page with updates and maps of earthquakes and ground deformation from the magmatic intrusion (examples above). A post on Earthquake Insights has more maps, plus geological and historical context.

Map of British English Dialects

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Map of British English Dialects by Starkey ComicsStarkey Comics’s Map of British English Dialects took Ryan ages to research. “The end result is an image which is, to my knowledge, the most detailed map of British dialects ever made. But it is still very much unfinished, and it always will be.” The rest of his post is a careful litany of caveats about what constitutes a dialect, whether it’s geographically specific and whether its boundaries can be sharply defined. “So yes, this map may be unsatisfying, arbitrary, and unfinished, and no amount of work on it will really change that. It exists mainly as a testament to the huge dialectal diversity of the English language within the UK, and as a way for me to express my fascination and love for that diversity.” [LanguageHat]

Astronomy Atlas 1899: A New Kickstarter Project

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Banner image for the Astronomy Atlas 1899 Kickstarter project

Alejandro Polanco’s latest Kickstarter project, Astronomy Atlas 1899, does for 19th-century astronomy atlases what his previous Geography 1880 project did for school atlases of the era: create an anthology of the best maps, drawings and diagrams from the books available to him.

In my library, in addition to the collection of geographical atlases from the 18th to the 21st century, there is a whole series of old books on astronomy, and of all of them, the ones that attract me the most are those published between 1880 and 1930. This was a time when science was developing at an astonishing rate and astronomy was changing radically. […]

In total there are twelve astronomical atlases in this library, mostly Spanish, French and English, published between 1880 and the early 1930s. From these I have selected the most interesting engravings and drawings, arranged them chronologically and given details of the original source. I have also supplemented many of them with other engravings from the Biblioteca Nacional de España and similar sources.

Digital (€18), softcover (€45) and limited-edition hardcover (€90) versions will be produced.

Mapping North Korea in OpenStreetMap

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Mapping North Korea in OpenStreetMap is, by necessity, an exercise in armchair mapping—i.e., drawing maps from aerial imagery and other data sources—because on-the-ground mapping is, to say the least, impractical. French OSM user Koreller has created a North Korea mapping guide for OSM contributors.1 See Koreller’s diary entry about the guide, plus their entry about mapping the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

El Niño and Snowfall in North America

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
NOAA map showing snowfall during all El Niño winters (January-March) compared to the 1991-2020 average.
NOAA

NOAA’s ENSO blog maps the impact of El Niño on snowfall in North America.

Obviously, snowfall is limited in its southernmost reaches because it needs to be cold enough to snow, so the effects are strongest in the higher and colder elevations of the West. To the north, however, there is a reduction in snowfall (brown shading), especially around the Great Lakes, interior New England, the northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest, extending through far western Canada, and over most of Alaska. In fact, El Niño appears to be the great snowfall suppressor over most of North America.

The above map shows the change in snowfall during all El Niño years; additional maps tease out other details (such as the difference in moderate-to-strong El Niños). [CNN]

Estate Sale Map Turns Out to Be Rare 14th-Century Portolan

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
A full-sized image of a 14th-century portolan chart on vellum.
Rex Tholomeus Portolan Chart, ca. 1360. Vellum, 1141 × 686 mm. Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps.

The Los Angeles Times has the story of a map that turned out to be far older and more valuable than anyone expected. Ann and Gordon Getty paid £56,600 for a portolan chart in 1993, restored it and put it on display in their home. After Ann died in 2020, Alex Clausen of Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps paid $239,000 for it at the estate sale. The map was dated to 1500-1525, but Clausen suspected it was older and therefore even more valuable. Hundreds of hours of research and lab tests determined a new date: circa 1360, making it the oldest portolan chart in the U.S. and the fourth oldest portolan chart known overall. As for how much more valuable, Ruderman thinks it’s worth a lot more than $239,000: they’re listing it for $7.5 million. They’ve named it the Rex Tholomeus Portolan Chart, after the single human figure appearing on the map, and you can see the listing and read the 49-page catalogue (PDF).

Mapping Global Sea Levels at Even Finer Resolution

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Launched in December 2022, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite measures ocean surface topography—i.e., sea surface height. It recently completed its first full 21-day science orbit, which is represented in the above animated globe.

The animation shows sea surface height anomalies around the world: Red and orange indicate ocean heights that were higher than the global mean sea surface height, while blue represents heights lower than the mean. Sea level differences can highlight ocean currents, like the Gulf Stream coming off the U.S. East Coast or the Kuroshio current off the east coast of Japan. Sea surface height can also indicate regions of relatively warmer water—like the eastern part of the equatorial Pacific Ocean during an El Niño—because water expands as it warms.

Sea surface height has been measured by earlier satellites (previously); SWOT does so at a much greater level of detail.

Middle-earth in 3D

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
Screenshot of Middle-earth 3D map showing an oblique view of Gondor and the Bay of Belfalas.
Screenshot

Micah Vander Lugt’s Esri-powered 3D map of Middle-earth is a departure from the usual fantasy-style map in that it uses an elevation layer. It’s a fascinating perspective, and lots of fun to play with. Though not without quibbles: for example, the labels and 3D rendering don’t always agree with each other, and I’m having a hard time imagining either Minas Tirith or Caras Galadhon as 25-30 km across. [Maps Mania]

A Map of New York City Neighbourhoods

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Back in December 2022, the New York Times asked readers to map their neighbourhoods. They got 37,000 responses; combined with feedback from council members, community boards and another survey, the result is a detailed interactive map of New York City neighbourhoods as seen by New Yorkers that the Times is keeping behind its paywall. The accompanying article talking about how the map came to be and what it reveals, is a bit more accessible (see also archive link). [LanguageHat]

Bad Maps, Kindness and Empathy

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

The 2023 iteration of the 30 Day Map Challenge is coming up, and Daniel Huffman has some thoughts about the day four prompt (“a bad map”) and making room for kindness in the mapmaking community.

It’s fun to play with those things that you’re not supposed to do! But, these are also same kinds of choices that might be made by someone who’s new to our community, and who isn’t as experienced. I’ve seen plenty of students who start out their careers by producing work that is very similar to the material that my colleagues produced when they were prompted to make “a bad map.”

Imagine, then, being one of those novices and seeing someone out there make something in the same style as you, and then see people laugh at it. Might you learn a useful lesson about design? Maybe. But there’s a kinder and more effective way to teach the next generation, isn’t there? […]

It’s no secret that I think our community has had a history of toxic critique and gatekeeping. I’ve written about it here, and talked about it at NACIS. This year, when prompted to make “a bad map,” I invite you to think of “bad” in more ways than just “what a beginner would make.”

Previously: Thirty Day Map Challenge; ‘One Bad Map a Day in February’.

GPSJam Maps GPS Interference

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
Screenshot of GPSJam website
GPSJam (screenshot)

GPS Jam, created by John Wiseman, is an online map of GPS interference, updated daily, based on GPS accuracy information reported by aircraft. It’s not necessarily a map of where GPS is being deliberately jammed, but when you look and see that the hotspots are the eastern Mediterranean, western Russia and the Baltics, well. Active war zones (e.g. Ukraine) are blank: this map is based on civilian aircraft data and those are no-go areas.