Beautiful maps in current affairs

At presentation in London on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea was given a few years ago by Dr Parson of the Southampton UK National Oceanographic Centre. He described how nations were given an opportunity to claim Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) beyond the standard 200 nautical mile limit (viz. UNCLOS and UNEP). The reason AAPG hosted this is because most such extensions revolve around petroleum and mineral rights in the Offshore Continetal Shelves (OCS).

Recent news about sabre-rattling in the South China Sea prompted me to look up the actual EEZ boundaries, which I had downloaded for a project mentioned earlier - this issue also discussed re: the Arctic here and here - the area in dispute jumps out of the map just posted on arcgis.com. Its immensity is very apparent by using the Measure tool: roughly three quarter million square kilometres or a quarter million square miles! It was also a good excuse to use Esri's new and beautiful ocean map. The arcgis.com entry also details the selection and layering criteria used to post the map simply yet effectively.

PS: if you don't have ArcGIS to read this map, then get your home copy for $100 here.