... Samurais in early 1600s Spain!

This follows on from more interesting new maps posted here.

I thought that So. Cal. Spanish missions were early (mid-18th c.)... well here's an earlier story of intrepid early diplomats & missionaries - not seasoned sailors as Longest tall ships routes here - after long-distance missionaries of the Apostolic Levant here. Perplexity opens here as:

The town of Coria del Río, located in Andalusia, Spain, is home to a uniquely historic community of descendants of Japanese samurai. This remarkable connection dates back to the early 17th century when a diplomatic expedition, known as the Keichō Embassy, was sent by the daimyo Date Masamune from Sendai, Japan. The embassy, led by Hasekura Tsunenaga, traveled to Spain via Mexico in 1613 with the aim of establishing diplomatic and trade relationships between Japan and Spain, as well as with the Vatican...

So how did they make it to the other side of the world then? Again from Perplexity here:

The ship sailed across the Pacific to New Spain (modern-day Mexico), arriving in Acapulco in early 1614 after about three months at sea. The delegation then traveled overland from Acapulco to Mexico City, spending some time there. From Veracruz, they boarded a Spanish fleet commanded by Don Antonio Oquendo, crossing the Caribbean and Atlantic to Spain. The fleet reached the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda near Seville in early October 1614.​ 

From Sanlúcar de Barrameda, the delegation traveled up the Guadalquivir River in two galleys to Coria del Río, a town near Seville, where they stayed for a time. Following this, Hasekura and his group proceeded on a land route through Seville, Madrid, and Barcelona to carry out their diplomatic and religious missions. This historic arrival in Coria del Río and subsequent travels marked the first major Japanese diplomatic mission to Europe...

Simply created this table here with the sea & overland travels above. I doubled these up (offsetting them one up & doubling the last one)  to create begin & end intervals to create two route maps: 

Geodesic (Great Circle) Line in light green below for air travel today:
- shortest distance between two points on a sphere or ellipsoid (Earth’s surface).
- the direction (bearing/azimuth) changes continuously along the route.
- used in aviation and intercontinental routes for minimum travel distance.

Rhumb (Loxodrome) Line in pink below for ship navigation then:
- constant bearing/azimuth: crosses all meridians at the same angle.
- not usually the shortest route between points (except along the equator or meridian).
- easier for navigation (traditional marine navigation) because you set your compass heading and keep it constant.

Thus is what it looks like in America-centric Equal Earth:

click to enlarge, full size here

The map below wouild have been more a-propos at the time however...

 Mercator projection also:
- rhumb lines (lines of constant compass bearing) are straight lines on a Mercator chart. This means a sailor can plot a straight line between any two points and simply maintain a constant compass heading throughout the journey, greatly simplifying navigation.
- near the equator, distortion on the Mercator is minimal—shapes and distances are reasonably accurate for practical navigation.​
- the projection is conformal (it preserves angles and shapes locally), so bearings and directions are shown correctly, which is crucial for setting and maintaining courses with a compass

click to enlarge, full size here

Spilhaus albeit ocean-centric doesn't wark that great here:

click to enlarge, full size here

 And just for fun - wait until the end... - here is Polar Azimuthal Equidistant also for ocean continuity:

click to enlarge, full size here

Now for the fun part 🥁 Flat Earthers rejoice! Antarctica does indeed circumvent our Earth, to stop us from falling over the edge into oblivion as below 😉

 

Perplexity AI generated image

More map art, Part II

This follows on a map series of offline maps in the second-last post here.

The original "More map art" is  here: a world map in Natural Earth projection with Mean Annual Climate Temperatures and Natural Earth countries.

Equal Earth vs. Spilhaus projection, masking onshore areas

The original post starts as "a few years ago I used Charlie Frye's online lesson Explore future climate projections to learn how to use NetCDF and map temperature regimes - it's shown below in Patterson & Savaric's Equal Earth Projection..."

2050 Scenario? Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)

After revisiting a number of topics for just over a year here, let's address an item of some urgency: stalling the Gulf Stream may end Western Europe's historic privilege; to be a warm enclave between two 'normal' bands at its latitudes. It's not an Ice Age but think how much colder New York and Montreal are than London or Paris. 

It may be hard to wrap our minds around cooling at a time where climate warming hits the headlines - and rightfully so -  and before climate deniers jump on this, please consult the scientific consensus behind all this under two Microsoft Copilot headings at the bottom: AMOC update, a political declaration of Nordic countries affected and estimated timeline of its collapse.

Longest haul flights, longest rivers, longest tall ships routes & bonus map

This follows on a series of maps posted here, in desktop & map or poster but not web format as explained here & here. Sit back folks, relax & enjoy the map story time...

I repost a cool map on long haul flights: I grew up taking earlier ones over 50 yrs. ago; one of the carriers I used, Qantas just announced here jets that can fly Sydney to New York or London direct! Next is a new map of the longest rivers from a website priding itself of its visualisations: I used previous techniques and cannot decide which works best; perhaps you the reader can help?

Update: added a long section on longest sailing routes by 18-19 c. tall ships (think Cutty Sark here).

Update 2: this post here follows on this series of offline maps

More maps, in 3D now

Update 2: found a textbook example of  "carving upstream" in this gorgeous video of the Uinta Mountains of Wyoming

Update 1: more offshore canyons crowning Antarctica found with new digital terrain data and give us a beautiful map @ bottom

This follows on the previous post here of an ongoing series of maps created for outlets that aren't necessarily on the web  - see label:revisit here and label:3D here - this is partly because I'm disengaging from socials; and that itself was partly because I had to let go of significant chunk of work on the internet for lack of resources (see §2 here). See my remaining web presence in the banner menu of the web view here.

Another map request

Update 2: added a new map post here in my ongoing series of revisiting here

Update 1: added at bottom a new map adding to an existing Antarctic project

Pyrénées

When visiting the nearby village of Pontacq (Flickr & village site), the glorious sunshine showed the Pic do Midi de Bigorre (Wikipedia) so clearly we could see the observatory atop! It's the left peak in the central massif below.