Jdailey's Great Lakes Earth World Map Challenge
Let us say that, in the future, some scientists have created satellites capable of something that seems science fiction for now — punching the walls of the universe to study an alternate reality. By that scenario, some hundreds of “alternate Earths” from hundreds of alternate universes would already have been discovered and meticulously studied. As much as half of them would still be ruled by humans, unfolded by events that turned out differently. One universe, for example, had an Earth where 9/11 never happened, or where the outcome of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars ended up differently.
One of the most interesting to note was a planet that scientists call “Alternate Earth 111”, known to the public as “Great Lakes Earth”.
Why?
Because at first glance, it seemed that almost every continent is dominated by lakes, even those larger than the Great Lakes that we have in North America. What is its history? What points of divergence would we expect to see in this particular variation?
This proved to be a long, backbreaking investigation because when our alt-satellites picked up Great Lakes Earth, it has discovered traces of civilization — traces roughly 100,000 years old. However, after years of picking up the pieces and speculating on the rest, we believe that we have mapped the entire geography and the best of the history of Great Lakes Earth.
But what would the map of Great Lakes Earth look like? That is where you come in.
GuidelinesOne--The map must be equirectangular.
Two--Once you've got the equirectangular, you can now commence to Step I--add in the political boundaries and mark them in a dark color. (For further clarification, that includes all 50 United States and all of Canada's provinces and territories.)
Three--Step II--add in the primary and secondary subdivisions, topographic contour lines and rivers and mark them all as one color, preferably lighter than the political boundaries'. (The only exception to this is don't add contour lines on Asia.)
Four--Step III--Widen the Atlantic by 1350 miles, putting the Prime Meridian in Lisbon instead of Greenwich. Which creates a landbridge that connects Asia to North America, erasing the Bering Strait off the map and shrinking the Bering Sea. To that extent, it would be like turning the Russian urban locality of Egvekinot (66.3205 degrees North and 179.1184 degrees West) into the next-door neighbor of Teller, Alaska.
Five--And finally, Step IV--Drag Australia so far down southward that the distance between it and Antarctica is cut by half.
Six--Note that this will not be the fullest extent of Great Lakes Earth and that your entry will be just a base focusing on the two biggest and simplest changes.
Seven--Most importantly, have fun!
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