WIP: unnamed Earh-like planet

[ascanius]

Hey groovey, It's nice to see your map coming along nicely. my one critique are your oceanic shelfs, 0 to -100m, -100 to -200m. 100 meters is not a lot, but they look like they extend for hundreds or thousands of km. also having the oceanic shelf go from -200 to 0 over the course of hundreds, thousands of km would make your coast a nightmare of tsunamis. I would tighten up your oceanic shelfs a good bit and bring them closer to the coasts, also you may want to vary how far the extend outward, right now the are kinda uniform. I really like the massive plateau in the south western continent. Keep up the good work.

[CarnivorousJellybean]

Just following up on what ascanius said about oceans, the deepest part of the ocean is in the Mariana Trench, it's just under 11000m deep. The whole ocean averages about 3688 m deep though. You probably don't have to map out the entire ocean floor, but hopefully that little tidbit can help you with the bits you do map!

Everything you've done so far is super awesome and in-depth; it was actually this thread that inspired me to finally make an account and get grinding out my own world map! So uh, thank you

[Azélor]

The oceanic currents look right to me but the atmospheric systems, not so much. Having low pressure in winter below the high continental system is not mandatory and is probably wrong in this case. The eastern continent would not be low pressure in the west because the land is not hot enough for that. It would be average, just like in Europe or something like that.

The high pressure system would be located further away in the east and extend northward.

No low pressure area, resulting in an overall dry continent in winter at least, except on the western side.

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Heck, I just noticed that the winds near the equator are blowing in the wrong direction!
Same thing for the direction of the winds around high pressure systems in the south.

[groovey]

ascanius: nice input, I'll definitely follow your suggestions as soon as a muster some energy.

CarnivorousJellybean: I would like to map the ocean floor and I have toyed with the idea, but I have no idea on how to do it and I would require some research on how to make it fit with tectonics... but there's so much stuff to focus on! I love what you got going on with your ocean floor, looks very organic so far.

azelor: hehe, I had to check! I'm afraid I'll need assistance then, because I'm very dense and though I re-read many times and slowly, that part of the tutorial, it just doesn't click in my head.

[Pixie]

Hey groovey.

So you need assistance, you say... well, uh, you might be right. I had a look at your currents map and it did look a little "stiff". So I downloaded your altitudes map and started scribbling bits, just for fun, but I ended up investing a couple of hours this afternoon and this was my final outcome. I think it looks a little more natural.
Of course, it's all educated guesses, as always. So feel free to use as much as you want and/or ignore at will.

currents.jpg

Your world has some interesting things going on in terms of currents. One is that both north and south polar currents can close full circles around the globe - I don't know how that will make climate patterns different from Earth, but it must have some effect. Second is that you have a sort of Inland Sea, but it is oriented in a north-south manner unlike the Mediterranean, which means (I think) a larger effect in homogeneizing climates in its surroundings. Thirdly, there are a lot of places where warm waters get stuck in small gyres around the equator. This will make those areas very warm and humid, like Indonesia or Borneo.

[Azélor]

I reworked the pressure map and this is waht I have so far:

January

jan.jpg

July

july.jpg

[groovey]

Oh Gods, you two are amazing, and what great timing, cos today I was feeling miserable.

I really don't know what I did to deserve both your time like this, so thank you a lot.

I feel kind of bad that you two always have to come to my rescue. I really try to understand the climate stuff, I read both your tutorials over and over, I watch documentaries and videos relating to each step, etc... but it doesn't click when I try to apply concepts I understand to my map. I really hope you at least get some useful practice out of it. I don't mean to get sappy, but I wish I could do something useful for you two as well.

[Charerg]

On the subject of having the "circumpolar" currents on both poles, they'd probably have an overall "isolating" effect on arctic climates. I think similar borders would form as the Antarctic Convergence on Earth. Also, if you look at the Ice Ages they had a much greater impact on the Northern Hemisphere than the Southern. I suspect this is at least partly due to the fact that the circumpolar belt of continuous water effectively isolates the Antarctic from the rest of the Southern Hemisphere.

Essentially I think they'd act as "dampers" as any arctic airmass would have to pass over the ocean and warm up before hitting the continents. And the Northern Hemisphere would probably have a relatively mild climate compared to Earth due to the absence of any glaciers, and the presence of a deep, polar ocean.

[Pixie]

Gee, groovey, thanks for the compliment.

But honestly, I think it's you "feeling miserable" that makes as look "amazing" to your eyes. Anyway, you're the historian and we're the scientists - so this is our backyard. You'll be of use when we start seeding and growing civilizations.. just keep your resources at hand

[Azélor]

I'm not sure the south would have the Polar Easterlies, because it's similar to Antarctica and it doesn't have that current.
The northern easterlies might be located closer to the pole, but that's not going to change a lot of things.

I wonder what the ice sheets should look like in the north. Unlike the Arctic, it completely open. This means stronger currents and stronger winds because of the lack of obstacle to stop them. There are no bays or islands where the ice can clog together. It is going to freeze but the ice is prone to breakups and it will always be drifting without lands to hold it. It's probably going to spin on itself, where the polar gyre is.

The katabatic winds of Antarctica are said to break the formation of ice. It's about the same strength as category 4 hurricane, when the winds are at their strongest. Don't expect to have lot of ice in the south, except for icebergs.