Geographical Realism

[imp_fireball]

Can you have a very small peninsula at world scale (say, 40,000 square kilometers), that has high mountains on most coastlines? If the seas surrounding the coast line are harsh, would the mountains still be there, and wouldn't the land get swallowed in storms?

Why is Japan the way it is, for example? Surrounded by storms, but mountainous in many coast lines?

Just thought I'd put this thread here, for anyone knowledgeable about the subject.

[Falconius]

You mean like fjords? Norway is full of them. Norway and Sweden combined is a lot like what you describe, a giant peninsula with mountains on the entire edge of one coastline. Table Mountain in South Africa is right by the ocean and is part of that range which marches right down into the ocean. The entire coast of British Columbia is high mountains going into the ocean. The entire side of South America is basically mountains going down right to the edge of the ocean. Argentina is a peninsula like you describe with extreme seas off its coasts and mountains going right to the ocean at the tip.

As for Japan I think its on a fault, which is why they have frequent earthquakes.

Erosion does happen, but the land is generally solid enough that you don't have to worry about real major changes for the millennium that your map is set in.

[imp_fireball]

A fjord is an inlet, and yeah it makes sense for it to occur in mountainous areas, because there needs to be something for the glacier to carve out. I think those only happen in the far northern (and southern?) hemispheres past 35 degrees north or south (guessing here).

I'm also guessing there are no sandy beaches next to high mountains, are there (unless it's due to river or valley run off)? The erosion needed for sand to occur seems to me like it would cause frequent landslides if it's sourced from the steep slope of a nearby mountain. Landslides occur more frequently in parts of British Columbia (though I don't exactly know why).

Japan also gets typhoons (tai fun is a japanese word I believe), which involve wind storms iirc.

[mbartelsm]

The time scales on which wind and rain erode mountains are HUUUUGE, in the hundreds of millions of years. The Jotunheim mountains, the ones in Norway, are between 390 and 490 million years old, and they are still mighty big.

Regarding Japan, they do get Typhoons, but only a couple a year and the damage a typhoon can cause to a mountain is pretty minimal and it will only get significantly noticeable after... well... hundreds of millions of years. Also, Japan is volcanically active and currently sitting on top of a subduction tectonic border, which means mountains will be constantly growing on the area to replace whatever is eroded.

[Azélor]

wouldn't the land get swallowed in storms?

You mean erosion? That takes thousand or millions of years.

Fjord can form anywhere where the area was covered by an ice sheet like in an ice age for example.

I'm also guessing there are no sandy beaches next to high mountains, are there (unless it's due to river or valley run off)? The erosion needed for sand to occur seems to me like it would cause frequent landslides if it's sourced from the steep slope of a nearby mountain. Landslides occur more frequently in parts of British Columbia (though I don't exactly know why).

Mountainous areas are particularly prone to landslide. Rain and earthquake can cause landslide.
Also, the sand can come from the sea or a nearby river.

[imp_fireball]

You mean erosion? That takes thousand or millions of years.

Maybe the chance of flooding is increased?

[mbartelsm]

Maybe the chance of flooding is increased?

Yeah, sure. Flooding is perfectly normal during hurricanes/typhoons, but that only happens on flat land, not on mountains.

Even if water levels rose 100 meters (which is completely unfeasible IRL), it wouldn't swallow even a mid-sized hill.

[Azélor]

Flooding can happen almost anywhere with the right conditions. Even in the deserts! Because when the land gets very dry it cannot absorb the water and can cause flooding.
Usually, you just need enough rain to fall in a short period of time.
Flooding cause less erosion than landslide but both often happen at the same time.

[Falconius]

Yeah, sure. Flooding is perfectly normal during hurricanes/typhoons, but that only happens on flat land, not on mountains.

Even if water levels rose 100 meters (which is completely unfeasible IRL), it wouldn't swallow even a mid-sized hill.

Well the creeks and rivers that runoff mountains and hills can flood pretty easy. Happens all the time here, most of the year the wadi's are dry but during the rainy season it can rain miles away and a huge amount of water flows through these narrow water ways and every year some unfortunate souls get caught in them. I guess it really depends what the OP means by flooding, and what his use of that knowledge is for?

@imp_fireball Perhaps if you tell us more about what you have in mind to achieve in your map or world we can be a bit better help to get you realistic means of reaching said goal?

[imp_fireball]

EQwMQAB.jpg

Here's my world map so far. Yep, I'm still a noob.

Terrain is going to simply be color rather than drawings (although drawing would look better; I plan on doing a lot more maps for 'zooming in' on squares of note, so drawing would impact the time it would take). Ideally, the world map will take the longest, as it's meant to show everything at world scale, each square representing 10,000 km^2. I've ignored the physics of globe projections to avoid some head ache - this world is flat for all intents and purposes. Nor does world map include elevation, but the terrain should give an idea of what elevation will be. Eg. A mountainous coast line will probably have lots of unassailable sheer cliffs. A hilly coast line might have shingle beaches.

Terrain will also indicate water depth, so ocean, sea and big lake depths are obvious at the world scale, while 'zoomed in' to what I term 'march scale', will indicate river depths, and that sort of thing, as well as include elevation. Some islands are too small to have color (given they're just a few pixels; can't resize the map now, too much memory consumption anyway), but will still be drawn to indicate their position - other islands might remain to be 'discovered' and so don't show up at world scale, but I'm thinking the small coastal islands will, since any old tribal fishing village might be able to accidentally sail or row there in a week or two.

Yes, it's a big plan and a lot of work, and this is just a hobby, so that may be months down the road.

For now - In the map, dark brown indicates big mountains and light brown is regular or small mountains.

Flooding cause less erosion than landslide but both often happen at the same time.

Ironically, landslides during a flood are often caused by erosion from the flood water, aren't they?