HUNGRY SHOREBIRDS
All the worms, clams, and other burrowing animals
that live beneath beaches and mudflats attract flocks
of hungry shorebirds. Many of these birds are
specially adapted with long legs and long bills for
wading in the shallows and probing into deep sand.
Others forage on rocky shores, and use their shorter,
stouter bills to flip over rocks and seize small
animals as they try to escape.
▲ PROBING BILLS LIFE ON EARTH
The long bills of these curlew sandpipers have sensitive tips that allow
them to feel for worms and other animals buried in the sand.
FAST FACTS MANGROVE SWAMPS
◾ On some Australian beaches, up to 10,000 sea turtles come ashore Sheltered tropical shores become overgrown by
every night to lay their eggs during the breeding season. mangrove trees, which are able to grow in salt
◾ A sandy beach may conceal more than 2,000 buried shellfish such water and waterlogged, airless mud. They form
as cockles in every square yard (or meter) of sand. swamp forests that flood with seawater at high
◾ On rocky shores, many sea creatures survive the hours of low tide tide. Many animals live among their roots,
in pools of seawater among the rocks. including the mudskipper—an extraordinary
fish that can survive out of water, and even
BEACH SCAVENGERS climb the low branches of mangrove trees.
Crabs are sea creatures that cannot breathe air, but some carry ▼ TIME OUT
supplies of oxygen-rich water that allow them to survive on the A ghost crab pauses on a South African beach
beach at low tide. They include the shore crab and the tropical before scuttling off in search of a meal.
ghost crab, which feed mainly on dead animals washed up by the
waves. Tropical fiddler crabs also live out of the water, and feed
by extracting edible particles from beach sand.
199
THE HUMAN WORLD THE HUMAN
WORLD
The first modern humans THE HUMAN WORLD
were born just 200,000
years ago. In that tiny
fraction of Earth’s history,
we have changed the face
of the planet.
THE HUMAN WORLD Population
For thousands of years before the invention of farming, the total
human population was probably 15 million at most. Once people
began to grow food about 9,000 years ago, the population began
to increase, and by 1800 ce there were almost a billion people on
Earth. With better technology and health care, the population has
reached a staggering seven billion today.
LIVING OFF THE LAND
Until about 9,000 years ago,
everyone lived by hunting animals
and gathering wild food. Some
tribal peoples around the world
still do. Wild food is often
seasonal and limited, which
restricts how many people can live
on the same area of land. This is
one reason why the prehistoric
population remained so small.
▶ HUNTER-GATHERERS FARMING REVOLUTION
The San or bushmen in Namibia,
southwest Africa, search for wild game, Populations began to rise when
roots, and berries using methods people figured out how to produce
unchanged for thousands of years. more food by domesticating animals
and planting crops. They also learned
202 how to dry and store crops that could
be eaten in seasons when other
foods were scarce. Storing extra
food also meant that not everyone
had to work on the land all year
round—some people could do
other work. By 3000 bce,
farmers such as these in Egypt
were supporting a large and
complex society.
FIGHTING DISEASE
Throughout history, plagues have killed millions of people.
The Black Death of 1346–1353, for example, spread across
Asia and Europe and killed up to 200 million people. Thanks
to medical advances, people now survive diseases that were
once fatal, and vaccines protect against infection—by 1979,
vaccinations had eradicated the deadly disease smallpox.
These advances have allowed populations to grow quickly.
ENERGY AND POPULATION THE HUMAN WORLD
In Europe before about 1800, many people lived on the
land and in poverty. Soon, however, coal was fueling the
new steam-powered technologies in factories. As industries
grew, so did workforces and the cities they lived in. By
1900, technology for refining oil (in refineries such as this
one, above) created a new source of energy that fueled
modern economies and rapidly expanding populations.
POPULATION GROWTH WORLD POPULATION (BILLIONS) ▲ KILLER VIRUS
A magnified image shows the influenza virus. A worldwide flu
In 1800, there were about 1 billion people living on the planet. This epidemic in 1918–1920 killed up to 50 million people.
increased to roughly 2.5 billion by 1950, 3 billion by 1960, 6 billion by
2000, and 7 billion today. Experts believe that the global population IS THERE A LIMIT?
will reach 8 billion by 2030, and could even grow to a colossal
9 billion by 2050. If the world’s population rises to nine billion by 2050,
we will have to produce 70 percent more food to ensure
9 that everyone has enough to eat. Some scientists warn
that our increasing use of natural resources threatens the
8 future of the world’s ecosystem—the global community
of living things and their environments. As we rely on
7 this for our survival, we may be close to reaching the
limit of human population.
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1650 1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 2050
YEARS
▶ TEEMING CROWDS
One of the busiest crosswalks
in the world is in Tokyo, Japan.
The city is home to about
8.9 million people.
203
THE HUMAN WORLD Farming
Since prehistoric times, people have been turning forests,
wild grasslands, and even some deserts into farmland. For
most of that time, the cropland has been fertilized by
grazing livestock. As the world’s population
has grown, however, farmers have needed to
produce more food by developing more
intensive, mechanized methods that rely
on chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
HERDING AND RANCHING SLASH AND BURN
The first farmers were probably animal herders. Instead The most primitive way of growing food is to clear
of hunting animals, they caught them and kept them an area of forest, burn the tree stumps, and plant
for their milk, meat, and skins. The earliest herders may crops on the soil fertilized by the ash. People in the
have followed animals as they roamed. Ranchers still Amazon rainforest have always farmed like this, but
herd animals today, driving them from pasture to it only works on a small scale. The soil soon loses its
pasture on open ranges for grazing. nutrients and then more forest has to be cleared.
▼ OPEN RANGE
This rancher herds cattle across a
vast open range in Idaho.
204
MIXED FARMING THE HUMAN WORLD
If cattle or sheep are kept on an enclosed field, they eat
the grass and drop manure that fertilizes the ground.
The farmer can then plow the field and use the fertilized
soil to grow crops, while the animals graze another
field. After the crops are harvested, the animals can
be brought back while the second field is sown
with crops. Organic farming is still based on this
method, which does not use farm chemicals.
INDUSTRIAL FARMING ▲ WHEAT PRAIRIE
A huge combine harvester reaps a vast
Many farmers use artificial fertilizers instead of grazing animals field of wheat in the American Midwest.
on the land. This allows them to specialize in growing profitable
crops, such as wheat, in large fields that can be harvested by SELECTIVE BREEDING
large machines. But planting just a few crops can increase the
risk of pests, diseases, and weeds, so these industrialized farms use Only the most basic farming uses species of
a lot of chemical pesticides and weed killers. Over time, the soil animals and plants that are the same as those
can also become less healthy, and in serious cases it may turn found in the wild. Most farm animals and crops
to dust and blow away. are created by selecting the best examples and
breeding them to ensure useful features such as
◀ GREENHOUSE better milk yield in cows, or size and flavor in
If they are grown fruits and vegetables. Selective breeding is also
under glass, crops used to make crops more resistant to frost or
such as tomatoes can disease, and has hugely boosted productivity.
be produced all year
round, even in cool
or dry climates.
FARMING UNDER COVER ▲ BRED FOR BEEF
The muscular Charolais cattle have been
Some animals and many crops can be raised under cover. This allows selectively bred for their high-quality beef.
more food to be produced in a smaller area, and also enables farmers
to grow tender plants that would not survive outside. However, many
people think that the intensive rearing of animals such as pigs and
chickens is cruel. They also worry about the level of harmful pesticides
that may be used on fruits and vegetables grown under glass.
205
THE HUMAN WORLD
TRANSFORMED LANDSCAPE
More and more of the natural wilderness is being
turned into farmland each year. These rice terraces in
Sapa, Vietnam, make use of steep hillsides to grow
food. In other parts of the world, huge areas of prairie
grassland have been turned into fields for growing
wheat and corn, and tropical forest is being replaced
by banana, soybean, and palm oil plantations.
206
THE HUMAN WORLD
207
THE HUMAN WORLD Mining
People have been digging useful minerals from the ground for
thousands of years. The earliest miners looked for pieces of flint to use
as tools, and pure glittering metals such as silver and gold. Later miners
extracted tin and copper from rock to make bronze, iron ore to make
iron and steel, and other valuable materials such as building stone and
precious gems. The coal, oil, and gas we use
as fuel are also mined from the ground.
ANCIENT TECHNIQUES QUARRYING
Prehistoric miners dug shafts down into the ground to reach Building stone must be cut out in blocks. In the past,
a seam (layer) of flint and then tunneled sideways along the quarrymen split the rock with wedges and hammers,
seam to dig it out. Miners still use shafts and tunnels to dig or even explosives. But today many types of stone are
sliced out with machine-operated saws studded with
for coal today. Other ancient mining techniques extra-hard minerals such as industrial diamonds.
were less dangerous. They included panning
for gold—a heavy metal that can be
separated from river sand by rinsing
it with water (below).
OPEN-PIT MINES THE HUMAN WORLD
Some of the largest mines are open holes in the
ground, dug by colossal mechanical excavators. Huge
trucks drive down access roads to the bottom of the
mine to be loaded up. Open-pit mines are used for
coal close to the surface, but the deepest pits are
mines for metals such as copper and the radioactive
uranium used as fuel in nuclear power plants.
OPEN PIT ▶
A truck rolls up the terraces of an open-pit mine,
carrying 250 tons of rock. When the mine is
exhausted, it will become a waste landfill.
DEEP SHAFTS DRILLING FOR OIL
The most expensive and dangerous form of mining By drilling boreholes down
involves tunneling deep below ground. Horizontal through rock, miners can reach
galleries are linked to vertical shafts, which have reserves of liquid oil and natural
lifts that carry miners down to seams. Deep-shaft gas. Deep beneath the ground,
mines have to be constantly drained of water and these fluids are often under
cooled, and miners such as these men in South pressure that squeezes them up
Africa risk rockfalls and gas explosions. the borehole to the surface.
Offshore drilling platforms tap
FAST FACTS reserves beneath the seabed. This
rig is drilling off the coast of
◾ The deepest mine is the TauTona California but some are towed
gold mine in South Africa, which extends out to far deeper waters.
2.4 miles (3.9 km) below the surface.
◾ The deepest open-pit mine is the 209
Bingham Canyon copper mine in
Utah—0.75 miles (1.2 km) deep, it is the
biggest artificial hole on Earth.
◾ In 2009, an offshore oil well in the
Gulf of Mexico was drilled to a depth
of 6.6 miles (10.7 km).
Industry
THE HUMAN WORLD People have always made and traded goods, but the late POWER
18th century marked the beginning of the Industrial
Revolution, when small workshops were replaced by Early factories used waterwheels or large
large, machine-filled factories. Heavy industries such as steam engines to provide the power for
steelmaking and shipbuilding employed whole towns of their machinery. Electric power is more
workers. Today, industry more often uses new technology convenient, because it can be used
and a small but skilled workforce to offer goods and anywhere that can be connected to an
services to customers near and far. electric cable. A constant, reliable supply
of electricity is vital for modern industries,
which depend more and more on
computers and other electronic devices.
COTTAGE INDUSTRY
Despite the rise of modern manufacturing,
many goods are still made by hand. Skilled
workers like these potters make a living by
producing things that local people need.
They often make and sell their wares in
areas of town that become known for
certain types of products, such as leather
bags and shoes on one street, and jewelry
and metalwork on another.
FACTORIES
Large, mechanized factories were established from the
1750s onward, particularly in Britain, where the cotton
industry used spinning machines and power looms.
Later, industrialists such as American
car manufacturer Henry Ford
introduced assembly lines
to speed up production.
Today, these lines are
often partly automated
with robots controlled
by computers.
▶ AUTOMATION
These welding robots
in a car factory are
fast and precise, and
do not tire of doing
the same task over
and over again.
210
HEAVY INDUSTRY THE HUMAN WORLD
The wealth of many of today’s
developed countries came
originally from heavy industries
such as steel production, oil
refining, vehicle manufacturing,
railroads, and shipbuilding
(right). All of these enterprises
require a huge investment in
buildings and equipment, and
use a lot of raw materials and
fuel. They also need large,
skilled workforces.
LIGHT INDUSTRY
With a reliable supply of electricity, small workshops can be set up
almost anywhere. Many use traditional crafts such as woodworking
or dressmaking, but others use new technology. Large or small,
these companies are often at the cutting edge of research, making
key breakthroughs in electronics, medicine, and new materials.
▲ SKILLED WORK SERVICE INDUSTRY
Many light industries rely on the hands-on skills
of their workers. These American technicians are Many modern industries do
assembling the main circuit boards of computers. not produce any goods that
you can touch. Instead, they
provide services such as
banking and finance, legal
advice, or insurance. The
London Stock Exchange (right)
provides a service for investors
worldwide, but your local
hospital, restaurant, and movie
theater provide services too.
211
THE HUMAN WORLD Transportation
The products of industry are used worldwide, thanks to efficient
transportation networks that allow international trade. These networks
also enable people to travel anywhere on the globe. Along with
communications networks, power supplies, and water and drainage
systems, transportation is part of the infrastructure of modern civilization.
SHIPPING ▲ OCEAN TRADER
Stacked high with containers,
Shipping routes are among the oldest of all trade routes. The first sea traders each as large as a truck, this
stayed close to the coast so they knew where they were, but by 1000 bce ship can carry a huge cargo
Phoenician traders were criss-crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Ships are still between continents.
the best means of transporting heavy goods, and powerful engines and satellite
navigation have greatly reduced the risks of long sea voyages.
FACT! INLAND WATERWAYS
Air travel has become so Canal networks link many major cities. They were vital to the growth of industry,
popular that, at any time of carrying coal and raw materials. Barges such as this one in Germany still carry
day or night, there are now heavy freights efficiently. They are slow, but this doesn’t matter if a fleet of
half a million people flying barges can deliver a continuous stream of cargo to its destination.
through the world’s skies.
212
▶ TIME MACHINES AIR TRAVEL THE HUMAN WORLD
Jet aircraft have slashed the time
it takes to travel vast distances, Air travel was once a luxury that few could
making the world seem smaller. afford, but in the 1970s cheaper air fares
and the introduction of wide-body aircraft
ROAD NETWORKS made long-distance travel possible for millions
of people. Airlines carry a lot of lightweight
Before the internal combustion engine was cargo too, especially mail and perishable goods
invented, road transportation moved at the
speed of a horse. Now multilane highways such as fruit and flowers. Smaller aircraft also
link major cities and are connected to local provide regional transportation, which can be
roads that give access to even the smallest,
most remote settlements. Road networks are vital in large, sparsely populated countries
vital for local travel, but also for the delivery such as Australia and Canada.
of food, fuel, and other supplies.
URBAN TRANSPORTATION
The major cities of the world could barely function without
rapid transit systems that allow millions of people to move
around quickly and efficiently—on buses, streetcars, local trains,
and subway networks such as this one in Chengdu, China.
HIGH-SPEED RAIL
Railroads were the first high-speed transportation system. Today,
modern electrified rail networks achieve speeds that cannot be
matched on the road. Railroads are expensive to build, but
once they are up and running they are more efficient
than any other form of land transportation.
▶ BULLET TRAIN
The Shinkansen train can streak through the
Japanese landscape at 186 mph (300 km/h).
213
THE HUMAN WORLD Cities
The first cities were built about 7,000 years ago, amid fertile farmlands.
Over time, many cities became rich through trade. Their wealth attracted
raiding armies, so high walls were built around the cities to protect them
from attack. Some of these ancient settlements are still thriving cities
today. Modern cities, however, look very different, with geometric street
plans and high-rise buildings of steel and glass.
THE FIRST CITIES
About 7,000 years ago, farming in
Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq)
produced enough wealth to support
the first cities. These are now ruined,
but similar cities of narrow alleys and
mud-brick houses survive in countries
such as Morocco, North Africa (left).
CITY-STATES
The city ofTRADING WEALTH
SamCities need food and other
agoods, which are supplied
rkaby traders. All the buying
ndand selling in their busy
ismarketplaces generates profits
moand wealth, which encourages
remore trade and more wealth.
thaMany cities lying on major trade
n 2,700 years old.routes grew rich in this way, and
Cities often become centers of culture and
civilization. This was the case in the city-states
of Ancient Greece, which were ruled like small
countries. Athens (above) was the greatest of
these, but modern examples such as Monaco
and Singapore also flourish.
their wealth paid for spectacular
buildings designed to impress.
CITY WALLS THE HUMAN WORLD
In the past, wealthy cities were a target for bandits and
armies. Many were defended by walls and towers, plus
ditches and secondary walls. This image of Carcassonne in
medieval France shows how the walls surrounded the entire
city, including its castle, church, and all
the houses.
MASTER PLANS
Most ancient cities grew over time without any real planning,
and many of their winding streets were once country roads.
But some cities were built according to an organized plan—
this aerial view of Amsterdam in the Netherlands shows its
17th-century web of semicircular canals. Modern cities are
usually laid out on a grid plan of rectangular blocks.
HIGH-RISE
Many old cities have been transformed by modern
architecture, and some newer cities are almost entirely
composed of high-rise towers. Supported by frames of
steel girders and clad in glass, they allow huge numbers
of people to live and work within a small area.
▲ HONG KONG SKYSCRAPERS
Perched between hills and sea on China’s south
coast, Hong Kong is home to 7 million people.
▼ GATEWAY TO THE EAST
Wealthy Samarkand in Central Asia lay on the
Silk Road—the medieval trade route between
China and the Mediterranean. It is now the
second largest city in Uzbekistan.
Modern cities
THE HUMAN WORLD Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in Rio de Janeiro
cities, drawn by the opportunities for work and wealth.
As a result, many cities are now very large. Not all of Brazil
this growth has been planned, however, and cities in
developing countries are sometimes fringed by sprawling Area 462 sq miles (1,198 sq km)
shantytowns with poor housing and no proper services. Population 6.3 million
Founding date 1565
New York
Rio is the second largest city in Brazil,
United States of America and the most spectacular. It lies along the
shores of Guanabara Bay on the Atlantic
Area 303 sq miles (786 sq km) coast, famous for its dramatic granite
Population 8.4 million landscapes and beautiful beaches. Rio
Founding date 1609 Carnival is the largest festival of its kind
in the world, and attracts millions of
tourists every year.
Originally a Dutch colony known as and most prosperous city in North
New Amsterdam, New York’s name America, and is famous worldwide as a
changed when it was surrendered to the financial, commercial, and cultural center.
English in 1664. Its huge natural harbor on
the Atlantic coast made it an important ▼ THE BIG APPLE
trading port, and it became the main point The high-rise skyline of New York
of entry for European immigrants to the City is an emblem of American
United States. New York is now the largest wealth and aspiration.
Cairo THE HUMAN WORLD
Egypt
Area 175 sq miles (453 sq km)
Population 7.2 million
Founding date 969 CE
Although it is near several ancient Egyptian
sites, including the pyramids of Giza, Cairo
itself was founded on the Nile River by the
Islamic Fatimid dynasty in the 10th century.
The “city of a thousand minarets” is famous
for its Islamic architecture, but it is also a
vibrant modern city—the political and
cultural capital of Egypt.
Rome Paris Moscow
Italy France Russian Federation
Area 505 sq miles (1,308 sq km) Area 41 sq miles (105 sq km) Area 969 sq miles (2,510 sq km)
Population 2.8 million Population 2.2 million Population 11.5 million
Founding date 753 BCE Founding date Before 52 BCE Founding date Before 1147
The capital of Italy, Rome was once the Famous as one of the most romantic cities Moscow lies farther north than any of the
capital of the Roman Empire, which in the world, Paris is the capital and world’s other great cities, and is noted for its
controlled Europe for more than 500 cultural center of France. The city lies at very long, cold winters. Despite this, it is
years until 476 ce. Today, its rich heritage the heart of one of the largest urban areas Russia’s largest city and the sixth-largest in
of ancient Roman, medieval, and in Europe, home to 12 million people, and the world. At its center lies the medieval
Renaissance architecture attracts visitors the whole region is responsible for more fortress of the Kremlin, which is still the
from all over the world. than a quarter of France’s national wealth. center of government today.
Beijing London one of the world’s leading financial, cultural,
and educational centers. The capital is home
China United Kingdom to about 12 percent of the UK population,
with more than 300 languages spoken there.
Area 6,336 sq miles (16,410 sq km) Area 607 sq miles (1,570 sq km)
Population 19.6 million Population 8.3 million
Founding date 1045 BCE Founding date 43 CE
Beijing has been the capital of China for
most of its 3,000-year history. The Founded by the Romans soon after their
imperial palace, known as the Forbidden invasion of Britain, London was sited near
City, is a spectacular complex of 980 the mouth of the Thames River. It was a
medieval buildings hidden behind huge major port for many centuries, and is still
stone walls. The surrounding city is one of
the largest in the world, and the political
and cultural hub of the nation.
217
THE HUMAN WORLD
CITY LIGHTS
This image of the world at night
shows cities and towns spread over
Earth’s surface. Taken from satellite
data, it shows the high population
density of regions such as the United
States and Europe. The bright
concentrations of light are major
urban areas, including some on the
coasts of South America and Africa.
THE HUMAN WORLD
Pollution
THE HUMAN WORLD The growing human population is producing more and GARBAGE
more waste, ranging from sewage to spent radioactive fuel.
Dealing with all this waste is a huge problem. Much of it is Until the mid-20th century, most
just dumped, buried, pumped into the atmosphere, or of the waste we produced was
poured into rivers and oceans. The resulting pollution is buried and slowly decayed. But
inflicting terrible damage on nature—and on our health. most modern plastics are almost
indestructible by any natural
▼ BLIGHTED BEACH process, so they pile up in great
Goats, cats, and birds scavenge for edible scraps multicolored heaps of garbage.
among the plastic garbage swept onto this North Much of it ends up in the oceans,
African beach by the waves. where it kills wildlife.
DEADLY FILTH
Over much of the world, untreated sewage from badly
drained towns pours into rivers and seas, causing water
pollution that spreads disease. It also upsets the balance of
nature by making the water too rich in plant nutrients. This
can encourage the explosive growth of toxic algae that kill
other organisms such as these fish.
TOXIC WASTE
Industries such as mining, papermaking, and chemical
manufacturing produce poisonous wastes. These are
often released into rivers, killing everything farther
downstream. The wildlife may recover from one
accidental spill, but industries that routinely release
toxic waste can poison entire river systems.
220
SMOG AND ACID RAIN FACT!
Factories, power plants, road vehicles, aircraft, and even cooking In December 1952, a
fires release masses of soot and waste gas into the atmosphere every four-day smog in London
day. The soot and gases can cause dangerous clouds of thick, choking
smog, especially in cities. Some gases may also combine with water killed more than 4,000
vapor in the air to form acid rain, which kills trees and fish. people. The thick, dirty fog
was caused by smoke from
OIL SPILLS ▼ SMOG CITY THE HUMAN WORLD
On a warm day, a thick coal fires, which are now
Although shipwrecks are less common today layer of pollution from banned in the city.
thanks to advances in navigation technology, traffic fumes and
oil tankers still occasionally hit rocks and spill industrial emissions settles
their cargoes into the sea. The oil is deadly to over Jakarta, Indonesia.
marine wildlife, and if it comes ashore it
causes terrible coastal pollution.
ACIDIFIED OCEANS
Vehicles and factories release vast
amounts of carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere each day. Much of the gas
is absorbed by the oceans and turns
into carbonic acid, which is making the
oceans less alkaline. This is disastrous
for animals such as corals that cannot
survive without alkaline minerals. This
coral reef in the Philippines is dying.
THE HUMAN WORLD Climate change
The world is warming up. Records show a steady increase in average
global air temperature, which is melting polar ice and altering the
pattern of the world’s weather. The temperature rise is caused by a
change in the nature of the atmosphere that makes it retain more
heat. This change has been brought about by more than 200 years
of air pollution, caused by burning coal, oil, and other fossil fuels.
WARMING WORLD
Since the 1880s, the world has warmed
by an average of almost 1.8°F (1°C). It
doesn’t sound like much, but altogether
the world has warmed by only 7°F (4°C)
over the past 12,000 years, so the rate of
warming is speeding up. The evidence is
plain to see in the Arctic, where the area
of ocean covered by ice in the late summer
of 2012 was 18 percent smaller than any
other September on record.
GREENHOUSE EFFECT ▲ BLEAK FUTURE
Polar bears live on the Arctic sea ice. As it melts away,
Certain atmospheric gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, they have nowhere to hunt, and could become extinct.
and water vapor act like the glass of a greenhouse. They let
sunshine through to heat Earth’s surface but stop the heat from FAST FACTS
escaping into space. This keeps us warm—indeed, without it the
planet would be too cold for life to exist. But more “greenhouse ◾ In 2003, a heatwave in Europe killed up to 50,000 people.
gases” in the atmosphere are boosting the greenhouse effect ◾ Rising ocean temperatures trigger more storms, which then
and raising global temperatures. cause chaos on nearby continents.
◾ Since 1990, 163,000 sq miles (423,000 sq km) of forest—an
Some heat escapes, but area the size of California—have been felled in Brazil.
gases trap the rest ◾ If climate change melts the Antarctic and Greenland ice
sheets, sea levels could rise by up to 82 ft (25 m).
Sun’s rays
penetrate the
atmosphere
222
FOSSIL FUELS BURNING FORESTS THE HUMAN WORLD
Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, the main In many parts of the world,
greenhouse gas, have increased by 30 percent vast areas of forest are being
since 1900. Scientists agree that this has been cut down and burned. Trees
caused by burning coal, oil, and gas—the absorb carbon dioxide when
remains of life that was fossilized millions of they are growing, and use the
years ago. The carbon they contain is released as carbon to make their timber.
carbon dioxide when the fuel is burned. But if a forest is felled and
burned, all the carbon in the
RISING SEA LEVELS timber is turned into carbon
dioxide again, and released
The fringes of continental ice sheets are breaking into the air to add to the
up, dumping continental ice into the oceans as greenhouse effect.
icebergs. This is steadily raising global sea levels,
and is already causing flooding on low-lying coral NEW TECHNOLOGY
islands in the south Pacific. Ultimately, rising sea
levels could permanently flood coastal cities such These solar panels generate electricity by absorbing the energy of the
as Shanghai and New York. Frozen ground in the Sun. They don’t use fossil fuels, so they don’t add to the greenhouse
Arctic is also thawing out, releasing methane that effect that is causing climate change. If we could generate all our energy
is an even more potent greenhouse gas than using this kind of technology, we could fix the problem. But meanwhile
carbon dioxide. we can all help by using as little energy as possible.
▶ CRUMBLING ICE
As more glacier ice tumbles
into the sea, it adds to the
volume of ocean water.
223
THE HUMAN WORLD Conservation
The future of the world depends on maintaining a healthy
biosphere—the web of life that produces our food and
makes the air fit to breathe. We can help keep
it healthy by protecting threatened species
and the wild places where they live. In the
process, we also help maintain the beauty
of the natural world.
PROTECTED SPECIES
The simplest form of conservation is to protect certain
species by making it illegal to kill them. Such bans have
to be global in order to work, and international treaties
have helped in the case of animals such as elephants and
whales. As long as these laws are enforced, they can help
endangered species recover from near extinction.
▲ THREATENED CAT
Rare animals such as tigers are
protected by laws that make hunting
them a criminal offense.
ILLEGAL TRADE
There are laws banning the trade in endangered species and
goods such as ivory, rhino horns, and tiger skins. But demand
for illegal goods remains, encouraging poachers to break the
laws. Wildlife rangers often have to cope with armed poachers
and carry out raids to confiscate illegal materials.
◀ BLACK-MARKET IVORY
Conservation officers inspect a huge haul of illegal
elephant tusks recovered from a rogue trader.
224
UMBRELLA SPECIES FAST FACTS
Many people are eager to protect certain rare animals such as the ◾ At least 23 percent of all mammals and 12 percent of all
giant panda, but are not so concerned about the fate of less famous birds are threatened with extinction.
species. However, pandas cannot survive unless the ecosystem that ◾ Tropical coral reefs are likely to become extinct over the
supports them survives too. By working to protect panda habitats, we next 100 years.
may also ensure the survival of other animals and plants. ◾ Protected areas such as wildlife reserves cover only
12.1 percent of Earth’s land surface.
WILDLIFE RESERVES THE HUMAN WORLD
Protecting endangered species often involves turning
areas of land into wildlife reserves like this one on the
African savanna. Other reserves protect wildernesses
such as peat bogs, rainforests, or even coral reefs. Such
places can pay for their cost of operation by earning
money as tourist attractions.
▲ PROTECTING THE PANDA
Giving the giant panda a future in the wild has helped conserve
other species that share its forest habitat.
CONSERVING HABITATS
Wildlife reserves are important, but they cover only
small areas of the world—often far too small to secure
the future of the wildlife that lives in them. This means
that conservation efforts need to be coordinated over
much wider areas, such as all forests, all wild grasslands,
and all the oceans.
◀ FRAGILE BEAUTY
This woodland in northern England supports diverse
wildlife, from tiny mosses and insects to lofty conifers. Such
habitats are easily destroyed but almost impossible to replace.
225
MAPPING THE WORLD MAPPING
THE WORLD
Thanks to the latest satellite MAPPING THE WORLD
technology and powerful
computers, maps can now
show us the whole world
with more accuracy and
detail than ever before.
The physical world
Just under 30 percent of Earth’s surface is land, mostly contained
MAPPING THE WORLD in giant continental landmasses. Around the seven continents, Horizontal lines of
tens of thousands of islands are scattered across the world’s seas latitude show how
and oceans. People have been exploring and mapping the globe many degrees north
for thousands of years, to chart its wealth of natural features or south places are
from the equator.
and mark their place in the world. 150°W 120°W 90°W 60°W
ANDES MOUNTAINS Chukchi Sea Beaufort Sea Victoria Baffin Is Baffin
Island Bay
Arctic Circle
Mount McKinley land
Bering Strait (Denali) ser AntillesHudson
60°N 20,322 ft Bay
lands R O C K Y M O U N T A I NSSierra Madre Labrador
Al e u tian Is Gulf of NORTH Laurentian Sea
Alaska
Mountains
Running through seven countries on Vancouver Island Great Lakes Newfoundland
the west coast of South America, the Coast Ranges
Andes form the longest mountain range ountains Grand Banks of
in the world. More than 4,500 miles Gr Newfoundland
(7,000 km) long and up to 199 miles
Mississippi
M
A T L A N T I CA
MERICA
ains
eat P l
Appalachian
30°N
(320 km) wide, the Andes are rich Tropic of Cancer IHslaanwdasi’ia Gulf of West O C E A N
in metals and also contain most of Mexico Indies
South America’s volcanoes. Antilles
Hawai’i ns PYeunciantsaunlGar e a t e r Les
PACIFIC Caribbean Sea
o Line rinoco
P
Guiana
Highlands
A m a z o n ABmaazsoni n
OCEAN O
Equator Islands Galapagos Gran Chaco
Islands Brazilian Highlands
Phoenix y
Islands l
Marquesas D SOUTH
e Islands N AMERICA
nCook A
Samoa SociTeutyaImsloatnudIsslan Peru Planalto de
Basin Mato Grosso
Tonga Trench Island i Pitcairn
s ds
Tropic of Capricorn Pampas
a Islands Easter ES
Island
30°S Juan Mount
Fernandez Aconcagua
Southwest 22,831 ft
Islands
P a c i fi c Patagonia
Basin Argentine
Basin
Falkland
Tierra del Islands
Fuego Cape Horn s s a g e
60°S Dra ke P a
Antarctic Circle
150°W 120°W 90°W 60°W
VICTORIA FALLS
Around 39.5 million gallons (180 million liters) of
water flows over Victoria Falls every minute. Located
on the Zambezi River in southern Africa, the waterfall
is 5,500 ft (1.68 km) wide and 355 ft (108 m) high.
228
FRASER ISLAND KEY 13,125 ft
6,560 ft
Sand carried by the ocean can form Elevation 3,280 ft
mounds, which over time become islands. 1,640 ft
Fraser Island, off the coast of Queensland, Sea level 820 ft
Australia, is the world’s biggest sand island. 820 ft 328 ft
It measures 76 miles (123 km) long and Below sea level
14 miles (22 km) across at its widest point. 6,560 ft
Its surface is heavily forested and contains 13,125 ft MAPPING THE WORLD
more than 100 freshwater lakes.
Mountain
Lowest point
Sandy desert
30°W 0° 30°E 60°E 90°E 120°E 150°E Marsh
Barents Laptev Sea East Siberian Sea
Greenland A R C T I C O C E A N Sea Lena 30°N
Scandinavia Arctic Circle
Denmark Strait M West PACIFIC
North Siberian Ob’ S i b e r i a Kamchatka
Iceland Sea oUurnat 60°N Tropic of Cancer
Plain r
British River Sea of
Amu Okhotsk
A S I AIsles E U R O P E
l
a
Nile
Volgai dTuDKTieeHhAusnaeslthrrDIaStKiMheMuGacancnAnoalguueonPLnsnfltaaTAMtiM2ine9bYooa,s0ueuuBL2ntA9ntaaEkfitGtkveaSeaYiroleenlslsbtowainMgtzPaeCGlnPahcrlihaiennauinatorifa(nCESEJSahaeaseaiptasnaSotanfeKa)yuHsHhJouoaknkpsahiaudno
Indus Hinn
Eastern Ghats
A L P S Danube Black SCeaaucasus s
Y
Mont Blanc Caspian Sea Aral
15,771 ft Sea
Azores Me di t Elbrus
Madeira MAotulnatsains 18,511 ft
Canary e r r a n e an Sea M o uZnatgarionss
-1,388 ft Dead
Sea
S a h a r aIslands PerGsiaunlf
Ahaggar Red Sea
Niger Arabian Western Ghats Taiwan
Tibesti Peninsula Arabian Philippine riana Trench OCEAN
Sea
AFRICA Bay of Mekong Sea Mariana M
Philippine Islands icron
Cape S a h e l Ethiopian Bengal es
Verde Islands
Islands Highlands Horn of South Challenger
China Deep
Adamawa Africa Sri Malay S e a -36,745 ft Ma
Highlands Lanka
Maldive Peninsula Me
Islands lan ia
Congo Great Lake Sumatra Borneo e Equator
Basin Victoria
Celebes New s
C Kilimanjaro Guinea
E a s t Solomon
Lake 19,341 ft n d i e
Tanganyika Seychelles
l Lake
Nyasa
Ascension Prime Meridian Rift Java Sea s Islands a
Island i
ongo Va l INDIAN Java I
St. Helena sberg OCEAN
Timor Se Arafura
MMaozdaamgbiaqsuce aCrhannel Sea
ey a OCEANIA
Namib Desert Zambezi D Great Barrier Reef
at Dividing Range Coral New Fiji
Mauritius Great Sandy Sea Caledonia
Kalahari Réunion Desert Tropic of Capricorn
Desert Great Victoria
Desert
ORriDavnerrgaeken NullGarrbeaotr Plain arling 30°S
Tristan Cape of Austalian Gre m a n Sea Compass
da Cunha Good Hope Bight T shows which
a s New way is north,
Crozet Tasmania Zealand south, west,
Islands and east.
Aoraki
(Mount Cook)
Kerguelen 12,316 ft
Bouvet South Indian Basin 60°S N
Island WE
OCEAN Antarctic Circle
S O UT H E R N
A NT AR C TI CA 150°E
30°W 0° 30°E 60°E 90°E 120°E
▲ PHYSICAL MAP S
This map shows Earth’s physical geography at a glance.
It uses different colors for different landscapes and their Vertical lines of longitude Scale 1:103,000,000
height above sea level, which you can check against the key. show how many degrees
The scale bar shows you how distance on the map compares east or west places are Kilometers 2000 3000
to miles and kilometers on the ground. from the line called the 0 1000
prime meridian at 0°.
0 1000 2000 3000
Miles
229
The political world
Almost all of the world’s land is claimed by countries or nations.
The largest nation by area is the Russian Federation, with almost
twice the land area of the second-largest, Canada. Some countries Some territories belong
have a single neighbor while others have many more. China shares to other countries (in
this case, to France).
MAPPING THE WORLD
land borders with 16 different countries. A fifth of the
CHILE
ARGENTINAworld’s countries are landlocked, with no direct150°W120°W90°W60°W
ARCTIC OCEAN Baffin
outlet to Earth’s seas or oceans. Arctic Circle Bay
Alaska
(to US)
60°N CANADA
Aleutian Islands (to US) Great
Lakes St. Pierre
& Miquelon
PACIFIC UNITED STATES (to France)
OCEAN OF AMERICA ATLANTIC
Bermuda OCEAN
(to UK)
30°N MEXICO Gulf of
Midway Islands
(to US) Mexico BAHAMAS
Tropic of Cancer CUBA DOMINICAN
HAITI REPUBLIC
Hawaii
BELIZE JAMAICA
(to US)
GUATEMALA HONDURAS Caribbean BARBADOS
EL SALVADOR Sea
NICARAGUA
COSTA RICA TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
PANAMA
VENEZUELA
GUYANA French Guiana
(to France)
COLOMBIA
SURINAM
Equator Galapagos Islands ECUADOR
(to Ecuador)
Wallis &
Futuna PACIFIC PERU BRAZIL
(to France)
KIRIBATI
VATICAN CITY Tokelau OCEAN
(to NZ) Cook
Surrounded by the Italian capital
city of Rome, Vatican City is the Islands
world’s smallest independent state. SAMOA (to NZ)
The center of the Roman Catholic
religion, the state has a total land area American French Polynesia BOLIVIA
of just 0.17 square miles (0.44 sq km). Samoa PARAGUAY
That’s two-thirds the size of the (to US) (to France)
Disneyland theme park in California.
TONGA Niue
(to NZ)
Tropic of Capricorn
Pitcairn
Islands
(to UK)
30°S
URUGUAY
Falkland
Islands
(to UK)
60°S S O UT H E R N OCEAN
Antarctic Circle
150°W 120°W 90°W 60°W
NEW COUNTRIES
In 2011, South Sudan became independent from Sudan to form
the newest country in Africa. New nations can be formed by
splitting one country or by joining together separate states. In
1990, East and West Germany reunified to form one country.
230
INTERNATIONAL BORDERS
Borders are dividing boundaries between nations.
The border between the United States and Mexico is
1,970 miles (3,169 km) long and one of the busiest in
the world, with 20 million crossings each year. The
U.S. also shares the world’s longest border with a single
nation, Canada, stretching 5,525 miles (8,891 km).
0° Svalbard 30°E 60°E 90°E 120°E 150°E MAPPING THE WORLD▼ POLITICAL MAP
This political map shows the borders
Greenland A R C T I (to Norway) A N ETNAM between countries. By the end of
LAOS 2012, there were 194 independent,
(to Denmark) C OCE
internationally recognized
ICELAND NORWAY SWEDEN FINLAND Arctic Circle 60°N countries in the world.
See inset map RUSSIAN FEDERATION
for details
IRELAND GERMANY BELARUS
FRANCE UKRAINE KAZ AKHSTAN MONGOLIA
ROMANIA
MeditTIeTUrrANaLInSYeIaGAnRSEeEaBCUELLGETIABSRARUINAAEROGLNAEKROSMERYEGRYNIIIRAAIAAQAZETRIUBRRAKIUJMAAZENBNANEFISKGTIAHSNTAANNITSTAAJIKNKYISRTGAYNZSTAN
SPAIN N A NORTH JAPAN PACIFIC
PORTUGAL KOREA OCEAN
SOUTH
C H ICCO KOREA
ITANIA MORO JORDAN AKISTAN 30°N
CONGO CAMENRIOGOENRIA
Canary KUWAIT NEPAL
Islands BHUTAN
(to Spain) A L G E R I A L I B Y A EGYPT BAHRAIN P Tropic of Cancer
QATAR BANGLADESH
UAE TAIWAN
SAUDI OMAN I N D I A BURMA
CAPE MAUR ARABIA Arabian (MYANMAR) VI Northern
VERDE Sea Mariana
MALI NIGER SUDAN Islands
SENEGAL CHAD ERITREA YEMEN THAILAND (to US)
PHILIPPINES Guam
GAMBIA BURKINA DJIBOUTI Socotra (to US)
CAMBODIA
GUINEA- GUINEA MARSHALL
BISSAU BENIN
ETHIOPIA (to Yemen)
IVORY CENTRAL SOUTH ISLANDS
SIERRA LEONE COAST AFRICAN OMALIA SRI LANKA BRUNEI MICRONESIA
PALAU
LIBERIA REPUBLIC SUDAN
GHANA TOGO UGANDA S MALDIVES MALAYSIA Equator
EQUATORIAL GUINEA NAURU
KENYA INDIAN SINGAPORE
SAO TOME GABON OCEAN KIRIBATI
DEMOCRATIC RWANDA I N D O N E S I A PAPUA
& PRINCIPE REPUBLIC TUVALU
BURUNDI SEYCHELLES NEW SOLOMON
Cabinda GUINEA
(to Angola) OF CONGO TANZANIA EAST TIMOR ISLANDS
COMOROS
ATLANTIC ANGOLA MALAWI Mayotte (to France)
St. Helena ZAMBIA MOZAMBIQUE VANUATU F I J I
(to UK) MADAGASCAR New
ZIMBABWE MAURITIUS Caledonia
OCEAN NAMIBIA (to France)
BOTSWANA Réunion (to France) Tropic of Capricorn
SWAZILAND AU S T R A L I A
LESOTHO 30°S
SOUTH
AFRICA
NEW
ZEALAND
Faeroe Islands NORWAY SWEDE N FINLAND
(to Denmark) RUSSIAN
North ESTONIA FEDERATION N
WE
UNITED S e a DENMARK LATVIA
KINGDOM S
RUSS. LITHUANIA 60°S
FED. 231
Antarctic Circle
IRELAND NETHERLANDS POLAND BELARUS
GERMANY
BELGIUM
Channel CZECH REPUBLIC UKRAINE A N TA R C T I C A
Islands LUXEMBOURG
(to UK) SWITZERLAND AUSLSOTBVROEINSACNIRAIOASHAL&TUOISNVAEAGRRKAOBIRIAMAYANIA MOLDOVA 120°E 150°E
FRANCE
LIECHTENSTEIN
SAN MARINO HERZEGOVINA BULGARIA Caspian
Sea
ANDORRAPORTUGAL Corsica VAMCTIIOTCYNAINTTEANLEGYROALKBOMASANOCVIEAOD(OdiNspIuAtTed)U RKE Scale 1:103,000,000
SPAIN M Sardinia Y Kilometers
0 1000
Gibraltar edite rranean GREECE 2000 3000
(to UK) Sea
MOROCCO ALGERIA 0 1000 2000 3000
TUNISIA MALTA CYPRUS Miles
Population density
In 2011, the human population passed seven billion for the first
time. Sixty percent of the world’s peoples are found in Asia, with
China (1.35 billion) and India (1.21 billion) far and away the
MAPPING THE WORLD world’s most populous nations. However, people are not spread
evenly around the planet, so similar-sized countries can
have very different numbers of inhabitants. 150°W 120°W 90°W
Arctic Circle
60°N
Toronto 5.7m
New York 8.4m
30°N
Tropic of Cancer
Mexico 20.1m
LOW DENSITY Equator Lima 8.5m
Tropic of Capricorn São Paolo 11.2m
The large Asian nation of Mongolia has
a population of just 2.67 million, yet it Buenes Aires 13m
is more than four times the size of the
United Kingdom, which has more than
60 million inhabitants. Mongolia’s
population density is just 4.4 people
per sq mile (1.7 people per sq km),
with most people living in urban areas.
30°S
60°S
Antarctic Circle
POPULATION BOOM 150°W 120°W 90°W
Between 1990 and 2010, India’s population grew by
40 percent and it now has a sixth of the world’s population.
There are 200 million more people in India than in the
whole of Africa, and experts predict that India may overtake
China as the world’s most populous country by 2030.
232
HIGH DENSITY KEY MAPPING THE WORLD
The tiny European principality Population density
of Monaco is just 0.76 sq miles
(1.98 sq km). Although only around (people per square mile)
35,000 people live there, Monaco
has the highest population density more than 520
of any country in Europe at more 260 to 520
than 43,250 people per sq mile 130 to 260
(17,000 people per sq km). 26 to 130
2.6 to 26
less than 2.6
cities and their
populations (in millions)
30°W 0° 30°E 60°E 90°E 120°E 150°E
Arctic Circle
60°N
Moscow 11.5m
London 8.3m Berlin 3.5m
Rome 2.8m Beijing 19.6m
Alexandria 4.4m 30°N
Cairo 7.2m
Tropic of Cancer
Mumbai 16.4m Kolkata 13.2m
Equator
Nairobi 3.1m
Tropic of Capricorn
Brisbane 2m
30°S
Sydney 4.6m
Melbourne 4.1m
60°S N
WE
Antarctic Circle
30°W 0° 30°E 60°E 90°E 120°E 150°E
▲ POPULATION DENSITY Scale 1:103,000,000 S
This map shows the most populous cities on each continent. 233
Some also include sprawling urban areas that spread out Kilometers 2000 3000
around the cities themselves. Beijing, China, tops the list 0 1000
with just under 20 million.
0 1000 2000 3000
Miles
234 North America MAPPING THE WORLD
The third-largest of the seven continents, North America lies CANADIAN PRAIRIES
entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and has a population of
more than 528 million people. Dominated by Canada and the These vast swaths of grassland possess
United States, its land area of more than 9.3 million sq miles fertile soil suitable for farming. They are
(24 million sq km) stretches from frozen tundra in the Arctic part of the Great Plains that stretch for
down through spectacular mountain ranges, prairies, and desert 1.2 million sq miles (3 million sq km)
scrub to the tropical rainforests of Central America. from the Mississippi River to southern
Canada, and they make up four-fifths
of Canada’s farmland. Canada is a
leading exporter of wheat, rapeseed, and
soybeans, among other products.
30˚ 80˚
80˚ O C E A N150˚ 120˚ 90˚ 60˚ 70˚
20˚
70˚ B r o o k
ASIA ARCTIC Ellesmere Greenland
Island
Bering Strait (to Denmark)
◀ GREENLAND
30˚ Greenland is the world’s largest
island. Although physically part
Bering 60˚ P A C I F I C s Beaufort Baffin of the North American continent,
S TAT E S Sea it is officially part of the Kingdom
A l Se a UNITED Range Bay D a v of Denmark, in Europe.
I s Victoria Island in Is
e u t ia n OF AMERICA B a f f n i s NE
l a n ds
170˚ Mount McKinley St 40˚ 60˚ WS
20,322 ft
Mackenzie l a rait NUUK 50˚
160˚ A l e u t i a n R a n g e Anchorage Mackenzie d
Foxe Iqaluit L a b r a d o r
150˚ G u l f o f Great Bear Basin (Frobisher Bay)
A l a s k a 140˚ Lake
Whitehorse Mountains Hudson Strait S e a 50˚
Yellowknife
Juneau R ocky Great Slave Hudson Labrador
Queen Lake Bay
Lake
Athabasca
Charlotte Reindeer Lake Alb
Islands St. Lawrence
OCEAN
50˚ C A N A D A Laurentian St. John’s
Mountains Newfoundland
Edmonton any St. Pierre & Miquelon
(to France)
Vancouver Vancouver o Calgary Saskatoon Lake Winnipeg
130˚ Island Seattle M Regina Halifax
Winnipeg
Québec
Missouri Lake Superior Montréal 60˚
O T TAWA
untains
OCEAN
Mount Rainier 14,409 ft Thunder Bay
Portland
Coast Ranges Lake Huron Lake Ontario
Columbia Mississippi Boston
KEY Boise Saint Paul alachian MountainsLake Michigan TorontoAlbanyHartford 40˚ The scale shows that this
Colo map is 38 million times
Elevation U N I T E D S T A T E S40˚ ATLANTICDetroit Lake ErieNew York smaller than the continent.
Sea level Reno Great Salt Plains Des Moines Chicago Cleveland Philadelphia Scale 1:38,000,000
820 ft Lincoln
13,125 ft Lake rado Indianapolis Baltimore Kilometers
6,560 ft 6,560 ft Kansas City Columbus 0 300 600 900
13,125 ft 3,280 ft Oakland Sacramento Salt Lake WASHINGTON, D.C.
1,640 ft San Francisco City Ohio
820 ft Denver 70˚
328 ft San Jose Richmond
Below sea level
O FDeath Valley -282 ft Las Vegas Saint Louis Nashville Raleigh
AMERICA
Los Angeles G Arkansas Oklahoma Memphis App Atlanta Columbia
reat City 0 300 600 900
San Diego Phoenix Albuquerque Little Rock Montgomery Miles
Tijuana Mexicali El Paso Jackson
30˚ Lower Dallas 30˚
Mountain 120˚ S Ciudad Juárez Baton Rouge Jacksonville
Lowest point
i
Settlements
Hermosillo er Austin New Orleans
Capital city San Tampa
over 1 million ra Mad ChihuahuaSie Houston Mississippi Turks & Caicos British Virgin
500,000 to 1 million Gulf Antonio Islands (to UK) Islands 20˚
100,000 to 500,000 Cal Rio (to UK) 60˚
below 100,000 Delta
Grande Miami NASSAU Virgin Islands (to US) Anguilla (to UK)
re
rra Madre
of
if
M E X I C O GMuelxfi coof W e s t I n d i e s20˚
CalifC a r i b b e a n110˚Occiden
orn Monterrey aJUAMtPBOABeIRACATGAr-HuAaUnA(tKta-oMPnIUaNRAmASIG)oNSSBHnCTaDyEAOOItNRTMEIiDPINUOSl(ItABMoCNALlNAIIrTNeNuCPtOeGhbu(.aeO)tSSrosTtAoU.NMKRSIoJ)iTcUnTotLAASseNe&nrrsSaNtTstEi.e(LVltroUlISUCe AIKsAN) TGIDGuTGOaMURdRMAIaePENTSrl&IoNOTtNHIi.BuDAnBRIEVpACDiAATIqeGRANDR-AuOBR(BCte&AoEFUE1(DNF-0tNTDSo˚rOAOaTPAFDnSABr&caIIeAnNN)GcEeO)S
tal
o Oriental
i
rn HAVANA C
a
ia
Guadalajara León Mérida Gre
Querétaro Yucatan Cayman Islands
MEXICO CITY Volcán Pico Peninsula (to UK)
de Orìzaba 18,701 ft
BELIZE
Puebla BELMOPAN
Acapulco G UAT E M A L A HONDURAS Sea Curaçao Bonaire
GUATEMALA CITY TEGUCIGALPA (to Neth.) (to Neth.)
100˚
SAN SALVADOR SOUTH 60˚
NICARAGUA
EL SALVADOR Lake Nicaragua PANAMA CITY AMERICA
MANAGUA SAN JOSÉ
70˚
90˚ 10˚
COSTA RICA PANAMA
80˚
MONUMENT VALLEY LAS VEGAS
A famous landmark on the Colorado Plateau in In 1910, a year before it officially
the southwestern United States, Monument Valley became a city, Las Vegas, Nevada,
contains a number of distinctive steep-sided, had a population of just 800
isolated hills called buttes. These sandstone people and was surrounded by
monuments reach up to 1,000 ft (300 m) and were desert. Today, its population of
formed when the surrounding terrain was eroded. more than 580,000 residents is
continuously swelled by millions
of visitors to its famous casinos,
hotels, and entertainment.
235
MAPPING THE WORLD
PACIFICSouth America MAPPING THE WORLD
236 South America is the fourth-largest continent, with a land area SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL
of just over 6.9 million sq miles (17.8 million sq km). Running
almost the entire western length of the continent, the Andes The largest country in South America, Brazil
mountain range contains the highest peak in the Americas, has a population of more than 197 million.
Mount Aconcagua. East of the Andes lies the giant Amazon It is the fifth-largest nation in the world, by
River basin, with an area of 2.7 million sq miles (7 million sq km) population and area. The largest city in
mostly covered in tropical rainforest. Brazil and the Southern Hemisphere is São
Paulo, which is home to 11.2 million people.
C a70˚ r i b b e a n S e a60˚ AT
80˚ Barranquilla VGenuelfzuoef la Valencia CARACAS L10˚
Cartagena Maracay A
Maracaibo Cumaná
10˚ Gulf of Lake Barquisimeto Venezuelan N
Darien Maracaibo Ciudad Guayana territorial T
NORTH
AMERICA Gulf of Montería n o sSan Cristóbal Orinoco claim
Cúcuta
I CGUYANA 50˚
V E N E Z U E L APanamaCauca GEORGETOWN
Magdalena
Medellín
Bucaramanga l a PARAMARIBO
Pereira L Guiana SURINAM CAYENNE O N
C W
BOGOTÁ Boa Vista French E
Guiana A S
Surinamese N
territorial (to France) Fortaleza
Cali Río Negro H i g claims
h E
COLOMBIA l a n ds
Esmeraldas Pasto Branco Macapá
0˚ Equator QUITO Caqueta Represa Amazon Belém Equator 0˚ 40˚
Cotopaxi 19,347 ft Balbina Santarém
E C UA D O R A m a z o nGuayaquil Represa São Luís
B a s i nMachala Putumayo Amazon Manaus Tocantins Sobradinho
Chimborazo ruá
20,702 ft Amazon pajós
Iquitos Ma
deira
Ta
Marañón Ju Purus Xingu Teresina
Piura bo
Ucayali Serra do Cachim Planalto da Natal
Borborema
A RA
Trujillo P E R U Porto Velho Araguaia Recife
Tocantins
Nevado Huascarán n Rio Branco B Palmas
22,205 ft
ZI Juazeiro Maceió
10˚ Represa de
Aracaju 10˚
dCallao LIMA L Sobradinho
ParaguayeCusco Planalto de H iBgrhalzainlFridansaciscno Salvador
omayo Mato Grosso
Arequipa Lake
AltiplanoTiticaca do Caiapó
Arica
A
E Iquique
C
O Tropic of Capricorn
BOLIVIA Cuiabá BRASÍLIA São
Antofagasta Goiânia
s LA PAZ
N Coquimbo Cochabamba P KEY
80˚ 30˚ Lago Santa Cruz Serra Elevation
Poopó
Mount Aconcagua 20˚
22,831 ft SUCRE
Sea level
20˚ SANTIAGO A t a c a m a D e s e r tE Pilc P A R A G U A Y Campo Grande Belo Horizonte 820 ft 13,125 ft
Ribeirão Preto 6,560 ft
es Vitória 6,560 ft 3,280 ft
13,125 ft 1,640 ft
an Chaco araná Campinas Nova Iguaçu 820 ft
Londrina Osasco 328 ft
Rio de Janeiro Below sea level
Salta ASUNCIÓN Serra do Ma r São Paulo
Tropic of Capricorn
Santos
40˚
Gr Ciudad del Este Curitiba
PACIFIC OCEAN Mount Ojos del Salado Resistencia
22,572 ft
A Posadas
Mountain
Paraná Florianópolis Lowest point
La Rioja amia Santa Maria Settlements
Mendoza
t Porto Alegre Capital city
over 1 million
L o 30˚ 500,000 to 1 million
100,000 to 500,000
d p below 100,000
IN o
Córdoba s
e
Paraná M Tacuarembó CEAN
Rosario Uruguay URUGUAY
HI SaladoN T BUENOS AIRES Río MONTEVIDEO
An Pampas La Plata de la Plata
O
Concepción Colorado Bahía Blanca Mar del Plata IC ◀ TWELVE NATIONS
Valdivia Río Negro
ANGEL FALLS E 40˚ T 50˚
40˚
Found on the Churún River, N South America includes just 12 nations, plus the
in the Guiana Highlands of Golfo de French overseas region of French Guiana, and
Venezuela, Angel Falls is the Penas a number of islands, including the windswept
tallest waterfall in the world. Falklands in the far south.
At its highest point, it plunges 50˚
3,212 ft (979 m). Angel Falls C Puerto Montt Rawson A THE AMAZON
was largely unknown outside 600 P a t Aa g oRChicon iG aPunta Arenas Lago T
the region until 1933, when Colhué Huapí L The Amazon River flows east
U.S. aviator Jimmie Angel A through Brazil on its way to
noticed the falls as he flew past. Gulf of the Atlantic Ocean. More
DesSeaadno Jorge than 3,728 miles (6,000 km)
long, the river drains a vast
Laguna del Carbón 50˚ area of the South American
-344 ft continent. As much as
STANLEY one-fifth of the freshwater
Bahía Falkland that runs off Earth’s surface is
Grande Islands carried by the Amazon.
Río Gallegos
(to UK)
of Magellan
Scale 1:24,000,000 Strait
Kilometers Ushuaia 60˚
0 200 400 600
0 200 400 Beagle Channel
Miles 70˚ Cape Horn
237
MAPPING THE WORLD
Europe 20˚
The sixth-largest continent, Europe is Den ark Strait
home to more than 740 million people. m
It is located on the single landmass that
MAPPING THE WORLD also includes Asia, and the combined REYKJAVÍK C E L A N DArctic Circle 70˚
10˚
I
area is known as Eurasia. Europe has 20˚ 10˚ Norwegian W
three coastal borders, with the Arctic Sea
Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean Faeroe Islands
(to Denmark) 0˚
to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea O 60˚ WR
C
E Trondheim
A E
to the south. To the east, it is separated N O D
Shetland Islands
from Asia by the Ural and Caucasus Outer Orkney Islands Bergen N
Hebrides
mountains. These mountain ranges are SCOTLAND Stavanger OSLO
located in Russia, a vast country that is
part of both Europe and Asia. Aberdeen Örebro
Glasgow
ATLANTIC NORTHERN Vänern
Edinburgh
IRELAND Gothenburg Vättern
Belfast North
S
I R E L A N D Isle Sea
of Man
DUBLIN (to UK) U N I T E D DENMARK
Manchester COPENHAGEN Malmö
G E R M A N Y P O LKINGDOM50˚ altic
10˚ Poznan
WA L E S Birmingham Groningen Hamburg B
Cardiff ENGLAND
AMSTERDAM
NETH. HanoveErlbe
HAGUE BERLIN
LONDON Oder
UM
Seine
Channel English THE Düsseldorf
Islands ChannBeRl USSELBSELGI
(to UK)
Le Havre Dresden
LUXEMBOURG Frankfurt Wroclaw
PARIS
F R A N C EMDAuDerVoRaIllDadolBBiZdaSairasayinEcgBbtoia-loNzbBAyaafoaNozradDiPeraOeuyRxrTReoAnuloeueLsALseCoANMirDeVeLnaEMOMimLstRoLasorRnArigatOAsfeBelsrillLalénlayecno1sn5L,7UNS7BWiXS1cEteEfrItRaTMlsMNbZBoOEpuONRrTgUALsuCMARrOGiNGBinPlZeoDainuslnMoaorgiaacnuShmLatnLPFuIiolEJtMcoUtChrgVeBHaaneirLncTSntCeiJAAEcDAeNRNaUNnSOuATbBSSeAVELRITTIORNEAIVTENRCAEIPNPZNSIUR&IALEZAAAABACBGVHGLHHAOUIRECESERU.BZN.
10˚ Rhône
A Coruña A
Porto Rhine
40˚
10˚
LISBON
PORTUGAL ro
Adriatic S
I
S P A I N TBarcelona MARINO SARAJEVO
ea Mostar
Corsica
EUROPEAN LANDSCAPES ASeville MONTENEGRO
Valencia Majorca VATICAN PODGORICA
Europe has a wide range of dramatic CITY
geographical features, from glacial L YMálaga
landscapes to mountain ranges, and Ibiza Minorca ROME
from rolling plains to dry, warm islands Palma Sardinia Ty r r h
in the Mediterranean. About 270 Gibraltar Murcia Bale nds Naples Bari
mammal species are found on the (to UK) a r i c Isla
continent, including this red deer in enian Messina
the Scottish Highlands. Ceuta M e d Palermo Mount Etna 10,705 ft
(to Spain) 0˚ i t e Cagliari Ionian
Sea
Melilla r Sea
(to Spain) r
a n 10˚
ea Sicily
n
MALTA VALLETTA
Scale 1:19,000,000
Sea
Kilometers
0 200 400 600
0 200 400 600
Miles
238
N 50˚ 60˚ 70˚ NORWEGIAN FJORD
W E Novaya This long, narrow inlet surrounded by steep
S Zemlya land on three sides is called a fjord. Formed
40˚ through the erosion of land by glaciers,
30˚ Kara fjords form much of the western coast of
Barents Sea Norway. The longest fjord in Norway,
Sea Sognefjord, runs for 126 miles (203 km).
Vorkuta Arctic Circle
20˚ Ural MAPPING THE WORLD
Y D Murmansk RUSSIAN Mountains
A
Kola Archangel
N Peninsula
N White 60˚
Sea
E North
F E D Eern Dvina R A T I O N
a
A
thni
L
o
of B
N
I Lake Perm’
Onega
f
Gul
F
Lake
Turku HELSINKI Ladoga Kirov
Vologda
STOCKHOLM TALLINN St. Petersburg
ESTONIA Yaroslavl’ Kazan’ Ufa
Gotland Nizhniy Novgorod
Ul’yanovsk
ea L AT V I A Tol’yatti Orenburg 50˚ KEY
Samara
S RIGA Wester n MOSCOW Elevation
L I THUA N IA Dvina Vitsyebsk Central Sea level
820 ft
RUSS. FED. Tula 60˚ 13,125 ft
6,560 ft 6,560 ft
(Kaliningrad) VILNIUS Russian ◀ RUSSIA 13,125 ft 3,280 ft
MINSK Russia is the largest 1,640 ft
Kaliningrad Saratov country in the world. 820 ft
Its area of more than 328 ft
BELARUS Voronezh Upland 6.5 million sq miles Below sea level
(17 million sq km)
Vistula WARSAW Homyel’ is more than one-eighth
50˚ of Earth’s inhabited
A N D Brest Volgograd land area.
KIEV Kharkiv Volga
Krakow UKRAINE
Carpathian L’viv Dnipropetrovs’k Astrakhan’ S Mountain
SLOVAKIA Chernivtsi Dniester Donets’k Caspian Lowest point
Rostov-na-Donu -92 ft
Settlements
MOLDO
BUDAPEST VA nieper Capital city
over 1 million
Cluj-NapocaMountains D Sea of Stavropol’ 500,000 to 1 million
CHISINAU Azov
GARY Odesa
Groznyy
ROMANIA Simferopol’ CNovorossiysk a u u s ea
Brasov cas
BELGRADE BUCHAREST Elbrus 18,511 ft 100,000 to 500,000
40˚ below 100,000
S E R B I A Danube Constanta c k Sea
GROWING GRAPES
Ruse B l a
Wine has been produced in Europe for
KOSOVO BUL G A R I A 30˚
(disputed)
SOFIA Burgas
PRISHTINË
SKOPJE
MACEDONIA Istanbul
TIRANA Tu r k ey 40˚
ALBANIA Salonica
Larisa Aegean many thousands of years. Grapevines
flourish in the warm and relatively dry
GREECE Sea
ATHENS Mediterranean climate of southern Europe.
Together, Spain, France, and Italy produced
20˚ 2.8 million gallons (12.5 billion liters) of
wine in 2011, which was more than
Irákleio
Crete
40 percent of the world’s total.
239
240 Africa MAPPING THE WORLD
The second-largest continent, Africa is home to more than a billion THE NILE
people, with more than 3,000 different ethnic groups scattered
across 54 countries. The north of the continent is dominated by About 4,132 miles (6,650 km)
the world’s largest hot desert, the Sahara, with large belts of grassy long, the Nile is the longest river
highlands and rich rainforest farther south. A number of large in the world. It provides a vital
river systems drain the continent, including the Nile, Niger, water source for nearby farmlands
Congo, and Zambezi. and settlements. Fed by several
sources, the Nile flows northward
through 10 countries, including
Sudan and Egypt, before flowing
into the Mediterranean Sea.
EUROPE
10˚ 0˚ 10˚
Medit e
r
ALGIERS Annaba
Kairouanr a n
Tanger Oran TUNIS 20˚
Batna ea 30˚
20˚ Madeira RABAT Fès Oujda
(to Portugal)Casablanca a i n s Chott n Sea 40˚
sM ount 30˚
M O R O C C O TUNISIA30˚ el Jerid Gabès TRIPOLI
ASIA
Canary Islands iental Gulf of
(to Spain) Sirte Tropic of Cancer
Marrakech l a Misrátah Benghazi Alexandria Port Said
Jbel Toubkal A t Grand Erg Or Qattara CAIRO
13,671 ft Suez Canal
Depression Giza
Great WDeess
Sand Sea te r n Red Sea N
A L G E R I A L I B Y AWestern SaharaLAÂYOUNE er t W
E G Y P TTropic of Cancer (Occupied by Morocco) E a s t e r nNiDle e s e r t
Libyan Des Luxor E
Erg Chech Aswan
S a h20˚ A h a g g a r r e r t Lake Nasser S
a Tibesti a Nubian
MAURITANIA D Desert (Hala’ib 20˚ 50˚
R Triangle)
CHA Gulf of Aden
CAPE Taou d enni Nile Port Sudan
VERDE Basin Lake Chad
MNOUAKCHOTT A L I S U D A N ERITREA
NI GE
Senegal
Zinder
SENEGAL Niger T O G O Omdurman Kassala ASMARA
KHARTOUM Ras Dashen
PRAIA DAKAR Kaolack fur
GAMBIA BANJUL BAMAKO Niger NIAMEY Niger El Obeid Blue Nile 14,928 ft
White Nile
BURKINA Dar Lake Assal DJIBOUTI
GUINEA- BISSAU OUAGADOUGOU Sokoto
Kano NDJAMENA Lake Tana -509 ft DJIBOUTI
BISSAU GUINEA FASO Maiduguri
10˚ BENIN Kaduna 10˚
Bobo-Dioulasso
Ethiopian
SIFERCREOERNTAAOMKWLORENYNORONKVLEoIIAidBu1E0Y˚RAMIC(AOIÔVUTOSSEROYDUAKC’bIRViOdOOjAanISRGTE)HAVLoNalAtkaeCACRLAOMOPÉyOoRLTNaOgOo-NsMgIbOAoVGLmOAoBsOEhAoBURDAJdAHoauiICmgahlaAalAwaYMnaAdOEsURGNOaDroOuÉa Hargeysa
Sarh dMe saBs soinf g ADDIS ABABA OMALIA
o Dire Dawa
ENTRA L AFRICAN Sudd Hi g h l a n d s Horn of Africa
REP UBLIC
BANGUI Ubangi
E T H I O P I A S20˚ C
N SOUTH SUDAN Shebe
li
Elemi Triangle
Lake Turkana
JUBA (Lake Rudolf)
A SÃO TOMÉ & EQUATORIAL CONGO Congo Lake Albert UGANDA MOGADISHU
T0˚ Equator PRINCIPE GUINEA
SÃO TOMÉ LIBREVILLE C o n g o Kisangani Va l l e y KAMPALA KENYA Equator
0˚
THE EQUATOR ▶ ANTICPort-Gentil G A B O N Mbandaka B a s i n Lake Va l l e y Kirinyaga Kismaayo 0˚
The equator passes through seven L 17,060 ft
countries in Africa. Temperatures D E M . R E P. RWANDA Victoria VICTORIA
KIGALI NAIROBI
are generally very high all year
round near the equator, but snow CONGO Bukavu
and ice are found at the summit of
Africa’s highest mountain, Mount BRAZZAVILLE KINSHASA Ilebo L Rift BUJUMBURA Kilimanjaro 19,341 ft
Mombasa
Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. ANGOLA ualaba BURUNDI
(Cabinda) Rift DODOMA Zanzibar
Lake
LUANDA
Kalemie Tanganyika
Mbuji-Mayi Great TA N Z A N I A Dar es Salaam
Great SEYCHELLES
OCEAN 10˚ A N G O L A MALAWILubumbashi COMOROS OCEAN 10˚
Bié ZLake Nyasa IQUE MORONI
Plateau
Zambez Kitwe
CONGO BASIN ZAMBIA Mayotte R
Stretching across parts of Namibe Lubango LILONGWE Nacala (to France)
six countries, the Congo
Basin is rich in dense LUSAKA Blantyre nel A
rainforest and swamps Mahajanga
that provide homes for ambezi a n C
more than 400 species Bi
of mammals, including HARARE Ch S
chimpanzees (left) and
gorillas. Around a third M10˚ Mozambique A Toamasina
of the basin’s 10,000
plant species are found N A M I B I A Okavango ZIMBABWE MOZA Beira G ANTANANARIVO MAURITIUS
only in this region. Delta
20˚ Bulawayo A
Namib Desert
Walvis WINDHOEK BKOa lTa hSaWr iANMAahalapyeLimpopo D Fianarantsoa 20˚ PORT
Tropic of Capricorn Bay LOUIS
A Réunion
(to France)
Desert Tropic of Capricorn
M
GABORONE PRETORIA/TSHWANE N
Luderitz Johannesburg MAPUTO
30˚ Ora n g e River Kimberley MBABANE SWAZILAND A
Welkom
BLOEMFONTEIN MASERU I
LESOTHO Pietermaritzburg D 50˚
SOUTH Drakensberg I N 30˚
AFRICA
East London KEY
CAPE TOWN Port Elizabeth
Cape of 40˚
Elevation
Good Hope
20˚ 30˚ 13,125 ft
6,560 ft
3,280 ft
1,640 ft
MAASAI MARA Scale 1:33,000,000 820 ft
328 ft
Located in Kenya, the Maasai Mara
nature reserve is home to more than Kilometers Sea level Below sea level
90 species of mammals, including 0 300 600 900 820 ft
lions and cheetahs, as well as more
than 500 bird species. Each year, 0 300 600 900 6,560 ft
more than two million wildebeests, Miles 13,125 ft
zebras, and gazelles migrate to the
area in search of suitable grazing. Mountain
Lowest point
241
Settlements
Capital city
over 1 million
500,000 to 1 million
100,000 to 500,000
below 100,000
MAPPING THE WORLD
Asia 80˚ 50˚ 60˚ 70˚ 80˚ 90˚
MAPPING THE WORLD The largest continent, Asia is also home to the world’s largest ARCTIC
city: Beijing, China. It is a continent of physical extremes,
containing both the lowest point on Earth (the Dead Sea, in 50˚
Jordan) and the highest point on Earth (Mount Everest, in
the Himalayas) as well as vast deserts, Arctic tundra, tropical Kara
rainforests, and large river deltas. Sea
70˚
n sArctic Circle Noril’sk
P Ob’
E
Mountai
O S Yenisey
R 50˚ 60˚ R U S S I A N
Ural’sk We s t
30˚ E U50˚ Ural Yekaterinburg Si b e r i a n m
40˚ ChelyabinskIrtysh P l a i n Chuly
40˚ Istanbul B l a c k
Omsk
Rudnyy Novosibirsk
TURKEY Sea Ural ASTANA
I N D I A3300˚D˚-1T2er0,Jao3˚pEdN8iIcCR8SSoILefUYCRGfJCatEeBPSaOAadnBEARzcESdeaAILSUDrILRaNAEySUAeMOAJrSTsOdNiRePaARaAArAnDnenSYMtaARDUAaArnEMINASAtNaBY(ioYMMAArDAEAnblRNNADmRIiEIiaKsSKIuHApACauAUINbtUyRRY‘WnlMBMSAEAaQaAAaRRQAAloIsuENZTMQArKsBaViEauTAghArrEARGliAMtaGNNBDKeRElA.rHiIOUTO)QABDaHWRSbAoAAAGUBhrmHOAiTDIiMAAIzTrRIZBAAlKaEfMUAIBzEURLISURIANCSBITPDANIArAElHGTaTaIHuNnAJMtUlfARseiBRoaaaNAIfAKsunSONkhutMmharauDaEndAHNasoeArIrKgSSASSaaAuTetHraKKUzebaaAFrQaGaZaliNGnABcaAuPdhHBaenZAihtAAtAaaTKrhSANymrIKPIDFaTSSHeadaArsTHTiyahTSySsbKhaaAAudHaawlySre(aNrKzldNaKriabyDntDTaErlAeaobUeNodBBrAsafdNeSTUITdcraKHSaotDNALrnHYAmDtJNENIrRLBIKNoaSLLKaealEaGdL)EBHkllagaWIkhAYKeEhpSaIKiLZMoTushauSHArBABrKAr(ecTcaTalNh2ABklmAlagko2JinAgamieTNa8paKnnroDisee,ataha2gdwdcuyki5lNnsabDanl1hyamE(bClfKaeCnIyuthdPnMsShAIimMnednnAoTÜrihaaPdiak(oTnMtL,H)iVaCukuarailcass)anürlaoaMtK2aauietutirnmm9rnlme2oeEAaGcn,d0a4lvenluHNqta2dk,euab4natir9eDyiae0tgsnosftae6iUattfssa)ftTCaspian Seaa
Euphrates EKAImSuTADNarya
TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY Red Sea Zagros
Spanning 5,717 miles (9,200 km), AFRICA s
the Trans-Siberian Railway is one of
the longest in the world. It runs Mountain
eastward from Moscow, in western
Russia (see page 239), through Gu
Siberia, and on to Vladivostok, close Persian
to Russia’s border with China and
North Korea. The line carries more Indus
than 200,000 cargo containers a year.
Easte Dec
40˚ Aden Mumbai Pune Goda Gha
(Bombay) tsHyderabad
Gulf of Aden Socotra K vari Bay of
(to Yemen) 60˚ I N D I A N
We s t e r n rishna r n
50˚
OCEAN BangaloreGhats
Chennai
10˚
Mysore (Madras)
Kochi Jaffna
GREAT WALL OF CHINA 70˚ SRI LANKA
COLOMBO
Begun in the third century bce, the
Great Wall is a series of fortified walls, MALDIVES SRI JAYEWARDENAPURA KO
80˚
MALÉ
towers, and ditches built and rebuilt over many
centuries. Stretching about 13,000 miles (21,000 km)
from North Korea to northwestern China, it was
designed to repel foreign invaders from the north.
242
70˚
80˚
140˚150˚160˚17108˚0˚ Bering 170˚ ◀ EURASIA
Sea 60˚ Asia makes up four-fifths of the
landmass known as Eurasia,
Anadyr’ with Europe occupying the
remaining fifth.
120˚130˚ East Arctic Circle 180˚
Siberian
N
Sea
C EA Kolyma Range
I
O Laptev Kolyma 170˚ P
ndigirka
Sea A
Yan
Lena Kamchatka C
Olenëk a I
KChetae n t r a l a Magadan 160˚ F MAPPING THE WORLD
Siberian i Aldan
Plateau r Yakutsk Petropavlovsk- I
Kamchatskiy
ib e L C
Sea of
Okhotsk Kurile Islands
Amur
ena 50˚ OCEAN
FEDERATION 150˚S
Vitim akhalin
Angara Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
Amur
Krasnoyarsk Lake Argun Khabarovsk Hokkaido
Baikal Sapporo 40˚
Irkutsk Qiqihar Harbin
Vladivostok
Erdenet ULAN BATOR Jilin Sea of Japan Sendai BURJ KHALIFA, DUBAI
M
M O N G O L I Ao ongolia (East Sea) J A PA N Located in the Middle Eastern emirate
(city-state) of Dubai, the Burj Khalifa is
Yellow Riverultai NORTH Honshu TOKYO 2,722 ft (829.8 m) high. The skyscraper was
nt a i PYONGYANG KOREA Osaka Yokohama built in 2010 as the world’s tallest building
A and it houses an observation deck on the
M n s Gobi I n n e r BEIJING Dalian SEOUL SOUTH 140˚ 124th floor. Dubai is one of seven emirates
KOREA
Hiroshima
Datong Tianjin SEJONG CITY Busan
Fukuoka 30˚
Jinan Qingdao Ye l l o w Kagoshima
Zhengzhou Xuzhou S e a
Lanzhou Taiwan Strait in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Nanjing Ryukyu IslandsShanghai E a s t
Xi’an
Hefei China
CHINA
Yangtze Wuhan Hangzhou S e a Tropic of Cancer
Tibet 20˚ Scale 1:36,500,000
Chengdu Chongqing Nanchang
(Much of Arunachal Pradesh Kilometers
0 300 600 900
is claimed by China) Leshan Changsha Fuzhou TAIPEI N
E
Brahmaputra Guiyang Shantou
yas
TAIWAN 0 300 600 900
THIMPHU Gaoxiong Miles
BHUTAN Kunming Guangzhou
BANGLADESH Nanning Hong Kong Philippine W KEY
HANOI Hai Phong (Xianggang) S
DHAKA B U R M A Elevation
(MYANMAR) Luzon Sea
Chittagong NAY PYI TAW LAOS Hainan Baguio
TN A M Dao MANILA
E MekongV Legazpi City
Irrawaddy I 13,125 ft
6,560 ft
Chiang VIENTIANE Da Nang S o u t h PHILIPPINES 10˚ 3,280 ft
Mai China 1,640 ft
Rangoon Sea Cebu
Bengal THAILAND
BANGKOK CAMBODIA Palawan S u l u Mindanao 140E˚quator 0˚ 820 ft
Sea Davao 328 ft
Andaman PHNOM PENH Ho Chi Sea level Below sea level
Islands Minh City Zamboanga General Santos 820 ft
(to India)
Andaman Jayapura 6,560 ft
Gulf of BANDAR SERI Celebes Halmahera 13,125 ft
Sea Sea New Guinea
Thailand BEGAWAN Manado
Papua
Nicobar MALAYS BRUNEI (Irian Jaya)
Islands
(to India) KUALA LUMPUR IA Moluccas Mountain
Lowest point
OTTE 90˚ Borneo
Settlements
Medan Balikpapan Ambon
Pontianak DILI Capital city
PUTRAJAYA SINGAPORE Celebes over 1 million
Su EAST TIMOR 500,000 to 1 million
SINGAPORE 100,000 to 500,000
below 100,000
t r a Jambi
I N D O N E S I A0˚ m
Equator a
Padang Banjarmasin Makassar Sea 140˚
Palembang Java Sea Flores
Semarang Surabaya Flores Timor OCEANIA
JAKARTA Timor Sea
100˚ Bandung Java Malang 120˚
130˚
110˚ 243
Oceania 140˚ 150˚ 160˚
20˚ Mariana Islands
The smallest continent by land area, Northern
Mariana
Islands
Oceania is also the least populated. Philippine (to US)
There are fewer than 40 million people
living in its sprawling range of islands 130˚ S e a Guam Saipan
dotted across 19.3 million sq miles
(50 million sq km) of the Pacific (to US) M i c rHAGÅTÑA
Ocean. Australia, Papua New Guinea, o
MAPPING THE WORLD n
10˚ Yap C a r o Chuuk
MELEKEOK e Is
Babeldaob l i n Pohnpei PALIKIR
PAL AU l ands Kosrae
MICRONESIA
and New Zealand are the biggest Melan
landmasses in the region, which mostly e
consists of coral atolls and volcanic 0˚ Equator PAPUA NEW GUINEA s
Bismarck New Ireland
islands. Sometimes called the world’s Ne w G u i n e aWewak Sea New Rabaul Solo mon Isl
largest island and smallest continent, Britain
Australia dominates the region in size, Bougainville HONIARA
Mount Wilhelm 14,793 ft Island
Mount
Hagen Lae Solomon New a n
Sea Georgia
Islands d s
PORT MORESBY Guadalcanal
population, and economic strength, A r a f u r a S e a Torres Strait SOLOMON
partly due to its rich natural resources. ISLANDS
10˚ Cape C o r a l
Arnhem York R
Timor Darwin Land Great Barrier Sea
Joseph Gulf of Peninsula
S e a Bonaparte Katherine Coral Sea Islands
Carpentaria Cairns
(to Australia)
Gulf
New Caledonia
120˚INDIAN Normanton e
OCEAN t (to France)
Wyndham TownsvilleG ef
Darlin P
onKimberleyMount Isare
Barcaldine
SYDNEY HARBOUR Plateau a Mackay
Situated on Australia’s eastern Derby Tennant Creek D Rockhampton
i
Broome Tanami
Desert viding Range
coast, Sydney is the largest city 110˚ Great Sandy
in Oceania. The city is home to
Desert Alice Springs Simpson Charleville Miles Brisbane
Desert Toowoomba
about 4.6 million people. Sydney Port Hedland AUST LIA Grafton
RA
Harbour is the deepest natural Hamersley Range Barw
harbor in the world. 20˚ Gibson Lake Eyre -52 ft g Bourke Lord Howe
Tropic of Capricorn Desert North Island
Carnavon Great Victoria Lake Torrens Newcastle (to Australia)
Lake Gairdner Port Augusta Wollongong Sydney
Desert
Mount Magnet Nullarbor Plain Ceduna Whyalla Murray Wagga Wagga CANBERRA
Geraldton DarlinKalgoorlie Mount Kosciuszko 7,310 ft
Great Adelaide Bendigo
Australian Ta s m a n
Kangaroo Melbourne
g Range Bight Island Geelong ait Sea
Mount Gambier ass St Launceston
Perth r
Esperance
30˚ Albany B
Tasmania
Hobart
110˚ 130˚ 140˚ 150˚
Scale 1:40,000,000 40˚ 120˚ ▲ AUSTRALASIA
900 Australia and New Zealand are often
Kilometers jointly known as Australasia. Papua
0 300 600 900 New Guinea is also sometimes included
in this grouping.
0 300 600
Miles
244
170˚ BORA BORA
Wake 20˚ Part of the Society Islands in French Polynesia,
Island 180˚ Bora Bora has a land area of 15.6 sq miles
(40.3 sq km). Its resident population of 8,800
(to US) is increased by tourists eager to see the marine
life that thrives in the tropical coral reefs
surrounding the island.
Bikini Atoll M A R S H A L L 170˚ MAPPING THE WORLD
160˚
ISLANDS 10˚
e P A C I F I CRalik Chain Ratak Chain OCEAN
MAJURO
Kingman Reef Palmyra Atoll
ngaruBAIRIKI (to US) (to US) 150˚ N
Tu Teraina Equator 0˚
a Tabuarean
i
s KIRIBATI
Kiritimati
Jarvis Island
(to US)
NAURU Baker & Howland ine
Islands L E
YAREN
(to US)
KIRIBATI W
Phoenix Islands Islands 140˚
i Malden Island S
a Starbuck Island
T U VA L U
FONGAFALE Tokelau
(to NZ) Northern Cook Islands Penrhyn
Santa Cruz Southern Al Manihiki
Islands eWallis andSAMOAAmerican Cook Millennium Island 10˚ KEY
sFutunaAPIA Samoa Islands Flint Island
Banks ia(to France)(to US) Elevation
Islands (to NZ)
PAGO PAGO Sea level
Vanua 820 ft
T u 13,125 ft
VANUATU Levu Labasa la a m o t 6,560 ft 6,560 ft
Society u 13,125 ft 3,280 ft
TONGA PAPEETE Islands 1,640 ft
PORT-VILA Lautoka SUVA Is 820 ft
Erromango Lau Group Niue 328 ft
Viti (to NZ) Southern Cook nds Below sea level
Îles Loyauté Levu NUKU'ALOFA AVARUA
FIJI Islands Tahiti
French
Rarotonga P o l y n e s i a 20˚
NOUMÉA Îles A
u s t r (to France)
es
ACIFIC OCEAN a l Tropic
n of Capricorn
Norfolk Island Kermadec Islands y Mountain
(to Australia) (to NZ) Lowest point
o l Settlements
PNorth 160˚ 150˚ 30˚ Capital city
140˚ over 1 million
Island 500,000 to 1 million
Bay of 100,000 to 500,000
Auckland Plenty below 100,000
Hamilton Rotorua 170˚
New Plymouth Hastings 40˚ NEIGHBORS
Coo Palmerston North
WELLINGTON Strait Australia is the most populous
k country in Oceania, with more
South ps than 22 million inhabitants.
Neighboring New Zealand is
Island Aoraki Christchurch Chatham Islands the second most populous,
(Mount Cook) 3754m (to NZ)
InvercargillN E WFovSetaeuwxarSttrait
Dunedin
ZEALANDIsland
160˚ 170˚ 180˚ with more than four million.
Around 31 percent of New
Auckland Islands
(to NZ)
Zealand is covered in forest.
245
Antarctica
With an area of 5.4 million sq miles Orcadas 60° 10°
(14 million sq km), Antarctica is (Argentina)
the fifth-largest continent, and the South Orkney S O U T H E R N20°
coldest. Almost all of its land is Islands Georg von Neumayer
(Germany)
MAPPING THE WORLD Signy (UK) Limit of summer pack ice
30°
50° S e a
Passage ia
Bransfield StrSaitc o t
covered in an ice sheet that is 65°
15,400 ft (4,700 m) thick in
60° General Bernardo O’Higgins (Chile) 40°
Esperanza (Argentina)
Capitán
Drake Marambio (Argentina)
Arturo Prat Gr
places. It is the southernmost (Chile) James Ross Island
South
ah Halley
continent, with the South Shetland a (UK)
Pole at its center. With rainfall
of only 8 in (20 cm) per year, 60° Islands mL Coats
Antarctica is also classified as a desert.
A
WPalmer (US)
e d d e l l S e aVernadsky
an Larsen Land
Ice Shelf
n
d
t
Limit of winter pack ice (Ukraine) a rct Belgrano II MTohuenrtoanins
(Argentina)
ic Pe
Adelaide n i n Limit of ice shelf Filchner
San Martín
70° Island s ula Ice Shelf
Berkner Recovery Glacier
Rothera (Argentina) P a l m e r Land Island
(UK)
Fossil Bluff (UK)
Ronne IceAlexander
65° Island Shelf Orville Coast
Antarctic Circle English Coast SupporGt la
Charcot Island Sky-Blu (UK) Henry Ice Pensacola cierForce
Rise
Latady Island Korff Ice
80° Smyley Island Rise T rMountains
Bellingshausen
A75° Na nT
Limit of summer pack iceSea Vinson Massif Mou ntains 85° s a
16,066 ft
70° 80°
Ellsworth
Thurston Walgree n Co a s t
90° Island Ellsworth
100° Eights Coast
Land
RESEARCH BASES Mount Seelig W h i t m o r e
9,915 ft M o u n t a i n s
Antarctica belongs to no single nation and
has no permanent human residents. But up We s t
to 4,000 people (mostly scientists) live there A n t a r c t i c aMoHunortlaiicnks
at research bases during the summer months,
when there is sunlight for 24 Amundsen Marie Byrd Land C oSa si p let
hours a day and ships can get
through the sea ice. 110° Sea Mount Sidley Shirase Coast
13,717 ft
SURVIVING THE COLD Carney Island
Hobbs Co Rockefeller
Various species of penguins and
seals live on Antarctica, feeding LimS120° ast Plateau Roosevelt
on fish and other marine life from Island
the surrounding ocean. These 70° Saunders Coast
creatures are thickly insulated O Mount Siple
with a layer of fat in order to 10,171 ft
survive in the icy waters. U T H E R N R o s sit
of 130° Sulzberger
Bay
summer
pack
ice 140°
150°
OC
170°
▲ ANTARCTIC ICE SHEET 160°
Antarctica’s gigantic ice sheet shrinks in 170°
summer but expands in winter (marked by
a small dotted line above) as temperatures
fall. The parts of an ice sheet that stretch out
over the sea are known as ice shelves.
246
SOU T
0° 10° 65° 30° H
20° Antarctic Circle E
OCEAN
R40°
70° Maitri (India)
Sanae Africa)
(South Prinsesse Novolazarevskaya (Russian Federation) Limit of summer pack ice CEAN
O
Astrid Kyst Prins Harald N Mawson Coast MAPPING THE WORLD
Prinsesse Ragnhild
Fimbulheimen 50°
Asuka (Japan)
D r o nning M a u d Kyst Syowa Molodezhnaya MELTING ICE
(Japan) (Russian
Warmer temperatures in
Land Th o Belgi cafjella Ky s t Kr o nKpFyresidtnersation) summer cause chunks of ice
Dronning Ola v at the edge of the ice sheet to
75° r s 8,491 ft calve, or break off, into the
h
a v ane Fabiolafjella
n
h e Enderby Mount Elkins
i Dismal 7,546 ft 60°
Land Mountains
Kemp sea. In 2000, a giant piece of
Land
Mawson ice calved from the Ross Ice
(Australia)
80° Mac. Robertson 70° Shelf had a vast surface area
of about 4,247 sq miles
Land LaPmrbienrEtc1MPGe1lolri,aC0uzic0nniahe7trcbaMfetreseltIsenhnszigAeMrsmidoeuCrnyhrtIiacsteiennSsshenelZCfhMongashBcDakanave(yinCs (zhAiinueast)ralia) (11,000 sq km), which is
larger than the Caribbean
island of Jamaica.
85°
80°
Land oast
West Ice
Shelf
ARCT ICA East This line marks how far sea ice
retreats in summer, breaking up
85° 80° 75° 70° 65° when the temperature rises. In the
winter the ice extends much further.
South Amundsen-Scott (US) Wilhelm II 90°
Land
n t Pole Mirny Davis
(Russian
ar Antarctica Federation) Sea
c t Vostok x Coast
(Russian Federation) Shackleton Ice Shelf
Queen M i c South Geomagnetic Pole
M o uaudDMuofuekn85tCa°BioneGaassltradcmi4KeMo5rirr2oek8upmnattrick n 100° KEY
Ross Ice tai n s Wilkes Kno Elevation Ice cap
Shelf Land Vincennes Bay
Vi Sea level
Casey 820 ft
ShacCkoleatsotn (Australia)
6,560 ft
110° 13,125 ft
80° rina Coast
c
Mount Lister t
13,209 ft
o Sab
Scott Base (NZ) McMurdo Base (US)
ria L Te r r e Coastkes B an zar Mountain
Ross Island Adélie e Coast Research station
Mount Erebus Scott Coast Porpoise Limit of summer pack ice
Limit of summer pack ice 120° Limit of winter pack ice
12,448 ft Bay Ice shelf
Limit of ice shelf
Sea Glacier
75°
a
B o rCcohagsrte v i n k
n George V Wil
d Land
EAN Oates Land George V Coast Adélie Coast i l l e Sea 130°
Cape Adare
70° Mount Minto Dum Dumont d’Urville Scale 1:22,000,000
13,658 ft (France)
Leningradskaya ont d'Urv
(Russian Federation)
Antarctic Circle 140° Kilometers
0 150 300 450
Balleny Islands
150°
160°
170°
0 150 300 450
180° Miles
247
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