WHAT IS THE CONTINENTAL SCALE? MAIN FEATURES - GEOGRAPHY - 2024

The continental scale is the one used in a map to reflect a single continent, both geographically and when you want to highlight physical, environmental or temperature aspects.

Scales are used in maps since they are the proportions with which reality is represented. It is impossible to represent on a real scale; then a reduction of what is represented is made to transfer it to paper, respecting the proportions so that the plane is useful. There are scales at the local, regional, state, continental or global level.

Definition

The continental scale seeks to classify geographic space by relating it to the size of a continent. After the World Cup, it is the scale that offers the most information.

For that reason the specific details cannot be reflected. You have to resort to local or regional scales for each small town to appear.

There are not many maps on a continental scale. There are those of Europe, Africa, Asia (although sometimes it joins with the European, depending on the type of map), North America, South America (which usually includes the Central American zone), Oceania and the Poles.

The most common proportions in these types of maps are quite small. They start from 1: 1,000,000; in other words, each centimeter of the map is equivalent to 1,000,000 centimeters in reality, or what is the same, 10 kilometers for each centimeter.

Although the most common use of this continental scale is the political one, it is also used for other types of representations, which help to know all the data at the continental level and to compare the different areas and countries.

Types of maps with continental scale

Political

It is one of the most common when using the continental scale. It shows the different countries that make up the continent.

Depending on the proportions used, their regions and their capitals are also considered.

They do not usually go beyond naming the capital city and, at most, some more of particular importance.

Physical

They show the most important physical accidents on the continent. The largest mountain ranges and even the name of a mountain may appear.

Also the mightiest or longest rivers and other important elements of the terrain.

Of temperature

More than serving as meteorological information, this type of map serves to observe how the weather is developing at a specific moment, and even helps to anticipate where the clouds or winds are heading.

Of resources

These are quite common in the economic realm. For example, you can see the continental areas with the greatest options for finding oil or which area is rich in certain materials.

Of population

It is another very common type of map. It usually shows the areas with more or less population density. They are very useful when it comes to studying settlements and population movements.

References

1. Ibáñez, Juan José. The Scale of Maps and Purposes of Cartographies. (June 21, 2011). Retrieved from madrimasd.org
2. Science for a changing world. Continental Scale Geophysics - Integrated Approaches to Delineate Prospective Environments for Critical Metals. Retrieved from minerals.usgs.gov
3. Exploring our fluid Earth. Scale, Proportion, and Quantity. Retrieved from manoa.hawaii.edu
4. Nation online. Maps of the World. Retrieved from nationsonline.org
5. Wikipedia. Map. Obtained from es.wikipedia.org