Placing Geographical Zones: Part IV

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Jul 31, 2001

We’re down to the last two continents! In our grand tradition of going clockwise, this time we’ll focus on the southernmost continent on the western hemisphere. If you take a look at a world map you’ll see that this one is similar in size and location to Australia in our world, so that’s a good starting point for how I set it up.

So what are some of the things we already know? There’s a wet and warm wind current that crosses over most of the continent because of the underwater trench discussed in the previous article. This landmass is also close to the equator so it’s not going to be a snowy wasteland, at least not at the lower altitudes. There are also no massive mountain ranges within the continent; but there are small islands dotting the sea at its northwestern corner, popping up from an underwater range. Perhaps they’re so low that they only exist during certain tides. This factor would make approaching the shore by ship dangerous to those who didn’t know of the isles’ existence during low tide.

Since the winds mostly cross over the northern portion of the continent, they may give us something either akin to rainforest or marsh. Let’s make it a bit of both for the sake of variety. Think of the Florida Everglades for an image of what this area might be like. Since marshy areas tend to have a lot of standing water you’ll notice that I laid out a lot of the major points for lakes and bogs as well.

Notice that it’s not marshy in the northwesternmost corner, near the underwater mountains. This area would be at a higher elevation. High elevations and marsh often do not mix--though of course it’s still possible under the right conditions. Instead, the northwest portion of the continent I’ve decided is fertile grassland since it has enough drainage to keep it from being a swamp. Scattered trees and brush would round out this area nicely.

Now it’s time to turn our attention to the southern portion of the continent. Here the winds aren’t as direct, so we don’t have the effect of turning a humid blowdryer to blow parallel to the ground. We have a lot of options here with this portion of the landmass still being near the equator.

The southeastern section isn’t going to just stop being marsh when we cross a line. Water will seep out into the other areas, so there will be a gradual shift from marsh to well-watered land, and then to decently watered land. The rest of the continent is likely a mix of decently watered and dryer. I’ll say that there is a large patch of woods in the middle with some dryer areas on the southern coast.