Placing Geographical Zones: Part V

Yes, we really are on the last continent! This time we’ll take a look at the north westernmost of the landmasses and set its basic geographical information, and then we’ll address an issue that must be dealt with now if all solid land is going to be accounted for--polar caps. I also want to open up some old polls so that those of you who have come to this topic since I last ran them can give me some input on where this world will go from here, so be sure to take a look at them.

The prevailing winds over this landmass are already set in a general way. I say general because there is a mountain range in the northeastern portion of the continent. This range will prevent the winds from simply sweeping over the land as is currently shown. Instead, some of them will hit the mountains and stop, as shown in the following figure.

Note how much farther the winds have to travel to reach this continent than they did to touch its neighbor to the east. Much of the warmth will have scattered further throughout the atmosphere by the time these winds touch this land. So, you’ve got humidity-laden cool winds, some of which are hitting the mountains, which means they will form clouds and drop their contents. However, these mountains don’t run across the entire width of the continent, so some of the moisture will still continue beyond them. Just not directly behind them.

Let’s say that the southern edge of the continent is mostly grassland. The middle portion south of the mountain range would alternate between soggy and frozen—similar to areas in the Netherlands. The mountains themselves are jagged and inhospitable; treacherous with snow and ice.

How about the rest of the landmass? North of the mountains the land is dry and cold, some ice will form but not much snow. That leaves us with strips along the east and west coast to still settle. I would say that these areas are variable, since they would be affected by what’s going on from all sides.

As you can see, this continent is not one of the greener ones in our world. That’s okay. Variety is the spice of life, right?

The Ice Caps

There’s one little issue of our planet’s geography that we haven’t dealt with yet. Earth has ice caps at both of its polls; you probably hear about them whenever you hear talks about the Greenhouse Effect. I can’t assign these quite yet, however. I’ll wait until I see the initial results of the temperature poll. Those numbers will determine how much area our ice caps take up, and what those caps mean in relation to the rest of the planet.