• 8oow3291d@feddit.dk
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    6 days ago

    How exactly were the names “East Antarctica” and “West Antarctica” in that map decided? What does “East” and “West” mean at the South Pole?

    • Nangijala@feddit.dk
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      6 days ago

      Unless you stand perfectly at the south pr perfectly at the north point of either pole, there will always be an east and a west.

    • FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I googled it: map of antarctica with meridian lines labelled

      Image Source: Wikipedia

      Anything between lines of longitude 0° - 180° (0° is britain GMT, 180° is opposite side of earth) is EAST.

      Anything between 180° to 0 (you can think of as 360°) is WEST.

      Thus you have a western hemisphere, which i guess is just tthe americas and british Isles, and an eastern hemisphere, which i guess is most of afroeurasia and australia. This is just about the only way it could’ve worked, but as for where 0 and 180 went, it’s just arbitrary.

      I would’ve defined the Levant as the boundary between east and west hemisphere, instead.


      Fun Fact

      Eastern Antarctica’s ice sheet is older and more well developed than western antarctica. It will probably take longer to melt or collapse than the western half.

      Source: Discovering Antarctica

      Collapsible bonus image + source

      map of antarctica

      https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Antarctic-drainage-system-comprising-the-West-Antarctic-WA-ice-sheet-the-East_fig1_338109662