(This post is part of a long GeoCurrents series aimed at helping parents and teachers instruct students in basic geography. The material at the end of this post is most appropriate for students at the middle- and high-school levels.)
Now that latitude and midday sun angles have been covered, it is time to show how the two concepts are related. The relationship is relatively simple. For any place on Earth, the sun angle at solar noon [1] is found by subtracting the angular distance of the latitude in question from the latitude at which the sun is directly overhead. On the equinoxes, for example, the midday sun is directly overhead at latitude 0° (the Equator), which means that the sun angle there is 90°. At latitude 1°, it will be 89°, at latitude 10° it will be 80°, at latitude 20° it will be 70°, and so on.
Equinox Sun Angles and Latitude diagram
Most sources give a more precise but also more complicated, and in my view less explanatory, formula. Here, for example, is how ChatGPT handles the issue:
Question: “How do you calculate the midday sun angle based on latitude?”
ChatGPT Answer: Here’s the basic formula:
Step-by-step explanation:
Start with 90° — this is the maximum possible angle (directly overhead).
Subtract the difference between your latitude and the solar declination.
The solar declination is the angular position of the Sun north or south of the Equator.
It changes between +23.5° (June Solstice) and −23.5° (December Solstice).
Example: 45° North on the June Solstice
Declination = +23.5°
→ Midday Sun is 68.5° above the horizon.
The relationship between sun angles and latitude is perhaps most easily understood graphically, as is shown in the diagrams that illustrate this post.
The 23.5° tilt of the Earth’s axis relative to the plane on which it orbits the sun determines the latitude belt in which the sun reaches the position directly above the Earth’s surface at different times of the year. This belt ranges from 23.5° north of the Equator to 23.5° south of the Equator, also known as the as the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, respectively. The same relationship also determines the Arctic and Antarctic circles, which mark the limits of the polar regions in which the sun does not set at certain times of the year. These circles are found at 66.5° north and south of the Equator, which is the same as 23.5° south of the North Pole and 23.5° north of the South Pole. Note that 66.5° and 23.5° are complementary angles, as they add together to form 90°, which is the angular distance from the Equator to the poles.
Equinox Sun Angles at Major Latitudes
The 23.5° tilt of the Earth’s axis generates a series of 23.5° and 66.5° angles, as can be seen on the diagram posted below. Another diagram shows that a series of 47° and 43° angles are also formed by the Earth’s tilt. 47° is the angular distance from the Tropic of Cancer to the Tropic of Capricorn (which is derived simply by adding 23.5° with 23.5°). 47° is the angular distance between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle, as well as between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle (66.5 – 23.5 = 43). These angles, along with 0° and 90°, match the midday sun angles at the major latitudes on the solstices, as can be seen in the final diagram . This diagram also shows why the sun does not set on the Arctic Circle on the summer solstice. As can also be seen, on this day and at this latitude the sun angle varies from 47° at solar noon to 0° at midnight. The diagram also shows why the noon sun angle on June 21 is higher at the Arctic Circle than it is at the Tropic of Capricorn.
Earth’s Tilt Generates 23.5 and 66.5 Degree Angles
Earth’s 23.5 Degree Tilt Generates Major Latitudes
Earth’s Tilt Also Generates 47 and 47 Degree Angles
Solstice Sun Angles at Major Latitudes
[1] Because of time zones and daylight savings time, solar noon, or “true noon” – the time at which the sun reaches its highest position – is in most places different from “clock noon.”
(This is the tenth post in a series aimed at helping parents home-school their children, aimed those who live in Bozeman, Montana. It is, however, misplaced in the sequence, as it should come after the post on the rotation of the Earth. Once all the posts have been posted, they will be rearranged in the correct order.)
After students have learned about the Equator, they should be introduced to the other major lines on the globe: latitude and longitude. Lines of latitude circle [1] the earth parallel to the Equator and are therefore also called “parallels.” Parallels are labeled in degrees above and below the Equator, ranging from 0° at the Equator to 90° at the poles, as is explained below. The length of parallels decreases with distance from the Equator. At the north and south poles, latitude is reduced to a point and thus has no length at all.
Lines, or Circles, of Latitude
In addition to the Equator, four other major lines of latitude are marked on most globe: the Arctic Circle, the Tropic of Cancer, the Tropic of Capricorn, and the Antarctic Circle. All are related to the tilt of the Earth’s axis. The zone between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn is called the tropics (or the Torrid Zone), while the areas to the north of the Arctic Circle and to the south of the Antarctic Circle are called the polar regions (or the frigid zone). The two broad belts between the tropical and polar regions in each hemisphere are called the midlatitudes (or the temperate zones).
Lines of longitude, or meridians, run from the North Pole to the South Pole. They are not parallel to each other, as they all converge at the poles. Unlike the lines of latitude, they all have the same length, which is half the circumference of the Earth. Longitude is also labeled in degrees, ranging 0° at the Prime Meridian, which runs through eastern Great Britain, to 180° on the other side of the world in the Pacific Ocean. As longitude will be considered at length in a later post, the remainder of this post focuses on latitude.
For students who have studied geometry, the next step is to show how latitude is defined and labeled. Latitude is measured in degrees of a quarter circle, ranging from 0° to 90°. To see how these numbers are reached, imagine cutting a globe in half through the North and South Poles, perpendicular to the Equator. The two resulting hemispheres have identical circles on their flat sides, which can be represented by a single two-dimensional diagram. A horizonal line passing through the center of this circle represents the Equator [2]. A line perpendicular to this equatorial line represents the earth’s axis, which ends at the north and south poles. As the angles between the equatorial line and the axis line are 90°, the North Pole is designated as 90° N (north) latitude and the South Pole is designated as 90° S (south) latitude.
Globe Sliced in Half to Measure Latitude
Measuring the Latitude of the Poles
A straight line drawn from the center to the edge of the circle halfway between the Equator and the North Pole forms a 45° angle with the equatorial line. A curved line drawn at this distance from the equator around the round side of the hemisphere created by slicing the globe in half traces out half of the 45° line of latitude. If the same procedure is done with the other hemisphere and then the two half-spheres are joined back together, the entire 45° line of latitude will have been traced out.
Measuring Latitude 45 Degrees North
If you are standing anywhere on the 45° N parallel, you will be exactly halfway between the Equator and the North Pole. The border between Montana and Wyoming follows this line of latitude. As Bozeman is just 47 miles to its north, we will treat it as if it had a latitude of 45° (the actual figure is 45.68°). Note, however, that on the diagram posted above, the 45° line of latitude does is not halfway between the Equator and the North Pole. This seeming discrepancy can be explained by the geometry of circles, as is illustrated in the diagram posted below.
Latitude 45 Degrees in Montana
Representing Latitude 45 Degrees on a Flat Diagram
As was noted above, four major lines of latitude, in addition to the Equator are marked on most globes: Arctic Circle, the Tropic of Cancer, the Tropic of Capricorn, and the Antarctic Circle. They are all related to the tilt of the Earth’s axis, which is approximately 23.5°. The two tropics form the same angle with the Equator, 23.5° [3]. The Arctic and Antarctic circles follow the 66.5° lines of latitude [4], which means that they form 23.5° angles with the Earth’s axis (23.5 + 66.5 = 90). The correspondence between the tilt of the axis and these four major lines of latitude is reflected in the angle of the sun that they experience at different times of the year, as will be explained in the next post.
Measuring Latitude 23,5 Degrees North and South
Measuring Latitude 66.5 Degrees North and South
[1]. Because they are actually curved lines that go around the Earth in circles, lines of latitude are increasingly referred to as “circles of latitude.”
[2]. Unlike the axis, the Equator itself does not pass through the center of the Earth, as it is a circular line on the Earth’s surface. The Equatorial Plane that is defined by the Equator, however, does cut through the center of the Earth.
As the previous post explained, seasonal temperature changes are mostly caused by changes in the midday sun angle. By why does the height of the sun above the horizon vary at different times of the year? The key factor here is the Earth’s tilted axis, which changes in orientation relative to the sun as the Earth completes its annual orbit. This topic was briefly explored in the October 21, 2025 GeoCurrents post called “Explaining the Tilt of the Earth’s Axis and Its Importance.” It is now time to examine in more detail the relationship between midday sun angles and changing seasons.
This lesson briefly covers seasonally changing sun angles at the Equator, the poles, the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, and Bozeman, Montana, which is conveniently located almost exactly halfway between the Equator and the North Pole. As was previously explained, this task is most easily accomplished by a physical demonstration with a globe and a flashlight in dark room. Sun-angle diagrams are also included in this post to help students understand these geometrical relationships. Forthcoming posts will consider the Arctic and Antarctic circles and will show how sun angles are calculated based on latitude and time of the year.
As before, begin by holding a globe and asking a student in the center of the room to point a flashlight toward it. Orient the globe so that the top of its axis is on your lefthand side, neither pointing toward nor away from the light. This position represents the spring equinox, which occurs around March 20. Make sure that the flashlight and the globe are at the same level. Next, imagine a ray of light coming from the sun, represented by the flashlight, and hitting the Earth’s (globe’s) surface. A pencil held parallel to the floor can represent such a ray. If the pencil is carried from the flashlight to the globe’s Equator, it should hit it straight on, forming a 90° angle with the surface of the sphere at that point [1]. That means that the sun is directly overhead at noon on the Equator on the spring equinox. But what happens when the pencil, held in a slightly higher position but still parallel to the floor, hits Bozeman? In this case, it will touch the globe’s surface at a 45° angle. That means that on the spring equinox in Bozeman, the noon sun angle is 45°. In other words, it is halfway between the horizon and the position directly above the Earth’s surface at that point, which is called the zenith. Finally, consider the situation at the North Pole. There the pencil will just glancingly touch come into contact with the globe, meaning that the sun angle will be 0°. In other words, at the North Pole on the Spring Equinox the sun will be just at the horizon.
Sun Angles on the Spring Equinox
The next step, as before, is to walk slowly to your right in a curved line, remaining the same distance from the light. Make sure not to twist the base of the globe as you do so. Stop when you have gone one quarter the way around the student holding the flashlight. At this point, the top of the earth’s axis will be oriented toward the light, representing the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, June 20 or 21. It is also the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, with the South Pole oriented away from the light.
At this summer solstice position, students should be able to see that a ray of light will now hit the globe at a 90° angle not at the Equator but well to its north. It does so at an imaginary line called the Tropic of Cancer [2], which circles the Earth at this position and should be indicated on your globe. Again, you can demonstrate this point by bringing a pencil held parallel to the floor into contact with this line. The Tropic of Cancer marks the northmost limit at which the sun is ever directly overhead. You can also show how the 90° midday sun angle gradually moves north from March 20 to June 21. This can be done by returning the starting position at the equinox, and then slowly walking back to the solstice position while keeping the pencil at a 90° angle to the globe. Many globes have labeled dots to indicate the line of latitude at which the midday sun reaches the zenith at different dates.
Summer Solstice Tropic of Cancer
Sun Zenith Indication Marks on a Globe
The next step is to consider the midday sun angle at several other locations, as shown on the figure posted below. At the Equator, the sun is 66.5° above the horizon, which is still a high angle that provides a lot of warming energy. But at Bozeman the sun is a little higher than that – 68.5° – and thus provides slightly more radiation. It is therefore hardly surprising that Bozeman has warm summers.
Summer Solstice Sun Angles
Although the summer solstice is the time of maximum solar radiation at the Tropic of Cancer and all places to its north, it not generally warmest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. For example, in Bozeman the average high temperature on June 21 is in the mid 70s (°F), but by the middle of July it reaches the low 80s (°F). This delay occurs because it takes time for land, and a lot of time for water, to absorb solar radiation and become warmer. Because most of the world is covered by the sea, the warmest time of the year in most midlatitude areas is roughly a month after the period of peak solar radiation. For the same reason, the coldest time of the year is usually around a month after the winter solstice, when solar radiation is slowly increasing.
The North Pole is another interesting and important place to examine at the summer solstice. Here the sun angle is 23.5°, which is relatively low and does not provide much warming radiation. If you rotate the globe, however, you will see that the pole remains in the light the entire time, with its sun angle remaining constant. At the North Pole on the summer solstice, the sun appears to circle the Earth over the course of a day, remaining 23.5° above the horizon. Because of the constant radiation that it provides, it might seem odd that the northern polar region remains so cold, with its temperature in late June typically hovering around 32° F (0° C), the freezing point of water. Later lessons will provide additional reasons why the North Pole remain cold even when it is bathed in constant sunlight.
The next step is to return to the globe’s (earth’s) journey around the light (sun). When you have walked another quarter way around the flashlight, you will have reached the fall equinox position, with the top of the globe’s axis pointing sideways relative to the sun. Conditions now are essentially the same as they were on the spring equinox. The sun will be directly overhead at the equator at noon, and at both poles it will appear to circle the earth at the horizon. Because the earth and sun stand in the same relationship at the two equinoxes, students might wonder why the weather in Bozeman in late September is almost always warmer than it is in late March. The answer is, yet again, the lag factor; it takes time to warm up in the spring and time to cool down in the fall.
The next stage takes you to the position in which the South Pole is oriented toward the sun, which is around December 21. This date marks the Northern Hemisphere’s winter solstice and the Southern Hemisphere’s summer solstice. The situation now is the opposite of what it was on June 21. The sun is directly overhead at noon on the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere, while the South Pole experiences constant light with the sun remaining at a 23.5° angle above the horizon all day. As the graph below shows, the sun angle is Bozeman at this time of the year, 23.5°, is a little lower. It is thus hardly surprising that Bozeman has cold winters.
Winter Solstice Sun Angles
It is also necessary to consider the situation at the North Pole on the Northern Hemisphere’s winter solstice, which is identical to that of the South Pole on the Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice. If you rotate the globe while it is in this position, you will see that North Pole remain in the dark the entire time, receiving no sunlight. As the diagram below shows, the sun remains 23.5° below the horizon on the winter solstice, which means that it is as dark as it can be all 24 hours of the day. It is not coincidental that this angle is the same as the angle of the sun above the horizon at the South Pole, or that it is the same as the angle of the tilt of the axis. These relationships will be explained in the next few posts.
Polar Sun Angles December 21
[1]. Technically, it forms a 90° angle with a tangent plane that just touches the globe at that point.
[2]. You might want to mention that “cancer” refers to the crab constellation, as “cancer” means “crab” in Latin
(This is the eighth post in a series aimed at helping parents home-school their children.)
Now that we have gone through the preliminary materials on basic global geography, it is time to take up a much larger issue: seasons and climate. As this is a complex topic, quite a few posts will be necessary to cover it adequately.
I like to begin teaching about seasons by asking students how winter and summer differ. This might seem like the simplest question imaginable, but the answers will probably vary depending on where the students live. Growing up in northern California, with its warm, rainless summers and cool, rainy winters, my answer as a six-year-old would have focused as much on precipitation as on temperature. I still remember learning about summer rain, which happened when I began following baseball and encountered rain delays. “How could it rain in the summer?” I asked my father. “If it’s raining,” I continued, “that means it’s cold, and if it’s cold, that means it’s not summer.” It took a while to wrap my head around the possibility of rain on a warm day.
Asking this question in Bozeman, Montana, where I now teach children, is more likely to elicit my desired response, one focused on temperature rather than precipitation. Bozeman’s continental location heightens this distinction, with a record high temperature of 105° F (41° C) and a record low of -46° F (-43° C). The simple follow-up question – why is summer warm and winter cold? – is more challenging, even for most adults. Students might respond by noting that the sun rises much earlier and sets much later in the summer than in the winter, but that is a small part of the answer. At the North Pole, the sun does not set at all from March 20 until September 22, yet it remains very cold the entire time. The next step is to inform the class that the Earth is much closer to the sun – by around three million miles – in one of these seasons than in the other. But which one? It is their turn to be dumbfounded when I tell them that the Earth reaches its closest distance to the sun on January 3 and its farthest on July 4.
Perihelion and Aphelion
Few students, and even relatively few adults, know the main reason why summer is warm and winter is cold in a midlatitude location like Bozeman. The key factor is the angle of the sun. Put simply, the midday sun is much higher in the sky during the summer than in the winter, and as result provides much more warming solar radiation. The rest of this post shows why high sun angles deliver more warmth than low sun angle. The changing angle of the sun over the course of a year will be explained in subsequent posts.
The Geometry of Sun Angles
The role of sun angles in determining how much solar radiation reaches the Earth’s surface in different places and at different times of the day and year is a complicated issue. Mostly, however, it is a matter of basic geometry. When the sun is low in the sky, its rays spread horizontally through the atmosphere, mostly bypassing the earth’s surface. At sunrise and sunset, when solar radiation is at a minimum, you can even glance at the sun without hurting your eyes. But the higher it rises, the more directly its rays hit the earth, increasing their intensity. Solar radiation reaches its maximum when the sun is directly overhead, which only occurs in the tropics. As this is largely a matter of basic geometry, it can be most easily demonstrated with simple diagrams.
Seasonally High and Low Sun Angles
Sun Angles and Solar Intensity
Understanding the significance of sun angles has many practical applications. It lets you know, for example, why it is much more important to use sunscreen in the middle of the day than in the early morning or late afternoon. Architects need to take sun angles into account when they design buildings. A window on the south side of a house, for example, can be useful in the winter to let in warming sunlight but undesirable in the summer when extra warmth is not wanted. But since the midday sun is much higher in the sky during the summer than in the winter, an overhanging roof can keep the window shaded in the warm season and unshaded in the cold season.
(This is the seventh post in a series aimed at helping parents home-school their children.)
As was noted in the previous post, hemispheres are created by conceptually slicing a globe through its center. The dividing line between the two hemispheres forms a “great circle,” meaning that it goes around the globe’s circumference. The Equator is thus a great circle, as is any line of longitude, such as the Prime Meridian, combined the line of longitude on the opposite side of the world (longitude will be covered in detail in a later lesson). If you tie a string snugly around any sphere, you can move it into any number of positions, all of which are great circles. On the globe, lines of latitude other than the equator “go around the world” in one sense, but they do not go around its circumference and are therefore not great circles (latitude will also be covered in detail in a later lesson). The most significant practical aspect of a great circle is in finding the shortest route between any two places on Earth, as it always follows the course of a great circle.
Diagram of a Great Circle
The concept of the great circle helps solve a seeming mystery. When people fly from the west coast of the United States to Europe, they often expect to travel in an eastward direction, as Europe is located to the east. It certainly looks like that would be the most direct route on a typical world map. As a result, first-time travelers to Europe can be surprised to find themselves flying far to the north, going over the icecap of Greenland. But you can easily see why a flight would take this path by looking at a globe or a globe-view map. A website called Flight Routeshas an excellent article, “Shortest flight path – great circle routes,” that has some useful maps on this topic, such as those posted below.
Los Angeles to London Great Circle Route
Los Angeles to London Great Circle on Conventional Map
Even experienced travelers may be surprised to learn that the most direct route from Los Angeles to Dubai does not pass over Greenland but rather goes to its north. I certainly was. But as the Flight Routes maps posted below shows, this is indeed the path of a great circle.
Los Angeles to Dubai Great Circle Route on Mercator Map
Great Circle Route from Los Angeles to Dubai
When playing around with a string and a globe, I was also surprised to see that a great circle route from Seattle to Mombasa (in Kenya) passes over Greenland. At least this is how it seemed in my simple experiment, as I could not be sure that my string was stretched as tautly as possible and thus followed the most direct path. I decided to test this finding with artificial intelligence (AI), using Grok because of its ability to quickly generate graphs and other images. What I learned was that in this instance, AI – or at least Grok – delivers nothing but artificial idiocy. Not only does it have no knowledge of a “great circle route,” but it apparently cannot even place Mombasa or Seattle in their correct locations. One of the maps that it produced put Mombasa just off the coast of the border between DR Congo and Angola, and the other placed it in the middle of the South Atlantic. The depiction of Hawaii in the second map is especially amusing. This experience makes me wonder if AI is in general poorly equipped to handle mapping questions and exercises.
Seattle to Mombasa Great Circle Route on a Globe
Absurd Grok AI Map of a Great Circle Route from Seattle to Mombasa
(This is the sixth post in a series aimed at helping parents home-school their children. It is, however, misplaced in the sequence, as it should come immediately after the post on the rotation of the Earth. Once all the posts have been published on this site, they will be rearranged in the correct order.)
Once the equator has been explained, the concept of the hemisphere can be introduced. You can begin by asking students to imagine what they would get if they sliced a globe in half along the Equator. The result would be two half-spheres of the same size and shape, the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. These two hemispheres form mirror images of each other. As we will see in later lessons, they have the same climate zones but with the directions reversed; in the Northern Hemisphere, south points to the warm equator while north points to the frigid North Pole, whereas in the Southern Hemisphere north points to the warm equator while south points to the super-frigid South Pole. Their seasons are reversed as well, with the Southern Hemisphere’s winter being the Northern Hemisphere’s summer. Air masses and water currents rotate in opposite directions. Winds, for example, blow out of areas of high air-pressure in a clockwise direction in the northern Hemisphere and in a counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere.
Dividing the Globe into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres
Air Pressure and Wind Directions in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres
Different kinds of hemisphere can be created by slicing through the diameter of a globe at different places. Provided that the cut passes through the center, two hemispheres of equal size will result. But no other half-globes are at all like the northern and southern hemispheres. The hemispheres of day and night [1], for example, are also natural division of the world, but they constantly shift as the Earth rotates around its axis and orbits the sun. Most other hemispheres are based merely on a decision to split the world is a particular way. The eastern and western hemispheres, for example, are important divisions of the world, but they are essentially arbitrary creations that cannot be defined on a natural basis.
Dividing the Earth into the Four Standard Hemispheres
The separation of the eastern and western hemispheres cuts through the poles, perpendicular to the Equator. But such a division can have any orientation and could potentially run through any place on Earth. As a result, people had to agree on a dividing line to separate the “eastern” half of the world from the “western” half. Eventually, a “Prime Meridian,” or base line running from the North Pole to the South Pole, was selected. Owing to the historical influence of British influence and navigation, it passes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. But this is a poor location for splitting the world, as it puts Ireland, most of Britain, Portugal, most of Spain, and most of western Africa in the Western Hemisphere. But these places are almost never actually regarded as parts of the Western Hemisphere, as it is inconvenient to divide Europe and Africa. The hemispheric dividing line is therefore informally off-set into the Atlantic Ocean. This alterative line, however, inconveniently puts a large part of eastern Russia and New Zealand in the Western Hemisphere. But again, these places are almost never conceptualized as parts of the Western Hemisphere, which is usually restricted to North America and South America. This limited scope means that the Western Hemisphere is smaller than a half-sphere and is therefore not a true hemisphere.
The Equator and the Prime Meridian
As we will explore in a later chapter, east and west – unlike north and south – are relative rather than absolute directions. If you travel continually to the north, your journey will end at the North Pole, from which all directions point south. If, to the contrary, you travel continually to the west, you will in due course find yourself to the east of where you started and eventually reach that spot – and then you can keep going indefinitely. East and west must therefore be defined from the perspective of a particular place. From the vantage point of Europe, North America is located to the west and thus belongs to the Western Hemisphere. But from the perspective of China, Japan, and Korea, North America is located to the east and could thus be placed in an alternative Eastern Hemisphere. We divide and label these two hemispheres as we do because our system of global division originated in Europe and frames the world from a European perspective.
Alternative Eastern and Western Hemispheres
The only other commonly used hemispheric division splits the world so that that most of its land is in one half and most of its water is in the other. The “land hemisphere” is centered in western Europe and the “water hemisphere” is centered in the sea near New Zealand. But even the land hemisphere has more water (53 per cent) than land (47 per cent). Roughly 89 percent of the water hemisphere, in contrast, is oceanic, while six percent is dry land and five percent is covered by the frozen water of the Antarctic ice cap.
Land and Water Hemispheres
[1] These are technically called “terminator-based hemispheres,” as the “terrestrial terminator” is the always-shifting boundary line between the illuminated and dark halves of the Earth.
(This is the fifth post in a series aimed at helping parents home-school their children.)
After having covered the Earth’s daily rotation, it is time to consider the tilt of its axis. Here a little basic geometry is necessary, focused on angles and their measurement, along with orientations such as “vertical,” “horizontal,” “perpendicular,” and “parallel.” In the United States, this material is usually not introduced until the fourth or fifth grade. For younger children, simpler terms such as “straight up and down” can be used.
The 23.5° [1] tilt of the Earth’s axis is extremely important because it largely determines the march of the seasons and the division of the world into climate zones. But what exactly does “tilt” means in this context? “Tilt” must be relative to something else; if our planet was alone in the universe, the idea of its axis “tilting” would be meaningless. It is a different matter, however, with a globe located on Earth, as in this case gravity is the defining feature. A globe’s axis tilts 23.5° away from a vertical line that passes through its center, and the vertical orientation is defined as one pointing toward the center of the Earth. As can be seen in the image posted below, the globe’s axis forms a 66.5° angle with a horizontal line perpendicular the vertical line that also passes through the Earth’s center. As we will see in later lessons, these two angles, 23.5° and 66.5°, are geographically significant. As lines of latitude, they define the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn and the Arctic and Antarctic Circles respectively.
The Orientation of the Axis of a Globe
Unlike the tilt of a globe’s axis, that of the Earth cannot be defined in relationship to gravity. Instead, it is defined in relation to the imaginary plane on which the Earth orbits the sun, which is technically called the ecliptic. The Earth’s axis is tilted 23.5° from an imaginary line perpendicular to this orbital plane. Because the axis remains pointing in the same direction as it moves along the ecliptic place, its orientation with respect to the sun varies over the course of a year. On the Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice in late June, the North Pole leans toward the sun a 23.5° angle, while on the winter solstice in late in December it leans away from the sun at a 23.5° angle.
The Earth’s Orbital Plane
The Tilt of the Earth’s Axis
Another demonstration with a globe and a flashlight in a dark room is useful here. Hold the globe while standing behind it, with a student in the center of the room pointing a flashlight toward it, representing the sun. Make sure that the top of the axis is on your lefthand side, neither pointing toward nor away from the light. This position represents the spring equinox, which occurs around March 20. If you rotate the globe, everyone should be able to see that the northern and southern hemispheres receive the same amount of light over the course of a day. Next, slowly walk to your right in a circular direction around the “sun,” making sure not to twist the globe and thus change its orientation. Instruct the student holding the flashlight to remain stationary but keep the light pointed toward the globe. When you have gone one quarter of the way around the “sun,” the North Pole will be leaning toward it. If you rotate the globe, everyone should be able to see that the Northern Hemisphere now receives more light than the Southern Hemisphere. The South Pole and the whole southern polar region will remain in the dark as the globe spins, whereas the North Pole and the entire northern polar region will remain in the light. This position represents the Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice, which occurs around June 21. After another quarter turn around the light, the axis will again be in a neutral position, not oriented toward or away from the light. This position represents the fall equinox, which occurs around September 22. If you walk another quarter turn, the South Pole will be oriented toward the light. This position represents the Northern Hemisphere’s Winter Solstice, which occurs around December 21.
Orientation of the Earth’s Axis at Different Seasons
Later lessons will explain in more detail how these different orientations of the Earth’s axis relative to the sun determine the changing seasons and the world’s climate zones. But at this point you might want to briefly mention the importance of the tilt. If the Earth’s axis had a vertical orientation relative to the orbital plane, we would have no seasons, with average weather conditions being the same throughout the year. If the axis had a significantly greater tilt, seasonal differences would be extreme, with much of the world experiencing scorching summers and brutally cold winters.
(This is the fourth post in a series aimed at helping parents home-school their children.)
One of the first geography lessons for young students should involve spinning a globe to show the Earth’s daily rotation around its axis. For younger children, it might be necessary to explain first the concept of an axis of rotation. This can be effective done by jabbing a pencil through the center of an orange and then twisting it to spin the fruit. If you then pull it out and push it through a different part of the orange, you will have created a new axis. Most globes have a rod that function as the axis, allowing them to be properly rotated. The next step is to explain that this axis passes through, and defines, the north and south poles. The Equator can then be explained as the imaginary line that runs around the Earth’s circumference halfway between the North Pole and the South Pole.
The first step of the demonstration is simply to spin the globe. Make sure to rotate it in the correct direction, which is counterclockwise when looked down on from above. But if you spin the globe in this direction and then lift it up and examine it from below, you will find that it is rotating in a clockwise direction from this perspective. This hemispheric reversal of orientation will become important in later lessons on climate. For example, ocean gyres formed by water currents move in a clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere and in a counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere.
Day, Night, and the Earth’s Rotation
Ocean Gyres
Once these preliminary matters have been explained, it is time to show why we experience day and night. This can most effectively be done in a dark room with a globe and a flashlight serving as the sun. First, mark the student’s hometown with a brightly colored sticker. Then hold the flashlight a few feet away the globe and at the same level. Position the globe so that the top of its axis does not point toward or away from the light but is rather perpendicular to it. This arrangement simulates the situation on the spring and fall equinoxes, around March 20 and September 22. On these two days, the time-periods of “night” and “day” are of equal length everywhere in the world except the poles [1]. Later lessons will show why the daylight period is shorter in the winter and longer in the summer.
The Earth at Equnox Position
As the demonstration gets underway, the home-marker should on the side of the globe opposite from the flashlight and therefore in the dark. As the globe is slowly rotated, it will soon come into view, at first just barely visible on the left side of the globe. At this point the light begins to hit the marker at the edge of the globe, signifying sunrise in the student’s hometown. A quarter turn later, the home-marker will be directly in front of the light, signifying noon. After another quarter turn it will reach the edge of the light before disappearing, signifying sundown. Students should also be able to see that every place on Earth, except the north and south poles, will be on the illuminated side of the globe for the same amount of time that they are on the dark side.
This demonstration might seem to convey obvious information, but I do think that it is useful for younger students. The next issue, however, is not so obvious: the speed of the Earth’s rotation. You can begin by asking your students to estimate how fast they would be moving due to this rotation if they were standing on the Equator and if they were standing on the North Pole. At the Equator, they would travel the length of the Earth’s circumference in one day. Because the Earth is roughly 25,000 miles around and the day has 24 hours, they will be moving at more than a thousand miles an hour [2]. If standing on the North Pole, however, a person would be rotating, turning around one time over the course of the day, but not moving through space. The closer you are to the Equator, the faster your speed. Bozeman, Montana, roughly halfway between the North Pole and the Equator, is still zipping along at approximately 735 miles an hour.
The Variable Speed of the Earth’s Rotation
Children will probably be surprised by this speed of movement, as it is not experienced. But because everything moves with the Earth – the oceans, the air, the ground and everything on it – nothing seems to be moving. The motion is also constant and smooth. Even if you are in a car or airplane traveling smoothly in one direction at a constant speed, it does not feel like you are moving. You can reinforce this point by mentioning that the Earth is moving even more quickly in different ways. It orbits the sun, for example, at 66,660 miles per hour, while the entire solar system orbits the galactic center at around 514,000 miles per hour.
Students might want to know if it makes any practical difference that the Earth’s rotational speed varies from over a thousand mph at the equator to 0 at the poles. The answer is “yes,” most prominently seen in the location of sites used for sending rockets into space. Rockets must reach a certain speed to escape the Earth’s gravity. The closer they are to the Equator, the faster they are already moving when their engines are ignited. As a result, it would take 13 to 20 percent more energy to launch a rocket into orbit at the North Pole than at the Equator. Because of this difference, most U.S. space ports are in Florida, southern Texas, and other locations in the south.
U.S. Spaceports Map
[1]. At the north and south poles on the equinoxes, the sun will form a semicircle just above the horizon and will circle around the pole over the course of the day. This phenomenon will be further explained later. It can be observed in this demonstration, however, as the poles will remain just at the edge of the illuminated half of the globe throughout its rotation.
[2] At the equator, the rotational speed is about 1,040 mph, or 1,670 km/h.
Early geography lessons should try to break some misleading habits of thought about the world and its orientation. Principal among these is the idea that north is “up” and south is “down,” and that as a result the North Pole is somehow “above” the South Pole.
Such notions are understandable, as almost all world maps place north at the top and south at the bottom while globes are almost always oriented in the same way. But they are also nonsensical. “Up” and “down” are defined by the gravity of the planet, with “down” always pointing to the center of the Earth. The South Pole is thus as far “up” – or away from the center of the Earth – as the North Pole [1]. Orienting maps and globes with the north at top is thus a mere convention, with no logical basis. There is nothing wrong with using such conventions, which are actually highly useful – as long we remember what they are. But we don’t always do so. Instead, we often come to regard the placement of north at the top as somehow natural or correct. As a result, most of us are thus taken aback when we see a supposedly “upside down” map or globe.
Invert Your Globe Occasionally
Fortunately, most globes can be inverted. It is useful to put them in this position occasionally, mostly to drive home the point that the Earth should not be thought of in “up” and “down” or “top” or “bottom” terms. Putting the South Pole at the top of the globe over also makes it easier to see the southerly parts of the Southern Hemisphere, which are often partially hidden by the rest of the globe. Even on world maps, we tend to focus more on the top than on the bottom, which does a slight injustice to the Southern Hemisphere. For precisely this reason, some world maps made in Australia and other Southern-Hemisphere countries place south at the top.
In doing a quick image search for such maps, however, I was disappointed at how few I could find. Most of the ones that I did find were disappointing. The first map below, for example, uses the unsuitable Mercator projection. It is also labeled “Upside down World Map,” undermining my point. But the second map, by Joshua Stevens,” is brilliant. As its author notes, it is not upside down. I also like the projection and the three inset maps [2].
South at Top World Map
Non-Upside Down World Map with South at the Top
[1]. Actually, the South Pole can be framed as “higher” than the North Pole. If you reach it, you will be standing on top of 9,000 feet of ice, whereas the North Pole is essentially at sea level.
[2]. This map does have a few geopolitical errors or perhaps mere oddities, depending on how the author conceptualizes them. Most striking is its unusual treatment of Somalia. The author differentiates by color the internationally recognized but largely non-functional state of Somalia from the non-internationally recognized but functional state of Somaliland. I have no problem whatsoever with such a geopolitical framing. But the label “Somaliland” extends across the de facto border between the two states while a label for “Somalia” does not appear. The third of the three maps posted shows a clearer framing of this important but fraught issue, with the label “Somaliland” placed in italics to indicate that it is not an internationally recognized state.
Detail and clarified detail from “This Map Is Not Upside Down”
(This is the second post in a series aimed at helping parents home-school their children.)
As students gain familiarity with a globe, they need to grasp the size of the planet that it represents. It is a simple matter to say that the Earth is 24,901 miles in circumference at the Equator and 24,860 miles around the poles, but such numbers are difficult to understand.
The size of the world is easier to comprehend if framed in terms of experience, such as the time required to travel around it. If Earth had no oceans or other barriers and a person could simply walk around its circumference, how long would the journey take? If waking at three miles an hour for eight hours a day, it could be accomplished in a little under three years. If you could drive around the world at 65 miles an hour for eight hours a day, it would take 48 days. What about air travel? If you could fly non-stop at the speed of a commercial jet, the trip would take about 44.5 hours, or a little less than two days.
Size of the Earth in Terms of Travel Time
It is impossible, of course, to drive or walk around the Earth. But people have been sailing around it for around 500 years, although not on a direct course. In the 1500s, such a voyage were completed in around three years – intriguingly, about the same amount of time that it would theoretically take to walk around the Earth’s circumference. As ships improved, the travel time decreased. By the mid 1800s, a clipper ship could sail from China to Britain in a little over three months and could theoretically make it around the world in well less than a year. By the early 1900s, a steamship could make a trans-global journey in 70 to 90 days.
Ships cannot directly sail around the world because continents are in the way. Before the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the Panama Canal in 1914, circumnavigating the globe required traveling far to the south to get around Africa and South America. A good exercise is to show students a map of the first voyage around the world, that of Magellan (1519–1522), and then have them trace it out on a globe. For older students, it is important to show how difficult and deadly these early voyages were. On the Magellan expedition, only 18 of 280 sailors survived. On the second circumnavigation of the Earth, that of Francis Drake (1577–1580), 59 of 164 men made it back home, a considerable improvement but still a dismal figure.
Magellan Expedition Map
Land travel was usually slower than sea travel before the Industrial Revolution. Consider the famous Oregon Trail, which ran from western Missouri to western Oregon. Covering 2,170-miles, this route is only 8.6 percent of the length of the Earth’s circumference. But as late as the 1850s, pioneers traveling west in wagon train usually took four to six months to make this journey. For another exercise, students can be shown a map of the Oregon Trail and then asked to trace it out on the globe.
Oregon Trail Map
Oregon Tral Illustration
But as large as the Earth it, it is tiny when compared to the sun, an important fact for later lessons. Around a million planets the size or the Earth could fit inside the sun. This size difference is most effectively conveyed by a single comparative image. The distance between the sun and Earth – 93 million miles – is more difficult to comprehend. But if you could drive a car to the sun at 60 miles per hour, the trip would take over 170 years. Even light, which travels at the fastest possible speed, takes over eight minutes to go from the sun to the Earth. As a result, a phone call using light-fast radio waves to a person located 93 million miles from Earth would be a very frustrating experience. If you start the call by saying “hello,” you would have to wait about 17 minutes to hear a “hello” in return.
(This is the first of a series of posts aimed at helping parents home-school their children.)
Although I love maps and use them extensively when teaching geography, I firmly believe that elementary instruction should begin with a globe. Throughout the first few years of instruction, a globe should always be at hand. A physical/political globe showings both landforms and countries is best for general purpose. Raised relief allowing tactile exploration is also helpful, even though it is never very accurate. If two globes can be acquired, the second one should be political, depicting countries but not landforms.
Repeatedly examining a globe is essential for several reasons. Most important, it shows the spherical [1] nature of the Earth, which is easy to accept but difficult to internalize. The most basic aspects of physical geography, moreover, are most effectively taught through globe demonstrations, as will be outlined in coming lessons. For young children particularly, the spinning of the Earth, the tilt of its axis, and the march of the seasons are most easily understood by manipulating a globe.
The first step is to explain the color scheme, which vary from globe to globe. Almost all show oceans, seas, and large lakes in blue, and most signal ice-covered lands with white (Greenland and Antarctica essentially). For land, most political/physical globes show elevation, often with shades of green for lower-lying lands and shades of brown for higher areas. Some globes show ocean depths in shades of blue, with the deepest areas depicted in the darkest color. For younger students, the concept of “sea-level,” and of elevations below and above it, will need to be explained. On my globe, land area below sea level are depicted in the darkest shade of green.
A Globe’s Color Scheme
For older elementary-aged children, it is important to explain why the surface of the spherical Earth cannot be accurately represented by a map. One simple way to begin this lesson is to have students peel an orange in one piece. The flattened peel will always have huge indentations or interruptions. The next step is to show how a traditionally constructed globe would appear if its printed surface layer could be peeled off and flattened. The resulting globe gores nicely preserve the sizes and shapes of land areas, but only within each individual section. A world map made of such gores is too interrupted to be of any use, except along the equator.
A Peeled Orange
Globe Gores as a World Map
Non-interrupted world maps face a major challenge. In projecting a spherical surface onto a flat plane, either the sizes or the shapes – or both – of landmasses and water bodies are necessarily distorted. Sometimes these distortions are severe. The Mercator projection, for example, grotesquely magnifies the Arctic and Antarctic zones. In this often-used map, South America looks smaller than Greenland; actually, it is more than eight times larger [2]. World maps with correct land sizes, in contrast, severely distort shapes, stretching them out or compressing them down in different parts of the world. Compare the appearance of South America on a Gall-Peters equal-area projection with its actual form (second map below).
Mercator Projection World Map Distortions
Equal-Area World Map Distortions
My favorite world maps use a projection that distort both size and shape, but neither to an extreme degree. Such maps can still be misleading, however, as it is not obvious that their edges are actually adjacent. As a result, many Americans are surprised to learn that Russia and the United States are near neighbors. Pacific-centered world maps, which are often used in East Asia, do show the proximity of Russia and Alaska, but usually at the cost of dividing either Greenland or Europe and Africa.
The U.S. and Russia on a Standard World Map
The Proximity of Russia and Alaska
Russia and Alaska on Pacific-Centered Maps
Many potential problems in global perception can be avoided by becoming intimately familiar with a globe at an early age. Doing so reveals important global features that are not easily grasped by looking at standard world maps. The magnitude of the Pacific Ocean, covering roughly a third of the Earth’s surface, is a prime example. A globe can be easily positioned so that little else is visible. Similarly, the interconnected nature of the world’s oceans is not readily apparent on world maps (except on those using a bizarre Antarctic-centered projection). But if one looks at a globe from below, the maritime whole stands out. Similarly, only a rare Arctic-centered world map reveals the proximity of Russia and Canada, which are only a little more than a thousand miles apart at the narrowest point [3].
The Pacific Ocean on a Globe-View Map
Antarctic-Centered World Map
The Interconnected Oceans
For most children, however, merely examining a globe is not enough, even if done repeatedly. Instead, active engagement is necessary. Some hands-on activities will be outlined in the next several GeoCurrents posts. For some exercises, a globe with a markable/erasable surface will be helpful.
[1]. The Earth is not exactly spherical, as it is slightly flattened at the poles, but this fact can be ignored in elementary education.
[2]. For older students, it is important to note that the often-maligned Mercator projection was a brilliant navigational breakthrough, as it generates the only maps in which a constant compass bearing can be plotted as a straight line. Today, on-line maps often use a Mercator projection as they make it easy to zoom in and out.
[3]. The northernmost point of Ellesmere Island in far-northern Canada is roughly 1,180 miles (1,900 km) from the nearest point of Russia (Franz Josef Land), across the Arctic Ocean.
As regular readers probably noticed, GeoCurrents abruptly ceased posting at the end of July, 2025, just after having promised a new series on the Druze. Family considerations figured prominently in this cessation. A few months earlier, my son and daughter-in-law announced that they would be opening a bookstore in Bozeman, Montana, where they have lived for the past five years. My wife and I were initially skeptical about this decision, as new bookstores seldom succeed. But they convincingly argued that they could improve their chance of success by pursuing a niche strategy, focusing on classic literature, especially for children, and home-schooling curricular materials. At roughly the same time, they also told us that they would be teaching their own children at home.
Royal Road Bookstore
I was also skeptical about this home-schooling plan, as it seemed like a monumental undertaking. But I soon concluded that if my grandchildren are to be educated at home, I had better become involved in the process. And the more I thought about it, the more intriguing the prospect became. After a few months of learning and deliberation, I decided to embrace the home-schooling movement as a potential way to revitalize geography. I have been distraught for decades by the woeful condition of geographical education in the United States, and over the past few years I have essentially lost hope in the possibility of improvement. But as I have recently discovered, many home-schooling parents are keenly interested in the subject and are eager for guidance.
To make a long story short, I am currently giving a series of elementary geography lessons to parents and their children at Royal Road Bookstore in Bozeman, Montana. I will also be writing GeoCurrents posts about these lessons and recording YouTube videos on the same topics through the rest of 2025. Ultimately, I hope to write and self-publish an inexpensive geography textbook aimed at the home-schooling market.
Royal Road Geography
In the winter and spring of 2026, I will again be teaching in Stanford University’s Continuing Studies Program (adult education). My winter class will be on “dividing the world,” and I will no doubt be writing some GeoCurrents posts on the topic. After spending my career teaching geography to students between 18 and 22 years of age, I now find myself mostly teaching students between 6 and 8 years of age – and between 60 and 80. In many ways I find this a more satisfying experience. No one in my classes these days is looking at a phone and plugging into social media, just as no one is more concerned about their grade than about learning the subject matter.
Armed conflict over the past few weeks in southern Syria between the Druze and Bedouin militias receiving help from the Syrian military have taken over a thousand lives. As reported in the Kurdish press, Tawfiq al-Hijri, Deputy Head of the Foreign Relations Office of the Spiritual Presidency of the Druze Community in Syria, argues that “jihadist elements within the state [are] planning a systematic purge of minority communities. What we’re facing is nothing short of genocide. … Their ideology cannot be changed. They seek to subjugate or eliminate all minorities—starting with Alawites and Druze, and targeting Kurds next.”
Tawfiq al-Hijri may be exaggerating the threat, and the situation in southern Syria is certainly complicated, as GeoCurrents will explore in subsequent posts. But it is difficult to deny the Druze of Syria find themselves in a precarious situation. As adherents of an esoteric sect that grew out Islam but is no longer within the folds of that faith, the Druze find themselves targeted by Sunni extremists, many of whom are now officials in the Syrian government. Although the county’s leaders have officially abandoned the jihadi path, it is understandable that Druze leaders remain unconvinced.
Wikipedia Map of the Military Situation in southern Syria July 2025
The geographical focus of the current conflict is the As-Suwayda Governorate, which covers 5,550 km2 (2,140 sq mi)and is home to some 375,000 people, 90 percent of whom are Druze (seven percent are Christian, and the remaining three percent are Sunni Muslims, as of 2010). The core of As-Suwayda is a basaltic plateau known as the Jabal al-Druze, or “Mountain of the Druze.” The Jabal al-Druze is clearly visible on satellite images of the region (see the figure posted below). Although having a semi-arid Mediterranean climate with only around 14 inches (364 mm) of annual precipitation (in the city of Suwayda), the region has fertile soils and supports a large agricultural population.
The Jabal al-Druze in Syria, Satellite-Image Map
Despite its cultural and geographical significance, the Jabal al-Druze appears on relatively few maps. It is nowhere to be found, for example, in Apple Maps, where a search for “Jabal al-Druze” first took me to a place in India called “Jabal” and then to “Jabal al-Nour” in Saudi Arabia (see the figure below). More disturbing, Apple Maps labels the plateau in question as “Jabal al-Arab,” or “Mountain of the Arabs” (see the second figure below). This maneuver effectively erases Druze identity from the region and could easily be interpreted as an intentional insult to the Druze community.
Apple Maps Labels Jabal al-Druze as “Jabal al-Arab”
Apple Maps’ “Depiction” of “Jabal al-Druze”
The Jabal al-Druze is admittedly sometimes called “Jabal al-Arab, as well as the “Jabal Hauran,” but these are secondary names, at least as framed by the Wikipedia article on the region. Although the chatbot Grok tells me that “some sources suggest [that the name Jabal al-Arab] predates the Druze-specific designation or was used in certain historical contexts to describe the same volcanic highland,” ChatGPT more pointedly states that the term is “pan-Arab or nationalist in tone, and has been used more frequently by the Ba’athist government of Syria, which promotes Arab identity.”
Left unsaid by ChatGPT was the fact that the Arab-Nationalist-Socialist Ba’ath Party of Syria long sought to undermine the sectarian identity of the Druze and other Arabic-speaking minorities and subsume them within the majority ethnic formation. Such policies were violently implemented under the rule of Adib Shishakli in the early 1950s. According to the Wikipedia article on the Druze:
Shishakli believed that among his many opponents in Syria, the Druze were the most potentially dangerous, and he was determined to crush them. He frequently proclaimed: “My enemies are like a serpent: The head is the Jebel al-Druze, the stomach Homs, and the tail Aleppo. If I crush the head, the serpent will die.” Shishakli dispatched 10,000 regular troops to occupy the Jebel al-Druze. Several towns were bombarded with heavy weapons, killing scores of civilians and destroying many houses. According to Druze accounts, Shishakli encouraged neighboring Bedouin tribes to plunder the defenseless population and allowed his own troops to run amok.
Although later Ba’ath government, including that of the recently deposed Assad regime, protected the Druze from Sunni extremists, memories of these earlier events remain powerful. Recent attacks on the Druze community by Sunni Bedouin tribes and elements of the Syrian state have a disconcerting resemblance to those of the early 1950s.
The term “Jabal al-Arab,” used by Apple Maps thus seem to me to be an ideologically laden substitute for “Jabal al-Druze.” At the very least, it tells us nothing specific about the region, quite unlike the more commonly accepted term. The extent to which the Arabic-speaking Druze even consider themselves to be “Arabs,” moreover, is unclear and contested. As I was unable to find much useful information on this issue, I turned to AI. ChatGPT’s response to my query seems reasonable (although the term “mainstream” in the second paragraph below is unnecessary and misleading):
ChatGPT: Some Druze do consider themselves Arabs, especially in the sense of speaking Arabic and being part of the broader Arab cultural and historical sphere. In this view, they may identify with Arab nationalism or see themselves as part of the Arab world.
Others distinguish themselves from Arabs, emphasizing their distinct religious and historical identity. The Druze faith is separate from mainstream Islam, and some Druze prefer to be seen as an independent ethnoreligious group with roots in ancient Middle Eastern cultures, possibly tracing their heritage to pre-Islamic or even non-Arab origins.
The chatbot Grok, in contrast, suggests that most Druze do accept an Arab identity, albeit subordinate to their religious identity. Yet even if that is the case, I imagine that most Druze people would find the label “Jabal al-Arab” offensive.
As I have criticized Apple Maps in this post, it is fitting to examine the labeling practice of its main competitor, Google Maps. Google’s mapping program has no designation for the region itself, using labels only for towns and cities; in my initial query, moreover it told me that “Google maps can’t find “Jabal al-Druze” (see the figure posted below). When I re-queried the program after zooming in on the region, however, I was taken to the highest elevation in the region, also known as Jabal al-Druze. In this instance, Google Maps clearly outperforms Apple Maps.
The gray wolf is usually seen as a wilderness species, an animal that needs vast expanses of habitat far from human concentrations, as well as sizable populations of large herbivores to prey upon. Yet many distribution maps, including one featured in the Wikipedia article on the species, shows gray wolves currently inhabiting some densely populated places. In the eastern Mediterranean region, for example, wolves are depicted as living in southern Lebanon, northern Israel, the West Bank, northwestern Jordan, and southwestern Syria (see the paired maps posted below). Other distribution maps show the gray wolf’s range as currently extending across the entire Arabian Peninsula, including the hyper-arid Rub’ al Khali, a large region of shifting sand dunes with little water and scant wildlife (see the second set of maps below).
Wolf Distribution and Human Population in the Eastern Mediterranean Region map
ScreenshotExaggerated Maps of the Range of the Gray Wolf
Such maps do not fit the common perception of wolf habitat and may therefore seem fraudulent. But although these maps exaggerate the range of the gray wolf, they also convey an element of truth that confounds expectations. The solution to this seeming paradox is found in the different habitat requirements of different wolf subspecies. The Arabian gray wolf (Canis lupus arabs) that inhabits some parts of the Arabian Peninsula is the smallest subspecies, weighing on average only 45 pounds (20.4 kg). In contrast, wolves in the American northwest generally weigh between 99 and 159 pounds (36 to 72 kg). Arabian wolves are thus closer in size to coyotes, which typically between 15 and 45 pounds (7 to 20 kg) and have reached 75 pounds (34 kg). Arabian wolves are also similar to coyotes in diet and social structure, typically hunting in pairs rather than in packs. As noted in the Wikipedia article on the animal:
Arabian wolves are mainly carnivorous, but also omnivorous and in some areas largely dependent on human garbage and excess products. Their native prey includes ungulates … as well as smaller animals like hares, rodents, small birds, and reptiles. They also eat cats, sweet fruits, roadkill, and other carrion. Opportunistically, almost any small animal including fish, snails, and baby baboons can be part of their diet.
The reasonably accurate distribution map of the Arabian wolf found in the same article shows that its remaining populations are concentrated in the southern Arabian Peninsula, sandwiched between the more densely populated coastal areas and the more arid interior. Populations are also found in southern Israel, Jordan, and the southern Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. Numbers are relatively small, however, with Saudi Arabia supporting roughly 250-700 wolves, Jordan some 200, and Israel around 100 to 150. The Arabian wolf population of Israel is reportedly stable, while that of Jordan is said to be decreasing due to hunting pressure.
Current Range of the Arabian Wolf Map
Remarkably, Arabian wolves also inhabit, or did until the current war, the densely populated Gaza Strip. A recent article on the wolves of Gaza outlines the situation as of 2023:
According to old Gazans, the Arabian Wolf was present in the Gaza Strip 7-8 decades ago, and after that its numbers decreased to zero. After the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the uprooting of its settlements in late 2005, dozens of Arabian Wolf and other carnivores crept intermittently through gaps in the border to the east of the Gaza Strip. The Arabian Wolf often arrives at night, looking for food, and it returns again in the morning hours to the Gaza Envelope. Many individuals have been captured or killed by Gazans at night using live traps “Maltash“, leghold traps “Fakh“, or even rifles and cartridges. Some healthy specimens have been sold and kept in cages at local zoos. Many plausible factors encouraged the infiltration of Arabian Wolves and other canids into the eastern Gaza Strip, such as the abundance of wildlife prey attracted by solid waste dumps, sewage treatment plants, and agricultural production activities of various crops, in addition to the abundance of animal pens and poultry farms.
The wolves of northern Israel, Lebanon, and Syria are of a different subspecies, the endangered Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes). Indian wolves are intermediate in size between the Arabian wolf and the wolves of northern Eurasia and North America. Up to 7,000 Indian wolves inhabit the mountainous areas of eastern Turkey, but populations are smaller and more precarious in the eastern Mediterranean. According to the Wikipedia article on the subspecies, 80-100 Indian wolves live in the Golan Heights, where they are “well protected by the military activities there.” The same article also reports that “Israel’s conservation policies and effective law enforcement maintain a moderately sized wolf population, which radiates into neighbouring countries.”
Range of the Indian Wolf Map
It might seem odd to see military activities described protecting wildlife. Armed conflict is indeed associated with “detrimental effects on wildlife habitat and populations.” But the situation in the Golan Heights is not unprecedented. Korea’s so-called Demilitarized Zone, surrounded by heavy fortifications and littered with landmines, has become nothing less than an “accidental wildlife paradise.”
One of the most surprising aspects of the recovery of the gray wolf in the United States is the return of the species to California. Wolves had been eliminated from the state in the 1920s and were not expected to return any soon time, if at all. But in 2011, a single wolf made the arduous journey from northeastern Oregon to northeastern California, remarkably tracked by wildlife officials (see the map posted below). Other wolves followed, and before long several breeding packs had been established. California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife recently announced that in 2024 “a minimum of 30 pups born across five or six packs and that’s the largest annual litter count we’ve had thus far in the state.” Although most California wolves are found in the state’s northeastern reaches, in 2023 a new pack was confirmed in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountain Range some 200 miles to the south.
Return of Gray Wolves to California map
Gray Wolf Distribution in California 2024 map
The first map in this post also shows potential wolf habitat the United States (excluding Alaska), as well as the approximate range of wolves at roughly the time when California was reinhabited. Although it is not surprising that many areas marked as habitat are still without wolves, it is perplexing that wolves are depicted as living in areas outside their supposed habitat zone. Determining what constitutes “wolf habitat” is a difficult task, but I still do not think that the cartographer has done a good job on this map. The small dots of “habitat” scattered across Nevada, Utah, and Idaho are especially suspicious, as these areas are too small to support viable packs. I suspect that a much larger portion of the U.S. is potential wolf habitat, at least to the extent that people would allow wolves to repopulate it.
Even mapping the historic range of the grey wolf in the United States is a difficult and contentious issue. As can be seen in the figure posted below, different maps show very different distribution patterns. Most uncertain is the historical range of the gray wolves in the eastern United States. Much of the uncertainty here stems from the presence of a closely related but smaller species, the red wolf. But it is not even clear whether this critically endangered animal is a separate species or merely a gray-wolf subspecies. Red wolves have, moreover, hybridized extensively with coyotes in recent decades, adding to the general taxonomic and distributional confusion.
Historic Range of the Gray Wolf in North America maps
Historic Range of the Red Wolf
Another striking aspect of the historic distribution of the gray wolf depicted on these maps is the absence of the animal from central and western California (except the German-language map produced by the World Wildlife Fund). The reported lack of wolves here is curious, as California’s vast Central Valley and surrounding foothills had roughly 500,000 tule elk circa 1800, which could have supported a large wolf population. It seems most likely that the conventional mapping of the historic distribution of the gray wolf in California is simply incorrect. At any rate, the chatbots that I consulted all agreed that grey wolves were historically found across most the state. Grok, for example, informed me that:
GROK: Yes, wolves historically lived in the western areas of California. Gray wolves (Canis lupus) were once widespread across the state, including the western regions, such as the Sierra Nevada, coastal ranges, and Central Valley. Historical records, including accounts from early European settlers and Native American tribes, indicate their presence throughout California before the 20th century. However, due to habitat loss, hunting, and extermination campaigns, wolves were largely eradicated from California by the 1920s.
The best potential wolf habitat in California is probably located in the larger and more remote parts of the state that currently support elk (wapiti, or Cervus canadensis; see the map posted below, which probably exaggerates the current range.) But although elk are now widely distributed in California, their numbers remain small. According to current estimates, California has some 12,700 elk, whereas Idaho has around 120,000 and Montana up to 175,000. Due in part to the paucity of elk and other potential prey species larger than the black-tailed deer, California’s wolves have been extensively preying on domestic livestock. As can be seen in the “depredation report” posted below, such kills are occurring roughly every other day. It is thus hardly surprising that California ranchers are worried about the state’s expanding wolf packs.
Elk (Wapiti; Cervus canadiensis) Range in California map
Wolf Depredation Report California May 2024
The map entitled “U.S. Gray Wolf Distribution and Habitat” that is posted above depicts the central Sierra Nevada as one of the state’s largest areas of wolf habitat. This extensive and heavily forested area does not, however, have any elk. Its thick seasonal snowpack would be a challenge for both elk and wolves, requiring extensive areas of winter habitat in the more densely populated western foothills, presenting another challenge. I doubt that it is coincidental that California’s existing wolf packs are concentrated in the drier and more sparsely populated lands found to the east of the northern Sierra and southern Cascades, which I have illustrated on the final map posted below.
Gray Wolf Range in California and Precipitation map
