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Mercator projection
Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics
Images & Videos
Diagram illustrating the simple cylindrical projection used in the Mercator map projection. On the left, a globe is shown with a cylinder wrapped around it, tangent at the equator, and a light source at the center projecting the map onto the cylinder. In the center, the Earth's features are projected onto the cylindrical surface. On the right, the resulting Mercator projection is displayed as a rectangular world map with latitude and longitude grid lines.
Smiling white woman pointing up at a vintage map, superimposed with the text Africa and the Mercator map.
Side-by-side comparison showing a globe of the Earth on the left with accurately proportioned continents, and a Mercator projection map on the right, where landmasses appear increasingly distorted and stretched near the poles, especially between 60 and 90 degrees latitude. The map highlights how the Mercator projection exaggerates the size of high-latitude regions. global topographic map of Venus Mercator's 1569 world map

Mercator projection: References & Edit History

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Article History

Type Description Contributor Date
Invalidated site: PennState - College of Earth and Mineral Sciences - Department of Geography - The UTM Grid and Transverse Mercator Projection. Jun 17, 2026
Media added. Nov 05, 2025
Add new Web site: The University of British Columbia - Mercator's Projection. Apr 19, 2025
Add new Web site: Open Washington Pressbooks - SFCC Introduction to Geography - Map Projections. Jan 11, 2025
Add new Web site: Western Oregon University - Mercator Projection. Jun 27, 2024
Add new Web site: Academia - How Mercator Constructed his Projection in 1569 (text). Nov 26, 2023
Add new Web site: PennState - College of Earth and Mineral Sciences - Department of Geography - The UTM Grid and Transverse Mercator Projection. Aug 22, 2023
Article revised. Jun 20, 2023
Media added. Jan 25, 2018
Add new Web site: Wolfram MathWorld - Mercator Projection. Sep 01, 2010
Add new Web site: NASA - Mercator Projection. Sep 01, 2010
Article added to new online database. Jul 20, 1998
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