A captivating map circulating on social media in October 2024 sparked widespread discussion by visually comparing the size of Texas to Europe. This image, shared widely across platforms like Facebook, presented an outline of Texas superimposed over a European map, suggesting the Lone Star State’s impressive scale as it blanketed significant portions of five Western European nations. The post accompanying the map, boasting “After Seeing These 15 Maps You’ll Never Look At The World The Same,” quickly garnered over 17,000 reactions, highlighting the viral appeal of visually comparing texas to europe. But does this map accurately depict the size comparison, or is it an exaggeration?
While the viral image effectively communicates the idea of Texas’s vastness, experts suggest it’s not entirely precise. Hayley Drennon, a senior research assistant at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, affirmed that “Texas really is THAT big,” but pointed out that the social media map moderately exaggerates the state’s borders. Despite this slight distortion, the map’s core message rings true: Texas is indeed enormous when compared to many European countries. To understand the accuracy, or lack thereof, let’s delve deeper into the comparison of Texas to Europe.
Expert Analysis of the Texas and Europe Size Comparison
To investigate the veracity of the viral map, Drennon recreated a similar comparison using official geographic data. She utilized the Texas State Boundary shapefile from the Texas Department of Transportation (TDT) and ESRI’s ArcPro Software, a geographic information system used by researchers and governments for mapping. Her independently generated map offered a more scientifically grounded perspective on the Texas to Europe size comparison.
Comparing Drennon’s map with the viral Facebook image reveals subtle but important differences. The Facebook version appears to stretch Texas’s boundaries slightly. For instance, in the viral map, El Paso County, located in West Texas, extends close to the border between Spain and France. However, Drennon’s map positions El Paso County further north. Similarly, the southernmost points of Cameron County in the Facebook map nearly reach Rome, Italy, while Drennon’s rendering places them further north as well. This visual discrepancy indicates an exaggeration in the viral representation of the Texas to Europe size comparison.
The Role of Map Projections in Size Perception
The variance between the maps can be attributed to map projections, the methods used to represent the Earth’s three-dimensional surface on a two-dimensional plane. Drennon explained that different projections can lead to slight shape and size distortions. She likened it to wrapping a spherical object – depending on the wrapping technique, the paper might appear differently.
The viral Facebook map likely originated from The True Size website, which addresses the distortions inherent in map projections, particularly the Mercator projection. The Mercator projection, while widely used, is known to exaggerate the size of landmasses closer to the poles (like Europe and North America) while understating the size of regions near the equator. This distortion is why Greenland appears to be similar in size to Africa on many world maps using Mercator, despite Africa being approximately 14.5 times larger. Understanding map projections is crucial when comparing texas to europe or any geographical areas on a flat map.
Texas by the Numbers: Understanding the True Size
Regardless of slight map exaggerations, Texas remains undeniably large. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Texas boasts a land area of 261,193.9 square miles and a water area of 7,330.9 square miles, totaling 268,524.8 square miles. This vast expanse solidifies Texas’s position as the second-largest state in the United States, surpassed only by Alaska. While the viral map comparing texas to europe might not be perfectly accurate, it effectively highlights the significant geographical footprint of Texas.
In conclusion, while the viral map comparing Texas to Europe slightly inflates the Lone Star State’s size, it conveys a fundamentally accurate message: Texas is indeed a massive territory, comparable in scale to a significant portion of Western Europe. The “mostly true” rating assigned to the original claim reflects this nuanced reality – a slight exaggeration in representation, but a strong underlying truth about the impressive size of Texas.
Sources
An Introduction to ArcGIS Online—ArcGIS Online Help | Documentation. https://doc.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-online/get-started/what-is-agol.htm. Accessed 24 Oct. 2024.
‘Compare Countries With This Simple Tool’. The True Size, https://www.thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTQ3MTM5NTk.MTI2NTMyMjU*MjEwNzQ2NjM(MTUyMjExNDc~!US-TX*ODcyMDI1NQ.MjIyNjA0NzQ(MTQ3)NA. Accessed 24 Oct. 2024.
‘—‘. The True Size, https://www.thetruesize.com/#/aboutModal. Accessed 24 Oct. 2024.
Explore Census Data. https://data.census.gov/profile/Texas?g=040XX00US48. Accessed 24 Oct. 2024.
Map of Four Regions – North, South, East, West. Texas Department of Transportation, https://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/fin/sib/regions-map.pdf. Accessed 24 Oct. 2024.
Texas State Boundary Detailed. https://gis-txdot.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/texas-state-boundary-detailed/explore?location=30.807276,-98.916283,5.61. Accessed 24 Oct. 2024.
