Turkey and Syria Earthquake Response

Parts of Turkey and Syria have been devastated by the strongest, most destructive earthquake in the recorded history of those countries. The earthquake has been followed by over a hundred powerful aftershocks, including one almost as powerful as the original magnitude 7.8 quake.

Map via Ajazeera

One of the many problems hampering response is the lack of adequate mapping in many of the areas. While many high profile large buildings have collapsed there are also buildings that are not mapped and those can get missed by response teams. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap team is recruiting volunteers to help locate buildings and streets via aerial and/or satellite images. No experience or travel is needed, people can do this work at home. This map via Twitter shows (in the text box) the percentage of and number of buildings and streets mapped in each area. It also identifies where mapping needs are most urgent. The buildings in light blue unfortunately cover up the other information on the map.

If you want to help map these areas you can go to this task.

Soundscapes

"The Soundscape of Istanbul project (https://soundscapeofistanbul.ku.edu.tr) approaches everyday traditions and daily urban life from a sonic perspective and aims to increase public awareness of cultural sounds."

The dots above are color coded by type of space and a click on each one brings up a window with a SoundCloud sample of what the place sounds like. Here is an English translation of the legend for those of us who can't read Turkish.

The colors could be more logical and it is difficult to distinguish some of them on the map. 

There are three other cities including Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey, where you can listen to the sounds of the tailor and copper smith among others. You can create a nice orchestral cacophony by clicking on a bunch of sounds.

Also included are London with traffic noises, train announcements, church bells and street musicians,

and Le Havre, France, where you can listen to maritime traffic and the blessing of the ships.

The project has a platform where you can register a login and contribute your own sounds.

ThingsMaps

Some people see geography everywhere. I once mapped a New Jersey-shaped sidewalk crack. French Cartographer Jules Grandin has a collection called #Thingsmaps that labels cartographic features seen in clouds,

doors,

coffee,

crosswalks,

 and salad greens - this one looks pre-arranged.

Even fantasy worlds-here's Westeros, from a gap in the trees.

Scroll thru the collection here

Early Islamic Maps

Karen Pinto's new book Medieval Islamic Maps; An Exploration covers a very overlooked school of cartography.

These maps are more representational than geographic, following the early Christian T-O maps. In an interview, Pinto describes the typical world map as having the form of a bird. The map on the cover puts south at the top. The white land areas are the bird's features: Africa is the upper wing, the Arabian Peninsula is the head, Asia is the body and Europe (the tiny triangle in the lower left) is the tail. Here is another version by Al Istahkri from cartographic-images.net circa 977 AD.

The large water body on the left side is the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. The teardrop shaped water on the right side is the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is shown sticking up from there while below the Mediterranean is the Bosporus Strait. Rivers coming down from the Sea on the left are the Tigris and Indus. Both seas are shown containing three large islands, it is not always agreed which ones they are. Other important water bodies in the lower half of the image are the Caspian and Aral Seas. Another image from cartographic-images.net  helps translate the place names.

There is no scale on these maps but Al Istahkri lists distances between places in marhalah (a day's journey.) A journey through the inhabitable world was 210 days. The far north and south were considered uninhabitable because extreme cold and heat respectively. The southern hemisphere was unknown to these travelers.

Pinto discusses how scholars have often belittled these maps for their simplicity while ignoring that they are iconographic representations, meant to promote a common world perception. The simple forms also made them easy for traveling scholars to reproduce and bring back to their home libraries.

Mapping the Evolution of Stories

A few years ago Lapham's Quarterly mapped the evolution of four famous stories; Pygmalion, Faust, Oedipus and Leviathan. These stories all originated in the eastern Mediterranean region (modern day Turkey, Syria, and Libya), spread their way through Europe and eventually made it to the United States where they were all Hollywoodized, or otherwise Los Angelified. In each case the story has been modified but with the exception of Pygmalion, most have stayed fairly true to the format of the original.

This map is big and hard to see in much detail here (a click will take you to the original) so here is a detailed view showing the origin of each story.

Coffee, Earthquakes and World Cup Shopping

The New York Times has been producing some excellent maps lately. Here are some recent examples of their cartographic finery.

New York's Best Coffee

Earthquake risk areas in Istanbul and cities at risk of major earthquake destruction

 Where to be fashionable in Cape Town during June's FIFA World Cup

Finally, some Googly fun from the Abstract City blog