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Tolkien's mountains

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
Let's hope the writer here never plays World of Warcraft - just about every other zone has those Mordor-like boxed mountain ranges.
 

TheKillerBs

Maester
I always figured the right angles to be inaccuracies peculiar to that particular map and not an actual geographic feature of Middle-Earth.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
Huh. I took a second to look at a map. The mountains in Middle Earth, especially Mordor, look a lot like those in eastern Russia, right angles, boxes and all.
 

TheKillerBs

Maester
Huh. I took a second to look at a map. The mountains in Middle Earth, especially Mordor, look a lot like those in eastern Russia, right angles, boxes and all.

That's just an effect of the projection. The northernmost part of maps are the most distorted and inaccurate parts.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
That sounds right, but . . . .


stock-photo-earth-with-translucent-water-in-the-oceans-and-the-detailed-topography-of-the-continents-arctic-180898592.jpg


Those are them on the right, that's a globe, and they still look the same to me...
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I'm glad there were some commenters with sense. It's just silly to talk about a fantasy world as if all the same scientific principles exist there as in our world. As another geologist commenter said, there's no reason to think that plate techtonics functions in Middle-earth. And a different commenter pointed out how ridiculous it is to nitpick worldbuilding without ever having read critical source material about the world in question. It's common knowledge among Tolkien fans that Middle-earth and Arda in general were fashioned by supernatural forces, not geological ones, for the most part.

Another good example of people who approach fantasy in entirely the wrong way. In fantasy you should go in with zero assumptions or preconceived notions from the real world.
 

elemtilas

Inkling
I'm glad there were some commenters with sense. It's just silly to talk about a fantasy world as if all the same scientific principles exist there as in our world. As another geologist commenter said, there's no reason to think that plate techtonics functions in Middle-earth. And a different commenter pointed out how ridiculous it is to nitpick worldbuilding without ever having read critical source material about the world in question. It's common knowledge among Tolkien fans that Middle-earth and Arda in general were fashioned by supernatural forces, not geological ones, for the most part.

I think this paper might be rather more useful. I don't know enough about geology to know if the writers of this paper are writing seriously, or mock-seriously or even if the sources they cite are real sources or not. In any event, they do actually take Arda seriously, as a world, and they take the sources Tolkien has provided equally seriously.

They aren't bothered by square-mountain Mordor in the least. Forces other than mere tectonics and vulcanism are at play in Arda and I think this paper treats them respectfully as historical events.
 

TheKillerBs

Maester
That sounds right, but . . . .


stock-photo-earth-with-translucent-water-in-the-oceans-and-the-detailed-topography-of-the-continents-arctic-180898592.jpg


Those are them on the right, that's a globe, and they still look the same to me...

That particular map (picture of a globe?) shows a nice, non-distorted image of a region of the globe. However, the problem is that it's too low res. If you were to take a bigger map (such as this one) or go to Google Earth and zoom in, you'd see that what looks like close to a 90° angle in the smaller map is actually a huge curve spanning kilometres on end. The geologist guy there is right in that there are no mountain ranges with 90° angles. He is however overlooking that no map is 100% accurate, not even modern maps of the Earth, let alone fantasy maps that emulate map-making techniques of people with hundreds of years less of technological development.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
I think in fairness, it should be said Tolkien's map is not exactly 90 degree angles either. The lines overlaying are adding additional definition that the map underneath is not true to. A lot of strange stuff happens in nature, and sometimes it happens in ways that would seem to defy logic. While I think the mountains around Mordor are unlikely, I am open to them being shaped by forces different than just geological forces.

Deny Ignorance - There ARE Straight Lines and Right Angles in Nature!, page 1
 
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