Continent Africa and Globe

World Map centered in Africa, using the Winkel Tripel Projection, which uses the arithmetic mean of the equirectangular projection and other projections. This is a map projection doesn't eliminate distortions entirely, but it was designed to minimize distortions of area, direction, and distance when representing the Earth on a flat surface, particularly for world maps. It was developed by German cartographer Oswald Winkel (1874-1953) in 1921 and is known for its balanced compromise between these distortions. It features a rounded shape, with the equator and central meridian as straight lines. Other meridians are curves, concave towards the central meridian and equally spaced along the equator. Parallels are also curved, concave toward the nearest pole and equally spaced along the central meridian.

The surface of the Earth is about 71 % water and 29 % land. The continental landmasses divide the oceans into five major ocean basins, which are (in decreasing order of size) the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, and Arctic. About 97 % of the Earth's water is saltwater. Of the 2.5 % that is fresh, about two thirds is frozen, mostly locked up in mountain glaciers and the Antarctic ice sheets. If all the surface ice on earth fully melted, the sea level would rise about 70 m.