# What does the white indicate on this map **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 9, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421 "2023-04-09T16:30:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Beesnest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@Beesnest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beesnest)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/1 "2023-04-09T16:30:04Z")
I can’t find a legend for this. Desert? Mountains? here be dragons? https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=59.9366486,-32.3151616&z=3&output=embed&dg=ntvb ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/2 "2023-04-09T16:30:53Z")
Ice coverage which is sadly shrinking annually. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/3 "2023-04-09T16:31:20Z")
Ice and snow, i believe. I haven’t been to Greenland but it matches my experience in Iceland. ---
**Author:** ![Beesnest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@Beesnest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beesnest)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/4 "2023-04-09T16:41:22Z")
I would think snow too but Australia ? South Africa? All the desert countries in Africa? I am leaning towards dragons. (edited desserts before I was taunted) The map expands to show world . ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/5 "2023-04-09T16:47:52Z")
Australia is off-white I believe showing desert. Sorry, no dragons be here. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/6 "2023-04-09T16:47:55Z")
The white part of that map appears to be permanent ice cover near the North Pole. The ‘off-white’ regions elsewhere on the map appear to be deserts, or extremely arid regions. This breaks down somewhat at the South Pole, where the surface of Antarctica is off-white instead of white. I suspect that this map is not internally consistent, which is a bit annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Beesnest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@Beesnest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beesnest)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/7 "2023-04-09T17:06:50Z")
I did not see two different colors so that is helpful and I expect accurate. If I say the land mass shown where Australia might be is Oceania on the map will you admit to the possibility of dragons or dragon adjacent.? (cassowary or magpie) ---
**Author:** ![Twoflower](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twoflower/32/22_2.png) [@Twoflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twoflower)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/8 "2023-04-09T17:25:07Z")
Here be dragons: https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-8.6220682,119.484109&z=10&output=embed&dg=ntvb ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/9 "2023-04-09T17:36:40Z")
> [@Beesnest](#): > > I would think snow too but Australia ? South Africa? All the desert countries in Africa? I am leaning towards dragons. (edited desserts before I was taunted) I clicked through to the original map on Google’s website and then clicked on an icon to show the satellite view. There, the white bits are snow, ice, desert, mountains (Himalayas, for example), etc. So the white is shown for all of these, when the color palette is limited. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/10 "2023-04-09T17:48:56Z")
Sounds like areas marked void of vegetation. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/11 "2023-04-09T18:17:41Z")
In short, yes. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/12 "2023-04-09T18:27:10Z")
> [@Beesnest](#): > > I would think snow too but Australia ? South Africa? All the desert countries in Africa? I am leaning towards dragons. (edited desserts before I was taunted) Yeah, I assume the white areas are desserts. White to show they’re covered with whipped cream. ---
**Author:** ![txtumbleweed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@txtumbleweed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/txtumbleweed)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/13 "2023-04-09T23:02:28Z")
This link might help, Google Design discusses the map colors. It looks like they represent the usual coverage of that land, ranging from buildings through sand to vegetation. It doesn’t mention snow/ice cover, but I wonder if that is a function of the algorithm pulling the satellite data and assigning white to any area with the brightest reflection. It breaks down over the Antarctic, but if you compare the Google Maps satellite photo of Antarctica to Greenland, Antarctica is more grey than a bright white. > **[Exploring Color on Google Maps - Library - Google Design](https://design.google/library/exploring-color-google-maps/)** > > How a minimalist approach unlocked our ability to create a more detailed representation of the world ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/14 "2023-04-09T23:32:14Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > The white part of that map appears to be permanent ice cover near the North Pole. The ‘off-white’ regions elsewhere on the map appear to be deserts, or extremely arid regions. > > This breaks down somewhat at the South Pole, where the surface of Antarctica is off-white instead of white. [Antarctica is in fact desert.](https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-antarctica-k4.html) Precipitation level defines. > [@](#): > > Antarctica is a desert. It does not rain or snow a lot there. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/15 "2023-04-10T01:05:18Z")
There’s something not right about the OP’s computer monitor or color vision. The arctic, all but the very periphery of Greeenland, northern Canada, and Antarctica are color coded white = snow/ice covered. The Sahara, central Australia, etc. are very clearly a light tan signifying desert. Clear difference in color and significant difference in ground condition. The esteemed @DSeid just above is of course correct that the Antarctic interior is a climatological desert: precipitation is negligble. But at the same time the entire area is covered in a mile or two of solid water. The atmosphere there is extremely arid. At the same time the ground the is literally drowned under mile(s) of water. The water is frozen and almost hard as rock, but there it is. It’s a fun mind-bending fact that someplace with insane amounts of water is a desert. But that’s potentially confusing to our already-confused OP. ---
**Author:** ![Beesnest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@Beesnest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beesnest)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/16 "2023-04-10T02:10:03Z")
Nice article txtumbleweed. Fighting ignorance the right way. I learned something. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/17 "2023-04-10T02:14:49Z")
The desert color is a very light beige, but if I drag some of it to the edge, it contrasts with the white in the background of the SDMB page (at least on my theme). The Greenland color, meanwhile, matches perfectly with the page background. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/18 "2023-04-10T08:55:02Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > This breaks down somewhat at the South Pole, where the surface of Antarctica is off-white instead of white. Antarctica is pale grey, deserts are very pale yellow. Not the same off-white colour. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/19 "2023-04-10T09:58:55Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Antarctica is pale grey, deserts are very pale yellow. Not the same off-white colour. That seems to be the case. However I can’t really see the benefit of distinguishing between the dry, ice-covered uplands of Antarctica and the dry, ice-covered uplands of Greenland. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421/20 "2023-04-10T13:31:05Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > I can’t really see the benefit of distinguishing between the dry, ice-covered uplands of Antarctica and the dry, ice-covered uplands of Greenland. Everything is whiter in the northern hemisphere. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-white-indicate-on-this-map/982421.md?page=2)