Austral Autumn and “Upside-Down” Maps

Autumn in Mendoza, #1, Argentina, 2019

So, why is North “up”? Why do most maps show North America, Europe, Russia, China, et al toward the top, and Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, et al toward the bottom?

If you saw a map like this (purchase HERE)…

…you would almost certainly say it is “upside down”, no?

But why? It’s all totally arbitrary from the solar system’s point o’ view…

An alien spacecraft approaching Earth, for example, could do so from most any angle…from “above”, from “below”, or even obliquely. An initial alien survey map could easily look like the one above (without the political boundaries, of course).

Surely the answer for “which way is up?” can be found in history–the history of power, of armies, of empires, of economics, of technology and astronomy…all mixed with a bit of chance. But I’ll leave that alone as being way above my pay grade. (See this BBC article for more background, if you wish.)

So it is that we think–in much of the world, anyway–that March and April are months that herald the arrival of Spring.  

But throughout the temperate zones of the southern hemisphere, the leaves are turning gold and winter is waiting just around the corner.

To wit, here are some recent autumn images from Mendoza, Argentina as a gentle geographic reminder to our “northern” friends…

Autumn in Mendoza (Vistalba), #10, Argentina, 2019

Potrerillos in Autumn (Dique Potrerillos y el Hotel Potrerillos), Mendoza, Argentina, 2019

Autumn Arches, #3 (near Dique Cipoletti), Mendoza, Argentina, 2019

Autumn Ride (near Blanco Encalada), Mendoza, Argentina, 2019

A Mendoza Postcard (Cerro El Plata and the Luigi Bosca Vineyards), Argentina, 2019

And high above the golden leaves and the comfortable Tucson-like climate of Mendoza’s wine country, the snows have started to periodically blanket the high mountains.

Unlike the clear view of this same peak you see in the above vineyard photograph, this is a stormy telephoto view of a more ominous and hidden Cerro El Plata (19,580′). Rising up just outside of Mendoza, it is a nice almost-6,000-meter peak if you are looking for a convenient tune-up for Aconcagua (the summit in summer can be reached by a hiking trail on a 3-4-day trip):