Do you think Greenland is bigger than India? Look again. Here's why the island looks huge

Greenland, the largest island in the world, is making headlines once again. Donald Trump is repeating the "need" to have Greenland, citing its role in ensuring the security and safety of his country. It is located between North America and Russia, making it a strategic point for the US. "We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defence," Trump said on Sunday. Besides what Trump says about defence, it is also rich in minerals, and is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. After what happened in Venezuela, Trump's assertion of the need to take control of Greenland has caused panic. Meanwhile, all this talk has led the common man to check out Greenland. People are also wondering how big this island really is. If you look at a map, it appears as big as a country, and even a continent. It covers an area of 836,000 square miles. Seems huge? Well, it isn't really.

Greenland can appear big on flat maps, but its true size is mostly reflected in the globe. Rolling out a sphere on a flat, two-dimensional surface changes a lot of things. The shape of land masses is altered, and you also cannot tell the true size. This is the problem that has led many people to think Greenland is quite big when it is not. What is to blame for this erroneous projection is the map in use. The Mercator projection, the most common type of map in use today, changes Earth's latitudes and longitudes into straight lines.

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Greenland size comparison with Australia, Africa and India

On the map, Greenland looks only a bit smaller than Africa. However, the continent is 14 times larger than the island. Australia is about 3.5 times bigger, and even India, which looks way smaller on a regular map, is roughly 1.5 times bigger than the island. This happens because of distortions in the map as you move further away from the equator. Fritz Kessler, a Penn State geography professor and map projection expert, told NPR that in mathematical terms, the parallels and meridians get pulled in different magnitudes from the equator to the poles, giving this exaggerated effect. This leads to the landmass falling in the upper latitudes appearing huge. There have been efforts to move away from the Mercator to other, more accurate maps, such as the Robinson projection.

Donald Trump and the Greenland problem

Trump got the US military to capture Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro over the weekend, leading to widespread condemnation from world leaders. This triggered fears that his previous calls to control Greenland could lead to similar forcible action on the island as well. European leaders have come together to work on a plan in the event that Trump tries something. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told France Inter radio on Wednesday that they want to act against US moves “together with our European partners”. Meanwhile, Denmark’s Defence Ministry on Wednesday confirmed that its soldiers will “shoot first and ask questions later” if Trump decides to attack Greenland, based on a rule from 1952. The rule states that soldiers can “immediately” fight back if enemy forces invade, and it remains in force, the ministry told Berlingske, a centre-right newspaper in Denmark.