GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
Dry land covers a mere 1.5 percent of the surface on Poseidous. This compares with 29 percent for the Earth. Because Poseidous has approximately 24 percent more surface area than Earth, its total land area measures a respectable 6.4 percent of Earth’s. A more impressive comparison results from considering the usable land area of Poseidous. Much of Earth’s land falls within arid deserts, frozen tundras, and impassable mountain ranges. Poseidous lacks any of these regions, so virtually all land lying between the 60th parallels may be considered useful.
Though 350,000 islands dot the surface of Poseidous, the ten largest contain more than 70 percent of the land. These ten range in size from slightly larger than Earth’s Madagascar to slightly smaller than Great Britain. The map of Poseidous (figure 3.5) shows about 3000 islands each measuring more than 900 square kilometers in area. Of these, some 500 exceed the size of Long Island, – which contains one of Earth’s largest cities. Literally hundreds of thousands of small islands, not shown on the map, measure a few hectares in area and can support one or two families if equipped with rain catching or desalinating equipment.