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The Demonic Paradise

Mu was a mythical continent that was believed to exist in the Pacific Ocean. It was part of pseudohistory back in the 19th Century. Hawaii and other Polynesian islands were believed to be the remnants of Mu. The Mu theory was later disproved during the 20th Century.

If such a landmass existed, what would its climate be? Based on the picture, I say the land of Mu is roughly comparable to Europe in land area. I expect that parts of it would have a tropical climate like Hawaii but it is also much larger than Hawaii and has a lot of inland territory that could potentially be mountainous or desert. Such a landmass could also potentially change the climate of other continents but let's not cover that for this thread.

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    $\begingroup$ "The land of Mu is roughly comparable to Europe in land area." For comparison, Australia is about 80% of the area of Europe; South America is about 180% of the area of Europe. $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Commented Dec 26, 2022 at 21:17
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    $\begingroup$ I wonder where that map is from. I did a Google image search and turned up a lot of copies but nothing that looked original. $\endgroup$
    – Willk
    Commented Dec 26, 2022 at 23:40
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    $\begingroup$ @Willk Just a wild guess but given the names are in Italian I would bet a beer it's from a Martin Mystere comic. He is a fictional archeologist who deals with... mysteries. Mu and Atlantis are recurring in his stories. He even had a handgun from Mu. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Myst%C3%A8re $\endgroup$
    – Duncan Drake
    Commented Dec 27, 2022 at 11:48
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    $\begingroup$ It should be pointed out that Hawaii is not part of any continent, sunken or otherwise. The Hawaii Islands are formed by a geological hotspot that is stationary underneath the moving ocean crust plate the islands are formed. Each Island was formed when they were over the hotspot and were built up through volcanic activity. The current hotspot is located under the big island. It is possible to have Hotspots under continental crust, as Yellowstone National Park is also a hotspot. $\endgroup$
    – hszmv
    Commented Dec 27, 2022 at 15:33
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    $\begingroup$ However, if you want a real "sunken" continent with a Polynesia area, Zealandia is a mostly sunken continent with it's highest points forming the islands of New Zealand. $\endgroup$
    – hszmv
    Commented Dec 27, 2022 at 15:34

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Short answer: Deserts in the west, south and in the center, rainforests in the east.

Mu is roughly located between the horse latitudes at 30° north and south. Around this latitude, conditions are very dry, because the air is descending in these areas, warming up, and getting drier. The opposite happens at the equator. Here, the air is ascending and getting colder, which leads to condensation and rain. This is why rainforests are so dominant at the equator, except in high mountains.

If I see this correctly, there is a high plateau in the center, so the air has to rise before it gets there, loosing most of its humidity before it gets there. This is not the case in the east, where the terrain appears to be flat. Also the prevalent directions from the trade winds bring a lot of humidity from the ocean, so conditions there would be similar to the Amazon basin. Conditions in the south and west are probably similar to the center. According to the map, they also seem mountainous, leading to a lot of rain directly at the coast (maybe some rainforest at the hillslopes close to the equator) but almost no rain as soon as the mountains are high, with a climate similar to the Andes.

The north is quite dry due to the location around 30° N but is is flat and located close to the shore, so it might experience seasonal rain when atmospherical zones shift with the seasons.

The Isola di Pasqua is a bit complicated due to its location at ~30° S but directly affected by the trade winds from the east. I would expect humid conditions similar to Florida or northeast Australia in the east and drier conditions with a rainseason in the west of the peninsula.

Note that this continents is much bigger than Europe. This map appears to be a mercator projections, which greatly exaggerates the size of landmasses far away from the equator (i.e. Europe). I agree with @JBH that it is close to the size of North America.

enter image description here source

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A better question might be what would happen to the climates of the rest of the planet?

The Pacific Ocean is the engine for tropical Earth. I could be wrong about that. But I'd bet a milkshake that I'm not. Remove the Pacific Ocean to the degree that you have and you remove so much moisture, so much ocean current... You're upsetting both the North Pacific Gyre and the South Pacific Gyre. Like I said, I could be completely wrong... but I think you just reduced 80%-90% of the world's tropics to temperate at best. (And it doesn't help that I can see Atlantide peeking on the eastern edge over there.)

Water vapor in the air is part of what warms the atmosphere... and a lot of that evaporative ocean surface just disappeared. Less evaporation means less rain. Less rain means more desert....

Mu's center would be a blazing desert. It's northern and southern reaches would be cold (but I'm not sure they'd be arctic). East and west along the equator I expect to be temperate. But everywhere would be arid.

BTW: Based on that picture, Mu is at least 80% of the landmass of the entire North American Continent. It's a LOT bigger than Europe. And that's the problem.

Oh, one more thing. You've also encountered one of two problems. Either...

  1. You've seriously reduced the amount of water on the planet.

or...

  1. You've seriously flooded everywhere else.

Both conditions represent serious problems. Seriously.

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  • $\begingroup$ Less water, not flooding - the map would be wrong if it were flooding. Less water vapor is a thing, but that would probably make temperatures more extreme (less water = less heat transfer), so that's definitely tropical. Not blazing desert except maybe far inland, as deserts mostly are on the tropical circles, not at the equator. $\endgroup$
    – toolforger
    Commented Dec 27, 2022 at 9:35
  • $\begingroup$ @toolforger warmer = tropical isn't true. Warmer + humidity + tons of rainfall = tropical. The existing deserts you're talking about? They'll expand due to the drop in rainfall. Think big picture. Earth as it is, is not the reference. It'll change dramatically. $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Commented Dec 27, 2022 at 16:13
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    $\begingroup$ That last point actually seems a little silly. People who hypothesized the existence of Mu didn't already have a fixed idea in their head about how much water was on Earth or about how weather systems worked. If Mu had existed all along, science would have discovered that some physical systems worked differently than they do in reality. $\endgroup$
    – Tom
    Commented Dec 27, 2022 at 20:17
  • $\begingroup$ @Tom That's the weirdest comment. I'm answering the OP's question, not commenting on what anybody who postulated about Mu was thinking. The OP is asking about the weather on Mu from the OP's perspective. That would be impacted by whether or not there was flooding or less water (obviously...). Please remember that this service exists to help people build their imaginary worlds (see help center). Had the OP been asking about what the original people postulating about Mu would have thought, the question would be off-topic as concerning a 3rd party/commercial world. $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Commented Dec 29, 2022 at 0:39
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Tropical, very tropical. This continent lies smack bang on the equatorial tropical zones. Depending on its altitude it would either be covered in desert and Savannah or more likely tropical rainforest and jungle. Chances are it would be a mix, but I am reckoning something like 90% of this content would be covered in evergreen tropical jungle, with drier and cooler regions in the centre and any alpine regions, probably covered in savanna or pampas.

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