What is the best projection to use for mapping Chile, considering its geographical orientation?

Transverse Mercator is the most suitable projection for mapping Chile due to the country's longitudinal orientation. The Transverse Mercator projection is designed for areas that extend more in the north-south direction, making it ideal for regions like Chile that have a long and narrow shape running from north to south.

This projection offers several advantages, including minimizing distortion in distance, area, and shape, particularly along the central meridian. Since Chile has a significant north-south extent with various geographical features, the Transverse Mercator allows for more accurate representation of these features compared to projections that are less suited for such orientations.

Other projections, while useful in different contexts, would not be as effective for portraying the coastline, mountain ranges, and other landforms of Chile accurately. For example, Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area can be suitable for areas with a more radial or symmetric shape, but it wouldn't optimize the mapping of a long strip of land as intricately as Transverse Mercator does. Similarly, while equal-area projections are helpful for representing area correctly, they do not focus on minimizing distortion along any specific direction as effectively as Transverse Mercator. Equidistant Cylindrical projections are primarily used for certain navigational purposes and would not provide the detail needed