What is a disadvantage of the Equal-Area map projection?

The Equal-Area map projection is designed to represent areas accurately, meaning that the size of landmasses is proportional to their actual size on the Earth's surface. However, in achieving this accuracy in area representation, the shapes of these landmasses can be distorted. This is a fundamental characteristic of many equal-area projections; while they maintain accurate proportions, they often do so at the expense of representing the true shapes of the continents and countries.

For instance, on an Equal-Area map, a country like Greenland can appear much larger or smaller than it actually is, depending on the projection used, while other regions maintain their proportional sizes. This distortion can hinder a viewer's ability to accurately understand geographical relationships and can complicate navigation. Therefore, the alteration of shapes is a significant disadvantage of the Equal-Area map projection.