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How Do I Read Those Squiggly Lines On A Topo Map?

An Excellent Question More People Should Be Asking!

The Lines Are Called "Contour Lines" That Indicate The Contour Of The Land The Map Represents In Scale.  The Contour Of The Land, Refers To The Land's Surface, And How It Is Lies; This Is Referred to As The Land's Topography.  Terrain Also Refers To The lay Of The Land, And Contour Lines Are used To Give A Image Of The Terrain Of The Land A Map Represents.

Each Contour Line Connects Points Of Equal Land Elevation.  Elevation Values Are Printed On Thicker Contour Lines.  The Space Between Contour Lines, Represents An Interval Of Vertical Distance /Elevation.   The Contour Interval Will Be Noted In The Legend Of The Map.   When Reading The Lines, The Closer They Are Together, The Steeper The Terrain. The Wider Apart They Are, The Flatter The Terrain.  In Many Of The National Geographic Maps, They Have Enhanced The Maps With Shaded Relief To Make The Terrain More Recognizable.

OK... Now For The Cool Stuff.....

Did You Know, After The Space Shuttle Disasters, NASA Was Ordered To Hold Current Work, SO a Few Clever Guys Developed A Virtual Globe With NASA Space Images of The Earth?

During The Down-Time After The Disasters, A Group Of Aggressive-Thinking Clever Guys Image Building A Virtual Globe From The Huge Database Of Earth Images NASA Has!  The Virtual Globe Was Developed For Personal Computers And Is Called World Wind.  World Wind Is Developed By Globe Chris Maxwell, Randy Kim, Tom Gaskins And Project Manager Patrick Hogan.

Here At Casanova's, We Learn About The New Program At The NASA Web Site, And Quickly Helped Spread The World And Made World Wind Available For Free Download From Our Web Site.  Feel Free To Check For Updates Or Download A Fresh New Copy World Wind Virtual Globe

With Your Virtual Globe Loaded And Running, Take Your National Geographic "Topo!" Map And Match A Section Of Land On The Virtual Globe To Your Map.  Built Into World Wind, Is The Ability To View Aerial Photos Of U.S. Land Areas, And Official USGS Topo Maps; Free!  Study And Develop A Deeper Understanding Of How To Read Those "Squiggly" Contour Lines And Topo Maps.

Have Fun!

CasanovasAdventures.com Team