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Types of Maps

There are thousands of types of maps. Here are some of the well-nigh popular.

Article by: , PhD, RPG

and Map Junkie

Different Types of Maps: Here are a few examples of the different types of maps discussed in this article. Clockwise from meridian left: weather condition map, topographic map, political map, digital street map, income map, and geologic map.

Table of Contents

Millions of Unique Maps

Millions of unique maps are in use throughout the globe. Most of these maps can be placed into one of two groups: 1) reference maps; and, 2) thematic maps.

Reference maps show the location of geographic boundaries, physical features of Globe, or cultural features such as places, cities, and roads. Political maps, concrete maps, road maps, topographic maps, fourth dimension zone maps, geologic maps, and zip code maps are all examples of reference maps. A variety of reference maps accept been created for almost every land of the world.

Thematic maps show the variation of a topic (the theme) across a geographic area. Weather maps showing daily loftier temperatures beyond the United states of america are familiar examples of a thematic map. They are made by starting with a reference map of the United states of america. Then temperature information is plotted atop of the reference map using colors to communicate the temperature forecast. Income maps and resource maps are other types of thematic maps.

In the sections of this article below, y'all will discover several examples of normally used reference maps and thematic maps.

Political Maps show boundaries between countries, states, counties, and other political units. The most normally used political map in the United States is a map similar the one to a higher place that illustrates the 50 states. Many people find this blazon of map by going to a search engine and making a query for "united states of america map" or "the states map". Geology.com has some of the most ofttimes viewed political maps of the United States and earth countries on the cyberspace.

Political Maps

"Political maps" are among the virtually widely used reference maps. They are mounted on the walls of classrooms throughout the world. They bear witness the geographic boundaries betwixt governmental units such as countries, states, and counties. They show roads, cities and major water features such equally oceans, rivers and lakes.

Political maps assistance people understand the geography of the world. They are unremarkably the first type of map that students are introduced to in school. They are also known equally "reference maps" because people refer to them again and again equally they have questions.

Political maps are oft printed on paper or another concrete medium, but they can as well be produced in digital grade, suitable for viewing online. Every day millions of people visit search engines to observe political reference maps. Some of the most popular searches are for "united states map", "world map", "europe map", and "florida map".

Thousands of unlike political reference maps have been prepared to show the current geography of the U.s.a.. There are maps of the entire nation, maps for each of the l states, maps of the 3142 counties (parishes in Louisiana, and boroughs in Alaska) that make upwards the states. Most counties, boroughs and parishes are further subdivided into even smaller political units. An incredible number of political maps take been prepared just to brandish the geography of the United States.

The maps most commonly seen in classrooms and offices are political maps of the world, countries and continents. They are frequently annotated with push button pins, sticky notes, photographs, marking flags and string to show the travels of a family unit, locations of a business, or other locations and activities worthy of display.

Election Results Map: Sometimes considered to be a different multifariousness of "political map", "election results maps" show the results of an election by geographic subdivision or voting commune. The almost famous of ballot maps are the red-state / blue-state maps of the United States presidential ballot. In contempo years they prove states won by Republican candidates in cherry-red and states won past Democratic candidates in blue. The example to a higher place shows the results of the 2022 Presidential election of the United States. Map and caption from Wikipedia.

Ballot Results Maps

Election results maps might be considered to exist a multifariousness of "political maps". These maps evidence the geographic areas where a candidate for public role received a majority of support from voters. The geographic areas are usually political subdivisions of a country (states), of a country (counties), etc. The most famous examples of ballot results maps are the cerise-state / blue-state maps of the Us presidential election. States won by a majority of votes for the Republican candidate are known as "red states", and those won by a majority of votes for the Democratic candidate are known as "blueish states". The accompanying map is an example. It maps the results of the 2022 United States presidential election.

These maps might be considered "thematic maps" while the election is in progress and while the results are in the news. However, soon thereafter they might be considered as "reference maps" of historical significance.

Physical Map: This concrete map of Eurasia shows the topography of the land in a color-gradient relief. Dark greens are used for nearly-body of water-level elevations, and the greenish grades to tan and brown as elevation increases. The highest elevations are shown in shades of gray. If you are familiar with the physical features of Eurasia, y'all can probably recognize the Himalaya Mountain Range, the Tibetan Plateau, the Alps, and the more than subtle Ural Mountains. Lake Baikal, the earth's largest freshwater lake by book, can be seen in fundamental Asia.

Physical Maps

Concrete maps are designed to evidence the natural mural features of Earth. They are best known for showing topography, either past colors or every bit shaded relief. Physical maps often have a green to brown to greyness color scheme for showing the acme of the land. Darker greens are used for well-nigh-ocean-level elevations, with the color grading into tans and browns as elevations increase. The color gradient often terminates in shades of grey for the highest elevations.

Rivers, lakes, seas and oceans are usually shown in blue, ofttimes with a light blue color for the near shallow areas and darkening in a gradient or by intervals for areas of deeper h2o. Glaciers and ice caps are shown in white colors.

Physical maps usually show the most of import political boundaries, such every bit state and land boundaries. Major cities and major roads are oft shown. This cultural data is non the focus of a concrete map, but information technology is often included for geographic reference and to increment the utility of the map for many users.

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Digital Route, Street and Highway Maps

Google Map of Washington, D.C.: Google Maps has get the most normally used online mapping service in the world. It superbly presents road and street maps. It is also the world's favorite route planning and street view service. The service has been specifically designed for those tasks.

Google Maps also has special tools that enable you to query "nearby" restaurants, hotels, confined and pubs, museums, pizza, bike shops, schools, attorneys, etc., and the map volition populate itself with icons showing their location. If you let Google Maps to utilise your current GPS location, you tin can use the "add destination" tool to plot a car, walking, bicycle, or public transportation route. Google Maps will even estimate the amount of time required for your trip. The author uses this characteristic of Google Maps more than any other mapping tool.   :-)

Road, Street and Highway Maps

The digital mapping revolution caused an explosion of map creation in the 1990s. In 1996, MapQuest, the showtime popular online mapping service, allowed anyone with net access the ability to create customized maps of most whatsoever location in the United States.

Within a few months, millions of people had become "cartographers". They were presently producing more unique maps in a single mean solar day than had been created during the entire history of newspaper cartography!

Today, Google Maps is the world'southward about pop online mapping system. In addition to maps, the service besides provides travel route directions. It tin create directions for people who are driving, taking public transportation, walking, cycling or taking a aeroplane.

Billions of unique maps, millions of travel routes, and millions of street views are created each 24-hour interval with Google Maps. It is the beginning place millions of people go to plan whatever type of travel.

Google has another production named "Google Globe" that allows people to view streets, roads and satellite images within a single interface. Google Earth is a free download - the software installs on your computer and fetches the image directly from the Google World server.

Finally, for people who want printed maps, the DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer is a series of books that contain state-broad map coverage for private states (or pairs of small-scale side by side states). The maps nowadays a combination of route, topography, cultural and recreational information. These "hybrid maps" are a favorite of people who work and play outdoors in rural areas.

Topographic Map of an area within Mammoth Cavern National Park, Kentucky. This map shows Earth's topography using brown profile lines with a contour interval of 20 feet. Roads, identify names, streams and other features are as well shown. Areas on the map where the brownish profile lines are shut together take steep slopes. Areas where the profile lines are spaced far apart have gentler slopes. If you would similar to view the full 7.five-minute map of this area you can download a PDF file hither. This map is a very big file (over 30 megabytes) and will accept a few minutes to download on some desktop computers and mobile phones.

Topographic Maps

Topographic maps are reference maps that show the shape of Earth's surface. They usually do this with lines of equal pinnacle known as "contour lines", but height can too be shown using colors (2d map), color gradients, shaded relief and a number of other methods.

Topographic maps are frequently used past hunters, hikers, skiers, and others seeking outdoor recreation. They are also essential tools of the trade for geologists, surveyors, engineers, construction workers, landscape planners, architects, biologists and many other professions - especially people in the military.

Topographic maps also show other important natural features such every bit lakes, rivers and streams. Their locations are adamant past topography, making them of import natural elements of topographic maps.

Important cultural features are also shown on topographic maps. These include roads, trails, buildings, place names, bench marks, cemeteries, churches, schools and much more than. A standardized prepare of special symbols has been adult for this use.

Topographic maps take traditionally been printed on large sheets of paper with their 4 boundaries beingness lines of longitude and latitude. The United States Geological Survey is the most widely known organization for producing them. They produce a series of 7.5-minute topographic maps covering most areas of the United States (a 7.5-minute map shows an area that is vii.v minutes of longitude by seven.5 minutes of breadth). These maps and maps of many other scales are available from USGS in both print and digital form.

Commercial publishers of topographic maps include the DeLorme Atlas (newspaper maps in books with country-wide coverage) and MyTopo (a source of digital and paper maps in traditional topographic and topophoto formats - we are affiliates of MyTopo and receive a commission on referred sales).

Earth Time Zone Map: On this map, the world'south 24 time zones are shown as colored bands. By looking at the numbers along the top and lesser of the map, you can determine the time difference between two locations. Time zones do non follow lines of longitude. Instead they more often than not follow political boundaries, with many variations made for social and commercial convenience. Click to overstate this time zone map compiled past the Key Intelligence Agency.

Time Zone Maps

Time zones are regions of the earth where people gear up their clocks to display the same time of day. This synchronization of time has many commercial, navigational, and social benefits.

By international agreement there are 24 time zones around the world. These 24 zones are shown in the accompanying time zone map. In each of these zones, 12:00 noon occurs at the approximate time of the solar mid-day. The actual solar noon occurs a lilliputian earlier in the eastward side of the time zone and a niggling later in the due west. This variation is caused by Earth's rotation.

Time zone maps are reference maps that people utilise to determine the time in different parts of the world. For example if a person in New York City wants to phone a person in Los Angeles, he tin look at a time zone map and decide that New York Urban center time is iii hours ahead of Los Angeles time. This helps people to avoid placing calls outside of business hours and helps people in different time zones schedule meetings and phone calls at mutually agreeable times. Time zones are usually superimposed on a political map of the globe or a map of a large single country such every bit the United States.

Geologic Map of an area near Richmond, California where the Eastshore Throughway makes an overpass above San Pablo Avenue. The roads and city streets can faintly be seen through the translucent colors of the geologic units. The western portion of the map is underlain by Quaternary sediments, while the eastern portion is underlain by folded and intensely faulted bedrock. Dotted lines evidence the probable traces of faults buried beneath the Fourth sediments. Geologic maps of this area tin be important first tools in conducting an earthquake take a chance assessment. Source: Geologic Map and Map Database of the Oakland Metropolitan Expanse, Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco Counties, California; by R.W. Graymer, U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies MF–2342, 2000.

Geologic Maps

Geologic maps evidence the types of rocks and sediments present immediately below the surface of a geographic area. Sediment embrace is shown in shades of yellow, and stone units are shown in a variety of colors, often based upon their lithology. Rock unit contacts, faults, folds, and strike and dip measurements are plotted in blackness.

Geologic maps are of import information sources for many types of work. Certain types of rock are used for structure materials, and a geologic map shows where they are located at the surface. Other types of rock might incorporate valuable minerals, and a geologic map tin can be used as a preliminary tool for deciding where to drill or prospect.

Areas most volcanoes might exist underlain by lava flows, lahar deposits, pyroclastic flows or other volcanic products. Geologic maps can be used to conduct a preliminary volcanic hazard assessment of an surface area.

Structure projects require good foundation materials and sources of crushed rock and other materials. Geologic maps can be used for the preliminary work of identifying potentially stable sites almost economic sources of suitable structure materials.

Geologic Map Cross-Department

Geologic Cross-Department illustrating the subsurface construction of rocks in the map expanse above. This cross-department represents a southwest-northeast slice through the map area, showing folds, faults, a sediment lens and a view of the creeping portion of the Hayward Fault.

Geologic maps are made by geologists in the field who identify, sample, and measure the rocks. Because rocks are not exposed in all locations - specially in areas with heavy vegetation - they are oft based upon fragmentary information. This fragmentary information tin can exist supplemented when construction projects, landslides, stream erosion and other events expose stone beneath previously unobserved areas. As a result, geologic maps tin exist refined and updated as new data is obtained.

Most geologic maps are ordinarily accompanied past at least one cantankerous-department that illustrates what is expected to be seen if a "slice through the Earth" was cut across the map area. These cross-sections illustrate the geologic structures inferred by mapping the rocks and sediments above.

In the United States, most geologic maps available for public use or purchase are prepared by the The states Geological Survey and the State Geological Surveys. They do the fieldwork, prepare the maps, publish them, and offer them to the public in digital and paper formats.

Cypher Code Map: This map shows some of the zip codes in the state of Connecticut.

Naught Lawmaking Maps

Naught Lawmaking Maps are maps that show the judge boundary of aught lawmaking areas used by the U.s. Postal Service. They are usually plotted over a base map that shows the roads and streets within the aught code area.

The United States Postal Service assigns zip codes for a section of a street, a drove of streets, an establishment, a structure, a group of mail service office boxes, or the area serviced by a single mail office for the commitment of mail. Rather than consisting of geographic areas, zip codes are more than in conformance with a group of mail delivery routes. In sparsely populated areas, a unmarried zip code tin can embrace many square miles, but in cities a nil code tin be assigned to a single edifice or to an arrangement with a campus of buildings.

Businesses make valuable employ of goose egg code maps past matching them to zip lawmaking tabulation information compiled by the United States Census Bureau. This information characterizes the population inside a zip code past age, gender, race, national origin, income, housing, and much more than. Companies can utilise this information to decide if they desire to market to people within that naught code and how they want to marketplace. They can too coordinate their mailings with the United States Mail to deliver their marketing materials to zip codes where demographic information suggests a loftier density of potential customers.

Atmospheric condition Map showing projected high temperatures for Lord's day, July 29, 2022. This is one of the many types of weather maps prepared by the National Conditions Service of the U.s.a. and published online for anyone to utilize. Visit their website at weather.gov.

Weather Maps

People employ an incredible number of atmospheric condition maps. They are used to show predicted temperatures, predicted precipitation, tempest warnings of various kinds, wind speed and direction, chance of atmospheric precipitation, type of precipitation, snow accumulation, frost prediction and many other aspects of weather.

All of these weather maps are continuously updated to communicate the almost electric current information. They are the globe'southward most frequently consulted thematic maps. Weather condition maps are presented in newspapers, television programs and particularly on websites. Delivering weather maps on websites and through spider web apps gives people around the world instant access to weather information.

Many conditions maps are animated maps that evidence historical or projected changes in the weather. These are extremely useful for people who need to know how changes in weather will impact their travel, workday, recreation, and many other plans.

Species Distribution Maps

Species Distribution Maps show where certain institute or animal species can be found. This map shows where dissimilar types of bears alive in N America.

Species Distribution Maps

The area normally inhabited by a constitute or animal species tin can be mapped. These maps are fabricated by compiling the locations where qualified people have repeatedly observed that species in the wild. The presence / absenteeism of the species defines its geographic range.

The resulting maps testify (by color or blueprint) the geographic area where that species is encountered. These maps are known as "species distribution maps" or "geographic range maps."

Geology.com wanted a map that displayed the geographic distribution of bears in North America. That map was fabricated by overlaying the geographic ranges of black bears, grizzly bears, and polar bears on a single map. Because the geographic ranges of these three species overlap, it is possible to be in an area where a person might run across one, two, or even three unlike species. There are as well areas of North America where a person would non expect to encounter a deport. The resulting map is shown in the accompanying prototype.

Income Map: Map showing the median household income of the United States using private counties every bit enumeration units. Map by the United States Demography Bureau. Click to enlarge.

Income Maps

Income maps are a very common type of thematic map. They show variations of income across a geographic surface area. The standard mapped variable for an income map is median household income.

Income tends to be highly geographic because rural portions of a state or country oftentimes have lower median household income than urban areas. Inside urban areas, income tin too be highly variable because neighborhoods tend to be populated by people with like income levels.

The U.s.a. Census Bureau is a regular producer of income maps for the U.s.a. and individual states. After each major census, the Bureau updates its set of income maps and makes them available to the public. The Demography Bureau also makes "change in income maps". These evidence which geographic areas have experienced economical growth or economic reject over a specific time interval.

Resource Map: Map illustrating the the photovoltaic solar resource of the United States. It is articulate from this map that the solar resource of the United States is greatest in the southwestern part of the country. Citizens, companies and governments tin can employ this map to brand decisions about investing in a solar power solution. Click to enlarge.

Resource Maps

Thematic maps are oftentimes made to communicate the geographic distribution of natural resources. These maps might show countries with the highest diamond product or the geographic extent of an oil or gas field. The map shown hither illustrates the geographic design of solar generating capacity for the United States.

Resource maps are important considering they help governments understand their natural resource avails and the natural resource assets of their allies and potential enemies. Resource maps help mining companies target their exploration efforts. They are likewise of import for assessing the transportation opportunities and issues associated with the distribution of resources and the location of where they are consumed.

Intensity Map for the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906: This is the most devastating earthquake in California history. The earthquake was felt throughout most of California and into Nevada and Oregon. The convulsion and resulting fires acquired an estimated 3000 deaths and $524 one thousand thousand in property loss. The map above shows the intensity of ground shaking across the felt surface area of the convulsion. Intensity levels are shown as a color sequence where red areas experienced the strongest ground shaking and green areas experienced ground shaking that was much less severe. A drove of intensity maps for numerous California earthquakes can be viewed here.

Earthquake Maps

Earthquake maps focus on the scientific aspects of earthquakes or on the impact and mitigation aspects. In that location are many types of earthquake maps. Here are a few:

Epicenter Maps show the geographic location of earthquake epicenters (the point on World's surface immediately above where the vibrations of an convulsion originated). They can show the location of one earthquake or the geographic distribution of many earthquakes. They take scientific value for agreement the distribution of earthquakes and mitigation value considering they reveal areas where earthquakes frequently occur. Each epicenter is plotted equally a symbol, and the symbols tin have different colors, sizes and shapes to indicate the earthquakes' strength, depth, or date.

Fault Maps bear witness the geographic location of faults. Faults are fractures in the Earth from which earthquakes and their vibrations emanate. Fault maps are of interest to scientists, and they are a geologic hazard map because future movements of the fault will generate the vibrations of an earthquake.

Intensity Maps show the geographic distribution of ground shaking caused by an earthquake. The intensity of shaking is measured using the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale (explained in this article). Intensity maps are produced by obtaining intensity values from many locations within the felt area of the earthquake, plotting that data on a map, and contouring that information into areas of equal intensity. Intensity maps can exist used as a measure of future earthquake risk.

Earthquake Hazard Maps show geographic areas bailiwick to specific types of hazards. They might bear witness areas prone to the liquefaction of soil, areas prone to landsliding, and areas underlain by soft sediment that might cause unusually intense vibrations.

Plate Tectonics Map: A portion of a map showing the geographic extent and boundaries of Earth's lithospheric plates by the U.s. Geological Survey.

Plate Tectonics Maps

Plate tectonics is a co-operative of the geological sciences that deals with the movement and interaction of World'due south lithospheric plates. These plates move and interact with one another to cause earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain building, the production of new lithosphere, the destruction of former lithosphere, and other geologic processes. Most of this activity occurs at lithospheric plate boundaries.

Geologists produce and apply many types of maps in the written report of plate tectonics. The most commonly referenced is a plate boundary map. These maps show the geographic extent and boundaries of the lithospheric plates.

Other types of maps used in the written report of plate tectonics include: earthquake epicenter maps, volcanic activity maps, sea floor age maps, plate motility direction maps, and many others. Much of the work done by geologists involves the production of a map.

Bathymetric Maps

A bathymetric map, sometimes called a bathymetric chart, is a map that shows the depth of a ocean, such as a lake, a part of the ocean, a river, or a reservoir. Depths can exist shown using contour lines, shaded relief, colors, or a combination of these methods.

Bathymetric maps are valuable for avoiding shallow or dangerous waters during ship navigation, planning structure projects, deciding where to fish, determining the cost of drilling for oil in the Gulf of United mexican states, planning a trans-Atlantic communications cable, or finding a good identify to scuba dive.

Making bathymetric maps used to exist very expensive and fourth dimension consuming. Depths were determined by "soundings" - lowering a weight on a cablevision to the bottom of the h2o torso and determining the length of cable required. Today, depths can be determined by sonar and a variety of other remote measurement methods.

Volcanic Hazard Map for three volcanic areas in northern California: Medicine Lake Volcano, Mount Shasta, and Lassen Volcanic Center. For more data about volcanic hazards in California, visit the USGS website.

Volcanic Risk Maps

Did you know that scientists accept identified 161 volcanoes in the U.s. that will most likely erupt at some fourth dimension in the future? Almost of these volcanoes are in Alaska, but significant numbers are found in Hawaii, California, Washington, and Oregon.

People demand to know which volcanoes present a danger, the types of volcanic hazards that can be expected, and the geographic area that will be unsafe if an eruption occurs. For that reason, geologists have prepared geologic hazard maps for the volcanoes that nowadays the greatest risk to people and are working to complete maps for other volcanoes.

The accompanying map shows three areas designated to have a high to very high volcanic threat in northern California: Medicine Lake Volcano, Mountain Shasta, and Lassen Volcanic Centre.

At Medicine Lake Volcano: the dashed line represents the area that could potentially receive ashfalls of ii inches or greater; the yellow area is where lava flows could occur; and the pink surface area is where nigh-vent hazards such every bit pyroclastic flows, lava flows, ballistics, lahars, or floods could occur.

At Mount Shasta and the Lassen Volcanic Eye: the dashed line represents the two-inch ashfall run a risk surface area, the pink areas could experience almost-vent hazards, the dark-brown areas could experience lahars, and the nighttime blueish areas could experience floods.

A Hurricane Track Map prepared for Hurricane Dorian, a category 5 tempest that fabricated landfall on the Florida, Georgia, and Carolinas coasts in late August and early September of 2022. More data most Hurricane Dorian can be obtained at the U.s. Geological Survey website.

Hurricane Track Maps

Hurricanes and tropical storms can cause enormous amounts of damage. When i of these storms is detected, the National Hurricane Middle starts monitoring it and determining its anticipated path.

In one case they have adequate data, online maps are published that evidence the anticipated path of the storm, the times that it is expected to arrive at specific locations, and the intensity of coastal hazards that might be expected. One of the online hurricane track maps for Hurricane Dorian, a category 5 storm that made landfall on the Florida, Georgia, and Carolinas coasts in tardily August and early September of 2022, is shown in the accompanying image.

Map Drawn on a Clay Tablet

Map Drawn on a Clay Tablet: Photograph of a map on a dirt tablet, fatigued by an aboriginal mapmaker in about 1400 BC. It is believed to exist a map of the city of Nippur, located in the area that is now known as Republic of iraq. Paradigm from Explorations in Bible Lands During the 19th Century by Hermann Volrat Hilprecht, public domain (1903). Click to overstate.

Maps: Drawn, Printed and Digital

People have been making maps for thousands of years. The first map might have been a sketch made in sand using a stick or a finger. It might accept been charcoal marks on a stone, or engravings on a clay tablet. Eventually maps were drawn on newspaper. The press printing enabled those maps to exist printed on paper and distributed by the thousands.

Papermaking and printing eventually became inexpensive enough that almost anyone could beget to buy a map, and until the late 1960s, many gasoline stations were even so distributing free road maps every bit an advertising courtesy to their customers.

In the 1990s the net enabled the distribution of maps online, and the economics of map distribution (and the power to sell certain types of maps) were inverse forever. Soon, with interactive map serving, any user of the cyberspace could become a cartographer. Now more unique maps are produced online every twenty-four hours than were fabricated in across the entire history of mapmaking, from pre-history until about 1992.

Find Other Topics on Geology.com:

Rocks: Galleries of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rock photos with descriptions.	Minerals: Information about ore minerals, gem materials and rock-forming minerals.
Volcanoes: Articles about volcanoes, volcanic hazards and eruptions past and present.	Gemstones: Colorful images and manufactures nigh diamonds and colored stones.
General Geology: Articles nigh geysers, maars, deltas, rifts, salt domes, water, and much more!	Geology Store: Hammers, field bags, hand lenses, maps, books, hardness picks, gold pans.
	Diamonds: Learn well-nigh the properties of diamond, its many uses, and diamond discoveries.

Source: https://geology.com/maps/types-of-maps/

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