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Show the Shape of the Land Topographic Maps

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What is a Topographic Map? Imagine you are on vacation with your family in a national park. You have a trail map but map does not tell you anything about what the land looks like. Will you have to cross any rivers or valleys? How far uphill or downhill will you have to hike? A topographic map tell you something about the topography or the shape of the land.

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Topography Is the shape, or features of the land. Features can be natural (mountains, plateaus, plains) Features can be man-made (dams, roads) A flat map that uses lines to show Earths features.

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Contour Lines Wiggly lines on a contour map Show an areas elevation, slope, and relief

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Elevation How high above sea level an area is. Can range from a few meters to several thousand meters above sea level.

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Slope Tells how steep an area is. The more gradual the slope, the farther apart the contour lines will be. The steeper the slope, the closer together the contour lines.

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Relief The difference between an areas high and low points. If you subtract the lowest elevation on the map from the areas highest elevation you get a measure of the areas relief. Check: what is the difference between elevation and slope? Elevation: height above sea level Slope: Steepness of the land

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Rules for Successful Contouring Rule #1 Every point along a contour line represents the same elevation. This entire line represents 1200 feet above sea level. 1200 1250 1150

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Rules for Successful Contouring Rule #2 Contour lines NEVER split or divide! Cant happen! 1200 1250 1150

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Rules for Successful Contouring Rule #3 Contour lines cannot just stop. They must either form a closed loop, or run off the edge of your map. Whats the elevation here??? 1200 1250 1150 1100 ? This is fine! ?

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Rules for Successful Contouring Rule #4 Contour lines NEVER, EVER cross Whats going on?? Is this area above or below 1200 feet? 1200 1250 1150 1100 ?

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Tip 1: What does contour line spacing indicate? The closer together the contour lines are, the steeper the hill is. The more spread apart they are, the gentler the slope. Traveling along the red line would be much steeper than traveling along the green line.

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Tip 2: Which way is the stream flowing? When contour lines cross a stream or river, they form v-shaped kinks in the lines that always point upstream. Also remember - Water always flows DOWNHILL! Blue Creek flow towards the East.

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Tip 3: Finding the hill tops Hill tops are easy to find. Just look for the concentric closed contour lines that form the top of a hill. Notice the contour lines that form the two peaks below.

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TOPO QUIZ Now its time to test your topography map reading skills. Good Luck!!

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1. If you traveled from point A to point B, would you be going uphill or downhill?uphilldownhill 2. What landform do you think this map depicts? a. ValleyValley b. MountainMountain c. PlainPlain 700 750 800 X 825 A B

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3. What is the approximate elevation at the top of this hill? a. 12401240 b. 13001300 c. 10001000 4. Which hike would be steeper, from A to B or from C to D?A to B C to D 1200 1150 1100 C D A B

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5. In which direction does Maple Creek flow? a. Northeast Northeast b. Southwest Southwest c. Cant tell from information given Cant tell from information given 6. What is the contour interval of this map? a. 50 50 b. 100 100 c. 400 400 Maple Creek 800 700 600 500