Types of Maps

Types of Maps Mercator projections Conic projections Gnomonic projection Topographic maps Map Legends Map Scales Contour line Contour interval Index contours Depression Contour Lines

Mercator Projections A cylindrical map projection invented by the cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569 Since drawing navigation points and lines was simple, mercator projections were used extensively for nautical navigation This type of map distorts the image near the poles, but still shows the correct shapes of landmasses

Compare Greenland and Australia

Conic Projections A conic projection is made by projecting points and lines from a globe onto a cone Usually used for small scale maps (road maps and weather maps) since they are very accurate for specific lines of latitude, but become distorted at the tops and bottoms

Gnomonic Projections Gnomonic projections are made by projecting points and lines from a globe onto a piece of paper that touches the globe at a single point Navigators used gnomonic projections to calculate the short line distance between regions far away from each other

Topographic Projections Topographic maps show the changes in elevation due to land formations Contour lines: Connect points of equal elevation Contour Intervals: Indicates the altitude difference between contour lines Index Contours: Numbers that appear on contour lines that give additional information about land’s elevation Depression Contour Lines: features that are of a drastically different elevations are shown by dashed perpendicular lines drawn from a contour line

Contour Line Index Contour

Depression Contour Contour Line Index Contour

Try this Problem-Solving Lab on Page 37 – Calculate Gradients