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