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Documents for "Maps and Mapping":

• antipodes [Gr.,=having feet opposite], people or places diametrically opposite on the globe. Thus antipodes must be separated by half the circumference of the earth (180°), and one must be as far north as...

• atlas in geography, collection of maps or charts. It usually includes data on various features of a country, e.g., its topography, natural resources, climate, and population, as well as its agriculture...

• cartography see map.

• chart term referring to maps prepared for marine navigation and for air navigation. All charts show, in some convenient scale , geographic features useful to the navigator, as well as indications of direction, e.g., true north (the direction of the geographic North Pole), magnetic north (the direction indicated by the...

• contour or contour line, line on a topographic map connecting points of equal elevation above or below mean sea level. It is thus a kind of isopleth, or line of equal quantity. Contour lines are drawn on maps with a...

• date line, international see international date line.

• equator imaginary great circle around the earth, everywhere equidistant from the two geographical poles and forming the base line from which latitude is reckoned. The equator, which measures c.24,902 mi...

• exploration travel to a part of the earth that is relatively unknown to the traveler's culture, historically often motivated by a desire for colonization, conquest, or trade.

• gazetteer dictionary or encyclopedia listing alphabetically the names of places, political divisions, and physical features of the earth and giving some information about each. The term gazetteer originally was applied to one who wrote a gazette. It was first used in its modern sense early in the 18th cent., after the publication (1703) by Lawrence Echard of the Gazetteer's or Newsman's Interpreter, a geographical index. But lists of place names, with descriptions, had been made as early as the 6th cent.; part of the gazetteer of Stephen of Byzantium, of this time, is extant. The 19th cent.,...

• geography the science of place, i.e., the study of the surface of the earth, the location and distribution of its physical and cultural features, the areal patterns or places that they form, and the...

• globe spherical map of the earth (terrestrial globe) or the sky (celestial globe). The terrestrial globe provides the only graphic representation of the areas of the earth without significant distortion...

• Greenwich meridian see prime meridian.

• homolosine map projection: see Goode, John Paul.

• international date line imaginary line on the earth's surface, generally following the 180° meridian of longitude , where, by international agreement, travelers change dates. Traveling eastward across the line, one subtracts one calendar day; traveling westward, one adds a day. The date line is necessary to...

• latitude angular distance of any point on the surface of the earth north or south of the equator. The equator is latitude 0°, and the North Pole and South Pole are latitudes 90°N and 90°S, respectively. The...

• longitude angular distance on the earth's surface measured along any latitude line such as the equator east or west of the prime meridian. A meridian of longitude is an imaginary line on the earth's surface from pole to pole; two opposite meridians form a great circle dividing the earth into two hemispheres. By international...

• map conventionalized representation of spatial phenomena on a plane surface. Unlike photographs, maps are selective and may be prepared to show various quantitative and qualitative facts, including...

• map projection transfer of the features of the surface of the earth or another spherical body onto a flat sheet of paper. Only a globe can represent accurately the shape, orientation, and relative area of the...

• Mercator map projection see map projection.

• meridian of longitude see longitude.

• Mollweide map projection see map projection.

• panhandle in geography, a strip of land projecting from the main body of an area and shaped like the handle of a pan, such as the panhandles of West Virginia, Texas, and Alaska.

• parallel of latitude see latitude.

• photogrammetry see aerial and satellite photography.

• physical geography see geography.

• polyconic map projection see map projection.

• prime meridian meridian that is designated zero degree (0°) longitude, from which all other longitudes are measured. By international convention, it passes through the original site of the Royal Observatory in...

• projection, map see map projection.

• scale in cartography, the ratio of the distance between two points on a map to the real distance between the two corresponding points portrayed. The scale may be expressed in three ways: numerically, as...

• topography description or representation of the features and configuration of land surfaces. Topographic maps use symbols and coloring, with particular attention given to the shape and elevations of terrain...

• Tropic of Cancer parallel of latitude at 23°30′ north of the equator; it is the northern boundary of the tropics. This parallel marks the farthest point north at which the sun can be seen directly overhead at noon; north of the parallel the sun appears less than 90° from the southern horizon at any day of the...

• Tropic of Capricorn parallel of latitude at 23°30′ south of the equator; it is the southern boundary of the tropics. This parallel marks the farthest point south at which the sun can be seen directly overhead at noon; south of the parallel the sun appears less than 90° from the northern horizon at any day of the...