Topographic Maps - Laboratory 8

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Topographic Maps - Laboratory 8

______________________
(Name)

The most basic way that we navigate from location to location is by latitude and
longitude (see Figure 1). For example, 0
o
latitude follows the equator. Latitudinal lines
north or south of the equator increase to 90
o
at the poles. In contrast, longitudinal lines
run pole to pole, and 0
o
longitude runs through Greenwich, England. Longitude is
therefore expressed as so many degrees East or West of the principal meridian running
through Greenwich. Hence, it varies from 0
o
to 180
o
. One degree of longitude or latitude
is equal to 60 minutes while 1 minute is equal to 60 seconds. There are therefore 3600
seconds in one degree.

Figure 1. Latitude and longitude on a globe.

Quadrangle maps represent the three dimensional features of a segment of the Earths
surface and are bounded by a specified degree of latitude and longitude. Perhaps the
most common type of quadrangle map is the 7.5 minute variety, which is bounded by 7.5
minutes of longitude and 7.5 minutes of latitude.

Many of you at some time in the future will end up purchasing homes. Your deed will
express the general location of where your property is located. Hence, it is important that
you learn how to read and understand such information.
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Government agencies, both local and federal, create so called townships, by arbitrarily
defining a base line (an arbitrary latitude), and an arbitrary principal meridian (an
arbitrary longitude). They then mark off from this starting point blocks that are 6 miles
by 6 miles in an EW and NS direction, and designate each block with a township and
range designation (See Figure 2).

In Figure 2, I is designated T2N, R3E.

(1) What would be the designation of II?

(2) What would be the designation of III?

Figure 2. A grid for a township.

Each Township is further subdivided into 36 sections, each section being 1 mile by 1 mile
in size. Hence, it can be thought of as consisting of 6 rows and 6 columns. The first row
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consists of sections 1 through 6 numbered from east to west. The second row consists of
sections 7 through 12 numbered from west to east. This numbering continues in this
manner until the last section designated 36 is reached. In Figure 3 (a) please fill in the
missing section numbers.

Figure 3. Sections within a township.

Each section can be further subdivided into quarters (See Figure 3 (b)). For example, the
letter a in Figure 3(b) occupies the SE1/4 of sec 11, of T2N, R3E.

(1) What is the location of letter b?
(2) What is the location of letter c?
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The principle way that we represent the 3D aspects of the Earths surface is through
topographic contours. Topographic contours represent the intersections of a series of
horizontal planes at a specific elevation above or below sea level with the Earths surface.
If you are walking along a topographic contour, then you would increase or decrease in
elevation. In other words topographic contours are curves marking points of equal
elevation.

In order to gain a better understanding of topographic contours we are going to build a
model of a quadrangle map. The tools that we will use are shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. The tools that we will use in constructing a topographic map.

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Please complete the following steps:

(1) Using some kind of clay build on a piece of plastic or sheet of paper a mountain
with variable slope and containing at least one ravine or valley. Your mountain
should be no taller than 4 cm at its highest point and should cover a surface area
of about 12 cm by 12 cm.
(2) The scale of your model is 5 cm =50 feet. Moreover, because there will be no
vertical exaggeration the above scale applies to both the vertical and horizontal
dimensions.
(3) Using the laser and the carpenters level, trace out on your model the intersection
of a horizontal plane at 50 feet and 100 feet with your model of a mountain. Use
a spatula to mark these positions.
(4) Place a clear plastic pan over your model, and tape it to the desk.
(5) Tape a clear piece of plastic to the pan, placing it directly over your model of a
mountain.
(6) Looking vertically over your model trace out the outline of your mountain, and
label it 0 feet.
(7) Looking vertically over your model trace out the 50 foot intersection and label it
50 feet.
(8) Looking vertically over your model trace out the 100 foot intersection and label it
100 feet.
(9) Locate the very top of your mountain and trace out an X on the clear plastic
overlay.

Remove your overlay, and draw out a line 4 cm long and label it scale. You may also
label one end of the line 0 and the other 200 feet.

You should also indicate the direction of North. For this lab we will make the long
dimension of the clear plastic sheet North.

Your clear plastic sheet now represents a topographic or quadrangle map of the your
model of a mountain. Please answer the following questions:

(1) How are topographic contours for shallowly inclined surfaces expressed relative
to topographic contours for steeply inclined surfaces.

(2) The so called contour interval is the minimum change in elevation represented
by topographic contours on a map. What is the contour interval for your map?

Finally, we are going to draw a topographic section through your modeled mountain. On
the clear plastic sheet containing your topographic map lay out a line all the way across
the map and label one end A and the other end A. Now transfer that line to a blank sheet
of paper and label A and A. Everywhere that the line crosses a contour place a tick and
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label the elevation. Now draw a line segment 4 cm long extending from A upward at 90
degrees to A-A and scale off 50, 100, 150, and 200 feet segments. Do the same thing at
the opposite end of the line segment. You now have a kind of graph where the Y axis is
elevation above sealevel, and the X axis is position on the Earths surface along A-A.
Now graph the elevation points where A-A crosses the above identified topographic
contours and then connect the points with a smooth line. The results represents a
topographic cross-section through the modeled mountain.

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