Maps PDF

Maps Cartography – the study and practice of graphically representing areas on a map (oldest 2700 year old Babylonian clay tablet) Mercator Projections – most common to transfer features of a globe onto a flat surface for navigation and identifying coastlines a. Positives – identifies accurate locat...

Maps Cartography – the study and practice of graphically representing areas on a map (oldest 2700 year old Babylonian clay tablet) Mercator Projections – most common to transfer features of a globe onto a flat surface for navigation and identifying coastlines a. Positives – identifies accurate location coordinates on Earth b. Negatives – distortion of land area of countries toward poles  Maps Common Types of Maps 1. Political - shows borders of regions with major cities (north top of page) 2. Topographic - represent terrain features by contour elevations (sea level 0 m) 3. Thematic - depicts specific information like population (coloured with legend) 4. Travel - provides road routes between cities and towns (with a scale)  Maps World Continents The seven main divisions of land on Earth and include: 1. Africa – the hottest and contains the largest desert (Sahara) 2. Antarctica – coldest with no permanent residents 3. Asia – most people with 60% of the world population 4. Australia – least people with only 0.2% of world population 5. Europe – most economically developed in the world 6. North America – includes Canada, United States and Mexico 7. South America – has the worlds largest rainforest (Amazon) Sub-Regions 1. Oceania 2. Latin America 3. Middle East  Maps Geographic Coordinate System – Finding Locations on a Map 1. Latitude - horizontal lines in degrees north or south of the equator (0o) 2. Longitude - vertical lines degrees west or east of the prime meridian (0o) 3. Compass Rose Directions - shows geographic (cardinal) direction in north, south, east or west and numerical equivalent values from 0 to 360 degrees  Maps Global Hemispheres The four geographic areas of Earth separated by latitude (equator 0o) and longitude (prime meridian 0o): 1. Northern – between equator and the north pole 90oN 2. Southern – between equator and the south pole 90oS 3. Western – between the prime meridian and 180oW 4. Eastern – between the prime meridian and 180oE  Maps Important Lines of Latitude (Northern Hemisphere) 90oN North Pole – Earth’s northern geographic axial location 66oN Arctic Circle – southern most latitude where the Sun is above (June 21) or below (December 21) horizon for 24 hours 23oN Tropic of Cancer – northern most latitude where Sun is directly overhead (longest day Summer Solstice June 21)  Maps Important Lines of Longitude 0o Prime Meridian – separates the Western and Eastern hemispheres and located in Greenwich, England (0:00 GMT) 180o International Date Line – marks the change of one calendar day to the next and located mainly in uninhabited ocean Time Zones – 24 International and 6 Canadian time zones each 15o longitude and generally one hour difference each (Kingston Eastern Standard Time EST)