Google Earth

Map Overlays
&
Virtual Field Trips

(Warning: In development. Some links may not work at the time of your visit to this page).

Click on the links below to download the kml or kmz file to your computer. If you don't have Google Earth installed, download it from Google. A topographic map symbol sheet can be downloaded from the United States Geological Survey.

Map Overlays

The following overlays illustrate several common earth features and help to understand how topographic maps represent topography.

Coastal Features

• Point Reyes, CA

Eolian Landforms

• Ashby, NE - sand hills, dunes,

Earth Structure

• Boulder, CO - hogbacks
• Half Dome, CA
• Promontory Butte,AZ - canyons, butte, escarpment

Fluvial Landforms

• Ennis, MT - alluvial fan
• Fairview Alpha, LA - meanders, meander scars, bar & swale topography, point bars, oxbow lake.
• Powhatan, LA - meanders, meander scars, bar & swale topography, point bars, oxbow lake.
• Campti, LA (1957) - meanders, meander scars, bar & swale topography, point bars, oxbow lake. Note the Red River's change in channel location between publication of the map (1957) and date of image (2003 at this writing).

Folds and Faults

• Cumberland, MD - anticlinal mountain.
• Furnace Creek, CA - fault scarp.
• Harrisburg, PA (1:250,000) - folded mountains, anticline, syncline, water gap.
• Strasburg, VA - Plunging anticline & syncline.

Glaciers and Glacial Features

• Haverhill, MA - drumlins, kames, kettles
• Ayer, MA - drumlins, kames, kettles, esker
• Chief Mountain, MT
• Many Glacier, MT
• Mt. Bonneville, WY - glaciers, cirques, U-shaped valley, tarns, horns, cols, Continental Divide (See Roberts Mountain, WY for adjacent map)
• Mt. Rainier - glaciers, cirques, aretes (Annotated version) (KMZ version)
• Mt. Redoubt, AK - glaciers, cirques, aretes, moraine, braided channel
• Roberts Mountain, WY - glaciers, cirques, U-shaped valley, tarns, horns, cols
• Sun Prarie, WI - drumlins
• Whitewater, WI - drumlins, kettles, moraine, outwash plain.

Groundwater

• Thousand Springs,ID - springs, hot water wells

Karst

• Mammoth Cave, KY - entrenched meander, cuesta, undercut slopes, sinks, caves

Volcanism

• Crater Lake (West) - caldera, parasitic cinder cone
• Devils Tower, WY - volcanic neck
• Mt. Saint Helens - stratovolcano, lava dome
• Menan Buttes - asymmetric cinder cone
• Shiprock - volcanic neck, dikes

Virtual Field Trips

• Colorado Front Range: Explore mountain ecosystems and alpine glacial features.
• Tectonic Boundary Processess: Compare tectonic boundary processess and associated landforms around the earth.(In development)
• Volcanoes: Visit earth features created by volcanism. (In development)
• World Climates: Survey of world climates. (In development)
• World Biomes: Survey of world biomes. (In development)

• Overlays constructed with MapTiler *
• USGS topographic maps from Libre Map Project*

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