What is brown on the map? Conditional Graphic Designations

What is a map? How to properly read it? What are the conventional signs of geographical maps? All this will be discussed in our article.

A geographic map is ...

The map is one of the oldest inventions of mankind. At first they were carved on rocks, rocks and cave walls. These were primitive drawings of the terrain of primitive people. One of the oldest maps dates from the scientists of the seventeenth millennium BC. And it was a map not of the earth's surface, but of the starry sky. It was marked Vega, Altair, Deneb and some other bright stars of the sky.

Similar maps of the land were created by ancient Greek explorers and travelers - Strabo, Anaximander, Hecatei, Ptolemy and others. Cartography in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, in the so-called era of the Great Geographical Discoveries, developed exceptionally rapidly. At this time, portals are being created - naval plans detailing the waters of the Black and Mediterranean seas, as well as the western shores and the northern shores of Europe.

The geographic map at the present time absolutely does not lose its value and relevance. In the 21st century, it becomes not only the result, but also an important tool of many scientific research and research. Maps are widely used in geology, urban planning, meteorology, agriculture and other areas of human activities. She is also studying school geography (grade 6).

A geographic map is a model of the earth's surface reduced by hundreds or thousands of times, created with the help of a system of special signs. Almost all schoolchildren with great interest are looking at the lessons of these colorful sheets of paper. And many of them have legitimate questions: what is on the map a brown color? And what - in other colors and shades? Next, we will talk in more detail about the conventional signs of modern maps. But first you need to find out what kind of species exist?

Types of geographical maps

Geographical maps are classified by scale, territorial scope, purpose and content. According to their purpose they can be:

• Training;
• Reference;
• Scientific;
• Tourist;
• Sports;
• Navigation, etc.

In scale all maps are divided into small-, medium- and large-scale, and in content - on general geographic and thematic. A variety of natural and social objects are displayed on general geographic maps: relief, vegetation, hydrography, cities and villages, roads, etc. Thematic reflect individual objects (phenomena) of nature, the economy or the social sphere.

What is brown on the map?

The surface of our planet is not homogeneous. About 70% of its area is occupied by seas and oceans, and on land there are plains, elevated plateaus and mountains. How is this all displayed on general geographic maps?

All kinds of water objects (rivers, lakes, seas, reservoirs, etc.) are marked in blue. And this is quite logical. But the surface of the land is decorated with a variety of shades: from dark green to brown. What is brown on the map?

The choice of color depends on the absolute height of a particular terrain in meters (above the ocean level). Green means lowlands and plains (up to 200 meters high), yellow - elevations (from 200 to 500 meters), and brown - mountain areas (over 500 meters).

Ways to designate the terrain on maps

The relief designation on the map can be carried out in two main ways:

• With the help of colors;
• With the help of contours.

The color method was described in detail in the previous section. It is used, as a rule, for compiling general geographic (physical) maps. In addition to flowers, these maps usually mark individual points of the terrain and indicate their absolute height. It can be the highest mountain peaks or, conversely, the lowest valleys of a particular terrain.

By color, you can determine not only the height of the earth's surface, but also the depth of the seas and oceans. To indicate the depths on the cards, shades of blue are used. The more saturated the shade - the deeper the bottom is at a particular point.

Each physical map is necessarily accompanied by a scale of heights and depths. It can approximately determine the height of the terrain or the depth of the ocean.

The second way of depicting the relief involves the use of special lines - contours. It is used mainly in the compilation of topographic maps and terrain plans.

Topographic map and its features

Universal maps of large scale, which depict the terrain in detail, are called topographic maps. With their help you can get a fairly detailed idea of a particular territory.

All topographic maps are divided into four categories, based on the scale:

• Large-scale (1: 500 000 and larger);
• Medium-scale (1: 200,000, 1: 100,000);
• Small-scale (1:50 000, 1:10 000);
• Terrain plans.

The most detailed objects of the terrain are displayed on topographic plans, which have a scale of 1: 5000 (most often). Individual buildings, trees, stones, churches, etc. can be shown on them. Another distinctive feature of the terrain plans is that when they are compiled the curvature of the Earth's surface is not taken into account.

Symbols of geographical maps and terrain plans

When composing topographic maps and terrain plans, a set of certain conventional signs is used. With their help, the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of natural objects and social phenomena are fed. What are the conventional signs of geographical maps? 4 of their type are distinguished by modern topographers. It:

1. Large-scale.
2. Linear.
3. Non-scale.
4. Explanatory signs.

With the help of scale characters, those objects and objects that can be expressed on the map scale are displayed. It can be a forest, a field, quarters of cities, etc. Large-scale conventional signs have the form of small figures or graphic drawings. They allow you to display objects on the map that are too small (for example, a tree, a stone, a coal mine, or a monastery). With the help of linear signs, extended objects - roads, borders, power lines (LEPs) are displayed. Explanatory conditional graphic symbols serve for additional characterization of certain subjects of the terrain.

There are about two hundred conventional topographic signs. The figure below shows only a few of them. Here, for example, you can see what the conventional designation of sand, forest, lake, ravine or bridge looks like.

Topography map topography

As already mentioned above, on topographic maps, the terrain is displayed using so-called contours. These are conditional lines connecting points of the earth's surface with the same height. Horizontals are held at intervals of 10, 20 or 50 meters. But it all depends on the scale of the map: the larger it is, the more detailed the local relief can be shown. What kind of horizontals you can see in the picture below.

Horizontals, as a rule, have a gray or pale brown color. In the places of ruptures of these lines their absolute height is indicated. In addition, on geographical maps often mark and separate points, signing their exact height above sea level. These can be individual mountain peaks or objects that serve as clear landmarks.

Learning to "read" the relief on the map is not difficult. Density and the number of contours laid directly depends on the degree of dissection of the earth's surface. The closer these lines are to each other on the map, the steeper the slope is on the terrain. However, the best way to learn how to read a topographic map is to take it with you on a hike or a trip.

Image of vegetation and landscapes on maps

Landscapes, vegetation and soil cover are also fairly detailed on maps. In this case, the topographers use about 50 special signs.

Green spots and belts that can be seen on almost any topographic map are nothing but forests. The boundaries of the forest are displayed in the form of a dotted dotted line. The additional characteristics of a particular forest are indicated by means of extra-scale and explanatory signs.

Swamps on the maps are denoted by horizontal blue strips. And, if these strips are solid - then the swamp is impassable, and if they are interrupted - then passable. Sands are displayed as chaotically arranged brown dots.

There are special conventional signs for the designation of vineyards, fruit and berry gardens, shrub thickets, light forests, rice fields, tea plantations and other forms of vegetation.

Conclusion

Now you know that the map is marked with a brown color, which is green and what is blue. The choice of color depends on the height of the terrain. So, the lowlands are marked in green, the heights are yellow, and the mountain systems are brown. On topographic maps, the relief of the earth's surface is displayed in a different way - with the help of contours.