The words “physical map” come from the Latin term map and refer to a representation of a territory. A physical map can appear on paper in the form of a rectangle or in a spherical shape that mimics the globe. Also, the word physical refers to anything related to the body or structure.
If you want to know more about physical maps, here we tell you.
What are the characteristics of a physical map?
Physical maps help you investigate a new place by giving you guidance in uncharted territory. Also provide knowledge about the mountains, rivers and plateaus of a place.
The map uses colors and lines scaled to size to show differences in elevation, oceans, and continents.. It can also be used to determine the length of distances between points. Notable details missing from this map are cities, roads, places to visit, and other non-geographical information. Instead, this map focuses on the geology and geography of the country.
a physical map combines the physical characteristics of a place with the political organization of its territories. It differs from a political map that shows the sovereign territories of different peoples in a region or country. There's also physical-political maps showing both attributes in a single illustration. These comprehensive maps are useful for studying various topics.
What elements make up a physical map?
Any map contains certain elements. These include space and location, two-dimensionality, verticality, abstraction and idealization, scale and references. Each map is different based on the number of elements included in it. One of the most significant differences between the maps is due to their three-dimensionality. This element is introduced when societies advance to a higher level. Maps changed when three-dimensionality was added to civilizations because they represent reality from a vertical perspective, as if the terrain was always viewed from above. Furthermore, these maps use idealized and abstract symbols to represent the features of the terrain in a conventional way. They also use a reduced scale.
Physical maps can show a small area like a township or a larger area like a continent. They can also have different levels of detail.
Preparing maps requires a lot of work. Currently, most maps are made using aerial and satellite photographs., called orthophotos. This allows for greater precision in your creation. As technologies improve, making maps becomes easier.
How is a physical map interpreted?
It is necessary to correctly interpret the colors a guide that can help you understand the map, so a legend is created. A legend is a box that contains information about the meaning of each color. Next we are going to give you a little orientation about the colors used in the physical maps:
Colors darker indicate higher altitudeswhile the colors more clear indicate lower altitudes. This is because understanding a map generally requires recognizing the clarity of colors.
Colors green, yellow and brown represent the relief. These colors represent the coast, brown areas in the center, and yellow areas in the middle.
Colors blue are intended for bodies of water. The depth of a body of water being represented by the darkest blues, as in the case of lakes and oceans, for lagoons, marshes and rivers with little flow, a lighter blue is used. More clarity in the image means deeper parts of the image.
Why are colors used?
Physical maps are made to scale and respect metric properties, which helps users easily calculate surfaces and distances. He is a cartographer, an expert in the discipline of cartography, who is in charge of creating the map. In these maps the names of the most important cities are also recorded, but their limits are not clearly defined (for this, it is necessary to look at the political maps).
To differentiate the features of the earth, colors are used on a physical map., the clearest is what is flatter or has less depth, and the highest and deepest is of a more intense color. Thus, rivers and lakes are blue, and the deeper their waters, the darker the stripes that represent it. In the case of the relief of mountains and hills, it is represented with brown and red, and for plains, green.
How have maps changed throughout history?
The first human-made map was created by the Greek philosopher Anaximander in the XNUMXth century BC. C., in which it showed a land mass surrounded by an ocean mass. Later the drawing was refined and that mass became the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea and the Nile rivers. Europe, Libya and Asia were separated by the Phasis river.
In 1570 CE, the first complete world map was published. However, a greater understanding of mathematics and physics in the XNUMXth to XNUMXth centuries allowed for more precise measurements. These included latitudes, longitudes, meridians, and maps in general.
Physical maps were made obsolete by the use of sextants and telescopes in the XNUMXth century.
Maps that include images and GPS coordinates taken from space offer an extremely accurate view of the topography of the Earth. They are developed from georeference programs, such as QGIS, ARCGIS, among others. These constantly updated maps allow cartographers to create charts that record every subtle change in the Earth's geography.
As a curious fact, not only in cartography and geography is where the term physical map is used. But also in Biology, specifically in the branch of genetics The term physical map is also used to refer to the genes and genetic markers that make up the chromosomes. We hope that this information has been useful to you in understanding physical maps.
