Coordinate Systems
1. Find the latitude and longitude of the City Hall in Santa Rosa. Use the 7½-minute USGS map. Include degrees, minutes and seconds of latitude and longitude. One way to do this is to use a straight-edge to mark (lightly, in pencil) from City Hall to the edge of the map both vertically and horizontally. Then you can measure the distance from the nearest lat/long mark. These marks can be used with the next question, No. 2, and question No. 7. Be sure to gently erase your pencil marks when you're done with the map.
2. Find the coordinates of Santa Rosa City Hall in the State Plane Coordinate (SPC) system. What projection is used for California SPCs, and in what zone is Santa Rosa?
3. You can find the UTM zone number for any location simply by knowing the longitude and two facts: (1) each zone is 6 degrees wide, and (2) numbering starts at 180° W and proceeds eastward. If you know the degrees of longitude east from 180° W, divide by 6, and round up to the next whole number. The result is the UTM zone. For example, Rio de Janeiro is at 43° W; it is (180 - 43 = ) 137° east from the 180 line. Its zone is (137 / 6 = ) 22.8, or 23. Find the UTM zone for the following cities:
a. Chicago (87° W)
b. Honolulu (158° W)
c. Tokyo (139° E)
4. To find the UTM coordinates of a place:
1) find the coordinate values for the UTM line west of your spot, and south of your place, using a straight-edge from your place to the edge of the map.
2) measure carefully, in mm, from the grid line that passes west of your place to your place, making sure your ruler is at right angles to the grid line. Then measure, in mm, the grid interval. (This interval, usually 41.5 mm on a 7.5' quad, is 1000 m on the ground.) Be careful to place the ruler between corresponding grid lines on opposite sides of the map -- check the numbers!
3) calculate the ratio of the distance to your place divided by the grid interval, (e.g. 23/41.5 = 0.554) and multiply by 1000 (meters). This is the distance in meters from the grid line to your place. Add this number to the Easting number of the grid line.
4) do the same procedure for the Northing line.
Find the coordinates of the following locations in the UTM system. Show your work.
a) On Eugene West, OR orthophoto, south end of N-S runway at Mahlon Sweet Airport.
b) On Thibodaux, LA 15' quad, Intersection of Hwy 20 at center of Chegby, LA.
5. To find a place from its coordinates:
1) Find the UTM values of the grid cell on the map margin. Identify in which grid cell your place is located.
2) Subtract the Easting grid line value (immediately west) from the corresponding coordinate (e.g. Easting: 305,903.6 m - 305,000 m = 903.6 m). This is the intergrid value for your place.
3) Calculate the ratio of the intergrid value divided by the grid interval in ground units (e.g. 903.6m/1000 = 0.9036). Then multiply this by the grid interval, in map units (e.g. 41.5 mm), to find the distance from the grid line on the map to your mystery place. (e.g. 0.9036 x 41.5 mm = 37.5 mm)
4) Measure this distance in a line perpendicular to the Easting grid line to mark the spot. Then do the same procedure with the Northing, to get an intersection marking the precise spot of your place on the map.
Find the following places from their UTM coordinates (Show your work):
a) On the New Britain, Connecticut 7.5' quad, what is at 679,723 m E, 4,613,843 N, Zone ___ ?
b) On the Salinas, Calif 1:50,000 map, what is at 620,325 m E, 4,059,125 N, Zone ___?
6. Does the grid for UTM line up exactly with the latitude/longitude lines (i.e., due north/south & east/west)? Explain.
7. Using the Santa Rosa 1:24,000 quad, (a) find the UTM coordinates of Santa Rosa City Hall and Bennett Valley Grange Hall (in southeastern corner of the map) , and (b) calculate the distance between the two locations. If you use pencil to mark your coordinates, please draw lightly and erase (gently) after you're done. Use the Pythagorean Theorem for distance, as in the example in your text, and show your work.
Survey Systems
8. Refer to the following USGS topographic maps in lab. Give the survey system(s) found on each map, and say briefly why each system was employed in the mapped area (e.g., "earliest settlers were English who used metes-and-bounds").
a) Kingston, RI
b) Thibodaux, LA
c) Norris, TN
d) Amish, IA
e) San Juan Pueblo, NM
f) Petaluma, CA
9. The US Public Land Survey (PLS) System attempted to divide land very systematically into regular one-square-mile sections. For many reasons, the regularity broke down in many areas. Identify the irregularities in these USGS quads and suggest a reason for each irregularity:
a) Saltdale NW, CA
b) Amish, IA
c) Los Olivos, CA
d) San Juan Pueblo, NM
10. Use the Santa Rosa 7½-minute quad to find the following locations in the PLS system. Give the name of a feature within the designated area.
a) NE ¼, S. 30, T. 7 N, R. 7 W
b) NW¼ S. 2, T. 7 N, R. 8 W
c) SE¼ S. 6, T. 7 N, R. 7 W
11. Use the Santa Rosa 7½-minute quad to find the PLS description of the quarter-section of the following features:
a) County Hospital (just north of Santa Rosa)
b) Bennett Valley Grange Hall
c) Kawana Springs (southeast of Santa Rosa)
NOTE: THESE MAPS CANNOT BE REPLACED! PLEASE BE CAREFUL! Use only pencils around these maps, and do not use tape on them.
In this second section of Lab 3, we will look at some maps that are not predominantly topographic, but rather provide other types of physical information. Since there are limited quantities of these maps, you should work in groups, and you can begin with any one of the maps. Except for the last section of the lab, you don't have to do the questions sequentially.
The geographic focus of this exercise is the Middle East. There are three types of maps:
1. A 1:5,000,000 map of Northeastern Africa
2. A Rainfall Map of the Near East, published by the Jewish Agency for Palestine
3. Three sets of 1:1,000,000 maps, titled Al Jawf, Damas, and Erzurum.
The goal of this exercise is to examine each of these maps to see what kinds of information they show and how the information is depicted. You should also think about the accuracy of the data presented, where it came from, and what information is missing or perhaps distorted. It is useful to look at when the map was made and by whom. Finally, what can you learn by examining features on all three maps? Look to the last Section before beginning, so that you can be thinking about these questions while looking at each map.
I. NORTHEASTERN AFRICA.
1. Map Scale: _________________________
2. Area Depicted: _____________________________________________
3. Author and Date: ___________________________________________
4. What are the most dominant types of information depicted? Why do you think this type of information was chosen as important to show?
5. What types of information are depicted in a minor way? Why is this information shown?
6. Focus on the section of the map between 28 and 38 degrees N Lat and 36 and 42 degrees E Long. (a) What important physical features are shown on the map here? (b) What impression might you get of this land by examining this map?
7. Switching to a cultural focus for a moment, (a) which areas on the map are the most densely populated? (b) What is your evidence (from the map)? (c) From the map, what do you think are the one or two most important controlling factors for distribution of population in this region? (d) What is the distance, as the camel walks, between Damascus and Jerusalem, and (e) between Jerusalem and Cairo?
II. WORLD MAPS OF AL JAWF, DAMAS, AND ERZURUM
1. Map Scale: _________________________
2. Area Depicted: _____________________________________________
3. Author and Date: ___________________________________________
4. What are the most dominant types of information depicted? How is this different from the Northeastern Africa Map? (come back to this question if you're doing this section first)
5. What types of information are depicted in a minor way?
6. On the Al Jawf map, (a) What is a Qa? (b) What is a Wadi? (c) How would you describe the topography in the 100,000 m square designated BP? (d) What other features do you find interesting on the Al Jawf map?
7. On the Damas (Damascus) map, (a) what major physical features are shown? (b) What is the major surface cover in Section CS? (c) What type of river is the Euphrates? (d) What is the regional relief of this area? (e) What is a Jabel and how is it shown on the map? (f) What other physical features do you find interesting on this map?
8. Switching to a cultural focus, (a) How many different nations are shown on this map? What are they? (b) What cultural features are shown on this map that are different from what you saw on the Bay Area maps in Lab 1? (c) in the BR section, there are some spot symbols with names labeled in very old fashioned type -- what do you think these are, and why do you think they are labeled this way?
9. On the Erzurum map, (a) What is the regional relief? How does this compare with the other two maps in this series? (b) What are the major physical features depicted on this map? (c) How does the Euphrates River change its pattern between Section DB and DA ? (d) What evidence do you have of differences in climate between Sections DD and EA? (e) Any other interesting physical features you see on this map?
III. Rainfall Map of the Near East.
1. Map Scale: _________________________
2. Area Depicted: _____________________________________________
3. Author and Date: ___________________________________________
4. What are the most dominant types of information depicted? Why do you think this type of information was chosen as important to show?
5. (a) In a single sentence, how would you summarize the information shown on this map? (b) What kind of important information is missing from this map that was shown on the other maps you've looked at? (c) What type of isoline is used on this map? (d) What other symbolization is used to reinforce the isolines?
6. On the cultural side, (a) What important city was omitted from this map, and why do you think this was done? (b) Any other comments you'd like to make about this map?
IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS.
1. Examine on all the maps the area between 36 - 42 degrees East Long., and 32 - 36 degrees North Lat. Write a general physical description of this region from the information you obtained from all of the maps you looked at. (a) What are the major topographical characteristics? (b) How would you characterize the hydrology? (c) What major geomorphological processes and landforms do you see evidence of?