Physical card
A physical map is a map that shows the extensive nature of the earth's surface (coasts, mountains, plains, large rivers, etc.). Their coloring (or color coding ) is mostly based on the relief of the earth's surface. The land area can be colored from green (low altitudes), through brown (higher altitudes) to white (highest elevations such as nival elevation ). The seas can also be colored according to the depth of the ocean and highlight deep-sea trenches with dark blue coloring. The color coding is generally up to the cartographer and may differ from the one described here. In addition, a physical map can contain important administrative and national borders , important cities and traffic routes as well as the designations (names) of states , landscapes , bodies of water and larger places.
The following terms are sometimes used to distinguish it from the physical card, but sometimes also synonymous with it:
- Relief map ( Relief = old French leftover , or pick up , erect ),
- topographic map ( old-gr. topos = place).
- General geographical map (scaled distinctive features: relief, hydrography, political borders, settlements and traffic routes).
The term physical map is often used in school atlases . Well-known works are named after the cartographers Carl Diercke or Hermann Haack .
In contrast to a physical map, the thematic map is often seen, which represents a specific topic, for example the population density of different areas, and less often the natural structure of the earth. This distinction is based on the division of geography into physical geography and human geography . However, of course, physical-geographic topics are also represented on the basis of thematic maps (e.g. geological map , soil map , weather map, etc.). Taken in this way, the physical map is also a thematic map, since it depicts the subject of the physical condition of the earth's surface .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ relief. In: Digital dictionary of the German language . Retrieved February 13, 2013