maps4kids teamMap Symbols
The study of geography is often broken into different subcategories, mainly those of Human Geography and Physical Geography. Each of those have multiple subgroups as well, and we will investigate those in later posts. In this article, we are going to explore map symbols more generally, and then look at some vocabulary of Physical Geography – the study of natural features. One of our other posts discusses Arches National Park, a place rich in features of Physical Geography.
The image below shows map symbols for many of the natural features in our word cloud below. These symbols were from a time when all maps were drawn by hand. Centuries ago, many people could not read, so map symbols were a great way to make it obvious what someone looking at a map could expect to find in certain areas. A legend is a key part of any good map !
The symbols we have just seen in the image above reflect mostly natural features – but we also see man-made features.. On our main Maps4Kids.com site, we have our very popular Map Symbols Concentration Game. Click on the link or picture below to play and match the symbols !
Over time, map symbols have evolved and are often standardized across maps from different parts of the world. This is particularly noticeable on weather maps. You can travel almost anywhere in the world and see a weather forecast on the news. If you know the symbols, you can know what weather to expect even if you do not understand the language of the weatherman.
Vocabulary
Now let’s move onto some of the vocabulary that supports those symbols. Here we are using Tableau Public again (a free tool) to generate a word cloud. The word cloud has about 50 of the most common physical geography terms. The sizes are random but word clouds with varying sizes often look better. Mouse over a word for a quick definition. Below the word cloud is an embedded article from Wikipedia about each term. Each time you click on a different word, the Wikipedia for it will be loaded. Give it a try !
[…] of Miletus performed a survey of the known world, and showed the first accurate outlines of landforms in the Mediterranean. This also included the Middle East and Western Asia. The representation of a […]