Some maps depict individual relatively small territories, while others show entire continents or oceans. What is shown on the physical map of the hemispheres? What is its scale? And what information can be "fished" out of it? You will definitely find answers to all these questions in our article.
A few words about the cards
Cartography originated at about the same time as writing. In ancient times, our ancestors painted on the walls of caves and rocks primitive plans, which indicated important features of the area in which they lived. The first world map, according to scientists, was created in Babylon about 3 thousand years ago.
Cartography flourished in the so-called era of great geographical discoveries. Numerous travelers and sailors have created hundreds of fairly detailed and interesting maps. All information obtained during wanderings to distant and unknown lands was applied to them.
Despite the passage of time, the map did not become archaism and retained its significance to this day. In modern science, there is even a special research method - cartographic. Today, geographical maps are used in various sectors of the national economy - urban planning, territorial planning, agriculture, transport, meteorology, tourism, etc.
Next, we will tell you as much as possible about what a physical map is. How to read it? And what is shown on the physical map of the Earth’s hemispheres?
Hemisphere Physical Map
Maps are different: physical, economic, recreational, climatic, synoptic, geological, political, and many, many others. Physical maps depict continents and oceans. On them you can also see hydrographic objects (rivers, seas, lakes), various forms of the earth's surface, and sometimes the largest cities.
Back in 150 BC, the ancient Greek scientist Kratet Mullsky created the first three-dimensional model of the Earth - the globe. However, later it turned out that using this model in practice is not so convenient. You won’t take it on a long walking expedition, and it certainly won’t fit in a travel backpack. Moreover, when you look at the globe, you see only one half of it. This is also not always convenient.
Apparently, that's why maps of the Earth’s hemispheres were invented. Of course, one cannot do without distortions here. But on the other hand, such cards make it possible to contemplate the whole picture of the world at once, because they show at once two halves of our huge planet. If you cut the globe along the equator line, then we get a map of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. If we divide the planet according to the Zero (Greenwich) meridian, we get, respectively, a map of the Western and Eastern hemispheres.
Hemisphere Physical Map Scale
Scale is a purely mathematical concept. This is the ratio of the length of a segment on a geographical map or plan to the real length of the same segment on the ground. For example, we have a topographic map with the following scale: 1: 2000. This means that one centimeter on it corresponds to two thousand centimeters (or twenty meters) on the ground.
The physical maps of the hemispheres are of an overview nature and are used for educational purposes (usually in the wall version). Therefore, they are usually small-scale. The scale of the physical maps of the hemispheres most often varies from 1:15,000,000 to 1:80,000,000. That is, the distance between Kiev and Moscow does not exceed 3-4 centimeters.
What is shown on the physical map of the hemispheres
On a physical map of any scale, primarily various natural objects are displayed. Which ones? What is shown on the physical map of the hemispheres of the Earth specifically? Let's list all of these objects.
- Landforms (plains, lowlands, elevations, plateaus, mountain ranges).
- Elements of the coastline (islands, peninsulas, bays, straits, bays, capes).
- Hydrographic objects (seas, oceans, rivers, lakes, canals, large reservoirs, glaciers).
- Elements of the underwater relief (basins, ocean ridges, gutters).
- Capitals and major cities.
Three continents (North and South America, Antarctica) and three oceans (Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic) are shown on the map of the Western hemisphere of the Earth, four continents (Eurasia, Africa, Australia and Antarctica) and four oceans (Arctic are shown on the map of the Eastern hemisphere , Atlantic, Pacific and Indian).
How to read a physical map
Any geographical map has its own specific language. Knowing this language, you can learn to read it correctly. First of all, you should pay attention to the scale of the map. Most often, it is placed in the upper left corner of the sheet. The scale is indicated not only in the numerical version, but also in the linear one, so that the process of determining distances from the map is as convenient as possible.
There are not too many symbols on the physical map of the hemispheres (as a rule, no more than two dozen). Thus, rivers are indicated by dark blue lines, lakes and reservoirs - spots of blue. Mainland ice and eternal snows are shown using parallel rows of blue dots. Such a “pattern” covers most of Antarctica and Greenland.
On physical maps you can find some other conventional signs (see photo below). The relief on them is displayed using various shades. This should be described in more detail below.
Displaying terrain on a physical map
Under each physical map, a so-called scale of heights and depths with numerical marks in meters is necessarily placed. The shape of the earth's surface is indicated by different colors, depending on the absolute height of the area. Thus, the lowlands are shown in green, the hills are yellow, the mountain systems and ranges are orange or dark brown.
The same goes for the depths. The shallow ocean floor is indicated by a light blue hue. But the deep sections are shown in more saturated blue. Here the principle is this: the deeper - the darker the color.
The absolute elevations of individual points on the land surface are indicated in black, and the depths of the seas and oceans in blue.