Here is a list of the most common maps used in geology, geography, natural sciences, engineering and the most basic maps that you have surely seen even stuck on the walls of your school, college, university and even at home.
Although in this article we describe a large number of maps, the truth is that each branch of engineering has and generates its own types of maps, in fact, every day, with technological advances in geography, it is easier to manufacture new types. of maps.
Finally, it must be remembered that, although generally maps used to be completely represented on paper, currently all kinds of maps can be represented digitally as a “digital map”, in fact, there is specialized software that is responsible for generating digital maps.
Political maps
Political maps are quite common to find stuck in the classrooms of schools, colleges and universities because they are a very basic spatial reference of each country.
They are characterized because they expose the geographical limits between neighboring countries and their territorial and governmental domains.
In addition, if they are large-scale maps, they usually show cities, major roads and some hydrographic features such as oceans, rivers and lakes superficially, all with the aim of providing a quick but effective spatial location.
These types of maps are important because they help people understand the geography of the planet, for this reason they are the first maps that are taught to students and children.
They are also known as reference maps.
Physical maps
Physical maps are those that have been designed or manufactured to show and detail the geographic features of a site or natural landscape on the planet.
In fact, these maps are quite well known because they generally show the topography of a sector, either with the use of colors, reliefs and shading.
Distinctive features of these maps often comprise color schemes ranging from green, brown to gray that generally show the elevation of mountain ranges and plains of the earth.
Thus, dark green colors are used to represent surfaces close to sea level while browns and grays show higher altitudes, for example, mountain ranges.
Bodies of water are also represented on these maps, such as oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, lagoons, etc., and these bodies are precisely represented with light blue and light blue tones.
Also, glaciers are usually denoted with a white color.
Topographic maps
Topographic maps are one of the types most used by various professions and it is because they easily show or represent the shape of the earth’s surface through the use of fine lines that represent the elevations of the terrain.
These lines are known as contour lines or contour lines, each line representing a height or elevation on that part of the terrain.
This type of map is frequently used by geologists, explorers, geographers, cartographers, architects, civil engineers, farmers, biologists, hunters, and by the army.
The topographic maps not only show the contour lines but also accidents and geographical elements such as bodies of water (rivers, lakes, lagoons), populations, cities, roads (primary, secondary), chaquiñanes, second order roads, etc.
Time zone maps
These types of maps are used as a reference to determine the time that countries and regions are in different continents, hemispheres and time zones.
Time zones on maps are regions on the planet where time is usually relatively the same for those regions, and people can set their watches to the indicated time.
By worldwide agreement, these maps represent the 24 time zones that exist as vertical strips, each strip theoretically represents an estimated time in that region.
Geological maps
This type of map is created by geologists, basically representing all the geological features of an area of interest. For example, various rock types, structures such as faults or folds, sedimentary structures such as bedding or stream flows, geochemical anomalies, minerals, volcanoes, dikes, veins, and other features are represented.
All these geological features are mapped in the field by the geologist with the help of a magnifying glass, hammer, scribers and compass.
Then that information is passed to the map and is interpreted according to the use that will be given to the map, for example, it is used in mineral exploration, hydrocarbons (petroleum), geotechnics, civil engineering, urban planning, etc.
Road, track or street maps
Since the birth of the internet, there has been a boom in the creation of maps that contain the road system of countries and even small towns or cities.
Currently Google Maps is the online digital map system that contains the largest amount of information on road maps and travel routes, and several mobile applications such as Uber use these maps to offer their services.
As we can see, these road and route maps have great potential for the future.
Zip Code Maps
Postal code maps are those that are characterized by showing the approximate limit of the postal code areas that are codified in different countries and are used by postal service and delivery companies to find exactly an area to deliver products, which generally they are bought online.
In general, these maps show the neighborhood or part of a city, its streets and references within the area of the zip code by means of a zip code.
Weather maps
The weather maps, unlike the previous maps, are not feasible to be shown or graphed on paper, because the climate is highly variable in a short time, these maps are usually updated digitally by computational and computer systems and algorithms.
They are almost always used to show ambient temperature, humidity, precipitation, forecast storms, wind speed and direction, probability of rain, snow, or sun, among other characteristics.
It is important that this type of map is always constantly updated.
Earthquake and seismic hazard maps
Earthquake or earthquake maps are those that focus their representation on scientific aspects related to the occurrence of earthquakes, their mitigation and impact.
Therefore, it is common for the epicenter of ancient earthquakes that have occurred in a seismic zone to be depicted. Here the geographic location of the earthquake is shown, with its intensity, depth, aftershocks and the date and time it occurred, as well as other characteristics.
The geological faults or the process which generated that earthquake are also represented.
Seismic risk and hazard maps
A specific type of hazard map is the seismic hazard map. Earthquake-related landslide maps, soil liquefaction maps, earthquake probability maps, and ground shaking intensity maps are generated from geological maps with additional information from