Geology: Maps

The National Map is a collection of products and services that provide access to base geospatial information to show the landscape of the United States and its territories. The National Map websites allows users to create, view and print topographic maps, download geospatial data, or find the latitude and longitude of a specific place on a map. (Use Options to change how latitude and longitude are shown). Data is available at a variety of scales.

An index to over 2-million place names in the United States and U.S. Territories that appear on 7.5" topographic maps. This site can be used to identify the name(s) of maps that show a particular feature or location.

A guide to symbols used on U.S. topographic maps.

Teaches about visualizing objects from different perspectives and how to understand and use maps. Appropriate for K-3.

Teaches about how maps are made, map-reading skills and the types of questions that maps can answer: Location (Where am I?), orientation (What else is here?) and navigation (Where am I going or How do I get to?). Grades 8-12.

Teaches students to understand and use maps and the types of information that can be found on maps. Appropriate for grades 4-8.

A guide to 7.5-minute topographic maps showing areas in Illinois. Includes symbols and colors and landforms.

A site with reference data for Illinois, including Digital Raster Graphics (DRGs), which are digital versions of topographic maps for Illinois that can be downloaded from this site for use in GIS.