Research Guides: Map Resources: Topographic Maps

Soil Surveys

Soil Surveys at Purdue

The most current Soil Surveys can be viewed at Web Soil Survey, supported by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
Many of the earlier editions of the county soil surveys for the state of Indiana are available; they are located in Print Repositories, which is in the basement of the Hicks Undergraduate Library

Tapestry of Time and Terrain

A Tapestry of Time and Terrain
USGS has compiled existing topographic and geologic maps of the lower 48 states into a single digital tapestry. The new map resembles traditional 3-D perspective drawings of landscapes with the addition of a fourth dimension, geologic time, which is shown in color. This union of topographic texture with the patterns defined by units of geologic time creates a visual synthesis that has escaped most prior attempts to combine shaded relief with a second characteristic shown by color, commonly height above sea level (already implicit in the shaded relief). In mutually enhancing the landscape and its underlying temporal structure, this digital tapestry outlines the geologic story of continental collision and break-up, mountain-building, river erosion and deposition, ice-cap glaciation, volcanism, and other events and processes that have shaped the region over the last 2.6 billion years.

The National Map

For more than 125 years, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) topographic maps have accurately portrayed the complex geography of the Nation. The USGS is the largest producer of printed topographic maps, and, prior to 2009, USGS topographic maps were created using traditional cartographic methods and printed using the lithographic printing process.

Because historical maps are stored in a limited number of collections and are not readily available, the USGS National Geospatial Program (NGP) is converting these historical printed topographic quadrangles to an electronic format (GeoPDF). This scanning and processing effort serves the dual purpose of creating a master catalog and digital archive copies of the irreplaceable collection of topographic maps in the USGS Reston Map Library as well as making the maps available for viewing and download from the USGS Store.

The loading of the more than 200,000 historical maps to the USGS Store has begun, and there are currently 90,000 GeoPDF maps available to download and view. The number of available files, at different published scales, will continue to grow throughout the next year.

Historical Topographic Maps - Preserving the Past
More than 178,000 historical topographic maps of the United States.
USGS Store: Maps

US Topo

National Geographic PDF Quads Generator
National Geographic has built an easy to use web interface that allows anyone to quickly find any quad in the country for downloading and printing. Each quad has been pre-processed to print on a standard home, letter size printer. These are the same quads that were printed by USGS for decades on giant bus-sized pressed but are now available in multi-page PDFs that can be printed just about anywhere. They are pre-packaged using the standard 7.5 minute, 1:24,000 base but with some twists:

- Page 1 is an overview map showing the Quad in context
- Pages 2 through 5 are the standard USGS Quads cut in quarters to fit on standard printers
- Hillshading has been added to each page of the PDF to help visualize the topography
US Topo: Maps for America
The US Topo series is the current generation of maps of the American landscape. These maps are modeled on the familiar 7.5-minute quadrangle maps of the period 1947-1992, but are mass-produced from national GIS databases on a repeating cycle. US Topo maps repackage geographic information system (GIS) data in traditional map form; this benefits non-specialist map users, as well as applications that need traditional maps.

National Atlas

National Map Viewer (USGS)
The National Map Viewer (TNM Viewer) is the one-stop destination for visualizing all the latest National Map data. It uses easy to navigate foundational base maps and makes it simple to interact with all our data themes to create your own map.

ASTER Global Topographic Data

ASTER: Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer
A joint project of the United States and Japan, the new Aster data covers 99 percent of Earth's landmass, from 83 degrees north latitude and 83 degrees south. Each elevation measurement point in the new data is 30 meters (98 feet) apart.

Shuttle Radar Topography Map

Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)
The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) obtained elevation data on a near-global scale to generate the most complete high-resolution digital topographic database of Earth. SRTM consisted of a specially modified radar system that flew onboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour during an 11-day mission in February of 2000.