Mason Harp's Maps

I chose to compare Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) of the Island of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. I chose this area because it is easy to focus on the elevation of an island due to the surrounding ocean.

Map 1 is a hillshade map of Hawaii. It has a vertical exaggeration of seven. This is a relatively high vertical exaggeration, although it was the best choice for my map. This is likely due to the terrain being small but very abundant. As the elevation increases towards the peaks, especially Mauna Loa, we see the land is bare. This is due to the Volcano’s eruption of magma creating volcanic rock.

Map 2 is a chromadepth map of Hawaii. There are six layers of different ranges of elevation sorted into different colors: purple the highest, red, yellow, green, cyan, and blue being the lowest. The highest peaks are around 4500m in height. I can suggest there are similar types of terrain/soils/flora in each of these chromadepth levels.

Map 3 is the overlay of both the hillshade map and chromadepth map. Using the hillshade against the chromadepth lets us see the amount of area each range of elevation has. It also helps us view the amount of shade in each chromadepth level. Putting both maps on top of each other helps us view both types of map more clearly.

Map 4 is the contour map of the Hawaii Island. The contour level is set to 20m. Using this interval can help us estimate the slope around the whole island. Near the edges of the island, the contours are far apart. As we rise in elevation towards peaks, the contours quickly come together meaning a rise in elevation. We can clearly see four peaks across the island of Hawaii.

Map 5 is the hillshade map with a line of sight traveling west over the Volcano Mauna Loa. The latitude/longitude of the western point is N19.4663353˚ W155.759922˚. The latitude/longitude of the eastern point is N19.4934312˚ W155.118184˚. The first point is at an elevation of nearly 2100m. The line of sight travels over the volcano and ends on the eastern side of the volcano at an elevation of around 600m.