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Kansas Geological Survey, Educational Series 6, originally published in 1988
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Maps

Suppose you wanted to see the sights of Kansas or look for a fossil or two. Where would you begin? When Coronado and his men began their search for gold in 1541, they had to depend on Indian guides and natural landmarks such as rivers and hills to keep them on course. If good maps of the territory had been available, Coronado could have checked them out, discovered that Quivira had no gold, stayed home, and avoided aching feet and saddle sores.

In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory, which included most of Kansas, from France. Wanting to find out more about the newly acquired land, the U.S. government sent explorers out to investigate. Lewis and Clark headed out in 1804, and Zebulon Pike made the trip in 1806. Pike was unimpressed with the nearly treeless prairie of the Great Plains and called it the "Great American Desert."

Stephen Long, who visited the area in 1819-1820, produced an early map of Kansas. Using Pike's description, he included the label "Great American Desert" on his map. Even though the area was covered by prairie grasslands and not a desert, the name remained on many maps until the 1860's.

Figure 44. When Kansas was still a territory, it included land all the way to the Rocky Mountains. This map was drawn in 1855 (photo courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society).

When Kansas was still a territory, it included land all the way to the Rocky Mountains.

Long's and other early mapmakers' interpretations of the area were simple and not very accurate. They lacked the time and equipment to make better ones. As more people came to Kansas and the surrounding territory, they became familiar with the area and maps became more reliable.

pen and ink drawing of two deer.

Early maps were made primarily to help people find their way through unfamiliar territory. Many modern maps serve the same purpose. One of the most common maps, the road map, shows major roads, rivers, lakes, landmarks, other places of interest, and distances between cities.

Road maps are good for travelers, but other types of maps also are needed. Geologists, paleontologists, road builders, architects, city planners, and others need to know more details about the land. They use topographic maps, which, like road maps, show county boundaries, cities, roads, rivers, and lakes. But topographic maps also show hills, mountains, valleys, plains, plateaus, and other landforms. Together, all of these ups and downs form the lay of the land, which is known as the topography.

Hills and valleys and other landforms are represented on a topographic map with curved lines called contour lines. Each line represents a certain height above sea level. Sea level is the average level of all the oceans in the world. It is used as a base to measure the height of the land, which varies from place to place.

The distance above sea level at a particular point is called the elevation. If you were standing on a sea shore, you would be approximately at sea level. The elevation of the top of a hill rising 10 feet from the flat beach would be 10 feet above sea level. Even though some areas of land can be below sea level, all land in Kansas is above sea level ranging from about 700 feet in the southeast to over 4,000 feet in the west.

Figure 45. The photograph and topographic map both show Twin Peaks in the Red Hills of south-central Kansas. On the map, the hills are represented by contour lines. The closer together the lines are, the steeper the slope. Flat areas have few contour lines. The photograph was taken from the northwest. The northern peak on the map is to the left in the photograph and the southern peak is to the right (map courtesy of the United States Geological Survey, Medicine Lodge SW 7 1/2-minute quadrangle, scale 1:24,000).

The photograph and topographic map both show Twin Peaks in the Red Hills of south-central Kansas.

Many other types of maps besides road maps and topographic maps have been made. Maps can be flat or round, like a globe. Some are sketchy and not very accurate. Others are much more detailed and extremely precise. You can fit small ones into your pocket and barely fit some big ones on your wall.

Maps can guide you around the world or into outer space. But even if you stay in just one state, such as Kansas, maps can lead you to an endless number of places. Next time you ramble through the hills and plains of Kansas in search of mosasaurs, camels, or large woolly mammoths, take a map. You may not know exactly where you're going or what you're going to see along the way, but you'll know where you are once you get there.

Figure 46. This is what North America looked like at one point during the Cretaceous Period about 100 million years ago when a sea covered part of Kansas. Can you find Kansas? Click on the map to see!

Map of North America as it appeared during Cretaceous time.

Figure 48. Elevations across Kansas were plotted on this map using a computer. The map shows that the eastern border is lower in elevation than the western border. Hills and flat areas throughout the state also are shown.

Elevations across Kansas were plotted on this map using a computer.

Glossary

BED--A layer of rock in the Earth. Also the bottom of a body of water such as a river, lake, or sea.

BLUFF--A high and steep bank or cliff.

BUTTE--A steep-sided hill with steep sides that usually stands away from other hills.

CHAT--Small pieces of crushed rock and gravel. May be used for paving roads and roofs.

CUESTA--A hill with a steep slope on one side and a gentle slope on the other. Cuesta is the Spanish word for cliff.

DELTA--A deposit of sand and other sediment, usually triangular in shape. Deltas form at the mouths of rivers where the water flows into the sea.

DEPOSITION--The laying down of sediment such as sand, soil, clay, or gravel by wind or water. It may later be compacted into hard rock and buried by other sediment.

ERA--A unit of geologic time usually lasting hundreds of millions of years. Eras are divided into smaller units of geologic time called periods.

EROSION--The wearing away, breaking down, or dissolving of rock and other material by wind or water. The eroded material is often carried off and deposited in other areas.

ESCARPMENT--A steep slope or cliff.

EVAPORITE--Sediment deposited when sea water evaporates. Gypsum, salt, and anhydrite are evaporites left behind when ancient Kansas seas dried up.

EXTINCT--No longer existing. Many types or species of animals, such as dinosaurs, lived in the past but are found no where in the world today. They are extinct.

FAULT--A fracture or break in underground rock along which one or both sides move. Movement along faults may produce earthquakes.

FOSSIL--The outline, traces, or body part of a plant or animal that has been preserved in rock. Animal tracks preserved in rocks are also fossils.

GEOLOGY--The study of the Earth, what it's made of, and how it changes over time.

GLACIER--A moving mass of ice.

IGNEOUS ROCK--Rock that forms when a hot liquid (magma) cools and hardens.

INORGANIC--Not made of or derived from living matter. Minerals are inorganic.

INTRUSION--An igneous rock formed from magma that pushed its way through other rock layers. Magma often moves through rock fractures, where it cools and hardens.

LAVA--Hot molten rock (magma) that has reached the Earth's surface after flowing out of volcanoes or cracks in the earth.

MAGMA--Hot, liquid rock. Igneous rocks are formed when magma cools.

MARINE--Relating to the sea. Native to or formed by the sea.

MESA--A flat-topped hill with steep sides.

METAMORPHIC ROCK--Rock that has changed from one form to another by heat or pressure.

METEOR--Small bodies of matter, such as rocks, traveling in space. They are heated and often disintegrate after entering the Earth's atmosphere.

METEORITE--Stony or metallic material of a meteor that has survived passage through the Earth's atmosphere and reached the Earth's surface.

ORGANIC--Made from or derived from living matter. Coal is made from plants, which are organic.

OUTCROP--A natural exposure of a rock bed at the Earth's surface.

PALEONTOLOGY--The study of ancient life based on the examination of plant and animal fossils.

PERIOD--A unit of geologic time. Several periods make up an era.

PERMEABLE--Capable of being penetrated by fluid. Permeable rocks have interconnecting pores, or holes, that water can pass through.

PETROGLYPH--An ancient drawing carved on a rock.

POROUS--Having holes or pores that allow passage of gas or liquid. Porous rocks may contain gas, oil, or water.

ROAD CUT--A location where rock or dirt, usually on a hill, is cut away to make room for a road.

SEDIMENT--Rock or other material that has been worn or broken into small pieces. Sediment is often carried from its original location by wind or water and deposited in other areas.

SEDIMENTARY ROCK--Rocks formed from sediment, broken rocks, or organic matter. Many sedimentary rocks are formed when wind or water deposits sediment into the layers, which are pressed together by more layers of sediment, forming underground beds of rocks.

SINKHOLE--A natural dip or hole in the ground formed when underground salt or other rocks are dissolved by water and the ground above collapses into the empty space.

SUBSURFACE--Underground. Below the Earth's surface.

TOPOGRAPHY--Physical features, such as hills, valleys, and plains that shape the surface of the Earth.

UPLIFT--An upheaval. Elevation or raising of part of the Earth's surface through forces within the Earth.


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Kansas Geological Survey
Placed on web Feb 11, 2016; originally published 1988, reprinted 1995.
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The URL for this page is http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/Bulletins/ED4/05_maps.html