Reading Topo Maps- Reading Reflection Week 2

The article I chose to use for this weeks reading reflection pertained to the organization and reading of topographic maps and interpreting all the symbols and labels included upon them. The article provided a detailed description of specific areas of the maps indicating the quadrangle the map was taken in, how to read the contour intervals and how to locate where the specific map was located inside of the United States. Once the basics of the legend and the labeling of the map was given the article began to focus more on the interpretation of contours.

The last several pages give a brief but quite informative description of how contour lines work, from the rule that they will never cross to how to decide what the interval is between each line. Figure 2-12 is a visual of how the contour lines correlate to three dimensional image of the landscape. Additionally a few simple rules as the orientation of contours on maps and what they generally mean is given. The last portion of the paper gives a step by step how to on the contour interval. Most of this information you are given and expected to learn in the classes we have taken thus far but as  result of reviewing this article I feel like some points have been solidified and the review was quite helpful.