2-foot and 10-foot elevation contours derived from the Spring 2012 Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR) LiDAR dataset.

The Minnesota Geospatial Image Service provides versatile access to the USGS Topographic Map Series layers (DRG format) using a Web Map Service (WMS). Using this service eliminates the need to download and store these background layers locally. Three scales of USGS topographic maps are available through this service: 1:250,000, 1:100,000, and 1:24,000. The maps are 1949-1994 vintage.

For more information:
- How to use a WMS: https://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/chouse/wms/how_to_use_wms.html
- Technical specifications for using this service: https://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/chouse/wms/wms_image_server_specs.html
- About topo maps: https://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/chouse/elevation/topo_maps.html
- USGS services providing access to current topo maps: https://apps.nationalmap.gov/services/

MnTOPO is a web application for viewing, printing and downloading
high-resolution elevation data for the State of Minnesota that was collected using LiDAR technology. It runs on a variety of devices including desktop PCs, tablets, and mobile phones. The data you see and download in MnTOPO was made possible by the Minnesota elevation mapping project. MnTOPO is a collaborative effort between staff from the Minnesota
Information Technology (MN.IT) @ Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and MN.IT @ Minnesota Geospatial Information Office (MnGeo). Funding was provided by the Clean Water Fund of the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment.

The elevation contours in this dataset have a 2-foot (ft) interval and were derived from a digital elevation model (DEM) of beach topography and near-shore bathymetry of Lake Superior at Minnesota Point, Duluth, Minnesota. The DEM has a 10-meter (m; 32.8084 feet) cell size and was created from a LAS dataset of terrestrial light detection and ranging (lidar) data representing the beach topography and multibeam sonar data representing the bathymetry to approximately 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) offshore, for an approximately 2.27 square kilometer surveyed area. Lidar data were collected July 23, 2020 using a boat mounted Velodyne unit. Multibeam sonar data were collected July 20th and 23rd, 2020 using a Norbit integrated wide band multibeam system compact (iWBMSc) sonar unit.

NCED is currently involved in researching the effectiveness of anaglyph maps in the classroom and are working with educators and scientists to interpret various Earth-surface processes. Based on the findings of the research, various activities and interpretive information will be developed and available for educators to use in their classrooms. Keep checking back with this website because activities and maps are always being updated. We believe that anaglyph maps are an important tool in helping students see the world and are working to further develop materials and activities to support educators in their use of the maps.

This website has various 3-D maps and supporting materials that are available for download. Maps can be printed, viewed on computer monitors, or projected on to screens for larger audiences. Keep an eye on our website for more maps, activities and new information. Let us know how you use anaglyph maps in your classroom. Email any ideas or activities you have to ncedmaps@umn.edu

Anaglyph paper maps are a cost effective offshoot of the GeoWall Project. Geowall is a high end visualization tool developed for use in the University of Minnesota's Geology and Geophysics Department. Because of its effectiveness it has been expanded to 300 institutions across the United States. GeoWall projects 3-D images and allows students to see 3-D representations but is limited because of the technology. Paper maps are a cost effective solution that allows anaglyph technology to be used in classroom and field-based applications.

Maps are best when viewed with RED/CYAN anaglyph glasses!

A note on downloading: "viewable" maps are .jpg files; "high-quality downloads" are .tif files. While it is possible to view the latter in a web-browser in most cases, the download may be slow. As an alternative, try right-clicking on the link to the high-quality download and choosing "save" from the pop-up menu that results. Save the file to your own machine, then try opening the saved copy. This may be faster than clicking directly on the link to open it in the browser.

World Map: 3-D map that highlights oceanic bathymetry and plate boundaries.

Continental United States: 3-D grayscale map of the Lower 48.

Western United States: 3-D grayscale map of the Western United States with state boundaries.

Regional Map: 3-D greyscale map stretching from Hudson Bay to the Central Great Plains. This map includes the Western Great Lakes and the Canadian Shield.

Minnesota Map: 3-D greyscale map of Minnesota with county and state boundaries.

Twin Cities: 3-D map extending beyond Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Twin Cities Confluence Map: 3-D map highlighting the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. This map includes most of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Minneapolis, MN: 3-D topographical map of South Minneapolis.

Bassets Creek, Minneapolis: 3-D topographical map of the Bassets Creek watershed.

North Minneapolis: 3-D topographical map highlighting North Minneapolis and the Mississippi River.

St. Paul, MN: 3-D topographical map of St. Paul.

Western Suburbs, Twin Cities: 3-D topographical map of St. Louis Park, Hopkins and Minnetonka area.

Minnesota River Valley Suburbs, Twin Cities: 3-D topographical map of Bloomington, Eden Prairie and Edina area.

Southern Suburbs, Twin Cities: 3-D topographical map of Burnsville, Lakeville and Prior Lake area.

Southeast Suburbs, Twin Cities: 3-D topographical map of South St. Paul, Mendota Heights, Apple Valley and Eagan area.

Northeast Suburbs, Twin Cities: 3-D topographical map of White Bear Lake, Maplewood and Roseville area.

Northwest Suburbs, Mississippi River, Twin Cities: 3-D topographical map of North Minneapolis, Brooklyn Center and Maple Grove area.

Blaine, MN: 3-D map of Blaine and the Mississippi River.

White Bear Lake, MN: 3-D topographical map of White Bear Lake and the surrounding area.

Maple Grove, MN: 3-D topographical mmap of the NW suburbs of the Twin Cities.

This dataset is a digital elevation model (DEM) of the beach topography of Lake Superior at Minnesota Point, Duluth, Minnesota. The DEM has a 1-meter (m; 3.28084 foot [ft]) cell size and was created from a LAS dataset of terrestrial light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data with an average point spacing of 0.137 m (0.45 ft). LiDAR data were collected August 10, 2019 using a boat-mounted Optech ILRIS scanner and methodology similar to that described by Huizinga and Wagner (2019).

This dataset is a digital elevation model (DEM) of the beach topography of Lake Superior at the Duluth Entry, Duluth, Minnesota. The DEM has a 1-meter (m; 3.28084 feet) cell size and was created from a LAS dataset of terrestrial light detection and ranging (lidar) data representing the beach topography. Lidar data were collected September 23, 2020 using a boat mounted Velodyne unit. Multibeam sonar data were collected September 22-23, 2020 using a Norbit integrated wide band multibeam system compact (iWBMSc) sonar unit. Methodology similar to Wagner, D.M., Lund, J.W., and Sanks, K.M., 2020 was used.

Fugro Horizons Inc. acquired highly accurate Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) elevation data for the Twin Cities metropolitan region in east-central Minnesota in Spring and Fall 2011, with some reflights in Spring 2012. The data cover Anoka, Benton, Carver, Dakota, Goodhue, Hennepin, Isanti, Kanabec, Meeker, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Ramsey, Scott, Sherburne and Washington counties.

Most of the data was collected at 1.5 points/square meter. Smaller areas were collected with 2 points/square meter and with 8 points/square meter:
1. 1.5 points/square meter covers Morrison, Mille Lacs, Benton, Isanti, Sherburne, Anoka, Meeker, Hennepin, Washington, Carver, Scott, and Goodhue counties.
2. 2 points/square meter covers the Dakota Block (southern 2/3 of Dakota County)
3. 8 points/square meter covers portions of Minneapolis/St. Paul and the City of Maple Grove
See map of block boundaries: https://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/chouse/elevation/metro_data_delivery_dates.pdf

Data are in the UTM Zone 15 coordinate system, NAD83 (HARN), NAVD88 Geoid09, meters. The tiling scheme is 16th USGS 1:24,000 quadrangle tiles.

The vendor delivered the data to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in several formats:

1. One-meter digital elevation model
2. Edge-of-water breaklines
3. Classified LAS formatted point cloud data

DNR staff quality-checked the data and created three additional products: two-foot contours, building outlines and hillshades.

This metadata record was created at the Minnesota Geospatial Information Office using information supplied by the vendor and by DNR.

This dataset is a pre-nourishment digital elevation model (DEM) of the beach topography of Minnesota Point near the Duluth Entry of Lake Superior, Duluth, Minnesota. The DEM has a 1-meter (m; 3.28084 feet) cell size and was created from a LAS dataset of terrestrial light detection and ranging (lidar) data representing the beach topography. Lidar data were collected June 24, 2021, using a boat mounted Velodyne VLP-16 unit. Methodology similar to Wagner, D.M., Lund, J.W., and Sanks, K.M., 2020 was used.

Digital Elevation Model of Scott County, Minnesota.

This map shows the elevation of the bedrock surface (Bedrock topography) across the state of Minnesota. This is important geologic information in identifying potential sources of groundwater and pollution sensitivity. The bedrock surface is an erosional surface comprised of Cretaceous (Mesozoic) rocks and sediments, Paleozoic rocks, and Precambrian rocks. This bedrock topography data is a raster showing elevation of the bedrock surface, in feet, across the state of Minnesota and includes that part of Minnesota that lies in the western part of the Lake Superior basin. It does not include tribal areas of Grand Portage and Mille Lac as per the MGS's agreements with the tribes.

Countour lines from LiDAR data - 10' and 2' lines. Data within Carlton County, MN as collected by State of MN LiDAR project. More information about the LiDAR project can be found at http://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/committee/elevation/mn_elev_mapping.html

DEM and Hillshade (HS) data within the Carlton County, MN area. Data from State of MN LiDAR project. More information can be found about the LiDAR project at http://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/committee/elevation/mn_elev_mapping.html

Grid image of bedrock topography in Minnesota. Gridded values are of the elevation of the bedrock topographic surface. This surface includes the top of Cretaceous rocks. Units are feet above mean sea level. The grid was generated in 2010 from drill hole data and hand-drawn contours in some areas, also derived from drill hole data. The data are available as ArcGIS layer file and Web Coverage Service (WCS) for raster coverage. This resource was provided by the Minnesota Geological Survey and made available for distribution through the National Geothermal Data System.

A digital raster graphic (DRG) is a scanned image of an U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) standard series topographic map, including all map collar information. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Universal Transverse Mercator projection. The horizontal positional accuracy and datum of the DRG matches the accuracy and datum of the source map. The map is scanned at a minimum resolution of 250 dots per inch.

DRG's are created by scanning published paper maps on high-resolution scanners. The raster image is georeferenced and fit to the UTM projection. Colors are standardized to remove scanner limitations and artifacts. The average data set size is about 6 megabytes in Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) with PackBits compression. DRG's can be easily combined with other digital cartographic products such as digital elevation models (DEM) and digital orthophoto quadrangles (DOQ).

DRG's are stored as rectified TIFF files in geoTIFF format. GeoTIFF is a relatively new TIFF image storage format that incorporates georeferencing information in the header. This allows software, such as ArcView, ARC/INFO, or EPPL7 to reference the image without an additional header or world file.

Within the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Core GIS data set the DRG's have been processed to be in compliance with departmental data standards (UTM Extended Zone 15, NAD83 datum) and the map collar information has been removed to facilitate the display of the DRG's in a seamless fashion.

These DRG's were clipped and transformed to UTM Zone 15 using EPPL7 Raster GIS.

This map shows the elevation of the bedrock surface (Bedrock topography) across the state of Minnesota. This is important geologic information in identifying potential sources of groundwater and pollution sensitivity. The bedrock surface is an erosional surface comprised of Cretaceous (Mesozoic) rocks and sediments, Paleozoic rocks, and Precambrian rocks. This bedrock topography data is a raster showing elevation of the bedrock surface, in feet, across the state of Minnesota and includes that part of Minnesota that lies in the western part of the Lake Superior basin.

This dataset represents post-nourishment digital elevation models (DEMs) of the beach topography and near-shore bathymetry of Minnesota Point near the Duluth Entry of Lake Superior, Duluth, Minnesota. The Lidar DEM has a 1-meter (m; 3.28084 feet) cell size and was created from a LAS dataset of terrestrial light detection and ranging (lidar) data representing the beach topography. The topobathy DEMs have a 10-meter (m; 32.8084 feet) or a 5-meter (m; 16.4042 feet) cell size, and were created from a combined LAS dataset of lidar data representing the beach topography, and single-beam and multibeam sonar data representing the bathymetry. The survey area extends approximately 1 kilometers (0.62 miles) offshore, for an approximate 2.27 square kilometer surveyed area. Lidar data were collected using a boat mounted Velodyne VLP-16 unit. Multibeam sonar data were collected using a Norbit integrated wide band multibeam system compact (iWBMSc) sonar unit. Single-beam sonar data were collected using a Ceescope sonar unit. All elevation data were collected September 15-17, 2021. Methodology similar to Wagner, D.M., Lund, J.W., and Sanks, K.M., 2020 was used.

This dataset represents post-nourishment digital elevation models (DEMs) of the beach topography and near-shore bathymetry of Minnesota Point near the Duluth Entry of Lake Superior, Duluth, Minnesota. The Lidar DEM has a 1-meter (m; 3.28084 feet) cell size and was created from a LAS dataset of terrestrial light detection and ranging (lidar) data representing the beach topography. The topobathy DEMs have a 10-meter (m; 32.8084 feet) or a 5-meter (m; 16.4042 feet) cell size, and were created from a combined LAS dataset of lidar data representing the beach topography, and single-beam and multibeam sonar data representing the bathymetry. The survey area extends approximately 1 kilometers (0.62 miles) offshore, for an approximate 2.27 square kilometer surveyed area. Lidar data were collected using a boat mounted Velodyne VLP-16 unit. Multibeam sonar data were collected using a Norbit integrated wide band multibeam system compact (iWBMSc) sonar unit. Single-beam sonar data were collected using a Ceescope sonar unit. All elevation data were collected September 15-17, 2021. Methodology similar to Wagner, D.M., Lund, J.W., and Sanks, K.M., 2020 was used.

Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Service Protocol: Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Application Profile: Web Browser. Link Function: information

These data are digital elevation models (DEMs) of the beach topography and near-shore bathymetry of Lake Superior at Minnesota Point near the Duluth Entry, Duluth, Minnesota. A LAS dataset was used to create DEMs of 10 meter (m; 32.8084 feet) and 1 m (3.28084 feet) resolution, covering the approximately 1.75 square kilometer surveyed area. Average point spacing of the LAS files in the dataset are as follows: lidar, 0.094 meters (m); multibeam sonar, 0.501 m; single-beam sonar, 1.876 m. Lidar data were collected August 22, 2022 using a boat mounted Velodyne VLP-16 unit and methodology similar to that described by Huizinga and Wagner (2019). Multibeam sonar data were collected August 22-23, 2022 using a Norbit integrated wide band multibeam system compact (iWBMSc) sonar unit and methodology similar to that described by Richards and Huizinga (2018). Single-beam sonar data were collected August 23, 2022 using a Ceescope echosounder and methodology similar to that described by Wilson and Richards (2006). This project followed similar methods to that of Wagner, Lund, and Sanks (2020), who completed a similar survey in 2019.