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.

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

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.

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/

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.

The Minnesota Elevation mapping project was developed by the Minnesota Digital Elevation Mapping Committee and executed by Minnesota State agencies with the assistance of the federal government county governments to acquire a highly accurate land surface elevation dataset for the State of Minnesota. High accuracy elevation data are essential to improving water quality, improving disaster prepar...

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: ftp://lidar.dnr.state.mn.us/documentation/status/metro_data_delivery_dates.pdf Data are in the UTM Zone 15 coordinate system, NAD83 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 two additional products: two-foot contours and building outlines. Note: This metadata record was created at the Minnesota Geospatial Information Office using information supplied by the vendor and by DNR. Dakota County staff have clipped by buffer around this community and also provided additional datasets beyond the named 1-Foot Contours; 1 and 3-meter DEMs and 1 and 3-meter Hillshades.

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.

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).

Digital Elevation Model of Scott County, Minnesota.

This 30 Meter Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is a copy of the USGS 1:24,000 scale Level 2 DEMs for the State.

There are three quadrangles known be be Level 1 DEM data: Town Line Lake (q1925), Grand Portage (q1261) and Grand Portage OE N (q1161).

This file geodatabase contains datasets that represent elevation data.

The following links can be used to obtain individual metadata pages:

Contour: elev_contour.html

Layered GeoPDF 7.5 Minute Quadrangle Map. Layers of geospatial data include orthoimagery, roads, grids, geographic names, elevation contours, hydrography, and other selected map features.

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.

This location is part of the Arizona Mineral Industry Location System (AzMILS), an inventory of mineral occurences, prospects and mine locations in Arizona. SantaCruz164A is located in T23S R16E Sec 31 NW in the Nogales - 15 Min quad. This collection consists of various reports, maps, records and related materials acquired by the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources regarding mining properties in Arizona. Information was obtained by various means, including the property owners, exploration companies, consultants, verbal interviews, field visits, newspapers and publications. Some sections may be redacted for copyright. Please see the access statement.

Geographic Extent: Approximately 11,485 square miles in southwest Minnesota.

MN_RiverWest_1 (Work Unit 300408) - covering approximately 4151 square miles MN_RiverWest_2 (Work Unit 300409) - covering approximately 3170 square miles MN_RiverWest_3 (Work Unit 300410) - covering approximately 4164 square miles

Dataset Description of Original Data: LIDAR-derived binary (.las) files containin...

The vertical land change activity focuses on the detection, analysis, and explanation of topographic change. These detection techniques include both quantitative methods, for example, using difference metrics derived from multi-temporal topographic digital elevation models (DEMs), such as, light detection and ranging (lidar), National Elevation Dataset (NED), Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IFSAR), and qualitative methods, for example, using multi-temporal aerial photography to visualize topographic change. The geographic study areas of this activity are in Itasca and St. Louis counties in the northern Minnesota Mesabi Iron Range. Available multi-temporal lidar, NED, SRTM, IFSAR, and other topographic elevation datasets, as well as aerial photography and multi-spectral image data were identified and downloaded for these study area counties. Mining (vector) features were obtained from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and St. Louis Government Services Center. These features were used to spatially locate the study areas within Itasca and St. Louis counties. Previously developed differencing methods (Gesch, 2006) were used to develop difference raster datasets of NED/SRTM (1947-2000 date range) and SRTM/IFSAR (2000-2008 date range). The difference rasters were evaluated to exclude difference values that were below a specified vertical change threshold, which was applied spatially by National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) 1992 and 2006 land cover type, respectively. This spatial application of the vertical change threshold values improved the overall ability to detect vertical change because threshold values in bare earth areas were distinguished from threshold values in heavily vegetated areas.High-resolution (1-3 m) DEMs, generated from lidar point cloud data, were acquired for Itasca and St. Louis counties in Minnesota from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. ESRI Mosaic Datasets were generated from lidar point-cloud data and available topographic DEMs for the specified study areas. These data were analyzed to estimate volumetric changes on the land surface at three different periods with lidar acquisitions occurring for Itasca County between April 5, 2012 to April 28, 2012 and St. Louis County between May 3, 2011 to June 1, 2011. A recent difference raster dataset time span (2007-2012 date range) was analyzed by differencing the Minnesota lidar-derived DEMs and an IFSAR-derived dataset. The IFSAR-derived data were resampled to the resolution of the lidar DEM (approximately 1-m resolution) and compared with the lidar-derived DEM. Land cover based threshold values were applied spatially to detect vertical change using the lidar/IFSAR difference dataset. Itasca County included metadata describing vertical root mean square error (RMSE) values for different land cover types. This allowed additional refinement of the spatially explicit threshold values. A single RMSE value was used for St. Louis County because RMSE values for land cover types were not provided.References: Gesch, Dean B., 2006, An inventory and assessment of significant topographic changes in the United States Brookings, S. Dak., South Dakota State University, Ph.D. dissertation, 234 p, at https://topotools.cr.usgs.gov/pdfs/DGesch_dissertation_Nov2006.pdf.

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.

This dataset contains an inventory of landslides in many of the most landslide-prone parts of Minnesota. This project was created to improve our understanding of the landslide hazard in Minnesota and to provide a nearly statewide base map of landslide data. The mapping was performed by geologists from the U.S. Geological Survey, the Freshwater Society, and several academic institutions where undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty performed mapping. Contributing academic institution include the University of Minnesota Duluth, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, the University of Wisconsin-Superior, Gustavus Adolphus College, Winona State University, Minnesota State University, Mankato, St. Thomas University, and North Dakota State University. These landslides were identified using several methods. These include analysis of historical records, direct field observation, location using satellite or aerial imagery, and identification in topographic data products der ...