Important Note: This item is in mature support as of June 2021 and is no longer updated.

This map presents land cover and detailed topographic maps for the United States. It uses the USA Topographic Map service. The map includes the National Park Service (NPS) Natural Earth physical map at 1.24km per pixel for the world at small scales, i-cubed eTOPO 1:250,000-scale maps for the contiguous United States at medium scales, and National Geographic TOPO! 1:100,000 and 1:24,000-scale maps (1:250,000 and 1:63,000 in Alaska) for the United States at large scales. The TOPO! maps are seamless, scanned images of United States Geological Survey (USGS) paper topographic maps.

The maps provide a very useful basemap for a variety of applications, particularly in rural areas where the topographic maps provide unique detail and features from other basemaps.

To add this map service into a desktop application directly, go to the entry for the USA Topo Maps map service.

Tip: Here are some famous locations as they appear in this web map, accessed by including their location in the URL that launches the map:

Grand Canyon, Arizona

Golden Gate, California

The Statue of Liberty, New York

Washington DC

Canyon De Chelly, Arizona

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Area 51, Nevada

USGS Historical Quadrangle in GeoPDF. The USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (HTMC) is scanning all scales and all editions of topographic maps published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) since the inception of the topographic mapping program in 1884.

From https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/national-geospatial-program/national-map :"The National Map is a suite of products and services that provide access to base geospatial information to describe the landscape of the United States and its territories. The National Map embodies 11 primary products and services and numerous applications and ancillary services. The National Map supports data download, digital and print versions of topographic maps, geospatial data services, and online viewing. Customers can use geospatial data and maps to enhance their recreational experience, make life-saving decisions, support scientific missions, and for countless other activities. Nationally consistent geospatial data from The National Map enable better policy and land management decisions and the effective enforcement of regulatory responsibilities. The National Map is easily accessible for display on the Web through such products as topographic maps and services and as downloadable data. The geographic information available from The National Map includes boundaries, elevation, geographic names, hydrography, land cover, orthoimagery, structures, and transportation. The majority of The National Map effort is devoted to acquiring and integrating medium-scale (nominally 1:24,000 scale) geospatial data for the eight base layers from a variety of sources and providing access to theresulting seamless coverages of geospatial data. The National Map also serves as the source of base mapping information for derived cartographic products, including 1:24,000 scale US Topo maps and georeferenced digital files of scanned historic topographic maps. Data sets and products from The National Map are intended for use by government, industry, and academia—focusing on geographic information system (GIS) users—as well as the public, especially in support of recreation activities. Other types of georeferenced or mapping information can be added within The National Map Viewer or brought in with The National Map data into a GIS to create specific types of maps or map views and (or) to perform modeling or analyses."

description: This map presents land cover imagery for the world and detailed topographic maps for the United States. The map includes the National Park Service (NPS) Natural Earth physical map at 1.24km per pixel for the world at small scales, i-cubed eTOPO 1:250,000-scale maps for the contiguous United States at medium scales, and National Geographic TOPO! 1:100,000 and 1:24,000-scale maps (1:250,000 and 1:63,000 in Alaska) for the United States at large scales. The TOPO! maps are seamless, scanned images of United States Geological Survey (USGS) paper topographic maps. For more information on this map, including our terms of use, visit us online at http://goto.arcgisonline.com/maps/USA_Topo_Maps; abstract: topography, topographic, land cover, physical, TOPO!imageryBaseMapsEarthCover (Imagery, basemaps, and land cover)USA Topo Maps

Layers of geospatial data include contours, boundaries, land cover, hydrography, roads, transportation, geographic names, structures, and other selected map features.

This map is designed to be used as a basemap by GIS professionals and as a reference map by anyone. The map includes administrative boundaries, cities, water features, physiographic features, parks, landmarks, highways, roads, railways, and airports overlaid on land cover and shaded relief imagery for added context. The map provides coverage for the world down to a scale of ~1:72k. Coverage is provided down to ~1:4k for the following areas: Australia and New Zealand; India; Europe; Canada; Mexico; the continental United States and Hawaii; South America and Central America; Africa; and most of the Middle East. Coverage down to ~1:1k and ~1:2k is available in select urban areas. This basemap was compiled from a variety of best available sources from several data providers, including the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. National Park Service (NPS), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Department of Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN), GeoBase, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Garmin, HERE, Esri, OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community. For more information on this map, including the terms of use, visit us online.

The ArcGIS Online US Geological Survey (USGS) topographic map collection now contains over 177,000 historical quadrangle maps dating from 1882 to 2006. The USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer app brings these maps to life through an interface that guides users through the steps for exploring the map collection:Find a location of interest.View the maps.Compare the maps.Download and share the maps or open them in ArcGIS Desktop (ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap) where places will appear in their correct geographic location. Save the maps in an ArcGIS Online web map.

Finding the maps of interest is simple. Users can see a footprint of the map in the map view before they decide to add it to the display, and thumbnails of the maps are shown in pop-ups on the timeline. The timeline also helps users find maps because they can zoom and pan, and maps at select scales can be turned on or off by using the legend boxes to the left of the timeline. Once maps have been added to the display, users can reorder them by dragging them. Users can also download maps as zipped GeoTIFF images. Users can also share the current state of the app through a hyperlink or social media. This ArcWatch article guides you through each of these steps: https://www.esri.com/esri-news/arcwatch/1014/envisioning-the-past.Once signed in, users can create a web map with the current map view and any maps they have selected. The web map will open in ArcGIS Online. The title of the web map will be the same as the top map on the side panel of the app. All historical maps that were selected in the app will appear in the Contents section of the web map with the earliest at the top and the latest at the bottom. Turning the historical maps on and off or setting the transparency on the layers allows users to compare the historical maps over time. Also, the web map can be opened in ArcGIS Desktop (ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap) and used for exploration or data capture.Users can find out more about the USGS topograhic map collection and the app by clicking on the information button at the upper right. This opens a pop-up with information about the maps and app. The pop-up includes a useful link to a USGS web page that provides access to documents with keys explaining the symbols on historic and current USGS topographic maps. The pop-up also has a link to send Esri questions or comments about the map collection or the app.We have shared the updated app on GitHub, so users can download it and configure it to work with their own map collections.

The Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) is a raster image of a scanned USGS topographic map including the collar information, georeferenced to the UTM grid. This version of the Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) has been clipped to remove the collar (white border of the map) and has been reprojected to geographic coordinates.

This Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) was created using scanned U.S. Geological Survey 7.5-minute 1 to 24,000 scale maps georeferenced in Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid. DRGs can be acquired with or without collar information for use in Geographic Information System (GIS) environment. Collarless DRGs can be edge matched creating a continuous collection of topographic maps.

These data are part of a larger USGS project to develop an updated geospatial database of mines, mineral deposits and mineral regions in the United States. Mine and prospect-related symbols, such as those used to represent prospect pits, mines, adits, dumps, tailings, etc., hereafter referred to as “mine” symbols or features, are currently being digitized on a state-by-state basis from the 7.5-minute (1:24, 000-scale) and the 15-minute (1:48, 000 and 1:62,500-scale) archive of the USGS Historical Topographic Maps Collection, or acquired from available databases (California and Nevada, 1:24,000-scale only). Compilation of these features is the first phase in capturing accurate locations and general information about features related to mineral resource exploration and extraction across the U.S. To date, the compilation of 400,000-plus point and polygon mine symbols from approximately 51,000 maps of 17 western states (AZ, CA, CO, ID, KS, MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, OK, OR, SD, UT, WA, WY and western TX) has been completed. The process renders not only a more complete picture of exploration and mining in the western U.S., but an approximate time line of when these activities occurred. The data may be used for land use planning, assessing abandoned mine lands and mine-related environmental impacts, assessing the value of mineral resources from Federal, State and private lands, and mapping mineralized areas and systems for input into the land management process. The data are presented as three groups of layers based on the scale of the source maps. No reconciliation between the data groups was done.

Download US Geological Survey topographic maps in multiple formats, scales, and years, including 1:24,000-scale topo maps, using the USGS topoView web application.Learn how to use topoView: https://youtu.be/UCTIvQqVr4E

This dataset was created to represent the land surface elevation at 1:24,000 scale for Florida. The elevation contour lines representing the land surface elevation were digitized from United States Geological survey 1:24,000 (7.5 minute) quadrangles and were compiled by South Florida, South West Florida, St. Johns River and Suwannee River Water Management Districts and FDEP. QA and corrections to the data were supplied by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Florida Geological Survey and the Division of Water Resource Management. This data, representing over 1,000 USGS topographic maps, spans a variety of contour intervals including 1 and 2 meter and 5 and 10 foot. The elevation values have been normalized to feet in the final data layer. Attributes for closed topographic depressions were also captured where closed (hautchered) features were identified and the lowest elevation determined using the closest contour line minus one-half the contour interval. This data was derived from the USGS 1:24,000 topographic map series. The data is more than 20 years old and is likely out-of-date in areas of high human activity.

U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior - The annual US Topo acquisition plan is to collect topographic map data in the form of US Topo GeoPDF maps over the United States and its territories on a 3-year revision cycle. The FY19 acquisition plan currently anticipates production of 18,500 (or more) US Topo maps this year. Interested parties who wish to become a data acquisition partner with the USGS in FY19 or in future years should contact a USGS Geospatial Liaison - http://liaisons.usgs.gov/geospatial/documents/TNM_Partnership_User_ContactList.pdf.

Topography provides information about the structural controls of the Great Basin and therefore information that may be used to identify favorable structural settings for geothermal systems. Specifically, local relative topography gives information about locations of faults and fault intersections relative to mountains, valleys, or at the transitions between. As part of U.S. Geological Survey efforts to engineer features that are useful for predicting geothermal resources, we construct a detrended elevation map that emphasizes local relative topography and highlights features that geologists use for identifying geothermal systems (i.e., providing machine learning algorithms with features that may improve predictive skill by emphasizing the information used by geologists). Herein, we provide the trend and local relative elevation maps documented in DeAngelo and others (2023), describing the process of removal of the regional trend and the resulting detrended elevation maps that emphasize basin-and-range scale structural features. Regional elevation trends were estimated using a local linear regression and subtracted from a 30-m digital elevation model (DEM) of topography to create the detrended elevation (i.e., local relative topography) map; therefore one could add the detrended surface to the corresponding trend surface to construct the original DEM. In an effort to optimize the detrended surface, alternate versions were produced with different rates of smoothness resulting in three detrended elevation maps. The resulting detrended elevation maps emphasize geologic structure and relative displacement, and these products may be useful for other geologic research including mineral exploration, hydrologic research, and defining geologic provinces. References DeAngelo, J., Burns, E.R., Lindsey, C.R., and Mordensky, S.P., (2023), Detrending Great Basin elevation to identify structural patterns for identifying geothermal favorability, Geothermal Rising Conference Transactions, 47, Reno, Nevada, October 1-5, 2023.

(Link to Metadata) TOPO24K includes a set of GeoTIFFs created from USGS's US Topo GeoPDF product. US Topo maps are a graphic synthesis of The National Map data files and are produced in the familiar 7.5-minute by 7.5- minute geographic format. Modeled on the printed, legacy USGS topographic maps.

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 Vegetation/Ecosystem Modeling and Analysis Project (VEMAP) is an ongoing multiinstitutional, international effort addressing the response of biogeography and biogeochemistry to environmental variability in climate and other drivers in both space and time domains. The objectives of VEMAP are the intercomparison of biogeochemistry models and vegetationtype distribution models (biogeography models) and determination of their sensitivity to changing climate, elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, and other sources of altered forcing. The vegetation data set includes one variable: vegetation type. Vegetation types are defined physiognomically in terms of dominant lifeform and leaf characteristics (including leaf seasonal duration, shape, and size) and, in the case of grasslands, physiologically with respect to dominance of species with the C3 versus C4 photosynthetic pathway. The physiognomic classification criteria are based on our understanding of vegetation characteristics that influence biogeochemical dynamics (Running et al. 1994). The U.S. distribution of these types is based on a 0.5 degree latitude/longitude gridded map of Kuchler's (1964, 1975) potential natural vegetation provided by the TEM group (D. Kicklighter and A.D. McGuire, personal communication). Kuchler's map is based on current vegetation and historical information and, for purposes of VEMAP Phase I model experiments, is presumed to represent potential vegetation under current climate and atmospheric CO2 concentrations (355 ppm). A complete users guide to the VEMAP Phase I database which includes more information about this data set can be found at ftp://daac.ornl.gov/data/vemap-1/comp/Phase_1_User_Guide.pdf. ORNL DAAC maintains additional information associated with the VEMAP Project. Data Citation: This data set should be cited as follows: Kittel, T. G. F., N. A. Rosenbloom, T. H. Painter, D. S. Schimel, H. H. Fisher, A. Grimsdell, VEMAP Participants, C. Daly, and E. R. Hunt, Jr. 1998. VEMAP Phase I Database, revised. Available on-line from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.A.

Link to landing page referenced by identifier. Service Protocol: Link to landing page referenced by identifier. Link Function: information-- dc:identifier.

7.5 Minute Digital Elevation Model for the state of Arizona. Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is the terminology adopted by the USGS to describe terrain elevation data sets in a digital raster form. The standard DEM consists of a regular array of elevations cast on a designated coordinate projection system. The DEM data are stored as a series of profiles in which the spacing of the elevations along and between each profile is in regular whole number intervals. The normal orientation of data is by columns and rows. Each column contains a series of elevations ordered from south to north with the order of the columns from west to east. The DEM is formatted as one ASCII header record (A-record), followed by a series of profile records (B-records) each of which include a short B-record header followed by a series of ASCII integer elevations per each profile. The last physical record of the DEM is an accuracy record (C-record). The DEM for 7.5-minute units correspond to the USGS 1:24000 scale topographic quadrangle map series for all of the United States and its territories. Each 7.5 minute DEM is based on 30- by 30-meter data spacing with Universal Transverse Mercator(UTM) projection. Each 7.5- by 7.5-minute block provides the same coverage as the standard USGS 7.5-minute map series.

Culminating more than four years of processing data, NASA and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) have completed Earth's most extensive global topographic map. The mission is a collaboration among NASA, NGA, and the German and Italian space agencies. For 11 days in February 2000, the space shuttle Endeavour conducted the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) using C-Band and X-Band interferometric synthetic aperture radars to acquire topographic data over 80% of the Earth's land mass, creating the first-ever near-global data set of land elevations. This data was used to produce topographic maps (digital elevation maps) 30 times as precise as the best global maps used today. The SRTM system gathered data at the rate of 40,000 per minute over land. They reveal for the first time large, detailed swaths of Earth's topography previously obscured by persistent cloudiness. The data will benefit scientists, engineers, government agencies and the public with an ever-growing array of uses. The SRTM radar system mapped Earth from 56 degrees south to 60 degrees north of the equator. The resolution of the publicly available data is three arc-seconds (1/1,200th of a degree of latitude and longitude, about 295 feet, at Earth's equator). The final data release covers Australia and New Zealand in unprecedented uniform detail. It also covers more than 1,000 islands comprising much of Polynesia and Melanesia in the South Pacific, as well as islands in the South Indian and Atlantic oceans. SRTM data are being used for applications ranging from land use planning to "virtual" Earth exploration. Currently, the mission's homepage "http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm" provides direct access to recently obtained earth images. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission C-band data for North America and South America are available to the public. A list of complete public data set is available at "http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/dataprod.htm" The data specifications are within the following parameters: 30-meter X 30-meter spatial sampling with 16 meter absolute vertical height accuracy, 10-meter relative vertical height accuracy, and 20-meter absolute horizontal circular accuracy. From the JPL Mission Products Summary, "http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/dataprelimdescriptions.html". The primary products of the SRTM mission are the digital elevation maps of most of the Earth's surface. Visualized images of these maps are available for viewing online. Below you will find descriptions of the types of images that are being generated: Radar Image Radar Image with Color as Height Radar Image with Color Wrapped Fringes -Shaded Relief Perspective View with B/W Radar Image Overlaid Perspective View with Radar Image Overlaid, Color as Height Perspective View of Shaded Relief Perspective View with Landsat or other Image Overlaid Contour Map - B/W with Contour Lines Stereo Pair Anaglypgh The SRTM radar contained two types of antenna panels, C-band and X-band. The near-global topographic maps of Earth called Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are made from the C-band radar data. These data were processed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and are being distributed through the United States Geological Survey's EROS Data Center. Data from the X-band radar are used to create slightly higher resolution DEMs but without the global coverage of the C-band radar. The SRTM X-band radar data are being processed and distributed by the German Aerospace Center, DLR.