maps are also distinct for the global knowledge required to construct them. A meaningful map of the world could not be constructed before the European Renaissance because less than half of the earth's coastlines, let alone its interior regions, were known to any culture. New knowledge of the earth's surface has been accumulating ever since and continues to this day. Maps of the world generally focus either on political features or on physical features. Political maps emphasize territorial boundaries and human settlement. Physical maps show geographic features such as mountains, soil type or land use. Geological maps show not only the surface, but characteristics of the underlying rock, fault lines, and subsurface structures. Choropleth maps use color hue and intensity to contrast differences between regions, such as demographic or economic statistics.

Earth images

natural

PathfinderMap.jpg

Earth images

This page is a collection of map images of the Earth, created from
several different data sources. Some of the images are interesting
in themselves, others are useful for compositing with other maps, as
masks or overlays. All of the images are in a cylindrical (latitude/longitude)
projection.

Note: All of the images on this page were created by Dave Pape, while
a federal employee at NASA/GSFC. They are therefore copyright-free.
See the official
NASA guidelines
if you want more detailed legalese.
You’re free to use them however you wish, but if you publish anything
significant using them (websites, videos, articles, etc), I’d
enjoy hearing about it.

“BigEarth”
… 512×256 (21k)
… 1024×512 (67k)
… 2048×1024 (247k)