Above the Rockies Poster Map, 1995
for the geography and social studies classrooms and home schoolers.

The 1995 Above the Rockies map features:
• A digitally-enhanced satellite image of the region
• State boundaries and major cities
• Information about the making of this map

Above the Rockies Poster Map, 1995 Heart of the Rockies Poster Map, 1995 Central Rockies Poster Map, 1984 * Lesson plan idea - illustrate tectonics; set up gallery of Rocky Mountain views; • maps The land that became the Rockies was transformed 100 million years ago when a drifting North America rammed a dense oceanic plate. The continent's lighter crust bulged, and mountains began to rise. Just west of the Rockies the wrinkled-looking terrain of younger basin-and-range country was formed by crustal stretching and faulting, while the continent's drift over the stationary Yellowstone volcanic hot spot left a smooth, curved track that is now the Snake River Plain in southern Idaho. To create this view, techniques of tradition mapping and satellite imaging were combined. Instruments on NOAA weather satellites orbiting some 520 miles above Earth recorded the four images that make up this scene in infrared and visible light on virtually cloudless early spring days, when snow cover was near its maximun. Satellite data were digitally plotted by World-Sat International of Canada on a standard map projection in order to cancel distortion induced by Earth's curvature. For a three-dimensional effect, contour lines from corresponding topographic maps were digitied and converted to terrain features. Added realism comes from assigning natural colors to the satellite image. Finally, WorldSat directed a computer to select an inclination for the sun that should make mountains and canyons cast deep shadows. • Himalaya Poster Map • perspective posters