Purpose: These laboratory exercises are designed to help you gain appreciation for digital mapping techniques and to observe continental scale landforms of the United States.

Materials provided: USGS Map I-2206 and accompanying discussion. Note that I have not provided you figure 2 because I expect you to generate a map of physiographic provinces yourself (see exercise 3 below). When I return the graded labs, I will give you that figure so you can compare your scheme with that presented in the discussion. You can find an online version of the map on our course web page if you find that the photocopied version is not high reproduced with enough quality.

Exercises:

A) Review the map that is not annotated and read the article that accompanying the digital map and write a one page (maximum), typed discussion of how digital shaded relief maps are made and what the advantages of this technique are.
Note that on pages 10 and 11 the map is annotated to point out numerous landforms. Some are obvious and others are not. Familiarize yourself with all of them.

B) Answer these questions (also typed on a separate sheet).

1. Which was the most interesting to you?
2. Select four of these landforms and describe the dimensions, form, and development of each.
3. Which parts of the US do you think are dominated by orogenic versus epierogenic processes?
4. Where and when has climate dominated the landscape?

C) As you look at the landscape of the US, identify and delineate at least 10 physiographic provinces. Provide a brief definition of the characteristics of the landforms that correspond to each province.

Example: The Basin and Range is a physiographic province in the western US that extends form Southern Idaho south to southeastern California and from eastern California to central Utah. It appears again in southern Arizona and central New Mexico. It is delineated by a region of subparallel 50-100 km-long ranges trending generally north-south. The morphology of the ranges is "sharp," while the basins are flat and smooth.

Here is the definition of physiographic province from The Glossary of Geology: ÒA region all parts of which are similar in geologic structure and climate and which has consequently had a unified geomorphic history; a region whose pattern of relief features or landforms differs significantly from that of adjacent regions. Examples: the Valley and Ridge, the Blue Ridge, and Piedmont provinces in the eastern US, and Basin and Range, Rock Mountains, and the Great Plains Provinces in western US.Ó