The Incredible Shrinking Great Salt Lake(s)

NOTE: due to accidental deletions on this platform I have lost some of the original attributions for this post.

Here is a map of the paleo-lakes of the Great Basin from the Pleistocene Era.

The present day lakes are shown in lighter blue though even those have shrunk from the outlines shown above. These water bodies are endorheic,  meaning their water is retained-they do not drain to any external bodies of water. Among the many large lakes is Lake Bonneville, whose remnants include the Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake. Bonneville had many levels or shorelines formed during periods of rising and falling water levels.

About 18,000 years ago Lake Bonneville reached its highest elevation and began to overflow into the Snake River basin in southern Idaho. The overflow became a massive catastrophic flood that drained a huge amount of the lake's water away, possibly in less than a year. Post-flood the lake receded to the Provo level, shown in light blue on the above map or the dark blue area on this (probably colored from the original) US Geological Survey map from 1890.

This image, via Wikipedia, shows what some of the different past shorelines look like on an aerial view.

Recently as the climate has warmed these lakes, like many others in desert climates have shrunk quite a bit. Although a typical map of Utah shows this outline for the Great Salt Lake,

the real water level is now what is shown on the right below. Utah just had an unusually snowy winter so the levels have probably risen, but the long term trend of shrinking is likely to continue.

Image via Utah State University

The Atlas of Design II

Last year the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) published Volume II of the Atlas of Design. I looked at some of the online content, was very impressed and then stupidly forgot about it. This year with the holidays coming, I hinted to my wife that I might know of a nice Hanukkah gift. She took the hint and this fantastic book landed in our doorway. There's too much awesome to do it all justice but here are a few samples of what's inside. Note - since these maps are copyrighted, I only reproduced pieces that are already available on the Atlas site.

1. "The Road from Madison..." by Andrew Umentum

This map chronicles a bicycle trip from Umentum's home in Madison, Wisconsin to New Orleans and then back again via Detroit. It is presented as a series of strips, inspired by Jon Ogilby's 1675 atlas of England and Wales - example here.

I love the details he brings out to give the map life. Also the way the lack of state boudaries and south(!) arrows force you to see these places from a different perspective. Rather than divide us, the states merge together into one continuous landscape.

2. "Map of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway" by Dong Zheng

Inspired by pre-modern Chinese maps that were primarily intended to be paintings, the map uses a birds-eye view. The modern railroad and buildings blend harmoniously with the ancient landscape and built environment.

 3. "The Heart of Canyonlands National Park" by Tom Patterson

This was an exercise in using Terrain Texture Shader to generate improved hillshading. The author was inspired by Bradford Washburn's Grand Canyon map and by Swiss topo map techniques and shows that beauty can be found in cartographic algorithms.

4. "The Family Farm" by Alex Hotchin

I love a good hand drawn map and this one tells a story of a particular place. Where exactly this is is not clear. The stories have no personal meaning outside of the author's family, yet he still makes you care about this place.

5. "The Asheville Map" by Bruce and Nora Daniel

This fold-out paper map can also be found and purchased online. The base colors are unique (beige roads!) and were inspired by the colors of the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains. The map is artistic yet much more easily readable (and more accurate) than those touristy maps you often get when traveling.

There are many more maps here - 32 in total. Some are made by people I know. The range of techniques and styles is impressive. Most of them beautiful, all interesting in their own way. The previews don't do the maps justice and since in many cases they are not available online I guess you need to buy the atlas to see the full maps. If you're looking for a nice holiday gift for a map fanatic (or even casual map gawker) check it out.

Quest for Nevada Complete!

Here is one final self-indulgent post about the quest for my 50th state. After this I can get back to more interesting (to the rest of you) stuff.

The quest is complete! I reached my 50th state-Nevada late at night on Amtrak's California Zephyr. Although there is no "Welcome to Nevada" sign along the train tracks (at least not visible at night) you know you're at the border when you go through Wendover, Utah and then into West Wendover, Nevada. These are the only towns after dozens of miles of salt flats so it's pretty obvious when you've arrived.
The map above shows our entire route. It bleeds off the edge of the allotted space here but you can click to see the entire thing. We flew into Denver and spent a day and a half there, then took the train to Reno. Next we rented a car and drove down to Lake Tahoe via Virginia City. After a couple of nights in Tahoe we drove down to Yosemite National Park and then on to Oakland for a wedding, followed by a flight out of San Francisco. All in all it was way too much to try and do in a week but well worth it! A few more details and photos can be seen on Twitter-see the sidebar to the right.

Just to get really self-indulgent, here is my updated county map.

12/12/12

Happy 12/12/12!

 Here are some maps and boring facts about highways designated as Route 12 - mostly from Wikipedia.

US Interstate 12 is one of the shortest major (one or two digit) interstates in the country running 85 miles along the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain all in Louisiana. It is a shortcut that takes you from Interstate 10 back to Interstate 10 avoiding New Orleans. The road is also officially called the Republic of West Florida Parkway, in honor of that short lived republic created from an 1810 rebellion against Spanish rule.

By contrast US Route 12 is an almost cross country route running from Detroit to Aberdeen, Washington, almost 2,500 miles. The photo on the lower left was taken near the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Cass, where Route 12 officially begins. This photo came from the US Ends, a web site for people like me who are obsessed with where roads begin and end. On the left is a map of the Grays Harbor area at the western end of Route 12.

South Korea's Expressway Number 12 is also called the 88 Olympic Expressway. It runs across the southern part of the country.

There's many other highway 12's listed on Wikipedia's List of highways numbered 12 inlcuding the following three non-US routes chosen because I like their route shields.

Finally realizing that I forgot the awesome Kansas sunflower route shields (despite K-12 being retired,) here is another set of US state route shields. Once again, Happy 12/12/12!

Makeup a State

I am currently on vacation so while there's probably lots of important things happening in the world, here are some images of makeup compacts. This is not an item I buy many of but here are two for sale online featuring state maps!
Utah:

 Available from e-bay for $35. There's a zoom viewer on e-bay's page.

Hawaii (not to scale):

This one was on Etsy for a mere $15 - and it features a "scattering of tropical fish." Unfortunately it's been sold. The page is still up and shows more pictures.