Basic Map Reading Flashcards
What does the Sheet Number on a Map tell you?
ID’s which map it is by Number, Match overlays
What does Black mean on a Military Map?
Black indicates cultural (man-made) features such as buildings and roads, surveyed spot
elevations, and all labels.
What does Red-Brown mean on a Military Map?
The colors red and brown are combined to identify cultural features, all relief
features, non-surveyed spot elevations, and elevation such as contour lines on red-light
readable maps.
What does Blue mean on a Military Map?
Blue identifies hydrography or water features such as lakes, swamps, rivers, and drainage.
What does Green mean on a Military Map?
Green identifies vegetation with military significance such as woods, orchards,
and vineyards.
What does Brown mean on a Military Map?
Brown identifies all relief features and elevation such as contours on older edition maps,
and cultivated land on red-light readable maps.
What is the Area of a grid square?
1 square kilometer, 1000m by 1000m
What ios the grid reference box on a map?
A grid reference box appears in the marginal information of each map sheet. It
contains step-by-step instructions for using the grid and the U.S. Army military grid reference
system.
What is the grahic scale on a map?
A graphic scale is a ruler printed on the map that is used to convert distances on the map to actual
ground distances.
A ___________ represents an imaginary line on the ground, above or below sea level.
contour line
The Three types of contour lines are
Indez, Intermediate, and Supplementary
The contour lines falling between the index contour lines are called ______________ contour lines.
intermediate
Starting at zero elevation or mean sea level, every fifth contour line is a heavier line. These
are known as ___________ contour lines. Normally, each index contour line is numbered at some point. This
number is the elevation of that line.
index
_________________ lines are normally found where there is very little
change in elevation, such as on fairly level terrain.
Supplementary
The ___________________ measurement given in the marginal information is the vertical distance
between adjacent contour lines.
contour interval
In addition to the contour lines, ______________ and __________________ are used to indicate points of
known elevations on the map.
bench marks (BMs) , spot elevations
________________________ are shown by a brown X and are usually located at road junctions, hilltops, and other
prominent terrain features.
Spot elevations
Major terrain features are:
hills, saddles, valleys, ridges, and depressions
A ____________ is an area of high ground. From a _______________, the ground slopes ___________ in all directions.
Hill, Hilltop, down
A hill is shown on a map by ________________ forming concentric circles.
contour lines
A ________________ is a dip or low point between two areas of higher ground.
saddle
If you are in a ________________, there is high ground in two opposite directions and lower ground in the other two directions.
saddle
A ____________ is a stretched-out groove in the land, usually formed by streams or rivers.
valley
If standing in a ________________________, three directions offer high ground, while the fourth direction offers low ground.
valley
A _____________ is a sloping line of high ground.
ridge
A _________________ is a low point in the ground or a sinkhole. It could be described as an area of low ground
surrounded by higher ground in all directions, or simply a hole in the ground.
depression
Minor terrain features include
draws, spurs, and cliffs.
A ___________ is a stream course that is less developed than a valley.
draw
A _______________ is a short, continuous sloping line of higher ground normally jutting out from the side of a ridge.
spur
A _____________ is a vertical or near-vertical feature that is an abrupt change of the land. When a slope is so steep
that the contour lines converge into one “carrying” contour of contours, this last contour line has tick marks
pointing toward low ground.
cliff
Supplementary terrain features include
cuts and fills.
A __________ is a man-made feature resulting from cutting through raised ground, usually to form a level bed for a road or railroad track.
cut
A _____________ is a man-made feature resulting from filling a low area, usually to form a level bed for a road or
railroad track.
fill
