Unit 6 - part 2 Flashcards
What is a characteristic of rectangular survey system?
The rectangular survey system, sometimes called the government survey system, was established by Congress in 1785 to standardize the description of land acquired by the newly formed federal government.
How are RE measured with rectangular survey system?
By dividing the land into rectangles, the survey provided land descriptions by describing the rectangle(s) in which the land was located.
The system is based on two sets of intersecting lines: principal meridians and base lines.
The principal meridians run north and south.
Base lines run east and west.
Both are located by reference to degrees of longitude and latitude. Each principal meridian has a name or number and is crossed by a base line. Each principal meridian and its corresponding base line are used to survey a definite area of land, indicated on the map by boundary lines.
There are 37 principal meridians in the United States and each is referenced by a name or meridian number.
What are township lines?
Lines running east and west, parallel to the base line and six miles apart, are called township lines.
What are tiers?
Township lines form strips of land called tiers. The tiers are designated by consecutive numbers north or south of the base line.
What are ranges?
The land on either side of a principal meridian is divided into six-mile-wide strips by lines that run north and south, parallel to the meridian. These north - south strips of land are called ranges.
What are townships?
When the horizontal township lines and the vertical range lines intersect, they form squares, or townships, that are the basic units of the rectangular survey system.
A township is 6 miles square and contains 36 square miles (23,040 acres).
What are sections?
Townships are subdivided into sections and subsections called halves and quarters, which can be further divided.
Erich township contains 36 sections. Each section is one square mile or 640 acres, with 43,560 square feet in each acre.
Sections are numbered 1 through 36, as shown in Section 1 is always in the northeast, or upper right-hand, comer. The numbering proceeds right to left to the upper left-hand comer. From there, the numbers drop down to the next tier and continue from left co right, then back from right to left.
