Labs / Geography
Contour Map Builder
Drag on the shaded terrain to raise, lower, or smooth hills and hollows, and watch the contour map beside it redraw as the surface is sliced at even heights. Move the amber A and B endpoints to swing the cutting line and read the live cross-section profile below. Contours crowd together where the land is steep and open up where it is gentle.
elev —slope —landform —
What to try
- Raise a single peak. Why do its contour lines form closed loops that shrink toward the top?
- Where the contour lines bunch tightly together, what does the cross-section profile do — and what does that tell you about the slope?
- Use the Lower tool to scoop out a basin. How can you tell a depression from a hill on the flat contour map alone?
- Halve the contour interval. Do more lines mean the land got steeper, or just that you are slicing it more finely?
- Sculpt two peaks with a dip between them, then park the cursor in the gap. Can you make the landform readout say “Saddle”?