Free Geography Tools

In an earlier post, I talked about a website that gives you coordinate data for a point in Google Maps. I’ve just found a website that gives you that information, and more, for any point within Google Maps.

Earth Tools offers up the standard Google Maps interface with position crosshair in the center, and a number of information options for the position marked by the crosshair:

• Location: Click on this, and get the position both in latitude/longitude (decimal degrees and degrees-minutes-seconds) and the UTM coordinates
• Height: Give the elevation of that location in feet and meters
• Time: Gives the local time, and the time zone relative to Universal Time (GMT)
• Sun: Gives the time for various twilights (Astronomical, Nautical and Civil), and sunrise/sunset
• Distance: Click on the “Start Measuring” button, and scroll/pan the map - you will get the distance from the original crosshair position to the new one. Click on “Stop Measuring” when you’re done.
• Places: Enter a place name to search for it from a database of 7.5 million names.

In addition to the regular Google Maps Map-Satellite-Hybrid buttons, there’s a fourth one called Contour that will supposedly overlay a high-resolution contour map on top of the Google Maps display. For my area, coverage wasn’t complete yet, more of a checkerboard pattern; YMMV.

The website also offers the elevation, time, and sunrise/sunset data via a webservice.