myreadingmapped

A few weeks ago we shared some KMLs from MyReadingMapped. George, the creator of the KMLs, has found a few more KMLs that were not included in that collection and kindly shared them with us.

You can download them individually from the following links:

• Natural Wonders and Phenomena

• Ancient Ruins of South and Central America

• Cities of the Dead: Heaven or Hell

• The travels and research of Alexander Humboldt

• Afanzsy Nikitins explorations of India

• Cabral Cacella’s exploration of Bhutan and Tibet

• Voyage of Pedro Fernandez de Quiros

• Corporate crime that helped set the stage of the 2008 collapse of the world economy

• Teddy Roosevelt explores the Brazilian wilderness

Or as part of the complete collection in a single KMZ.

A big thank you to George for sharing these valuable resources.

The travels and research of Alexander Humboldt.

We have looked at maps created by George of MyReadingMapped many times in the past. However, due to technical issues he shut the site down earlier this year.

He has kindly provided us with some of the KMLs from his vast collection and allowed us to make them available here on GEB. You can download all 155 individual KML files as a ZIP file here. In addition, we have combined them into a single KMZ file and attempted to organize them into folders to make it easier to find what you are interested in. Download the combined KMZ file here.

So what sort of maps can you expect to find?

• Maps of explorers and famous travels including ocean voyages, overland exploration and polar expeditions.
• Maps of ancient civilizations, ruins, lost cities, ghost towns, castles and more.
• Science and the environment:
  • Maps for use in teaching geology, ecology and geography.
  • Maps relating to the oceans.
  • Maps relating to climate change.
  • Maps of fossil sites.
  • Maps about pollution.
  • Maps of disease outbreaks.
• Maps of historic train wrecks, plane crashes and shipwrecks many of which can be seen in Google Earth imagery.
• Maps of wars and historic battles.
• Maps of current events, such as the Trayvon Martin murder case and Boston Marathon Manhunt.
• Maps relating to famous artists.

And many more.

So which are our favourites? To be honest we have not had time to go through them all yet, but they all look interesting and worth a look. Probably the most useful are the ones that can be used in the science classroom, such as the topography of Plate Tectonics or Terrestrial Biomes, amongst others.

Expect to be overwhelmed by the wealth of data.

We have looked at MyReadingMapped many times in the past. It has recently changed its url from myreadingmapped.blogspot.com, to myreadingmapped.com.

A few of the recent maps to be found on the site that we have not covered in the past are:

• A map of the Nicaragua Grand Canal that enables users to zoom in close on the rivers and valleys involved in terrain and satellite mode in order to determine for themselves the impact on the ecology. It is related to this Scientific American story.

• A map of the Privatization Boondoggles of Local, State and Federal Government that traces the costly boondoggles of privatization.

• A map of U.S. Industrialization (1640-1880) that traces US industrialization in four important time periods, prior to the American Revolution when it was dependent on water power up to the War of 1812 with the introduction of refrigeration, the railroad and the wide spread use of steam power, up to the American Civil War, and as a result of the Civil War. You can even turn on and off layers that indicated the union states and confederate states to understand the economic differences and the impact of industrialization on the Civil War.

• A map of Farms by Type. This documentary, in the form of a Google Map, provides examples of 50 different types of farms around the world.

• A map of Freshwater Biomes. This documentary, in the form of a Google Map, provides examples of Freshwater Biomes.

• A map documenting the battles of the War of 1812 – 1815 between the United States and Great Britain.

• A map documenting the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848.

All the maps are displayed on the site using Google’s My Maps, and you can easily view them in Google Earth by downloading them as KML. Just click the ‘share’ button found at the top of the map and select ‘Download KML’.

The map of the proposed Nicaragua Grand Canal is our favourite. We had heard about it in the news and it is nice to be able to explore the locations in Google Earth.