BASIC TECHNIQUES OF

GEOLOGICAL MAPPING
 Geological mapping

Faithful recording of observations on the rock

exposures, plotting them on a base map and
logically interpreting the observations towards
unravelling their evolutionary history i.e. their
mode of origin, digenesis, metamorphism and the
processes that led to their present disposition.
 Geological field mapping
• A map is a visual representation of an area – i.e the distribution
of rock units and structures across a region, usually on a plane
surface and a symbolic depiction of different elements viz;
lithological, structural etc.

• is the process of selecting an area of interest and identifying all

the geological aspects of that area with the purpose of preparing
a detailed geological report and a map to summarize the report.

• A geological map will thus show the various rock types of the
region, the structures, geological formations, age relationships,
and all these features are superimposed over a topographic map
or a base map.
• Basically, the quality of a geologic map will depend upon the
accuracy and the precision of the field work.
 Geological mapping project
1. Planning;
2. Observing, mapping and collecting data by
examination of all geological features on the ground;
3. Laboratory studies;
4. Computation, synthesis and subsequent
interpretation of data through application of
modern techniques (i.e. computer) and
5. Finally preparing a report of the work.
 Basic Tools for Geological mapping
• Base map with a suitable scale (on which data can be
plotted at the correct location.)
• Geological hammer with pick or chisel point at one
end.
• Brunton Compass and / or Clinometer compass
• Hand lens,
• Pocket knife
• Streak plate, hardness plates
• Hammer,
• Chisel,
• Pocket magnet,
• Sample bags
 crack hammers
Chiesel head Hammer

Brunton compass
 Basic Tools for Geological mapping
For recording and representation of field data,
• camera,
• field note book,
• pencils, erasers, graph and tracing sheets, rock marking pencils,
• diagonal scale, measuring tape, sample bags, etc. are also
required.
 The Base Map
• The spherical earth is best
represented by a
three‐dimensional model of
the earth, called a globe.
• All parts of the earth can be
shown on it in their true shape,
area and location along with
correct cardinal directions and
distances.
• But it cannot be made large
enough to include detailed
surface features. Hence, maps
are much more useful tool
than globe.
 Map
• A map is a two‐dimensional diagrammatic
representation of the whole or part of the earth and
its surface features both natural and cultural at a
given scale on a flat surface.
• However, all that is shown on the map is not drawn
to scale. Only distances and areas are drawn to
scale.
• A map gives a picture of one or several of the
elements of the earth’s surface and being creation of
humans, it gives only those details, which its maker
intends to give.
• Instead of showing the details in their true or visible
shape and size, it uses symbols that may or may not
have similarities with the shape and size of objects
represented.
 Map
There are various ways by which the earth can be
mapped:
(a) Freehand sketches and diagrams.
(b) Actual survey with the help of instruments like
chain and tape, plane table, prismatic compass and
theodolite etc.
(c) Photographs (ground photographs / aerial
photographs) and
(d) Satellite and radar charts. With the availability of
high‐speed computers and Global Positioning
System (GPS), digital mapping has emerged as an
important tool of mapping.
 Map
The amount of information given in a map depends
on:
(a) Scale
(b) Projection
(c) Conventional signs and symbols
(d) Skill of the cartographer
(e) Method of map making
(f) Requirement of the user
 Types of Maps
Maps are broadly classified on two bases: scale and
purpose or content.
Based on the scale, there are two broad
categories of maps:
i. Large Scale ii. Small Scale
Large Scale maps: These maps represent small area of
the earth on a large size of paper / cloth /plastic sheet
with greater details. Examples of some of the large
scale maps are:
Cadastral Maps: The term cadastral is derived
from French word cadastre’ meaning register of
territorial property. The Cadastral maps are drawn to
register the ownership of landed property by
demarcating the boundaries of fields, buildings, etc.
 Types of Maps
Cadastral Maps: They are especially prepared by governments
to realize land revenue and property taxes. The village maps
of our country may be cited as an example of large scale maps.
These maps are drawn on a very large scale, varying from 16
cm to a km to 32 cm to a km so as to fill in all possible details.
The city maps may also be included in this category.
Topographical Maps / Toposheets:
Topographical maps with surface contours (Toposheets)
prepared and published by Survey of India, the pioneering
organisation involved in geodetic survey of our country, are
excellent base maps for geological mapping.
A topographic map is a map showing surface features on a
sufficiently large scale to enable the individual feature to be
identified on the ground by their shape and position. These
maps are generally prepared on scales ¼ inch = 1 mile
(1:253,440) or 1:250,000; ½ inch = 1 mile (1:126,720) and 1
inch = 1 mile (1:63,360) or 1:50,000.
 Types of Maps
Small Scale maps: These maps represent large areas on
a small sheet of paper. They have fewer details.
Examples of small scale maps are Atlas and Wall maps.
They give only a general picture of the area represented.

(i) Wall Maps: These maps are generally drawn

boldly so that they can be seen from a distance. They
are used in class rooms and cater to a larger audience.
These maps broadly show very large areas like world as a
whole, hemispheres, continents, and countries, states
and districts. The scale is smaller than that of
topographical maps but larger than atlas maps.
 Types of Maps
(ii) Chorographical or Atlas Maps: The Atlas maps are
drawn on a very small scale and give a highly
generalized picture of the natural and cultural
aspects such as the physical, climatic and economic
conditions of different regions of the earth.
• Only a few atlases are prepared on a 1:10,00,000
scale like the ‘Times Atlas of the World’.
• The Registrar General of India brings out Census
Atlas from time to time.
• National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation
(NATMO) is a well‐known organisation in our
country that publishes all kinds of maps for various
purposes depicting different parts of the country.
 Thematic Maps
• Thematic maps are usually prepared on small scale
highlighting specific themes such as relief,
temperature, political divisions etc.
• According to the purpose of theme, maps could be
broadly classified into following categories.
(a) Physical or Natural Maps:‐
(i) Orographic or relief maps represent features like
mountains, plains, plateaus, drainage patterns, etc.
(ii) Bathymetric maps show the depth of the oceans and
seas. They are also known as charts.
(iii) Geological maps represent rocks that form the crust
of the earth and their mode of occurrence and
disposition.
 Thematic Maps
(iv) Climate maps show average condition of
temperature, pressure wind and precipitation of the
world or part of it over a long period of time.
(v) Natural vegetation maps show natural flora of an
area of region.
(vi) Soil map exhibits various types of soils covering an
area.
(vii) Weather maps denote the average condition of
temperature, pressure, wind and precipitation over a
short period, which may range from a day to a season.
(viii) Astronomical maps show the position of stars and
planets in the sky.
 Thematic Maps
(b) Cultural Maps: These maps show the main‐made
features or human aspects.
(i) Economic maps show distribution of important
minerals, agricultural and industrial products, and
lines of transport and communication. They help in
assessing economic development and potential of
the area covered by the map.
(ii) Political maps show boundaries between different
countries and states within countries.
(iii) Historical maps show the past events and facts.
(iv) Social maps depict elements like language, caste,
ethnic groups and religion.
(v) Land utilization maps exhibit the character of land
use
 Thematic Maps
(c) Military Maps: Maps used by Defence Services are called
Military maps.
(i) General maps on a scale of 1:1,000,000 or more depict only
the broad topographical features. They are used by the
Defence Services for general planning purposes.
(ii) Strategic maps: These maps are used for planning
concentrated military action. Scales ranging from 1:1,000,000
to 1:500,000.
(iii) Tactical map: They serve as guides to small units like
battalions and patrol units prior to and during movements
anywhere near the front line.
(iv) Photomap is an air photograph with strategic and tactical
data superimposed on it. All maps have some common elements.
Location and distribution of various features and phenomena are
depicted using distance, direction, and conventional signs and symbols.
 Scale
Scale is the relationship between the distance on a map and
the real distance on the earth’s surface.
• Expressed as a representative fraction (ratio), a line scale
or a statement scale.
• It gives relative picture of the ground reality.
• As a matter of convention, maps having a scale up to
1:50,000 are classified as large scale maps, those falling
between 1:50,000 and 1:10,00,000 as medium scale
maps and those having scales above 1:1,000,000 are
treated as small scale maps.
• However, there is no universally accepted standard for
classifying maps according to scale.
• The million sheets of the Survey of India and the National
Atlas of India are considered to be medium scale maps.
 Scale
• Scales can be expressed in three ways:
a) Statement: The scale may be indicated in the form of a
written statement. For example 1 cm on the map represents
1 km on the ground.
The scale is written as 1 cm to 1 km.
This means that 1 cm on the map corresponds to 1 km on
the ground.
The scale will not be the same when the original map
is reduced or enlarged. As such, this method of expressing
scale of a map is not very useful.
 Scale
b) Representative Fraction (R.F.): It is also called as
numerical scale. It is expressed as a ratio of map distance
and ground distance. For example 1:10,00,000 means one
unit of distance on the map corresponds to 10,00,000 units
of distance on the ground.
• The advantage of R.F. is that it can be used universally
irrespective of the local unit of measurement of distance.
• The map can be reduced or enlarged without changing
the R.F.
c) Linear Scale or Graphical Scale: This scale is expressed as
a horizontal or straight line. The base is calibrated to express
visual equivalents of representative fraction or verbal scale.
 Scale
• The bases are divided into a number of equal parts and
are marked to show what these divisions represent on
actual ground. The scale has the advantage that it
remains true even after reduction or enlargement of the
map.
• A general definition of scale is that it is a ratio between
the distance on a map and the corresponding distance on
the earth. For example if two points located 10 km apart
are shown 1 cm apart on a map, then the scale of the
map would be 1 cm to 10 km. It may also be converted
into R.F as given below. Suppose, 1 cm=10 KM.
Map Distance 1 cm
Ground Distance 10 km
= 1 cm/10 x 10, 000 cm = 1:1,000,000 cm
 Direction

• The line pointing to the north is regarded as the zero

direction or base direction line.
• A map must have the base directions represented on it
to enable the user to locate different features with
respect to each other. North, south, east and west are the
four major directions. These are also called cardinal
points. In between cardinal points one may have several
intermediate directions.
 Legends / Key / Signs / Symbols
• Every map / topographic map contains a legend or a key. It
lists the features and the signs or symbols used in the map for
showing these features.
• As you know various types of features or phenomena are
represented on maps.
• They relate to both land and sea and are shown with the help
of conventional signs and symbols.
• The signs and symbols include points, lines, icons, alphabets,
shadings and colours. As a convention, specific colours show
certain area features.
• Reading Topographic maps involves ability to follow the
symbols portrayed in the map, understand the information
given in pictorial and written form, and visualize the
topography of the original area by interpreting the contour
and spot heights skillfully.
 Legends / Key / Signs / Symbols
• As the conventional symbols cannot cover all the graphical
details, each topographical map sheet provides the
necessary information in the margin for the users.
Point Symbols: to indicate the location and entity or other
characteristics of a feature of small territorial extent to the
map scale. At a scale of 1:1 M a city might be indicated by a
point, but it would never be the case at a scale of 1:10,000.
Line Symbols: To represent linear feature, such as road,
railway line etc. Again depending upon the map scale and the
spatial extent of the feature the road can be shown as single
or double lines.
Area features: To represent features of considerable aerial
extent in relation to map scale.
 Legends / Key / Signs / Symbols
• Symbols can be Quantitative and Qualitative:
Qualitative Symbol: to deal with quality i.e. by these symbols
identity of the object is indicated or the nature of the feature
is described. Eg. a temple.

Quantitative Symbols: These are the symbols deal with the

quantity or the amount of the feature. (3r), both the
qualitative and quantitative types can take from POINT, LINE
and AREA. Most popular types of quantitative symbols that
are shown in topo maps are-
Point Symbols – BM.756 (Height of Bench mark using
alpha numeric).
Line Symbols – Contour, Grid or Graticule line
 Qualitative Point Symbols
It can be further subdivided into following categories.
- Descriptive or Pictorial Type: These symbols are actual
pictorial representation of the feature. Ex Church, a temple,
etc.; Geometric or purely Abstract type: The symbols are
simply geometric. Shapes are chosen at random to
represent the feature like hut, wells, spring, etc.
- Letter or number symbols (alphanumeric type) shown as
abbreviations like post office as PO and rest house as RH.
• Abstract or imaginary line symbols: They represents the
features which do not exits on the ground or the line
features which are imaginary. The examples are meridians,
parallels, gridlines etc.
 Relief
• Most important feature without which one cannot have the
true idea of the terrain from the map. Depiction of relief is
done by the following ways.
– Layering
– Shading
– Contouring
– Spot heights
 Shading –
• For depiction of relief shade on the map, light is
considered to be falling from NW corner at 30
inclination and the dexterous finger of the
cartographer bring out the effect in shading of hill
and ridges as the dark and light shadow will be cast
on the ground.
• This brings out the steeper and narrower ranges by
darker shades. Shading is done by grey colour.

• The method is widely used on small scale

geographical maps and preferred more than layering.
 Contour
• It is the most important and most widely used
method of representation of relief on
topographical scale.
• Contour is an imaginary line on the ground
joining all contiguous points at the same
elevation from a reference surface. Such lines
are drawn on a map at a fixed vertical interval
of relief depending upon topography and scale
of the map.
 Contour
• Contour lines join all places of the same height above sea
level
• The shape of the contours indicates the shape of the
ground
• Wide spaced contour lines indicate gentle slopes
• Closely spaced contour lines indicate steep slopes
• Uniformly spaced contour lines indicate a uniform slope
• Contour intervals also differ according to the scale and
nature of terrain
• On a 1:50,000 map the interval is 10 m; 20m;40m
depending on steepness and flat nature of ground.
• Contour lines generally do not intersect each other on
the map
• However in some places they intersect, where it indicates
a steeper cliff or a waterfall.
 Contour
Form lines – Broken contour lines with approx. height
Spot heights – a number preceded by a dot; for
example .340
Triangulation points – A dot inside a Triangle (most
accurate height)
Bench Marks – shown by letters BM along with
height eg. BM 590
Trigonometrical Stations – Marked by a Triangle and
height eg. Δ 877
Index Contours – Every fifth contour shall be drawn
with a thicker line.
Approximate or relative height –Relative height is
shown with respect to the surrounding area.
 Significance of colours in toposheets
• BLACK – All names, river banks, broken ground, dry streams,
surveyed trees, heights and their numbering, railway lines,
telephone and telegraph lines, lines of latitude and
longitude.
• BLUE – Water features or water bodies that contain water
• GREEN – All wooded and forested areas, orchards, scattered
trees and scrubs.
• YELLOW – All cultivated areas are shown with a yellow
wash.
• WHITE PATCHES – Uncultivable land.
• BROWN – Contour lines, their numbering, form lines, and
sand features such as sand hills and dunes.
• RED – Grid lines (Eastings and Northings) and their
numbering, roads, cart tracks, settlements, huts and
buildings.
 Vegetation
Location of vegetation is closely related to relief .In the highlands.
Vegetation is shown – green colour along with contours in brown
showing elevation.

• To show density of wooded area, different terms used are:

Dense forest,
open‐mixed forest,
open jungle,
fairly‐mixed jungle,
dense‐mixed jungle,
Mixed jungle,
Reserved Forest (RF),
Protected Forest (PF),
fairly mixed jungle with bamboo,
Dense mixed jungle with bamboo.
 Calculation of Area
Area can be calculated from the topo map as
follows.
Area = Length x Breadth
• In topo maps, each grid (square) 2cm x 2cm or 1
km to 1 km as per the scale 2 cm=1 km.
• Therefore, area of each square is 4 sq cm (on the
map) = 1 sq km (on the ground) in metres, this can
be expressed as – Area of each square (i.e. 4 sq
cm) = 1000x1000 or 1,000,000 sq m.
 India and Adjacent Country Series Maps

Each toposheet bears a specific number. The layout and numbering

of all topographical maps are based on “India and Adjacent Country
Series Maps” on 1:1,000,000 scale.
 Reading landforms
Mountains, hills, hillocks, ridges, valleys, gorges,
canyons, plateaus, mesas, buttes, escarpments,
cuestas, hogbacks, inselbergs, monadnocks etc are
common features and can be read from toposheets.
• Few of these landform features as can be
visualized on contour maps are given below.