This exercise asks you to take the viewpoint of a scientist and examine a map of the earth’s topography for patterns.  Patterns are useful because they provide interesting questions about what caused them.  A pattern may be seen in a chain of islands that lie along a straight line, or in a deep trench that follows a curve. 

On the two maps, mark “interesting” features. These could be a) linear features (occurring along a straight line) and b) arcuate features (occurring along a curved line).  Label each feature so that you can refer to it in a written description.

Figure 1. Topographic map of Pacific Ocean basin

1. Briefly describe several of the features that you have marked on the map of the Pacific ocean basin.

Figure 2. Atlantic ocean basin topography.

2. Describe several of the features you identified on the map of the Atlantic ocean basin.

3. List any observations you make about how a figure must be labeled, so that your description will be clear to the reader.