{"id":1806409,"date":"2022-03-17T10:41:54","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T14:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1806409"},"modified":"2022-03-17T10:41:54","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T14:41:54","slug":"the-people-who-draw-rocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/03\/the-people-who-draw-rocks\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The People Who Draw Rocks’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melting glaciers are keeping a special team of cartographers at Swisstopo, Switzerland\u2019s national mapping agency, busy: they\u2019re the ones charged with making changes to the Swiss alps on Swisstopo\u2019s maps. The New York Times<\/em> reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe glaciers are melting, and I have more work to do,\u201d as Adrian D\u00e4hler, part of that special group, put it.<\/p>\n

D\u00e4hler is one of only three cartographers at the agency\u2014the Federal Office of Topography, or Swisstopo\u2014allowed to tinker with the Swiss Alps, the centerpiece of the country\u2019s map. Known around the office as \u201cfelsiers,\u201d a Swiss-German nickname that loosely translates as \u201cthe people who draw rocks,\u201d D\u00e4hler, along with J\u00fcrg Gilgen and Markus Heger, are experts in shaded relief, a technique for illustrating a mountain (and any of its glaciers) so that it appears three-dimensional. Their skills and creativity also help them capture consequences of the thawing permafrost, like landslides, shifting crevasses and new lakes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article is a fascinating look at an extraordinarily exacting aspect of cartography. [WMS<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melting glaciers are keeping a special team of cartographers at Swisstopo, Switzerland\u2019s national mapping agency, busy: they\u2019re the ones charged with making changes to the Swiss alps on Swisstopo\u2019s maps. The New York Times reports:… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,389,8],"tags":[14,994,879,140,1429,258,287],"class_list":["post-1806409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-geology","category-national-maps","category-weather-and-climate","tag-climate-change","tag-glaciers","tag-global-warming","tag-new-york-times","tag-swisstopo","tag-switzerland","tag-topo-maps","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5745,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/11\/new-maps-show-greenlands-glaciers-at-risk\/","url_meta":{"origin":1806409,"position":0},"title":"New Maps Show Greenland’s Glaciers at Risk","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"8 November 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory: \"New maps of Greenland's coastal seafloor and bedrock beneath its massive ice sheet show that two to four times as many coastal glaciers are at risk of accelerated melting as previously thought.\u00a0Researchers at the University of California at Irvine (UCI), NASA and 30 other institutions have\u00a0published\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Weather and Climate"","block_context":{"text":"Weather and Climate","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/weather-and-climate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/greenland-glaciers-300x254.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1784974,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/02\/clickhole-rising-sea-levels-to-turn-australia-into-a-rhombus\/","url_meta":{"origin":1806409,"position":1},"title":"Clickhole: Rising Sea Levels to Turn Australia into a Rhombus","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"12 February 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"Clickhole, The Onion\u2019s satirical clickbait website, had a hilarious piece last October declaring that rising sea levels will turn Australia into a rhombus: good news for cartographers, for whom Australia will be easier to draw. According to a new study by the National Ocean Service, melting icecaps and glaciers will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Unusual Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Unusual Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/unusual-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/clickhole-australia-rhombus-1024x543.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/clickhole-australia-rhombus-1024x543.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/clickhole-australia-rhombus-1024x543.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/clickhole-australia-rhombus-1024x543.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1788486,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/02\/whimsical-drawings-hide-in-punctilious-swiss-topo-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1806409,"position":2},"title":"Whimsical Drawings Hide in Punctilious Swiss Topo Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"27 February 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"Swiss topographic maps are legendary for their precision, but that hasn\u2019t stopped cartographers from having a little fun. As Zoey Poll reports for AIGA Eye on Design, whimsical little drawings can be found hidden in some editions of Swiss topo maps: But on certain maps, in Switzerland\u2019s more remote regions,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Map Errors"","block_context":{"text":"Map Errors","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/map-errors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1834424,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/10\/a-moving-border\/","url_meta":{"origin":1806409,"position":3},"title":"A Moving Border","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"9 October 2024","format":"link","excerpt":"Italian Limes (screenshot) Part research project, part art installation, the Italian Limes project explored a quirk about the Italian border that frankly boggles my mind a bit. Italy\u2019s alpine frontiers with Switzerland and Austria generally follows the watershed line. Thanks to climate change and shrinking glaciers, that line has been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Surveying"","block_context":{"text":"Surveying","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/surveying\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/italian-limes-screenshot.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/italian-limes-screenshot.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/italian-limes-screenshot.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/italian-limes-screenshot.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/italian-limes-screenshot.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/italian-limes-screenshot.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6102,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/11\/horror-vacui-the-fear-of-blank-spaces\/","url_meta":{"origin":1806409,"position":4},"title":"Horror Vacui: The Fear of Blank Spaces","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"21 November 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"In an article I published in 2013, I argued that one key difference between fantasy maps and the real-world medieval and early modern maps they purport to imitate is blank spaces: fantasy maps are full of blank spaces (that which is not in the story is not on the map),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/carta-marina-b-1024x733.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/carta-marina-b-1024x733.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/carta-marina-b-1024x733.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/carta-marina-b-1024x733.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1809358,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/10\/eduard-a-new-mac-only-relief-shading-app\/","url_meta":{"origin":1806409,"position":5},"title":"Eduard, a New Mac-only Relief Shading App","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"13 October 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"Launching at NACIS, which is next week, but\u00a0available on the Mac App Store now, Eduard is a Mac-only application that generates relief maps by \u201c[using] machine learning to match the aesthetics and details of relief shadings created by Swiss cartographers.\u201d (The name is a pretty obvious reference to Eduard Imhof.)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GIS"","block_context":{"text":"GIS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Eduard app logo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/eduard-app-logo-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1806409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1806409"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1806409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1806411,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1806409\/revisions\/1806411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1806409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1806409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1806409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}