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Land Navigation

Map Reading

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Map Colors

  • Black - Indicates cultural (man-made) features such as buildings and roads, surveyed spot elevations, and all labels
  • Red-Brown - Combined to identify cultural features, all relief features, non-surveyed spot elevations, and elevation, such as contour lines on red-light readable maps

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Map Colors

  • Blue - Identifies hydrography or water features such as lakes, swamps, rivers, and drainage
  • Green - Identifies vegetation with military significance, such as woods, orchards, and vineyards
  • Brown - Identifies all relief features and elevation, such as contours on older edition maps, and cultivated land on red-light readable maps

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Map Colors

  • Red - Classifies cultural features, such as populated areas, main roads, and boundaries, on older maps
  • Other - Occasionally other colors may be used to show special information. These are indicated in the marginal information as a rule

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Identify Map Symbols

Refer to Legend

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Marginal Information

  • Geographic area and scale - top left
  • Name of map sheet - top center
  • Map edition, map series, and map sheet number - top right
  • Legend - bottom left
  • Bar scale, contour interval, grid reference box, and declination diagram - bottom center
  • Elevation guide, adjoining map sheet diagram, and boundaries box - bottom right

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Terrain Features - Major

  • Hill
  • Ridge
  • Valley
  • Saddle
  • Depression

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Terrain Features - Minor

  • Draw
  • Spur

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Terrain Features - Supplementary

  • Cliff
  • Cut
  • Fill

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Identify a Grid

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VGT 23

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VGT 24

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Identifying a Grid

  • Read Right then Up
  • Bottom left corner identifies first two digits I.e. 12__56__
  • Use coordinate scale to identify last two digits I.e. __34__78
  • Add proper grid zone designator to front I.e. AB ________

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Determine Distance

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Determine Distance

  • Straight Line
    • Use edge of paper and mark distance between points
    • Line paper up next to scale to determine distance
  • Road Distance
    • Break curve into series of straight lines and measure from curve to curve
    • Line paper up next to scale to determine distance

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