干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Attention to the histories of geography and of cartography can enable the historian of earth sciences to frame fruitful historical research questions. This paper briefly analyzes various nineteenth-century representations of geological and geographical information on maps of North American interior regions, as well as several examples drawn from the twentieth century geological debate surrounding continental drift/plate tectonics ideas (during the pre- and post-seafloor mapping eras). The purpose of reviewing these examples is to demonstrate how one might utilize analytical approaches and concepts developed by historians of cartography to interpret and trace the broader consequences of maps in the history of the earth sciences.