Marine Geology and Geophysics

Surface of the Earth (ETOPO2v2) 2 minute color relief images

Click on a 45 degree by 45 degree square above to zoom in,
then click on the image that comes up to see a full-resolution image

Go to ETOPO2v2 or the Latest Global Relief Model

These images were generated from the ETOPO2v2 (2006) database. ETOPO2v2 was created at NGDC from digital databases of seafloor and land elevations on a 2-minute latitude/longitude grid (1 minute of latitude = 1 nautical mile, or 1.852 km). Assumed illumination is from the west; shading is computed as a function of the east-west slope of the surface with a nonlinear exaggeration favoring low-relief areas. A Cylindrical Equidistant projection was used for the world image, which spans 360 degrees of of longitude from 180 West eastward to 180 East; latitude coverage is from 90 degrees North to 90 degrees South. The resolution of the gridded data varies from true 2-minute for the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean floors and all land masses to 5 minutes for the Arctic Ocean floor. Clicking on a square above brings up a 512 x 512 pixel color relief image of the 45 degree area selected, clicking on the 512 x 512 image brings up the full-resolution 1350 x 1350 pixel (roughly 3 mb) color image of the area.

go to more global relief images, spinning globes, and posters

Or try our on-line viewer showing the same data set as globes from different views