Google Earth Library

The Google Earth Library has 123 pages of addons for Google Earth, and more are added all the time. The latest addon available is a bunch of up-to-date overlays for the Haiti earthquake damage.

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Some of these addons are quite specialized, but it is worth browsing back through them to see if any are of interest to you. The Site Index shows the various topics and the site contents are also searchable.

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An item of special interest to me is that USGS topographical maps for the entire U.S. can be downloaded for the Library for free and used in Google earth. Using this link downloads and installs the map index in Google earth.

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USGS Topographic maps provide detailed information such as land use, feature names, the locations of natural features, and topographic elevation contours. There are over 50,000 7.5-minute topo maps covering the entire United States (except Alaska, which is covered in a larger scale). The topographic maps come in a variety of scales, with the most detailed typically being the 7.5-minute version, meaning each map covers an area of 0.125 x 0.125 degrees. This collection of maps lets you easily view all 50,000+ of the 7.5-minute USGS topographic maps in Google Earth.The maps in this collection typically date from around 1978 to 2005. The USGS is constantly updating the topographic maps and it seems to take them about 15 to 20 years to get around to updating each individual map. There is also a separate collection of historic USGS topographic maps for Google Earth.

Each topographic map has been converted to a single Google Earth KMZ file, which is typically about 1-5 megabytes. The maps include the collars (borders), which have information such as the date of the map and the source of the data found on the map.

The topo maps are accessed by a very simple index. Just zoom in to the area you are interested in until the blue outlines showing the map boundaries become visible. Then click the Topographic map you wish to view and after a few seconds, it will overlay onto the correct location in Google Earth. Once the map loads, you can use the use the topo maps with the many other features included with Google Earth, such as:

• Import and overlay GPS Tracks
• Adjust the transparency of the top maps
• View Google Earth’s 3D buildings on top of the topo maps
• Output to your printer
• Compare features on the topo maps to the Google Earth imagery

NOTE: When you click on the View Map button, it will appear nothing has happened. However, the map is loading and should become visible when it has finished downloading. This might take anywhere from 10 seconds to several minutes, depending on the size of the map file (typically 1 to 5 megabytes) and the speed of your internet connection.

You can enable/disable the map by clicking on the box next to its name under the Temporary Places folder. If you highlight the maps name, you can adjust the transparency with the slider located beneath the Places window or delete the map by clicking the Delete key. The number of maps you can have open at one time is limited by your computer specifications.

The Temporary Places folder will automatically clear when you exit Google Earth. You should not move too many individual maps from Temporary Places into your permanent Places folder as this could significantly slow down the loading of Google Earth in the future. A few should be ok.

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