Map Vocabulary
Flip each card to learn the term. Only one card opens at a time and it closes after 8 seconds — you can reopen any card as many times as you need.
Matching Practice
Click a term on the left, then click its matching definition on the right.
Terms
Definitions
How to Read ESRT Page 8
ESRT Page 8 shows the Generalized Surface Bedrock Geology of New York State. It packs three tools onto one map — a coordinate grid, labeled waterways, and a color/pattern key for rock age. Study the whole map below, then we will practice each tool.
① The Coordinate Grid (Latitude & Longitude)
Latitude lines run east–west (side to side) and are labeled 41° to 45° N up the right and left edges. Longitude lines run north–south (up and down) and are labeled 72° to 79° W across the top and bottom.
② Waterways
The map labels major lakes (Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Lake Champlain), Long Island Sound, the Atlantic Ocean, and rivers (Hudson, Mohawk, Genesee, Delaware, Susquehanna, St. Lawrence). The thin curving lines inside the state are rivers; large solid bodies on the edges are lakes and the ocean.
③ The Bedrock Key
Each pattern in the key stands for a geologic period or era and the rock types from that time. Reading the key tells you both the age of the bedrock and what rocks are found there.
Latitude, Longitude & Minutes
A coordinate written only in whole degrees is not very exact. To pinpoint a city we split each degree into smaller pieces called minutes.
What is a Minute (′)?
Each degree (°) of latitude or longitude is divided into 60 minutes (′). Minutes work like the minutes on a clock — 60 of them make one full unit.
So a complete coordinate looks like this: 42°27′ N, 75°04′ W — read as "42 degrees, 27 minutes North; 75 degrees, 4 minutes West."
🎬 Worked Example — Finding Oneonta
Watch the lines slide to the city of Oneonta. The vertical line finds its longitude; the horizontal line finds its latitude. The readout updates to the nearest minute.
Draw the Lines to Find Coordinates
Pick a city, then drag the gold vertical line and the teal horizontal line until they cross right on the city's dot. The readout shows your coordinate to the nearest minute. Press Check when the cross sits on the dot.
Coordinate Data Table (4 pts)
Each city you locate correctly fills in automatically. The table is worth 4 points when all three cities are found to the nearest minute.
| City | Latitude | Longitude | Status |
|---|
Identifying Waterways
🔎 Guided Example
Find the long, narrow body of water on the east side of New York that separates NY from Vermont.
Using the Bedrock Key
🔎 Guided Example
Look at the northeast corner of the state — the Adirondack Mountains region around Mt. Marcy. Match its pattern to the key.
The Bedrock Beneath New York
New York State's bedrock records over a billion years of history. The oldest rocks form the Adirondack Mountains and Hudson Highlands, where Meso Proterozoic gneisses were squeezed and heated deep underground. Across central and western New York, younger Devonian, Silurian, and Ordovician sedimentary layers hold limestone, shale, and sandstone. Silurian rock near the Great Lakes also contains salt and gypsum, which people mine for road salt, drywall, and industry.
The youngest material covers Long Island: loose sand, gravel, and clay left behind by glaciers and rivers. Because this material is so porous, rain soaks down and collects in aquifers that supply nearly all of Long Island's drinking water. Human activity affects these resources directly — quarrying removes bedrock for construction, pumping too much groundwater lets salt water intrude into coastal aquifers, and paving the surface reduces the rainfall that refills them.
Regents-Style Questions
Use the map for every question — it stays on this page so you never have to click back.
Grade Report
Click Calculate My Grade to score everything, then Print / Save as PDF to turn in. The printout shows only this report page with your name, grade, data table, map, and all questions and answers.