Earth & Geographic Sciences Research Guide: Recommended Websites

Find geographic data and products such as the TIGER/Line Shapefiles, KMLs, TIGERweb, cartographic boundary files, geographic relationship files, and reference and thematic maps.

Reference tabs within site provide maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, a World Oceans map, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map.

The historical map collection has over 75,000 maps and images online. The collection includes rare 16th through 21st century maps of America, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Pacific and the World.

A collection of before-and-after satellite images, maps and photographs designed to show recent environmental events and to introduce remote sensing. Covers environmental changes in a variety of urban, agricultural, forested, and marine locations.

The Fagel Collection consists of contemporary accounts of travels, books on geography and other geographical material; The special nature of this collection, in terms of both its scope and condition, make it an invaluable resource of primary material for research across a number of disciplines.

The Harvard Map Collection is one of the oldest and largest collections of cartographic materials in the United States with over 500,000 items. Resources range from 16th century globes to modern maps and geographic information systems (GIS) layers. A selection has been digitally imaged and is offered both as true picture images and georeferenced copies

edmaps.com is a free online cartographic resource. This site contains free maps that may be useful to students, teachers, and general enthusiasts in the study of History, Geopolitics, International Relations, and other disciplines.

Provides color, detailed maps of continents, countries and states.

Map projections that attempt to portray the surface of the earth on a flat surface. Also related links.

Online world maps showing countries and continents. May be too wide for small monitors.

Interactive maps and data about health, income and education in America.

From National Geographic, provides maps, profiles, etc. of U.S. states as well as countries of the world.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has historical aeronautical and nautical charts available at this site. You can find charts by either typing in a place name or clicking on a location on a map.

Digitized maps of New York City and state dating back to the 1600's. These are open access maps and can be downloaded.

OldMapsOnline developed out of a love of history and heritage of old maps. indexes over 400.000 maps.

This website provides historical and historical documents with access to multiple other websites and maps relating to historical events.

The U.S. Board of Geonames provides information regarding names of U.S. locations, foreign locations, as well as other global names and features. An additional Links section provides links to additional maps and historical information about U.S. locations.

U.S. topographical maps: elevation, structures, boundaries, and transportation.

Maps of united states agriculture, including plants, crops, livestock and animals, agricultural economics, and agricultural census maps.

Watershed theme maps, as well as other geographic water information from floods to wetlands.

This site provides information about current population of countries, their administrative areas, cities and towns as well as images of the current national flags.

A clearinghouse of academic links on all aspects of geology and the earth sciences.

University of California Museum of Paleontology provides the history of the Earth and allows the user to jump to a specific time period using the time scale to examine ancient life, climates, and geography

The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) is a laboratory in the Earth Sciences Division (ESD) of National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The ESD is part of GSFC's Sciences and Exploration Directorate.

Includes NASA images from solar system exploration programs.

Provides information on multiple topics, specifically geomagnetic data and geospatial maps.

Multiple resources for weather, climate, oceans and fisheries, as well as charting and satellite information.

Multiple links to resources relating to physics, astronomy and math.

Science.gov searches over 60 databases and over 2,200 scientific websites to provide access to more than 200 million pages of authoritative federal science information including research and development results.

A collection of videos about symbols in physics and astronomy.

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is a multi-mission operations center for NASA’s flagship observatories and a world-class astronomical research center.

A collection of over 400,000 photographs taken during geologic studies of the U.S. and its territories from 1868 to the present.

U.S. topographical maps, elevation, structures, boundaries and transportation.