So, click away and check out some interesting places.  

My students and I have made many world maps of elevation of the land and the depth of the sea.  I have a class page showing many of the maps my students and I have created.  This also provides a link to the Color the World site where you too can make a map.  And, if you are proud of your product, you can post your map to the Gallery. 

I showed some world climate maps of monthly temperature and precipitation.  In that series are animated maps of both of these climatic elements.  These maps are available from the FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N.  I have a class site that shows the temperature map.  From there you can link to the FAO source of the maps. 

On my pages with the climate data is an introduction to the weather maps from the Space Sciences Engineering Center, SSEC, at the University of Wisconsin.  There are many products on the SSEC web pages.   If you are interested in the look of the weather of the world, download some of the SSEC composite satellite maps.  Be aware that a new map is posted every six hours.  You can also download a global montage movie containing all of the maps for the past week.  They call it a two-week image but it is only one week in length.   

Lake Itasca in Minnesota was so named by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft in 1832, based on the Latin for verITAS CAput, the 'true head' of the Mississippi.  Use a search engine to find more about this interesting name.  Search on  Itasca and Schoolcraft.   At one time I found a reprint of Schoolcraft's Expedition to Lake Itasca on the web.  At the Lycos travel site I was able to find information about the origin of the name Itasca, as well as some names other peoples used for this Lake.   

The U.S. Geologic Survey houses the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.  This site has information about the other geographic names units, for foreign names and names in Antarctica.   Go to the U.S. names query site and search on Carrollton in Indiana.  You will find that this small town takes pride in its dual set of names.  You can also find Pottawattomie Bayou in Michigan, if you can spell the name.  

I found this names query site to be a little touchy.  I had to search a couple of times to get Cape Kennedy to come up as a variant name for Cape Canaveral in Florida.  

Use your search engine to hit on   Peters Map Projection.  You will get many hits.  Some places will try to promote the map and the image Arno Peters is trying to sell, such as the peters table site.  You are also likely to find sites put up by persons discussing the many dimensions of map projections.  One such site is that by Peter Dana, posted on the University of Colorado site.

Seeing Through Maps:  The Power of Images to Shape Our World View is the title of a new book by Ward Kaiser and Denis Wood.  Kaiser has been involved in promoting the Peters map.  Wood is a good author on maps.  I have not seen the book but I want to.  I trust these authors to have something good to say.  I pulled this information from a site that is distinctly pro-Peters, but it is a good place to start.  You can get another perspective from someone in the art program at UIC, our neighbors in the Chicago area.  This site shows two variations of the Peters maps as well as the upside down map with Australia at the top.  

And consideration of maps and images must include reference to Mark Monmonier's famous book How to Lie with Maps, published by the University of Chicago Press.  Look this up on the web and you'll find it for sale.  It is likely to be in our local libraries and bookstores.

The U.S. Geological Survey has a pair of maps that are worthy of your attention.  I had the relief map of the U.S. hanging on the wall, although I did not talk about it.  This is a beautiful map in black and white showing the landforms of the entire lower 48 states.  It is not a satellite image, but a map created from digital elevation data.  They have a geologic map that overlays the relief map.  The two maps are available online at The Tapestry of Time and Terrain.  This is a nice site to explore the physical nature of the U.S. 

Oh, I should mention my site on the Many Dimensions of Map Use.  I am a little embarrassed because I have not finished nor maintained this site, but it has my basic ideas.  

Dr. Carter's master pages