Google Maps now has Terrain View, which enables users to see terrain maps for an area. Terrain view shows the 3D elevation of natural geographic features, such as mountains and canyons. Topographic ...

If you load up Google Maps, you may notice that they have removed the “Hybrid” button and replaced it with “Terrain.” Here is a live frame of the Google Terrain view of New York City 10010.

Update Wednesday may have come and gone, but Google’s not finished with bug fixes and enhancements yet. A wide swath of apps have already been graced with upgrades, but Google Maps is the latest ...

There’s one feature in the new Maps 8.1 that totally makes it worth the update, if you frequently spend time outdoors, that is – yes, terrain view is back in Google Maps.

New terrain shading and labels in Google Maps highlight forests, deserts, and mountain ranges around the world. Google Maps, now with better terrain shading (old version on top). Image: Google ...

So it recently awarded a grant to a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) researcher to develop better computer terrain maps of the surface of Earth and even our moon or Mars.

The map has a resolution of 8 meters (26 feet), although in certain places this goes all the way down to an incredible 2 meters (6.5 feet). Previous maps have typically had a resolution of 1,000 ...