The Methane Risk Map

In 2024, atmospheric methane levels reached their highest point in more than 800,000 years, with the oil and gas sector playing a major role in that surge. The methane leaks from oil and gas operations don’t just warm the planet - they also release toxic pollutants that can harm people’s health.

The Methane Risk Map plots significant methane leak events across the United States. By combining emissions data with air quality modeling, it not only identifies where methane “super-emitter” events occurred but also illustrates where nearby communities may have been exposed to hazardous co-pollutants.

When you select a methane leak event on the interactive map, a heatmap visualization shows the areas potentially affected by the leak. The sidebar provides additional details, including the event date, emissions rate, estimated number of people impacted, and the number of sensitive facilities (such as schools and hospitals) within the affected area.

By highlighting sensitive sites such as schools, childcare centers, nursing homes, and hospitals, the map emphasizes how methane leaks may disproportionately affect vulnerable populations. Methane is invisible and odorless, making its risks hard to detect. The map aims to make those hidden dangers visible, and will hopefully empower communities and policymakers with evidence they can potentially act on.

The New Geologic Map of the United States

The United States Geological Survey has released a new geologic map of the United States that lets you click anywhere in the country to see the rocks, sediments, and geologic units under your feet, along with their age and material type.

The Cooperative National Geological Map was created by combining around 100 state and regional maps into one seamless, nationwide view of U.S. geology. The map uses standard U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) colors and patterns, but you don’t need to know those standards in advance - when you zoom in on the map, a legend automatically appears. This legend automatically updates to explain the colors currently visible in your map view.

The map sidebar allows you to explore different geologic map layers:

• Earth Surface - geology exposed at the surface.
• Quaternary - deposits from the Quaternary Period (youngest geologic materials).
• Pre-Quaternary - older rocks beneath surface deposits.
• Precambrian - very old basement rocks.

This new national geologic map lets you explore both a simplified national view and the original state-level geology. Users can spot big geologic patterns across the country, then zoom in for detailed views from local maps. It offers instant access to America’s geologic story in a way that’s easy and engaging to explore.

GeoGuesser - Hosted by an AI

The geo-guessing genre has seen a sudden surge in AI-powered experimentation. Just yesterday, I reviewed GeoGPT, which pits players against an AI to identify locations using Mapillary imagery. Today, I came across GeoGuesser AI, a geo-guessing game that’s actually hosted by an AI..

In many respects, GeoGuesser AI follows the familiar geo-guessing format: you’re dropped into a random location in Google Street View and must rely on visual clues to pinpoint where you are. But here’s the twist- unlike every other geo-guessing game, you don’t submit your guess by clicking on a map. Instead, you interact directly with the AI, giving your answers through natural conversation.

This turns out to be a genuinely refreshing change. Not only does it make the game feel more immersive, it also unlocks some unique advantages. You can ask the AI for hints when you’re stuck - like help identifying a language from strange accents on a road sign, or insights into what countries might have cathedrals with bulb-shaped domes. 

If there’s one drawback, it’s the limited pool of locations. After only a few minutes, I started encountering repeat locations, sometimes even three times in a row. Hopefully, this is just a temporary issue that will be solved as the location database grows.

Play GeoGuessr Against an AI

GeoGPT is now one of my favorite geo-guessing games. GeoGPT follows the usual GeoGuessr inspired format: you’re dropped into a random street-level image, and your task is to figure out where in the world you are. But here’s the twist - rather than competing against other humans, you’re up against an AI, which makes its own guesses alongside yours. The closest guess to the true location wins the round.

The game uses Mapillary images rather than Google Street View but the format is straightforward: you play a 20-round match, marking your guesses on an interactive map while the AI does the same. Each round becomes a mini showdown: your human instincts versus GPT-5’s reasoning. If you want to compete against me as well then you need to win more than 5 rounds - because that's how many rounds I won - while GPT-5 took the other 15.

Unfortunately I think there is only one game of 20 rounds available to play. I started a second game and I’m pretty certain that the locations and Mapillary images were the same from the first game played. Hopefully, in the future the pool of locations will be expanded, because this AI twist on the classic GeoGuessr theme is inspired.

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Growing a World Wide Web

Every year Telegeography publishes a comprehensive, annually updated map that visualizes active and planned submarine telecommunications cables around the world. The futuristic looking 2025 Submarine Cable Map was released back in January. This map shows the current extent of the world’s active submarine telecommunications cables and those currently under construction.

The Internet Infrastructure Map allows you to see how the current network of submarine telecommunication cables has developed over the last 36 years. The map combines two key elements of the internet: submarine fiber-optic cables, which connect continents across the ocean floor, and Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), the data hubs where networks interconnect and exchange traffic.

One of the standout features of the Internet Infrastructure Map is its animated timeline. Starting from 1989, when the first modern subsea cables appeared, you can step year by year through time and watch the growth of the global internet unfold on the map. The animation reveals how over time the sparse early connections developed into the dense intercontinental webs of cables of today, with new systems being added almost every year. By sliding through to 2025, you can literally watch the internet’s backbone expand, seeing when major routes were built and how new IXPs shifted regional connectivity patterns.

How Big is Anything?

The Size of Anything is an interactive map that lets you compare the sizes of different locations around the world.

To be honest, when I first heard about The Size of Anything I thought, “Not another size comparison map.” Just off the top of my head I can think of several similar tools:

• The True Size Of ... 
• GeoSize Compare 
• Country Size Comparison 
• Reprojector

- all of which let you directly compare the scale of different geographical areas on the same map.

However, as soon as I started playing with The Size of Anything, my mood quickly improved. It’s very well done. Perhaps the most impressive feature is the sheer number of locations you can compare. As long as OpenStreetMap knows about it, The Size of Anything can handle it. That means the options are enormous: parks, airports, islands, neighborhoods, towns, cities - almost anything mapped on OSM.

There’s also a fun extra: if you select the Treasure button, you’ll find a few non-geographic objects to overlay, such as a blue whale, the Titanic, or an airplane.

So, while The Size of Anything isn’t exactly a brand-new concept, it takes the idea and executes it brilliantly. With its huge range of locations and playful extras, it’s probably one of the best tools out there for exploring and comparing the true scale of different geographical areas.

Letters Found on the Moon

This isn’t a tale about Lunar correspondence, but of letters shaped from the craters and shadows of the Moon. Alphabet Moon uses imagery of Lunar contours and ridges to shape a typeface out of unfamiliar terrain. Each letter is drawn not with ink but with the valleys, peaks, and scars of the lunar surface, transforming geological history into the letters of the alphabet.

Enter your name - or any other word - into Alphabet Moon, and watch it spelled out in letters drawn from the Moon’s ancient terrain. Each character is carefully matched to the shape of a crater, ridge, or valley, so that what begins as a simple word is reimagined in a language etched into the lunar surface.

Beneath each lunar letter lies a short explanation of how that form was created. These notes not only reveal the exact location on the Moon where the feature can be found, but also describe the geological forces that shaped it - whether an ancient impact, the slow cooling of lava, or the shifting of the Moon’s crust.

Alphabet Moon is a brilliant reinterpretation of Rhett Dashwood’s Google Maps Typography. Back in 2009, Dashwood unveiled an “Earth font” made up of 26 satellite images of our planet, each one resembling a different letter of the alphabet.

NASA appreciated Dashwood’s idea so much that they went on to create their own interactive typewriter, allowing you to write your name using satellite imagery. Type a name into Your Name in Landsat and watch it spelled out in Earth features captured by Landsat satellites. You can even download an image of your word written in massive Earth letters, and by hovering over each letter you can discover where in the world those shapes occur.

And if letters alone don’t satisfy your curiosity, there’s also Earth Clock - an online digital clock that uses satellite images of natural features resembling numbers to display the current time wherever you are.

Changing Parking Lots to Homes

Over recent years, a number of urban planning maps have revealed just how much valuable city land is devoted to surface parking lots. For example, the Parking Lot Map highlights the percentage of land in U.S. city centers taken up by parking.

The School of Cities at the University of Toronto has gone a step further with its project From Parking Spaces to Living Spaces. Using a compelling story map, the school shows how Toronto could repurpose underutilized surface parking lots into new housing. This shift could help address the Toronto housing crisis, while also generating significant property tax revenue for the city.

The interactive map illustrates:

• How much land in Toronto is currently used for parking lots.
• How much of this space sits within 1 km of public transit stations.
• How much additional revenue could be created if these lots were converted into city-owned housing developments.

The report makes a clear case: Toronto’s surface parking lots, often located in prime, transit-friendly neighborhoods, produce little revenue while the city struggles with an acute shortage of affordable housing. Redeveloping these sites into well-designed residential communities would not only increase tax revenue but also create much-needed homes and build more vibrant, complete neighborhoods.

Using AI to Search Maps

The magnificent David Rumsey Map Collection now has an AI Search Assistant that can help you find maps, learn more about individual maps, and even query specific elements within maps.

The David Rumsey Map Collection is one of the largest online collections of maps, and its new AI Search Assistant is a fantastic resource. It not only helps you search and discover maps in the collection but also lets you dive deeper into individual maps and the cartographers who created them.

1. Find Maps in the Collection

From the David Rumsey Map Collection home page, you can now use the AI Search Assistant to find maps based on themes, locations, or any other criteria you can imagine. The Assistant will return a list of maps in the collection that match your search.

Examples of queries you might use are:

• Show me maps of ancient Rome
• Show panoramic maps of New York 
• Show maps that feature compass roses

Ask what projection is used in a map!

2. Ask Questions About an Individual Map

When viewing a specific map, click the blue chat icon in the bottom-right corner to open the AI Search Assistant. You can then ask technical or contextual questions about the map you’re looking at. 

For example:

• What map projection is used by this map?
• Can you translate the map title into English?
• Who was Mercator?

What is this building?

3. Ask Questions about Map Details

When viewing a map you can zoom in on details to ask questions about a specific section of the map. 

Examples of these types of queries might be:

• What was happening at the Colosseum in the time depicted?
• What is this building? 
• What do the words below the map say?

Tourist Minesweeper

Tourist Minesweeper is a twist on the classic puzzle game, using a gridded map of real locations to highlight the spread of Airbnb in popular Spanish tourist destinations. If you’ve ever played Minesweeper (and who hasn’t?), you’ll recognize the rules - but here, instead of dodging bombs, you’re “sweeping” for zones of tourist pressure.

Currently you can play Tourist Minesweeper on gridded maps of Mallorca and Barcelona (more locations are on the way). It is worth noting that the visualization rules are a little different in each location: 

• In Mallorca, a cell has a mine if it contains more than 15 Airbnb listings, turning clusters of vacation rentals into hotspots on the map. 
• The Barcelona map, on the other hand, uses price as its metric: any grid cell with an average nightly rate above €200 is treated as a mine. 

This shift between quantity in Mallorca and affordability in Barcelona highlights different facets of the tourism problem - the sheer density of rentals in one case, and the economic pressure of high prices in the other.

The grid cells in each city are also based on different sized areas. I believe that in Barcelona each grid cell represents a 500 m square, while in Mallorca each grid cell is a 2 km² area.

Via: Quantum of Sollazzo