what is the purpose of vertical exaggeration?
The purpose of vertical exaggeration is to visually enhance the vertical scale in maps, profiles, or cross-sections. It involves exaggerating the vertical dimension compared to the horizontal dimension. This technique is commonly used to emphasize the variation in landscape features or geological formations that may otherwise appear flat or less pronounced on a map or profile.
To understand how vertical exaggeration works, let's consider an example. Suppose you have a topographic profile showing the elevation changes along a particular line. The horizontal scale represents the distance, while the vertical scale represents the elevation. However, if the vertical scale is kept proportional to the horizontal scale, the changes in elevation may appear insignificant or too subtle to be observed clearly.
To apply vertical exaggeration to the profile, you need to increase the vertical scale while keeping the horizontal scale unchanged. This amplification vertically stretches or compresses the profile, making even small elevation changes much more visible and prominent. By doing this, the features such as hills, valleys, cliffs, or slopes become more exaggerated and easily discernible.
In practical applications, vertical exaggeration is particularly valuable in geological mapping, terrain analysis, geophysical surveys, and visualizations where it helps to highlight significant variations in the data. However, it is essential to remember that vertical exaggeration should be used judiciously to avoid misrepresenting the actual proportions of the landscape or geological structures.