Finding the Coordinates of Your Seismic Station

The following web sites can be helpful finding the coordinates of your school, and hence the coordinates of your seismic station.

http://earth.google.com/ (Down load GoogleEarth to use while connected to Internet)(Global)
This is by far the neatest way!  Download the free GoogleEarth program to a PC, Mac, or Linux computer.  Enter your address or zip code to fly to your building.   Under Tools/Options change the setting for Lat/Lon to Degrees and read the coordinates and elevation of the cursor at the bottom of the screen.   To convert the elevation from feet to meters, divide by 3.281 m/ft.  (For added fun, tilt the view and fly around your neighborhood or city.)

http://mapper.acme.com/ (Easy and quick) (US Only)
This is the best of the bunch for the US.  One can easily switch between topograph map and aerial photo (satellite) view, and can increase the resolution to 1 meter per pixel.  Use mouse to grab image and slide it around until the "+" sign is centered on your station.  Then read off the coordinates.  Switch to Topo view to find elevation.

http://maps.google.com/ (Global)

First, switch into "Get Directions" mode.  Enter your school's coordinates in the "Starting address" box and click on "Get directions."  A marker will show up near your school.  Click on the "Satellite" button at the upper right of the map to switch to a satellite photograph of the region.  Enlarge the image to the greatest extent possible.  Drag this marker to the top of your school building, so the X is right above your seismometer location.  When you release the mouse button there will be a message like this one:  We could not calculate driving directions between 44.568401,-123.285431 and 44.568401,-123.285431.  The second set of coordinates are those of you seismic station!

http://geocoder.us/ (Approximate) (US Only)
Just plug in your address and out comes your coordinates!  They are not as accurate as actually finding your school building on an aerial photo, and not all addresses are included, but it's the easiest way.  You will still need to find your elevation by some other means.

http://www.topozone.com (Poor, looking for $$) (US Only)
Displays topographic maps in various scales as well as cursor readout of lat/long in UTM, decimal and degree formats. Topo maps are available for all 50 states. Use the "degree" format.  To find your coordinates, navigate to a map showing your location, click on your location to re-center the map and read your coordinates at the top of the page. (Suggested by Bob Hammond, APSN, Fairbanks, Alaska. (http://apsn.awcable.com)

http://www.epa.gov/enviro/wme/ (US Only)
 Environmental Protection Agency, Window To My Environment. The maps are similar to juggling.org, with many added features, including schools, which should make finding your location particularly easy. You can also add nearby flood zones and hazardous waste sites.  Select the "Recenter" option below the map, click on station location, and read coordinates from the browser's URL address window.  (Suggested by Meredith Lamb, <http://www.geocities.com/meredithlamb/>

http://world.maporama.com/ (Global)
Coordinates only given to 2 decimal places (about 1 km).

http://www.heavens-above.com/countries.asp (Global)
This site has the coordinates of many cities world wide.  This may be helpful if one does not have a good atlas available, but will clearly not yield an accurate location.  Site suggested by Mark Robinson <mark.robinson at_sign paradise dot net dot nz>

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/latlong.adp (Global)
From Chris Chapman: "The US Mapquest system is still operating world wide, although it seems to have been taken off the options menu. You have to put in your coordinates and it plots a marked map. See http://www.mapquest.com/maps/latlong.adp I get a rough position with a map and then measure the on screen error in decimal degrees. A map scale is displayed. 1 deg latitude is about 111 km."

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