The Digital Elevation Model from Hell

An Absurd Treatment for a Venerable Data Source

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Lately I’ve fallen into a tender trap of draping Digital Elevation Models over aerial imagery to make them look misty, plastic-y, and painterly. But, late on a Friday, feeling pre-apocalyptic I suppose, it occurred to me that there was no reason I couldn’t also mis-use DEMs to make our beautiful Earth look like it was yawning open into the fractured molten crevasses of Mustafar itself.

If you’d like to scorch your fingers on this dark and fiery brimstone-reeking elevation art, grab a DEM, apply a molten color gradient to it (ending in transparency), and slap it over some unsuspecting imagery.

Happy mapping, or something! John

The Digital Elevation Model from Hell

An Absurd Treatment for a Venerable Data Source

Tap to read full story

Here’s a charmingly rugged chunk of central Oregon.

And here it is in the throes of a geologic apocalypse. The end of days for friendly Oregon.

Perhaps there’s safety to be found in the upper reaches of the grand and remote Rockies?

Oh…well, no. The seventh circle of hell has upended and is spilling its fiery wrath up into the once cool and majestic valleys.

Ah, safety assuredly can be found in the thin alpine air of the free living granite state, no?

Thought we had it that time. No, even these pristine riparian channels are not immune from the lapping magma of the underworld.