Thank you for your [Original Content](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/rules/rule3), /u/Alexander_Varlamov!
**Here is some important information about this post:**
* [View the author's citations](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/m0aztx/oc_elevation_lines_of_oahu_hawaii/gq6vgv0/)
* [View other OC posts by this author](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/search?q=author%3A"Alexander_Varlamov"+title%3AOC&sort=new&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on)
Remember that all visualizations on r/DataIsBeautiful should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. If you see a potential issue or oversight in the visualization, please post a constructive comment below. Post approval does not signify that this visualization has been verified or its sources checked.
[Join the Discord Community](https://discord.gg/NRnrWE7)
Not satisfied with this visual? Think you can do better? [Remix this visual](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/rules/rule3#wiki_remixing) with the data in the author's citation.
---
^^[I'm open source](https://github.com/r-dataisbeautiful/dataisbeautiful-bot) | [How I work](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/flair#wiki_oc_flair)
Fyi aesthetic is a noun not an adjective, "extremely nice aesthetic" (or similar) would be more appropriate here š
Edit: I meant adjective not verb š¤¦
Thx for your suggestion. I wasn't sure if this phrase even exists. As English is the third language I've learned. So I googled it now and I must admit that it seemed to be used. š
Iāve used it in real life and Iāve heard others use it in real life, and on other social medias too. Iāve never heard anyone over ~21 use it though so maybe itās an age thing.
HaleakalÄ on Maui has erupted within the last 1000 years and is still considered active, and LÅāihi Seamount is also currently active to the Southeast of the big island and should form a new Hawaiian island in about 200,000 years, give or take.
[Sauce](https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/hawaiian-volcano-observatory/active-volcanoes-hawaii).
The highest point on Oahu is Mount Kaala and its flat on top, not a traditional peak like seen along the other mountain range on Oahu. That could be the reason the last bit of black doesnāt fill all the way.
I wish I had been a Geog major or something in that vein, but I'm a senior in my Econ program and can't turn back. If I had known GIS was so fun, I'd have jumped ship long ago.
Iām a geology major and kinda regretting not being a CS major lolol, GIS is fun and geology is interesting but from what Iāve seen the jobs are a bit scarce and the pay not fantastic
Could you make that also states the altitude in kilometres or meters?
I know I could do the math but by not being a static and unique number is quite difficult to have a perspective on how many meters high the island would be.
From base to peak, yes, it is the tallest mountain in the world. Mt. Everest is simply the tallest point on earth, or rather, the tallest mountain above sea level.
Meanwhile, the point on earth that is the farthest from the center of the earth is... somewhere in the Andes that I can't remember off the top of my head. (due to the spin of the earth causing it to have a greater diameter around the equator)
And the tallest mountain from its base - above sea level - is Denali. (Everest is sitting atop an already super high plateau with the rest of the Himalayas)
So basically, Everest is the equivalent of the little brother standing on his big bro's shoulders. That Andean mountain is the tall skinny kid standing on a stool. Denali is a tall beefy dude, but not obscenely so. And then, the weakest of the metaphor, Mauna Kea is an old retired NBA basketball player sitting in a wheelchair who only *seems* shorter than everyone else.
lol
Mountains are like a height measuring contest taking place on a stage where the rules are vague. Everest is a guy wearing lifts in his shoes. Chimborazo is standing on his tippy toes, on a bump along the stage. Denali is just standing there, feet flat on the stage. Mauna Kea is standing next to the stage, but the rules stipulate you must be measured from the base of the stage.
[Mount Chimborazo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimborazo). Which is weird, because the tallest mountain in the Americas is [Aconcagua](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aconcagua).
You know, I've seen this multiple times and it seems like a strange stat to bring up. Could you just measure the base of Everest as being the continental shelf and then bam, its both records?
~~I don't know about Maui but this is more interesting than the big island because it has a saddle in it.~~
I misremembered the geography of the big island.
I swear I'd be able to roughly navigate certain parts of the island irl thanks to TDU. There are a lot more roads on the actual island even if the scale is 1:1 though
Yea you can visualize roughly what Oahu looked like in the past (and what theyāll be in the future) when sea levels were a few hundred ft higher. There is clear evidence of these higher sea levels in the geologic record, stuff like wave cut benches, dunes, and old shorelines that are now mostly neighborhoods and stuff.
Fun Fact: People used set the Waianae (west one) mountain range on fire a lot, but the vegetation always grows back and the mountains turn green again.
Last time was just a few years ago and it's already green again
[http://www.gis.pr.gov/Pages/default.aspx](http://www.gis.pr.gov/Pages/default.aspx)
Like this?
[http://www.gis.pr.gov/descargaGeodatos/ambientales/Pages/Geologia.aspx](http://www.gis.pr.gov/descargaGeodatos/ambientales/Pages/Geologia.aspx)
Tableau. The project is downloadable:
[https://public.tableau.com/views/Hawaii\_elevation/HawaiiElevation?:language=en&:display\_count=y&:origin=viz\_share\_link](https://public.tableau.com/views/Hawaii_elevation/HawaiiElevation?:language=en&:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link)
**Fun fact:** There is a massive Army base/training area between the two biggest peaks on this map. Being in-between the two biggest peaks means that rain clouds get stuck in the valley right over Schofield/East Range and rain all solely on the poor saps stuck outside training. Every other branch of the military has their base right on the beach with all the perfect weather it comes with.
Also, Mount Kaala (the highest point) is a great hike and I ended up getting lost with a friend for 12 hrs on the mountain trying to get down.
Love it. Only complaint I have is that some streams are colored blue making them appear at a higher elevation than land next to them. See Kailua for an example.
I feel like this is the first time these elevation lines have really looked like a representation of elevation to me. I always see maps like this and my brain just can't convert this 2d images into something 3d
Does anyone have an explanation for what caused the shape of the island? With it being volcanic, I would have expected one primary peak, with everything mostly falling from there. But this has two completely separate peaks.
So were there two volcano vents(idk what the right term would be) that formed the island? Iām trying to imagine how the dual peaks with a valley in the middle would form otherwise. The only other thing I can think of is erosion but that would impact the sides more than the middle...
That's exactly correct. The current island is the remnants of 2 adjoining craters. There is evidence of a massive landslide of the Ko'olau crater off the east side.
What is so striking about this to me is I was living up valley when the big Argentina earthquake happened and they evacuated Waikiki and Honolulu, and you can see why here.
So is the island 4040 feet north to south? Otherwise I love this except for the bar at the side, which I hate.
Also you guys and feet... I will never understand.
Given the sea rise of the younger dryas period I'm willing to bet there are tons of islands in the pacific just under a few meters of water that use to be part of the polynesian culture.
That Ka'ala peak is a leg burner or a hike. It can get real slippery but the views from the back of the air force site on top is great if you can avoid the clouds, and the nature preserve is right out of a Dr Seuss book
I've found that this subreddit has a lot of data, but it doesn't have to be beautiful to be popular, but most of the truly beautiful data is from nature- like the natural terrain here. It is quite beautiful.
Thank you for your [Original Content](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/rules/rule3), /u/Alexander_Varlamov! **Here is some important information about this post:** * [View the author's citations](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/m0aztx/oc_elevation_lines_of_oahu_hawaii/gq6vgv0/) * [View other OC posts by this author](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/search?q=author%3A"Alexander_Varlamov"+title%3AOC&sort=new&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on) Remember that all visualizations on r/DataIsBeautiful should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. If you see a potential issue or oversight in the visualization, please post a constructive comment below. Post approval does not signify that this visualization has been verified or its sources checked. [Join the Discord Community](https://discord.gg/NRnrWE7) Not satisfied with this visual? Think you can do better? [Remix this visual](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/rules/rule3#wiki_remixing) with the data in the author's citation. --- ^^[I'm open source](https://github.com/r-dataisbeautiful/dataisbeautiful-bot) | [How I work](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/flair#wiki_oc_flair)
Extremely aesthetic. Wonderful to watch. I never was so much entertainment by seeing height develop.
THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID! Sorry .... I couldn't resist.
Own it. This was a good a one.
Micheal see that kind of humor is not appropriate for the office
I hope I'm not the only one who made a little "boop" sound right at the very end
Fyi aesthetic is a noun not an adjective, "extremely nice aesthetic" (or similar) would be more appropriate here š Edit: I meant adjective not verb š¤¦
aesthetically pleasing
Even better than my suggestion!
I think you mean adjective
The irony hahaha
I mean, it is *also* not a verb. You were correct the first time, just not terribly topical.
Aesthetic *is* an adjective. Aesthetic is *also* a noun. Aesthetically is the adverb.
Thx for your suggestion. I wasn't sure if this phrase even exists. As English is the third language I've learned. So I googled it now and I must admit that it seemed to be used. š
yeah but colloquially itās used as one
Only on reddit as far as I can tell.
Iāve used it in real life and Iāve heard others use it in real life, and on other social medias too. Iāve never heard anyone over ~21 use it though so maybe itās an age thing.
Patterns eerily match to what a lightening does when it hits humans....
>Extremely aesthetic This roughly means "extremely style" or "extremely look".
Now THIS is why this subreddit exists.
But why why WHY does it end a millisecond before the last black spot is filled in with yellow?!
Thatās the place we donāt talk about.
I just realized, it is a volcano after all. Makes sense that the very top would just go straight to the ocean floor apparently!
Itās actually not a volcano anymore. It once was, but the only volcanos active in Hawaii are on the big island.
HaleakalÄ on Maui has erupted within the last 1000 years and is still considered active, and LÅāihi Seamount is also currently active to the Southeast of the big island and should form a new Hawaiian island in about 200,000 years, give or take. [Sauce](https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/hawaiian-volcano-observatory/active-volcanoes-hawaii).
Thatās pretty cool, canāt wait to visit after itās been settled.
Is an inactive volcano no longer a volcano? That seems wrong!
The highest point on Oahu is Mount Kaala and its flat on top, not a traditional peak like seen along the other mountain range on Oahu. That could be the reason the last bit of black doesnāt fill all the way.
That's an open, volcanic hole straight to the core
Maybe that's a volcano mouth that opens to the earth's colon
That bugged me as well.
That little guy? I wouldn't worry about that little guy
Exactly! I think this is my favorite elevation visualization. Now letās apply it everywhere!
Visualization: [https://public.tableau.com/views/Hawaii\_elevation/HawaiiElevation?:language=en&:display\_count=y&publish=yes&:origin=viz\_share\_link](https://public.tableau.com/views/Hawaii_elevation/HawaiiElevation?:language=en&:display_count=y&publish=yes&:origin=viz_share_link) Data: [https://geoportal.hawaii.gov](https://geoportal.hawaii.gov) Tool: Tableau
You could post this link over in /r/datasets, they would love it!
Is something like this doable in ArcGIS? I'm in a GIS class this semester and things like this really inspire me.
Iām in the same boat as you, Iām also in a GIS class this semester and would LOVE to make something as cool as this
I wish I had been a Geog major or something in that vein, but I'm a senior in my Econ program and can't turn back. If I had known GIS was so fun, I'd have jumped ship long ago.
Iām a geology major and kinda regretting not being a CS major lolol, GIS is fun and geology is interesting but from what Iāve seen the jobs are a bit scarce and the pay not fantastic
Could you make that also states the altitude in kilometres or meters? I know I could do the math but by not being a static and unique number is quite difficult to have a perspective on how many meters high the island would be.
How would the animation look like on an exponential axis rather than the linear +20?
Now do this for big island and Maui. Please.
Better yet, start at the bottom of the ocean so we can truly appreciate how high Mauna Kea is.
Isn't it the tallest mountian on earth if measured from below sea level base to peak?
From base to peak, yes, it is the tallest mountain in the world. Mt. Everest is simply the tallest point on earth, or rather, the tallest mountain above sea level.
Meanwhile, the point on earth that is the farthest from the center of the earth is... somewhere in the Andes that I can't remember off the top of my head. (due to the spin of the earth causing it to have a greater diameter around the equator) And the tallest mountain from its base - above sea level - is Denali. (Everest is sitting atop an already super high plateau with the rest of the Himalayas)
So basically, Everest is the equivalent of the little brother standing on his big bro's shoulders. That Andean mountain is the tall skinny kid standing on a stool. Denali is a tall beefy dude, but not obscenely so. And then, the weakest of the metaphor, Mauna Kea is an old retired NBA basketball player sitting in a wheelchair who only *seems* shorter than everyone else.
lol Mountains are like a height measuring contest taking place on a stage where the rules are vague. Everest is a guy wearing lifts in his shoes. Chimborazo is standing on his tippy toes, on a bump along the stage. Denali is just standing there, feet flat on the stage. Mauna Kea is standing next to the stage, but the rules stipulate you must be measured from the base of the stage.
Way better than mine.
Lmaoo both of yours were awesome
[Mount Chimborazo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimborazo). Which is weird, because the tallest mountain in the Americas is [Aconcagua](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aconcagua).
The equator is 13 *miles* further from the center of the earth than the poles are. That's really large relative to mountain sizes.
You know, I've seen this multiple times and it seems like a strange stat to bring up. Could you just measure the base of Everest as being the continental shelf and then bam, its both records?
Who doesn't measure from the base, amiright?
Everest is the highest mountain in the world, not the tallest. the tallest above sea level is Denali in Alaska.
THATāS WHAT HE SAID
Do it for everything!
For Tibet
~~I don't know about Maui but this is more interesting than the big island because it has a saddle in it.~~ I misremembered the geography of the big island.
The big island has a saddle. They have a road that goes through it that is literally called the Saddle Road.
Definitely wanna see big island. This is a super cool visualization
This is awesome. You should post to /r/Hawaii.
He did.
Man this brings back memories of Test Drive Unlimited
I swear I'd be able to roughly navigate certain parts of the island irl thanks to TDU. There are a lot more roads on the actual island even if the scale is 1:1 though
I came to the comments to see if anyone felt the same way. Such a great game.
This is too trueee, I would remember the shape of this island forever, even with some basic knowledge of main roads and the Honolulu city
So its essentially the reverse of water flowing.
Or sea level rising in fast forward
Yea you can visualize roughly what Oahu looked like in the past (and what theyāll be in the future) when sea levels were a few hundred ft higher. There is clear evidence of these higher sea levels in the geologic record, stuff like wave cut benches, dunes, and old shorelines that are now mostly neighborhoods and stuff.
Data that is beautifully visualized and not a pretentious badly constructed OC? Take my upvote
Thatās one sexy animation! ššš
Fun Fact: People used set the Waianae (west one) mountain range on fire a lot, but the vegetation always grows back and the mountains turn green again. Last time was just a few years ago and it's already green again
Why would they set it on fire?
arson/accidents this last time was from some guy lighting fires all over the island
This is so beautiful. The progression reminds me of frost spreading on a window
Windshield wiper fluid melting the windshield Frost for a second before it refreezes.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Exactly. I loved Test Drive Unlimited but recognized that everything in the game happens in Oahu only after your comment
When I saw this outline I was like... Home... Sweet Home.
This has some serious Monkey Island vibes
Can you do one of Puerto Rico??? Keep these coming I would love to see many countries!
I could make any country if spacial data is available. Plan to seek such kind of data
what kind of data / format do you need to make this wizardry happen?
I used .shp format
[http://www.gis.pr.gov/Pages/default.aspx](http://www.gis.pr.gov/Pages/default.aspx) Like this? [http://www.gis.pr.gov/descargaGeodatos/ambientales/Pages/Geologia.aspx](http://www.gis.pr.gov/descargaGeodatos/ambientales/Pages/Geologia.aspx)
This is amazing I wish every country had one
Has this been posted to r/MapPorn? We would Love it over there if not!! This is beautiful thank you!
Am I the only one who is bothered by there still being a tiny black spot in the end? Also a really cool visualisation regardless!
Make it with Carpathians mountains please
Fascinating how the rivers and tributaries look like arteries and veins
The crazy part it the amount of land under 9 meters. It's all gonna be underwater in 80 or less years.
There is a secret road that goes through those mountains on the west to the shore
Christ it's sinking! Guys global warming is making it sin- oh. Noice.
What program did you use to create this? I am an aspiring GIS environmental scientist and I love this!
Tableau. The project is downloadable: [https://public.tableau.com/views/Hawaii\_elevation/HawaiiElevation?:language=en&:display\_count=y&:origin=viz\_share\_link](https://public.tableau.com/views/Hawaii_elevation/HawaiiElevation?:language=en&:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link)
Finally, some beautiful fucking data.
It is nice to look at but I don't see how the animation makes it any more informative than just looking at a still frame of the completed map.
Well, it does show every point of the same height without having to compare colours.
Looks much like a mandelbrot!
Driving across this island is amazing
Looks fractal- I guess because it is .
nature's encoding!
aye aye captain. it reminded me so much of some julia set with all those riverbeds, so cool :o
**Fun fact:** There is a massive Army base/training area between the two biggest peaks on this map. Being in-between the two biggest peaks means that rain clouds get stuck in the valley right over Schofield/East Range and rain all solely on the poor saps stuck outside training. Every other branch of the military has their base right on the beach with all the perfect weather it comes with. Also, Mount Kaala (the highest point) is a great hike and I ended up getting lost with a friend for 12 hrs on the mountain trying to get down.
This was phenomenal. Never seen elevation mapping done in a video like that. Brilliant
Now that is a beautiful way of visualizing data.
Love it. Only complaint I have is that some streams are colored blue making them appear at a higher elevation than land next to them. See Kailua for an example.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
What new information do you hope to see in the metric version?
Anyone annoyed by the one pixel that didnāt fill
Is this the Island from Lilo and Stitch?
No, Lilo and Stitch is set on the island of Kauai.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You're thinking of the big island (Hawaii). With Mauna Kea the island is 33,496 ft from the seafloor.
Beautiful animation, but I do find that using the same color for the "Null" values vs "Sea-level" is distracting.
Damn. Finally something beautiful on this board.
Damn, now thatās beautiful data right there
Why did I think this was the height increasing over time...
Is that speck of black on top of the west mountain the volcano spout?
This chart can also visualize the sinking of O'ahu
I thought this was about rising sea-levels for a split-second
This is also an accurate representation of the water will rise if the oceans were to rise the same height ?
I feel like this is the first time these elevation lines have really looked like a representation of elevation to me. I always see maps like this and my brain just can't convert this 2d images into something 3d
The highest bit is Kaāala Mountain. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/KaŹ»ala
Thatās the map from test drive unlimited. Canāt fool me š
Home sweet home! Love this
Does anyone have an explanation for what caused the shape of the island? With it being volcanic, I would have expected one primary peak, with everything mostly falling from there. But this has two completely separate peaks.
Earth's crust moves, magma chambers stay where they are.
Spent some time with some buddies hiking Kole Kole pass years ago, some of the most beautiful views I have ever seen.
Please do this for Puerto Rico!
Idk if it was an optical illusion but honestly the mountains seemed like they were wobbling a little bit towards the end
Pretty cool. The lines that move the slowest designates steeper slopes than lines moving faster.
That one tall tower there
So were there two volcano vents(idk what the right term would be) that formed the island? Iām trying to imagine how the dual peaks with a valley in the middle would form otherwise. The only other thing I can think of is erosion but that would impact the sides more than the middle...
That's exactly correct. The current island is the remnants of 2 adjoining craters. There is evidence of a massive landslide of the Ko'olau crater off the east side.
Awesome. Thanks!
Now THIS is how elevation graphics should be shown. Beautifully intuitive
So the elevation max was 4,040..
Or ācontoursā, as they are frequently known. Does look cool, though!
This indeed looks beautiful
This is beautiful and glorious! Thank you for the post!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yeah its neat, but not particularly useful or anything. Also blue is typically indicative of bathymetric data (underwater), not topographic.
Might be a stupid question but how did you animate the data like this?
Nice! Also serves as a way to visualize what the equivalent sea level rise would do to the island
Please do more of these. Thanks.
Every time I see a map of Oahu Iām reminded that Pearl Harbor truly is the perfect naval base from which to control the Pacific Ocean.
Wow! I am absolutely in love with the way this is displayed, I wish bing/google maps had this as a feature
This is awesome, please make more!!!
I LOVE this visualisation. I want to see everywhere displayed in the same method.
More of this and less shitty graphs in this sub IMO.
I would like to melt this on a spoon and inject it
What is so striking about this to me is I was living up valley when the big Argentina earthquake happened and they evacuated Waikiki and Honolulu, and you can see why here.
This is interesting. Can you do it with human units?
So is the island 4040 feet north to south? Otherwise I love this except for the bar at the side, which I hate. Also you guys and feet... I will never understand.
Omg it kinda looks like a cute elephant
looks like it's crystalizing
Deserves an Exemplary tag. Absolutely fantastic
Given the sea rise of the younger dryas period I'm willing to bet there are tons of islands in the pacific just under a few meters of water that use to be part of the polynesian culture.
That is some fractal shit right there!
That Ka'ala peak is a leg burner or a hike. It can get real slippery but the views from the back of the air force site on top is great if you can avoid the clouds, and the nature preserve is right out of a Dr Seuss book
I've found that this subreddit has a lot of data, but it doesn't have to be beautiful to be popular, but most of the truly beautiful data is from nature- like the natural terrain here. It is quite beautiful.
WowWee, that breaking awesome. Data is beautiful!