Anton Balazh Relief Maps: Nine 3D Views of the World's Mountain Ranges

Anton Balazh, a graphic artist from St. Petersburg, builds 3D renders of Earth that look like photographs taken from orbit. Nine of his relief views show the planet's great mountain belts, from the Rockies and the Alps to the Andes and the Southern Alps of New Zealand, with the terrain raised so every range stands out.

How Anton Balazh makes his relief maps

Balazh starts with real data. He downloads satellite imagery from NASA's Visible Earth catalogue, adds NASA-based elevation data to raise the mountains, sea-level data for the coastlines and bathymetry for the ocean floor. Each scene is a 3D model of roughly 20 to 30 million polygons. A single render takes tens of hours on a multi-core computer with 32 GB of RAM, and a full series takes about a month to prepare.

The vertical scale is exaggerated on purpose. Real mountains are tiny compared with the curve of the planet, so Balazh lifts them to make the ranges readable, then adds atmosphere and lighting. The result is a computer rendering, sold through stock-image agencies, which is why these pictures often circulate online wrongly labelled as NASA photographs.

North America: the Cordillera and Alaska

The first view looks along the western edge of North America. The Sierra Nevada, the Basin and Range country of Nevada and Utah, the Rocky Mountains and the long finger of Baja California are all easy to pick out, with the Sierra Madre ranges running south into Mexico. Mexico's highest summit, Pico de Orizaba (5,636 m), lies further south, beyond the edge of the frame.

In the Alaska render the Alaska Range and the coastal mountains curve around the Gulf of Alaska, while the Bering Strait and the tip of Russia's Chukotka appear on the left. This is the country of Denali, at 6,190 metres the highest mountain in North America.

Europe: the Alps, the Pyrenees and the mountains of Greece

The western Europe view takes in the Iberian Peninsula, France, the British Isles and the arc of the Alps. The Pyrenees form a clean wall between Spain and France, and the Alps curve from the Mediterranean towards Vienna. Mont Blanc, at 4,806 metres, is the highest point.

The second European view swings east over Italy, the Balkans and the Black Sea. Here the Apennines run down the spine of Italy, the Dinaric Alps follow the Adriatic coast, and the Carpathians bend around the Hungarian plain. In the south lies Hellas: the Pindus range runs down mainland Greece to the Peloponnese, and the islands of the Aegean are scattered across the sea towards Crete. Mount Olympus, at 2,918 metres, is the highest mountain in Greece.

Scandinavia shows the Scandinavian Mountains running the length of Norway, the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia. Norway's highest peak, Galdhøpiggen (2,469 m), stands in Jotunheimen; Sweden's, Kebnekaise (2,097 m), is in Lapland.

Andes, New Zealand and Australia

The South America view looks down the southern Andes and Patagonia, with the Falkland Islands off the Atlantic coast. The Andes form the longest continental mountain range on Earth and hold Aconcagua (6,961 m), the highest summit outside Asia.

New Zealand appears with the edge of Australia across the Tasman Sea. The Southern Alps run along the South Island and rise to Aoraki / Mount Cook at 3,724 metres. The Australia render covers the south-east of the continent and Tasmania, where the Great Dividing Range and the Australian Alps hold Mount Kosciuszko, at 2,228 metres the country's highest point.

Japan and Korea

The last view looks across north-east China and the Korean Peninsula to the Japanese archipelago. Japan's mountain spine runs the length of Honshu, where Mount Fuji rises to 3,776 metres. In South Korea, the highest point is Hallasan on Jeju Island, at 1,947 metres.

See some of these mountains from the ground: Mount Robson Provincial Park in the Canadian Rockies and Jotunheimen, Norway's home of giants. More views of the planet: Earth Nullschool: Reading Wind, Pressure Levels and Weather Layers and Felix Baumgartner’s Stratos Jump: The Descent and Its Camera Views.

Related reading: Borders in Photographs: Lines, Landmarks and Landscapes.

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