Animated Maps

Animated maps are increasingly useful tools in depicting geographic patterns over space and time. While static map series can also achieve this goal, it is not with the same effect. Animation actively illustrates change over time, showing readers where and when change has occurred in a quick succession that is easier for the eye to see and the mind to comprehend. Mark Harrower* in “A Look at the History and Future of Animated Maps” agrees that animation has redefined the role of the mapmaker and the map user. “(T)he role of the user has expanded in the last 60 years, from watching, to controlling playback, to controlling depcitions, and finally to authoring” (41). Harrower also argues that animated maps benefit geospatial exploration and understanding by offering a new, and arguably improved, way of conveying geographic information. Despite its benefits, animated mapping does have drawbacks worthy of concern. According to Harrower, animated maps lack the cartographic conventions that static maps have adopted over time, leaving modern cartographers with the task of determing when animated maps “are well suited and when their use is little more than ‘technological eye candy’.” Even so, animated maps are a great learning tool and an innovative vehicle for spatial information.

Check this link out for a great example of an animated map!
http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Anim/canv.html

*Harrower, Mark. (2004). A Look at the History and Future of Animated Maps. Cartographica. 39(3). 33-42.