Before the early 1800s, people probably didn’t think that much about what was under the ground upon they walked. But in 1815, a British surveyor, canal engineer and fossil enthusiast named William Smith helped change all that.
Smith published ”A Geological Map of England and Wale and Part of Scotland.” On a scale of 5 miles per inch, the map measured 6 feet by 8 feet 6 inches, and it was the first map that showed a detailed, multicolor three-dimensional depiction of the varieties of soil and layers of rock under a large area, as well as the location of mineral wealth and fossils. Smith used watercolors and devised an innovative shading technique that is still used in geological maps.