Map from above shows Australia is a very flat place

Colour coding relates to topographic height, with dark green at lower elevations, rising through yellow and tan, to white at the highest points.

It looks familiar, but it is no ordinary map.

It is part of the most detailed topographic map of the world ever made, according the US space agency NASA .

For 11 days in February 2000 the space shuttle Endeavour circled the world, using a sophisticated radar to chart all the land between 60 degrees north and 56 degrees south, and 80 per cent of the Earth's land was mapped with a resolution of 90 metres.

"Because of persistent cloud cover, many of the Pacific islands had previously been very poorly mapped, if at all," NASA said.

After more than four years' work, the final topographic maps, covering Australia, New Zealand and more than 1000 Pacific, Indian and Atlantic ocean islands have been released.

NASA noted that Australia was the flattest continent in the world. "Its low average elevation (300 metres) is caused by its position near the centre of a tectonic plate, where there are no volcanic or other geologic forces of the type that raise the topography of other continents.

"Prominent features of Australia include the Lake Eyre Basin, the darker green region visible in the centre-right. At 16 metres below sea level, this depression is one of the largest inland drainage systems in the world, covering more than 1.3 million square kilometres.

"The crescent-shaped uniform green region in the south, just left of centre, is the Nullarbor Plain, a low-lying limestone plateau, which is so flat that the Trans-Australian railway runs through it in a straight line for more than 483 kilometres."

Colour coding used in the map "is directly related to topographic height, with green at the lower elevations, rising through yellow and tan, to white at the highest elevations".

Michael Kobrick, a NASA mission project scientist, said Endeavour's mapping flight was "among the most significant science missions the shuttle has ever performed, and it's probably the most significant mapping mission of any single type, ever".

"Many of these islands have never had their topography mapped. Their low topography makes them vulnerable to tidal effects, storm surges and long-term, sea-level rise.

"Knowing exactly where rising waters will go is vital to mitigating the effects of future disasters such as the Indian Ocean tsunami."

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