Google announced an update for Google Maps today, which improves the visualization of natural geography. For things like terrain and vegetation, Google has added more detail to the imagery itself, and added new labeling to provide a more complete picture of what you’re seeing from the base map.

“This enriched visual data allows you to quickly and easily see where the great forests, deserts, and mountain ranges around the world begin and end,” explains software engineer Johann Schmidt. “It also conveys how natural land formations can impact where, how and why man-made developments like urban cities, dams and bridges are made.”

Here’s the before and after for Southern Asia.

Before

After

And for Vancouver…

Before

After

The Amazon Basin…

Before

After

Google is doing a lot more than this with terrain though. Earlier this week, the company announced that it has embarked on its first quest to make use of its new Street View imagery capturing system, Trekker. Google has a team taking imagery from the Grand Canyon to unearth some imagery that could not be gathered using Google’s Street View cars or trikes.