Six Magnificent Maps of 2012

From a hypnotic respresentation of the raw power of nature to a meticulously hand-crafted geography of the United States, Dempsey's collection of the most "fascinating maps and GIS data visualizations that caught the public’s attention this year," covers a wide range of technologies, topics, and techniques.

Notable maps include the sliding scale population density of the world created by Derek Watkins and the dynamic wind map created by Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg of the site HINT.FM. The wind map was created by the leaders of Google’s “Big Picture” visualization research group as a personal art project. "The artists note on their site, 'We invent new ways for people to think and talk about data' and this wind map certainly achieved that," adds Dempsey.