Earth · Area

Relief — 3D Terrain Block Viewer

Relief turns any square of the world into a landform you can hold: drag a box on a world map and it becomes an orbitable 3D terrain block — flood it with rising water, brick it into contour bands, explode the strata. Free, no account, no tracking.

How it works

Press Draw a square and drag over any terrain on Earth. Relief samples the square from the Copernicus GLO-90 elevation model and renders it as a 3D block in hypsometric tints — the atlas convention of teal below the sea through greens and tans to snow. Drag the block to orbit, pinch or scroll to zoom, spin it on a turntable, exaggerate the relief. Draw as many squares as you like; each stays outlined on the map with a letter, and every square has a shareable link.

Two bodies, one block

Mesh is the smooth shaded landform. Bricks quantizes elevation into contour bands — every brick's height is one band, so the block reads like a laser-cut physical model, and the explode slider splits the stack into its strata. The water slider floods either body to any elevation and reports the submerged percentage from the true un-quantized data.

Famous squares to try

One click each: the Grand Canyon, Mount Fuji's cone, the Everest massif, the Dead Sea rift (flood it to 0 m), Hawaii's Big Island from the sea floor of its shore to Mauna Kea, and the Matterhorn.

FAQ

How do I see terrain in 3D for any place on Earth?

Open Relief, press Draw a square, and drag a box over any terrain on the world map. The square rises off the page as an orbitable 3D block — drag to rotate it, pinch or scroll to zoom, and switch between a smooth shaded mesh and contour-band bricks.

Is Relief free?

Yes. Relief is free to use in your browser, with no account, no signup, and no tracking.

What does the flood slider do?

It raises a translucent water plane to any elevation and shows the percentage of the square underwater, computed from the real terrain data. Set the Dead Sea square to 0 m to see what the ocean would do to the lowest land on Earth.

What are the bricks?

In Bricks mode every voxel's height is one contour band — a fixed elevation interval like 250 m — so the block reads like a physical layered model. The explode slider splits the stack apart into its strata, which teaches contour lines better than contour lines do.

What elevation data does Relief use?

Relief reads the Copernicus GLO-90 digital elevation model — the European Space Agency's global 90-meter-resolution terrain survey — served live by the Open-Meteo elevation API, up to 48×48 samples per square.