R: Data Analysis and Visualization

Creating contour plots

In this recipe, we will learn how to make contour plots to visualize topographical data, such as the terrain near a mountain or a volcano.

Getting ready

We are only using the base graphics functions for this recipe. So, just open up the R prompt and type the following code. We will use the inbuilt volcano dataset, so we need not load anything.

How to do it...

Let's first make a default contour plot with volcano:

contour(x=10*1:nrow(volcano), y=10*1:ncol(volcano), z=volcano,
xlab="Metres West",ylab="Metres North", 
main="Topography of Maunga Whau Volcano")

How it works...

We used the contour() base graphics library function to make ...