Arcata, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
1,680 ft 515 m1,260 ft 385 m1,050 ft 320 m630 ft 190 m210 ft 65 m0 ft 0 m
Contours every 200 ft, bold every 1,000 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
How to use this mapviews, tools and data
- Elevation
- Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
- Satellite
- A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
- 3D
- Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
- Click or tap anywhere
- The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
- Measure
- Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
- City area
- Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).
Elevation Data
Arcata sits at about 40 ft (12 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
40 ft 12 m
most residents: 16–180 ft
Lowest
0 ft 0 m
at sea level on Arcata Bay
Highest
1,680 ft 515 m
on the southeast edge, below higher ground just outside
Average
250 ft 75 m
all land inside city limits
Arcata spans about 1,680 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where its people live, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Typical Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower | 40 ft12 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on the southeast edge, below higher ground just outside | 1,680 ft515 m |
| Lowest point Where the land meets Arcata Bay | 0 ft0 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Arcata | 24 ft7 m |
| Airport (ACV) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 4.9 mi north of the city limits | 222 ft68 m |
| Average of all land | 250 ft75 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
2.5 mi west to east through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Humboldt County, California, United States
- Population
- 18,748 2024 est.
- Land area
- 9.4 sq mi + 2.0 sq mi water
- Density
- 1,991 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 40.8665° N, 124.0828° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Pacific Border
- Drains to
- Pacific Ocean
- Airport
- California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County (ACV) 222 ft
- ZIP codes 2
- 95521 95524
⤓ Download this map
WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- Fieldbrook210 ft
- Cutten190 ft
- McKinleyville130 ft
- Blue Lake110 ft
- Bayview110 ft
- Myrtletown99 ft
- Indianola83 ft
- Eureka75 ft
- Arcata40 ft
- Samoa29 ft
- Manila18 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California1,515th highest of 1,622
- Towns in Humboldt County35th highest of 40
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Spike Buck Mountain5,480 ft
- Board Camp Mountain5,191 ft
- Buck Buttes4,280 ft
- Sugar Pine Mountain3,910 ft
- Iaqua Buttes3,730 ft
How we measure
- Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the city limits, at its USGS 3DEP height, weighted by the people who live there. Half of residents live higher, half lower.
- Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census city limits (TIGER, Jan 1 2026).
- Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, −6 ft at 40.8604° N, 124.1007° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted; this coastal land's lowest point is sea level on the coast.
- Nearby Places: nearby towns and rankings use each town's typical elevation, so every town is compared like for like. Rankings count every city, town, township and census-designated place, including places inside a town. Peaks and hills: the nearest summits with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence within 62 mi (100 km), then federal (GNIS) summits within 16 mi (25 km) when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
- Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (FAA airport elevation, NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
- Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
- Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.