Carteret County, NC Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Carteret County, North Carolina, shaded from 2 ft below sea level on the east side to 72 ft on the southwest side
Elevation
72 ft 22 m53 ft 16 m44 ft 13 m25 ft 8 m7 ft 2 m−3 ft −1 m
Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
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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.
County area
Fades everything outside the official county boundary (US Census).

Elevation Data

Carteret County averages about 11 ft (3 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 2 ft below sea level on the east side to 72 ft on the southwest side.

Average elevation
11 ft 3 m
all land inside the county
Highest
72 ft 22 m
on the southwest side
Lowest
−2 ft −1 m
on the east side

Carteret County spans about 74 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where most of its land lies, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.

4% of Carteret County's land lies below the average daily high tide (MHHW, NOAA), and 23% lies less than 3 ft above it. Check flood zones on FEMA's map

FigureElevation
Average of all land11 ft3 m
Highest point
Inside the county, on the southwest side
72 ft22 m
Lowest point
Inside the county, on the east side
−2 ft−1 m

Elevation profile, west to east

42 mi west to east through Morehead City.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Carteret County, North Carolina, shaded from 2 ft below sea level on the east side to 72 ft on the southwest side
County boundary (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 10 ft (3 m).
Location
County in North Carolina, United States
Population
70,259 2024 est.
Land area
507.6 sq mi + 822.8 sq mi water
Density
138 per sq mi
Time zone
Eastern UTC−5 / −4
Landform region
Coastal Plain 91%
Drains to
Atlantic Ocean 58%, Onslow Bay 42%
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WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS

Nearby Places

Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average

  1. Jones County45 ft
  2. Onslow County42 ft
  3. Craven County27 ft
  4. Pamlico County13 ft
  5. Carteret County11 ft
  6. Hyde County3 ft

Rankings by average elevation

Peaks and hills highest inside

  • High Hill, Carteret County22 ft
  • Bald Hill10 ft
  • Diamond City Hills6 ft
  • George Hills6 ft
All 18 towns in Carteret County by typical elevation
  1. Peletier29 ft
  2. Bogue26 ft
  3. Newport25 ft
  4. Broad Creek25 ft
  5. Cape Carteret25 ft
  6. Cedar Point22 ft
  7. Brandywine Bay19 ft
  8. Emerald Isle14 ft
  9. Morehead City13 ft
  10. Indian Beach9 ft
  11. Beaufort9 ft
  12. Pine Knoll Shores9 ft
  13. Atlantic8 ft
  14. Atlantic Beach8 ft
  15. Harkers Island7 ft
  16. Gloucester6 ft
  17. Marshallberg4 ft
  18. Davis2 ft
How we measure
  • Average: every USGS 3DEP bare-earth cell of land inside the Census county boundary (TIGER/Line, Jan 1 2026), weighted equally, on a 2 arc-second (≈200 ft, 62 m) grid, coarsened from 1 arc-second so the whole area fits one run. Land means the boundary minus Census area water (on this grid, water areas of at least half a cell).
  • Highest and lowest: the highest land cell, re-read at 1 arc-second around the 25 highest grid cells. Lowest: the lowest land cell, re-read at 1 arc-second around the 25 lowest grid cells; coastal ground within 3 ft (1 m) of named tidal water counts as sea level.
  • 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, −17 ft at 34.7776° N, 76.5471° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted.
  • Nearby Places: neighboring counties and rankings use each one's average elevation, on its own grid, the same figure its page shows. Peaks and hills: the highest summits inside the county with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence, then the highest federal (GNIS) summits inside it 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).
  • Towns: each town's typical elevation (population-weighted median of its own 2020 blocks at 1 arc-second); a town is listed when any of its 2020 residents live in the county.
  • 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 (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 (TIGER boundaries and water, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, county adjacency); NOAA NGS survey heights; BTS time zones; NOAA tidal surfaces (MHHW). All public domain.