Mine symbol (crossed picks)
Two crossed picks mark a quarry or open pit mine on a USGS topographic map. A Y shape on its side is a mine tunnel, a small half-filled square a mine shaft, and a single X a prospect.
Easily confused with
How to read it
The USGS symbol sheet groups these under mines and caves: quarry or open pit mine (the crossed picks), gravel, sand, clay or borrow pit (smaller crossed picks), mine tunnel or cave entrance, mine shaft and prospect, with tints for tailings and mine dumps. The booklet counts mines among the features its point symbols mark. Natural Resources Canada’s legend has separate symbols for a mine, a quarry and a sand, gravel or clay pit.
Also searched as: crossed hammers on a map, crossed picks, mine shaft, mine tunnel, open pit mine, pick and shovel symbol, quarry symbol.
These pages describe what each symbol on a map shows. They are not navigation instructions: the map’s own legend says what each of its symbols means, and symbols differ between map series and editions.
Differences by country
Ordnance Survey Explorer maps mark a sand pit, a gravel pit and “other pit or quarry” with their own symbols.
Look-alikes
A single small X with a number is a Spot elevation; without a number, on a USGS map it can be a prospect.
Read next
- Next in Topographic map symbolsContour linesContour lines are the brown lines on a topographic map that join points of the same elevation. The thicker ones are index contours, labelled with their height; the thinner ones between them are intermediate contours.
- The same shape in Road signsRailroad advance warning signA round yellow sign with a black X and the letters R R. It warns of a railroad crossing ahead.
More topographic map symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with crosses.
Sources
- Topographic Map Symbols, USGS General Information Product (first posted 2005), U.S. Geological Survey, Mines and caves; Reading Topographic Maps
- Toporama Legend, Edition 1.2, 2013 (after the NTS 1:50,000 standards and specifications), Natural Resources Canada, Legend
- OS Explorer map legend (1:25 000), Generic legend, version 2022-09, Ordnance Survey, General features
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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