Blender renders plane in distorted way when enabling displacement only vs. bump displacement I'm trying to use a plane with an image texture to render a topographic map of the US. When I add a subdivision modifier and use a bump only surface displacement, I have a fine looking map:


When I try to use displacement only, however, I get this much less fun looking thing:



Is there a reason for this, and if so, what can I do to avoid it?

p.s. I'm very new to blender, so please forgive anything egregious in the wording!

edit: here's my set of settings for reference:
You have the Strength property on the Displace modifier turned up too high. Turn it down to 0.1 (or lower).