Systems and methods for storing and retrieving geospatial data in a geographic information system are provided. Geospatial data can be spatially partitioned along axes of a spherical coordinate system associated with a virtual globe or other spheroid into a plurality of discrete geospatial volumes pursuant to a hierarchical spatial partitioning scheme. For instance, geospatial data can be spatially partitioned into geospatial volumes along surfaces of constant latitude, longitude, and altitude defined by the spherical coordinate system. The discrete geospatial volumes can be stored as nodes in a hierarchical tree data structure. Additional methods are provided for portioning geospatial objects, such as tiles or discrete geospatial volumes, in tritree to reduce polar distortions.