Captain Obvious Reviews his Transect

As a follow-up to recent and elementary post about how useful Google Earth is for field mapping, check out the traverse that I actually made:


Also, check out the online photo album that I created from the geotagged images shown on the snippet above:

Lower Walker River

If you don't think these technologies are useful, you may need to seek counseling.

Captain Obvious Says: Google Earth is useful

File this one under the hilariously obvious. I am preparing for a 2-day outing for some reconnaissance along the range front of the Wassuk Range near Walker Lake. The piedmont there is an amazing plexus of massive, bouldery debris flow fans, multiple shorelines, and multiple Quaternary fault strands. It is an exceptional place to check out in real life and in Google Earth. In preparing my crap for the field, it dawned on me that instead of stupidly taking my computer in the field with a bunch of cached data, I could just print out some key perspectives on the areas I planned to visit. Duh. Despite being obsessed with hi-tech devices, I really do not like carrying a computer in the field. Also, I have never been one to enjoy using a stereoscope in the field, so this is an obvious solution.

If you have Google Earth Pro, you can save some nice high-res images (there are others ways to get them...) and doctor them up a bit for clarity and contrast. Check out the image below:



Thus, I will use this as one of my base images while mapping in the field. Isn't this obvious? Doesn't it look like a cool area to get paid to hike around in?

I am sure you know that you can overlay high-res geotifs in Google Earth if the existing base imagery does not meet your needs.

The geoscientific value of YouTube

Geomorphologists often speculate about what a desert flash-flood flow front / flood bore would look like. Turns out, not many of us have actually seen one in action. In this example from You Tube, some enterprising individuals went in the field to film some. This is entertaining and informative. You will immediately note the varying degrees to which the flow fronts are laden with flotsam and foam as well as complicated hydraulic interactions.

Visit you tube and search on 'geology' 'floods' and other key terms near to your heart and you will find, amongst the flotsam, some clips that have some true value to understanding surface processes. The 2005 tsunami helped open the door to this to some extent.

Also note that if you have a relatively new digital camera and a big memory card, you can create your own decent resolution footage in the field. Aside from instructional value, you may very well film a rare event one day.

Better geo-digital living with RSS Readers

I bet you wonder about how in the world you can track all of the interesting developments in science and mapping on the Internet and then you become so frustrated that you blow the whole thing off. Obviously, my blog is not much help in terms of all of the possibilities, and it is likely that you are not interested in regularly checking on what Dr. Jerque is blathering on about this time. The obvious, obvious, obvious solution to this is to use an RSS reader. What is an RSS reader you ask? Just check this link: RSS explained. In short, it is essentially a program that aggregates updated information from websites and data portals on the Internet. The Internet 'feeds' can then be viewed within a simple interface, can be filtered by key words, and sorted thematically. Updated feeds are highlighted so you can see if anything new has shown up. I use a feed reader (yep, Google Reader ) to skim the Internet to find interesting things about digital mapping and the like.

If you install an RSS reader you can quickly subscribe to any site that you visit that includes one of these types of symbols:

You can subscribe to this blog (Geologic Froth) by selecting the previous link or clicking the relevant button in the url bar. That way you can see if I have added anything new without actually going directly to the blog (i.e. determine if it is worth your time to go to the blog at all).

What is most interesting for scientists is that you can subscribe to RSS feeds provided by numerous publishers that show the recent Table of Contents from various journals. The UNR library has collated a list of these (scientific journal rss ), and there are more. Ideally, all journals will eventually do this since it is a very efficient way to inform the scientific community about current research. Once you subscribe to various feeds of interest, you can filter the feeds for key words. You can also subscribe to news feeds that are filtered by topic (e.g., Nevada geology). There are also RSS feeds from the USGS that report recent global seismic activity.

Check the UNR library site for some very useful and concise information about RSS feeds.

http://www.library.unr.edu/rssfaq.html

Also, I use Google Reader to populate the boxes on the blog that contain links of interest (Fresh Geofroth and Fresh Cartofroth). That is a pretty handy set-up as well. Click 'Read More' in one of those boxes and you will learn how to subscribe to the related RSS feed for that particular brand of froth. Cool? yes.

Can you believe what you have been missing? Take 10 minutes to figure it out. You have the time, come on....none of that 'I am far too busy' crap.

The Wells, NV eq in Google Maps--More proof of the utter obviousness of online maps for Geologists

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This map is the effort of the Reno Gazette-Journal using USGS and UNR/NSL data. Shouldn't this map be embedded on on the NBMG website?

Reno-Gazette Journal makes good use of Google Maps

The hapless residents of Fernley, Nevada were recently struck by a flood of entirely human design when the canal that deprives Pyramid Lake of water failed into their neighborhood on an extremely cold and snowy morning.

Authors at the RG&J put together a Google Map to illustrate the effects of the flood. They also recently put one together to show snow and road conditions in the Lake Tahoe area. Good move.


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Virtual Field Trip with Geo-tagged Photos

Another option for providing spatial context for geologically oriented photographs is to geotag them in an online photo album that links to a map. Here is an example made using Picasa, a very handy (free) photo organizing program that can geotag photos for viewing in Google Maps or Google Earth: Geotagged Photo Example

Very Basic Example of a Virtual Field Trip

As I have mentioned in previous posts, Google Map's 'My Maps' feature offers a way to very quickly develop some interesting maps that incorporate images and commentary. This is the most basic application. It is possible to make the interface considerably more elaborate with additional coding using an API--application programming interface. The example below is one that I put together with a few hour's work with photo editing and Google Maps. It highlights some scenic points on recent flights between Reno, Vegas, and Oklahoma City (although the scenery ends near Albuquerque). The potential for this to highlight geologic features of Nevada is obvious, no? It can even be made very technical to share with other scientists. I made mine for fun, but it could be augmented considerably with text on history and geology along with relevant links.


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Collaborative Mapping in Google Maps

Google Maps has just introduced 2 useful things. The first is collaborative mapping in which you can jointly edit the same map with a selected group of users. The second is a kml import tool which allows you to import and export data to and from Google Earth. Sometimes Google Maps is a better option when you want to share a map widely and are mainly focused on point-data. I have been using it extensively for developing topical maps which highlight key geologic and scenic aspects of my study areas.

Note that the map below, though workable in the confines of the blog, is better viewed as a larger map (click the 'view larger map' at the bottom left).


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Better example with custom extent shown

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Google Map Example: Bouse Formation outcrops

This map includes locations and photos of key outcroppings of the Bouse Formation in southern Nevada, western Arizona, and southeastern California. Eventually it will be enhanced to include elevations, basic strat context and Sr chemistry where appropriate. I quickly put this together to reinforce the obviousness of using a virtual globe / map interface to evaluate this type of information.

Be sure to zoom in and view in sat or hyb mode. Note that a 'kml' file can be exported to view in Google Earth.


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