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OneGeology: Mapping the Geology of the Planet
posted by Satri
on Monday March 12, @09:19AM
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from the building-a-rocking-map dept.
from the building-a-rocking-map dept.
GIS Lounge runs a short article on the OneGeology project aimed at mapping the geology of the planet. From the website: "The project's aim is to create dynamic digital geological map data for the world!
The target scale is 1:1 million. But the project will be pragmatic and accept a range of scales and the best available data.
The geological map data will be made available as a distributed web service, using the latest web feature mapping approach.
Geological Surveys will dynamically 'serve' the data for their territories to a web portal. The plan is to make it available through Google Earth and other dynamic map browsers." It's an international effort, with numerous governments participating, but the main (only?) major player absent is the United States.
Related Stories
World Digital Magnetic Anomaly Map Released
[+]
The Free Geography Tools and several other geoblogs have pointed to the BBC runs an article the newly released world digital magnetic anomaly map: "The first global map of magnetic peculiarities - or anomalies - on Earth has been assembled by an international team of researchers. [...] The World Digital Magnetic Anomaly Map (WDMAM) is available through the Commission for the Geological Map of the World. The magnetic signature of the Earth's crust has been measured for many decades by a multitude of groups; but now, for the first time, the data has been combined to give a truly worldwide view of the phenomenon. [...] It represents a square grid of about five kilometers, so it's very coarse indeed. It is a starting point, and to go into detail, you can contact those organizations who have more detailed data on both the geology and mineral sources."
Return on Investment for Geological Mapping
[+]
Spatial Sustain has a short but interesting entry on the return on investment for geological mapping in Canada: "“For every dollar we invest in geoscience, it attracts five dollars from the private sector in exploration, and over C$125 that are discovered in mineral resources. So I think it is a very, very good investment,” said Lunn."
Geological Exploration and GIS 1 comment
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A few days after the story on the ROI of geological mapping, Directions Mag published an article on geological exploration and GIS. From the article: "On a broader scale, trends in mineral exploration show there's a need for better integration of GIS and geosciences. Most ore deposits with a surface expression have already been found, so 3D information from the subsurface - particularly geophysical data - is becoming the main pathfinder to discoveries." Related stories below.
Technology: Geology of California - First 'GIS' for iPhone 1 comment
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Max Tardiveau writes "We've just released what we believe to be the first-ever GIS for the iPhone/iPod platform. We focused on the geology of California for this initial release, but it contains a fair amount of information:
- complete geological map from the U.S. Geological Service
- states outline of California and adjacent states
- land elevation from NASA
- ocean bathymetry from the U.S. Geological Service
- all 3,156 California earthquakes in recorded history with a magnitude of 4.0 or greater
- recent faults and plate boundaries
- county lines, USGS quadrangles, townships and ranges
- urban areas, hydrological features
- cities, roads and railroad tracks
- active and abandonned mines and quarries
- almost 2,500 potassium/argon dates
All this information is contained in the application and can therefore be access out in the field, with no cell phone coverage. We're hoping this is one more step towards making GIS available to the general public. For more info." A search will point of previous iPhone stories. See also selected stories below. I'm not sure this app should really be called a 'GIS' since it doesn't seem to offer much in terms of geodata processing and analysis.
- complete geological map from the U.S. Geological Service
- states outline of California and adjacent states
- land elevation from NASA
- ocean bathymetry from the U.S. Geological Service
- all 3,156 California earthquakes in recorded history with a magnitude of 4.0 or greater
- recent faults and plate boundaries
- county lines, USGS quadrangles, townships and ranges
- urban areas, hydrological features
- cities, roads and railroad tracks
- active and abandonned mines and quarries
- almost 2,500 potassium/argon dates
All this information is contained in the application and can therefore be access out in the field, with no cell phone coverage. We're hoping this is one more step towards making GIS available to the general public. For more info." A search will point of previous iPhone stories. See also selected stories below. I'm not sure this app should really be called a 'GIS' since it doesn't seem to offer much in terms of geodata processing and analysis.
New iPhone App: GIS for Texas
[+]
Max Tardiveau writes "Dear SlashGeo,
we just released the Texas version of our GIS app for the iPhone. I know there has been some grumbling in the SlashGeo community over whether this is a "real" GIS, but we like to think that it is at least a significant step in that direction, and it's only going to get better (hint hint).
Anyway, in this version, we have added terrain shading (which looks *great*), raster bathymetry, and a few new layers. The complete list is:
- geological map from the U.S. Geological Service
- states outline of Texas and adjacent states
- land elevation from NASA
- ocean bathymetry from NOAA
- all 92 Texas earthquakes in recorded history with a magnitude of 3.0 or greater
- recent and ancient faults
- county lines, USGS quadrangles
- UTM zones, state plane zones
- urban areas, hydrological features
- cities, roads and railroad tracks
- active mines and quarries
- all available potassium/argon dates
- vegetation zones
- river basins
- main aquifers
The main URL for the app. Any iPhone/iPod user with an interest in the physical geography and geology of Texas might want to at least take a look. Thanks for helping to spread the word! — Max Tardiveau, Integrity Logic." You'll find here their previous announcement of their geology GIS iPhone app for California.
- geological map from the U.S. Geological Service
- states outline of Texas and adjacent states
- land elevation from NASA
- ocean bathymetry from NOAA
- all 92 Texas earthquakes in recorded history with a magnitude of 3.0 or greater
- recent and ancient faults
- county lines, USGS quadrangles
- UTM zones, state plane zones
- urban areas, hydrological features
- cities, roads and railroad tracks
- active mines and quarries
- all available potassium/argon dates
- vegetation zones
- river basins
- main aquifers
The main URL for the app. Any iPhone/iPod user with an interest in the physical geography and geology of Texas might want to at least take a look. Thanks for helping to spread the word! — Max Tardiveau, Integrity Logic." You'll find here their previous announcement of their geology GIS iPhone app for California.
US National Geologic Map Database: Geologic Interactive Map Portal
[+]
percy writes "A new interface to the National Geologic Map Database (NGMDB) is available. It integrates information from a database of over 30,OOO bedrock and surficial maps for the United States available at http://ngmdb.usgs.gov./ The URL to go straight to the portal is: http://maps.ngmdb.us/dataviewer.
Some interesting features: it's all built with an open source stack using OpenLayers/PostGIS/Mapserver, customized with a front-end developed at Portland State University called Map-Fu. This interface uses the YUI javascript library extensively.
All data on the browsable and queryable map have been "harmonized", that is the original geologic data have been modified so that they all use a standardized set of terms. Turn on the State Maps layer, Zoom into the Pacific Northwest and look at the border between Idaho, Washington and Oregon and you should not see any "boundary faults" between the states.
Enjoy, and please use the feedback button on the help page to tell us what you think!"
See also related stories below.
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OneGeology: Mapping the Geology of the Planet
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Geology maps for the U.S.
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