Building a Google Earth Geology Layer
posted in Geology, Google Earth |I submit to you that it’s high time Google Earth had a Geology Layer. And if Google isn’t going to create it themselves, I’m prepared to do what I can to help make this dream a reality.
The general idea for this has been kicking around in the back of my mind ever since I first grokked Google Earth – even more so since the advent of full fledged KML. The specific events that have crystallized my thinking most recently were a couple of tweets from Doc Searls, the recent Google KML in Research contest, and a comment on WoGE #155. I’ve been contemplating writing about this for over a month now, but Jess’ Using Google Earth to visualize volcanic and seismic activity post at Magma Cum Laude was just the spark I needed to pull this together. Jess highlights a couple of the geological elements of other layers, including some wonderful resources on earthquakes, volcanoes, and plate tectonics. There is certainly teaching value in all of these, though each could be improved and none really takes advantage of all of the newest capabilities of KML 2.2 and Google Earth 5.0.
When I was at the AGU Google Earth/GigaPan session this past December I had the opportunity to informally talk with a couple members of the Google Earth team. As much as the Google Earth team has done to develop themed Layers of high quality resources, I got the strong impression that they weren’t overly excited about initiating the process of developing new layers because it wasn’t clear that the existing layers are being used effectively (or at all) by a substantial portion of the user base. In fact, I got the sense that if one really wanted to create a new layer, Google would be much happier if these arose organically from the user base through the use of the extensive KML resources that are currently available for creating Google Earth applications.
The prospect of creating an Earth encompassing geology layer for the Earth might seem pretty daunting at first. In point of fact, it may be even more ambitious than the One Geology project’s effort to create a 1:1000000 scale geologic map of the Earth, because to do a Google Earth layer right means illustrating the geology of our planet at a wide range of scales – from the planetary (by all means, let’s use the One Geology mapping for this level) down to the outcrop level (see some of my geologic GigaPans, for example) – and possibly beyond! Clearly this is no task that is going to be completed anytime soon, however, in some small ways the Geoblogosphere has already begun the task of annotating the geology of the planet. In Google Earth if you enter the search term “geology” in an area where a previous Where on (Google) Earth? challenge was located, the placemark(s) for any WoGE(s) in the viewing area should show up in the search results.
What I’d like to do here, with the help of the geoblogosphere (via the comments to this post, initially), is to set out some goals, examples, and use cases that could guide the development of a Google Earth geology layer. If there’s interest in building on this idea, I’d be happy to set up communications tools, create KML tutorials, or do anything else to facilitate a coordinated effort to develop such a layer. Hopefully, by leveraging the knowledge and efforts of the geoblogospheric community, along with excellent new resources for developing KML, we can make a real start toward building a useful geology resource.
For now, what I’d like to do is to begin to collect best practices/examples of good uses of KML in illustrating geology in Google Earth. I’ll start by pointing out the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program’s collection of Google Earth KML files and another collection of geologic KML resources at San Diego State University. These should give you some idea of the sorts of things that will be possible. Also helpful would be use cases – how would you like to use a geology layer in Google Earth? Suggestions here will offer us guidance as to what the most important elements of a Google Earth geology layer should be.
Perhaps we can take a little time to develop this idea a little in tomorrow’s PodClast. Meanwhile, please don’t hesitate to add your suggestions or questions in the comments.
Interesting thoughts! and somehow this sounds a bit like an extended version of my half baked ‘Open Geology Maps’ idea: http://stratigraphynet.blogspot.com/2009/02/some-half-baked-geoinformatics-project.html
OneGeology seems to offer some kind of KML export , but I have not yet tested it. Surely there are some use restriction sof OneGeology material, so we’ll probably have to wait until OneGeology itself integartes with Google Earth some day?
Have there been PodClasts going on without announcements? This is the first time, besides comments at Magma Cum Laude yesterday that I’ve heard of this one.
I didn’t realize you could enter “geology” on the fly-to line in Google Earth and, once close enough to the target area get anything! I didn’t get the WoGE marker for Folded Mountain, however, without enabling or entering or starting with your kmz. But I did find out formation names and general locations in the area!
I’ll be listening to the PodClast tomorrow and see what kind of ideas are generated.
One Geology can be easily exported and used with Google Earth; I don’t think there is a restriction on it. I have it – some of it’s several layers – as overlays I can turn off on Google Earth.
Another thing I just thought of – there is a USGS kmz or kml of faults at least in the Great Basin or Basin and Range (not sure how far it extends), showing fault traces coded by color for age (for Quaternary faults). I used that on a couple posts of mine last year. The fault traces in detail are somewhat approximate compared to what you can see on Google Earth, but they are great starting points.
The PodClast is back? Hallelujah! Looking forward to it.
I think it would be excellent to have two-way linking between geoblog posts and Google Earth. Say, for instance, you’re zooming up the California Coast in Google Earth, it would be cool if you could then see that Ron Schott has posted gigapans and Andrew Alden has written blog posts about specific localities. Vice versa, when reading a geoblog post, it would be cool if we could get each blog post encoded with a lat/long that it primarily refers to (or multiple locations?).
I’ll be interested to see how this develops: maybe we could use a wiki to share information and techniques?
Robert, the KLM export from OneGeology works ok. I tried it while preparing my diploma mapping project. It is a nice “game” but largly useless if you want to do something at a regional or local scale. Nonetheless it’s a neat tool to explore other countries geology as a first step to further research in the literature.
Ron, I like the idea but it does sound like a huge effort indeed! What about copyright and distribution issues of existing (paper maps for example) material?
Ron, the state geological surveys (AASG) and the USGS are working on something along these lines through our Geoscience Information Network (GIN). The Arizona Geological Survey released a prototype/demo of the state geologic map last week at http://www.azgs.az.gov/services_azgeomap.shtml.
Our announcement described it this way – The map may be viewed using a web browser, or viewed and queried using either Google Earth or ESRI’s ArcGIS explorer. In addition, the data are published as a KML, ArcGIS, WMS and WFS web services for use in other client applications. Google Earth accesses the data via the KML service. ArcGIS users can connect to either the ArcGIS service or Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Service (WMS) or Web Feature Service (WFS).
The next step (in progress) is to add higher resolution geologic maps so that as you zoom in, you automatically pull up the appropriate scale map. Over the next few months we’re taking this out to the other state surveys to implement similar capabilities across the country.
I’m heading to Houston this afternoon for the ESRI Petroleum User Group (PUG) meeting to present updates and meet with industry folks about more collaboration. We’ve been working with ESRI for the past year and a half as they develop a Geology Data Model for ArcGIS. It’s intended to be fully compatible with the GIN.
We’ve also partnered with OneGeology and OneGeology-Europe. The latter is building a comparable data network among geological surveys in Europe to what we’re doing in the US. And we are working closely to make the two data nets integrated and interoperable.
“I submit to you that it’s high time Google Earth had a Geology Layer. And if Google isn’t going to create it themselves, I’m prepared to do what I can to help make this dream a reality.”
Go for it. We need more science at Google Earth Community. While the GEC layer is only one layer (at one time the only layer), there is some good science posted on it right now, and it is a good way for millions of users to see your posts about geology. I only have a BS in geology from back in the days when it seemed this continental drift theory actually might be worth something, but I try to supply answers to questions involving geology. Just imagine if there were a few more “real” geologists involved.
I’d actually like to see a Science forum subdivided into categories like geology, biology, weather and climate, and perhaps a few more. With enough participation who knows, geology may get it’s own forum and eventually its own layer. Most of the other layers originally started of as posts in our community. I’m not a Google employee, only a lowly forum moderator, so I can’t begin to guarantee anything, but I’ve seen the process work before.
Hill
I like your blog.
Oh, wow – I didn’t know about that collection of resources at San Diego State. Ron Blakey’s paleogeography on Google Earth! Even more maps than OneGeology! The Forest Service’s fire remote sensing! The geologic map of the Grand Canyon! It will take me ages to work through these and see what people have done.
Good news that the state geological surveys are already working on this. I remember a presentation at GSA two years ago by the state geologist of… Minnesota, I think? His vision was amazing. I hope that the budget cutbacks at state agencies don’t prevent this from happening, because the state surveys have the maps, at the very least. (Also GIS expertise, which I imagine is important for converting the maps into digital format?)
As for what I would like to see: I would like to be able to make geologic maps translucent, and be able to tilt them. I can imagine using:
- the geologic map of Manhatten to look at the relationship between skyscraper location and rock type, especially for urban students who might think geology is irrelevant to them.
- the geologic map of Durango, to “fly over” it during class.
- to ask students to evaluate geologic hazards of their hometown (an assignment that I used to try to do with topo maps, but which would be much easier to evaluate with Google Earth).
- to explain map patterns (rule of V’s, etc) in structure and/or my sophomore mapping class
And there have got to be a lot of exploration-type assignments that could be developed. Maybe an intro to plate tectonics that starts with dividing class into groups to look for patterns in earthquakes and volcanoes. Maybe a discussion of landslides and rock type/dip direction. Differential weathering. Karst. Maybe even comparison of aquifer locations and land use.
So cool.
You already can make geology layers translucent – see my blog post … http://hypocentre.wordpress.com/2008/08/31/google-earth-and-undergraduate-geology-mapping/
It would be nice to be able to quickly switch an existing geology layer to translucent. (Maybe it’s possible but just tricky to figure out. I would like to be able to make students explore and figure things out on their own, so it would be nice to have translucent layers ready to go.) (And to have the sorts of maps that you made, hypocentre, available to anyone. Except for the field camp students. Hmmm.)
Kim: Right click on the layer name and select properties. There is a slider for transparency.
The undergraduate mapping area conundrum is a tricky one. I chose an example of an area that we no longer use but I have to admit that it could be very useful to someone from another university who does map there.
I’m about to start on a series of blog posts on “must visit” geological sites in the UK as part of the next accretionary wedge and I’d gladly add the relevant information to a general geology layer in google earth. I already have a prototype kmz file that I put together for a geology forum based on a variant of WoGE based on the UK here … http://hypocentre.googlepages.com/GrGeGbGh.kmz
[...] utilización científica que se le da a Google Earth en materia de geografía y geología cada día es más interesante, a pesar que nosotros desde el punto de vista catastral criticamos [...]
To elaborate a little bit on Lee’s comment above, I don’t think it makes sense to imagine that we could ever make a single kml document that describes all the features of a geologic map of the world. Especially if you want to incorporate mapping at different scales. The compilation task is far too daunting to overcome, and it would require everyone to send their data to a specific person or organization, which in the past has proven to be a significant obstacle. People want to be in control of their own data to as large an extent possible.
What people need to do is begin to establish online services that serve kml for their maps. Then there need to be catalogs that are easily searchable, and document how to connect to these services. This keeps the data firmly in the control of its creator, yet accomplishes what you’re after — the ability to find geologic data for your area of interest, and see it draped over a globe in Google Earth. This is the goal of the Geoinformatics Network that the state surveys are working on.
The other bonus to the service approach is that, if done correctly, you can view the data in other applications as well — in ArcMap, on top of Google Maps or Virtual Earth or using free and open-source GIS software. You can see an example of this on our site (http://www.azgs.az.gov/services_azgeomap.shtml) that Lee mentioned.
So good!
My geological jobs for you
http://blog.geoblogspot.com/search/label/geology
[...] pleasure over at goodSchist. Lots of juicy discussion of Precambrian sponges, the proposed Google Earth geology layer, and more! Hope you have as much fun listening to it as we had creating [...]
Ron, a couple thoughts after listening to the PodCast.
About fossils, it’s the public not usually geologists that are a concern for trashing sites. Archaeologists often don’t publish exact locations of many sites, and have ended up having to protect known sites with gates, concrete, and by other means. With fossils it could be something to consider if details are posted on Google Earth – but that’s not really my field.
The geotagging of places for our posts would be useful, for geologists studying or going into a new area, and for the general public traveling through an area. The Stratigraphy.net site, Geoblogosphere News, has started doing that by extracting areas from posts; it will be interesting to see how it works. There might be some areas that won’t really tag that way, except maybe by state – I guess we’ll have to see, like my most recent post Desert Shadows shows up as “central Nevada” even though I mentioned several particular places. And those post-tags are still not in Google Earth. Having posts tied by place to Google Earth would be useful for a variety of reasons. I don’t know how to do that. And don’t know if it can be done with little time effort.
ChrisM or ChrisR (?) mentioned writing webpages in html, and that some of the things we can or could do would be no more difficult than that – or similar to that. Most of us don’t write our pages in html, I don’t think; I do mess around with html somewhat, have to for the photos to post right.
Some of my posts are kind of like “roadside geology of Nevada” – there isn’t a book, and it’s more detailed and has better photos than the roadside book series. [Though I'm not getting paid!
]
Anyway, great podclast!
The concern of taging exact locations of fossil beds could be remedied by having the ability to tag locations in a general way. I will explain in a
moment after I explain another advantage… An artcle about the Hawian island chain could be generally located by giving a non-specific location. The tag could be visilble at a given altitude and then be relegated to a regional features “box” as one zooms in. There are very many comments and tags that are revent from a distance but mean nothing when given an exact location – another example: “Asia”.
Another useful mark up would be relevant date. A reference to a location might mean little to the modern era (and could be shown in gray or tagged somehow), but might mean everything for a prior era (pangea xxx-mya). Think of what was lost when YouTube failed to provide a dedicated field to supply a reference date for video clips.
[...] How about “magma roots”? That occurred to me while reading Ron Schott’s post, Building a Google Earth Geology Layer. Ron is a hard rock geologist who has been a good source of wisdom (and occasional correction) [...]
a very nice idea.
“Google geology” can be very useful
As google Oceans shows some features of the sea bottoms (natural reserves, ships and so on) “GeoGoogle” (google earth already exists…) can show maps, main faults and other stuctures, photoes about important geosites (for my area, for example, Carrara marbles, the Bottaccione Sequence at Gubbio and the minig zone of the Florence Cathedral serpentinites), some particular outcrops and so on.
Smithsonian has provided a good volcanic level, wich could be put into this program.
I don’know what to do for this…. but I am really happy for this idea
Aldo
[...] been an overwhelming and uniformly positive response to the Google Earth Geology Layer post I made a week ago. I’m still trying to digest all of the feedback, but as soon as I have [...]
[...] Google Geology? Ron Schott over at Ron Schott’s Geology Home Companion Blog makes the case for a comprehensive KML geology layer. [...]
[...] Google Geology? Ron Schott over at Ron Schott’s Geology Home Companion Blog makes the case for a comprehensive KML geology layer. [...]
You can find some of the most amazing places caught from google earth at
http://www.caughtfromabove.com
Hope you enjoy
Two more sources for great kml’s including resources and state geologic maps:
http://tin.er.usgs.gov/
Go to state geologic maps for kmls of all state maps
MRDS (mineral resource) data is available in kml format as well here.
Enjoy!
- Susan
[...] Ron’s blog article on Building a Google Earth Geology Layer [...]
[...] utilización científica que se le da a Google Earth en materia de geografía y geología cada día es más interesante, a pesar que nosotros desde el punto de vista catastral criticamos [...]
[...] Building a Google Earth Geology Layer » Ron Schott’s Geology Home Companion Blog [...]
[...] face it, since posting my magnum opus “Building a Google Earth Geology Layer” last February, my blogging became increasingly sporadic and eventually all but dried up. It [...]
I for one would use a Google Earth Geology Layer everywhere I went. Even better, an iPhone app that located me and showed me the solid and drift beneath my feet.