tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53679882124022808372024-02-19T00:53:08.497-05:00Geological Musings in the Taconic Mountains...My thoughts, complaints, photos, and reviews of geologic books, articles, etc...John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.comBlogger98125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-71152618495645836542014-08-09T18:57:00.000-05:002014-08-09T18:57:02.774-05:00Defining Projection versus Re-projection: A Lesson In Translation<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I frequently encounter students and new users of ArcMap that are incredibly frustrated because their data isn't cooperating. More often than not their frustration is related to projection compatibility, which is often exacerbated by the lack of metadata to help decipher the projection of each data layer. But there is often confusion over when to use '<i><a href="http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#//001700000077000000" target="_blank">Define Projection</a></i>' versus '<i><a href="http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#/Project/00170000007m000000/" target="_blank">Project</a></i>' when trying to line up their data.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I like to use the analogy of visiting a foreign country to differentiate between these two tools. Imagining you travel to Spain and never learned any Spanish - it would be difficult if not impossible to communicate using spoken language. If I then just tell you that you can speak Spanish (loudly and convincingly) it won't make the situation any better, you still won't actually know any Spanish. This is analogous to 'telling' data that it has a projection that it doesn't actually have. For example, using the Define Projection tool to tell a shapefile with data stored in the geographic coordinate system WGS84 that is suddenly in UTM NAD27 will not be productive in aligning that shapefile with data that is 'actually' in UTM NAD27. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However if you travel to Spain with a translator, you will be able communicate with anyone who only speaks Spanish. Similarly, if you translate your data from one projection into another (i.e. - from WGS84 to UTM) using the Project tool, your data will align with data stored in UTM NAD27.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ArcMap will usually warn if you add data with an undefined projection (i.e. - missing a world file, *.prj file, etc) and that is when you should use the Define Projection tool - assuming you have access to metadata that informs you what projection you should use.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/14869020514" title="projections by J. Van hoesen, on Flickr"><img alt="projections" height="640" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3874/14869020514_af1e8b5463_z.jpg" width="605" /></a></span></div>
John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-17854092340699209692014-08-01T16:39:00.000-05:002014-08-01T16:39:59.125-05:00CartoBokeh: Usefulness As A Fog Of War Technique In Cartography?<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was never much of gamer. The last time I lost hours of my life in front of a console - thumbs furiously flying across a controller, eschewing food and sleep - it was 1992... it was the first Nintendo and Princess Zelda <u>needed</u> me. The princess didn't hold my attention for long but the frustration I felt towards the developers deliberate choice to reveal each stage little-by-little was my first experience with the 'fog of war' concept in gaming. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">'Fog of war' in Legend of Zelda: </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://j-vh.me/1nc7nMP">http://j-vh.me/1nc7nMP</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've seen this FOW approach (often as <a href="http://nyalldawson.net/2014/06/shapeburst-fill-styles-in-qgis-2-4/" target="_blank">masking</a> or <a href="http://uxblog.idvsolutions.com/2013/02/severe-satellite-basemaps.html" target="_blank">vignetting</a>) used cartographically to focus attention on the most important map elements while still providing some regional context. The FOW is described in the gaming strategy <a href="https://engineering.purdue.edu/~elm/projects/visgames/visgames.pdf" target="_blank">literature</a> but I couldn't find any 'scholarly' articles about this strategy in the cartography <a href="http://cartographicperspectives.org/index.php/journal" target="_blank">world</a> (at least explicitly using this language). The word war is often applicable in gaming interfaces but in my opinion, doesn't translate as well to cartography (I don't want to be at war with map users or cartographers)...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I often find myself trying to merge varied interests and it occurred to me that I've employed this same technique in my photographic pursuits. Isolating foreground images from background images using a shallow depth-of-field is common and in addition to isolating subjects, many photographers strive to achieve a nice bokeh effect. Bokeh is the deliberate blurring of background objects that are typically lighter than foreground objects.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/14780557956" title="H69A2645 by J. Van hoesen, on Flickr"><img alt="H69A2645" height="427" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3864/14780557956_18dbef6399_z.jpg" width="640" /></a>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Juvenile King Penguin isolated from 100s of adult and juvenile penguins in the background</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I thought I would try and create a similar cartographic effect. The process involved importing NASA's <a href="http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_cat.php?categoryID=1484" target="_blank">Blue Marble</a> Imagery into Photoshop, duplicating the image, applying a lens blur to the top image and then burning a 'hole' into the top image over the area of interest. I created three silly maps with different applications of this CartoBokeh technique:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/14802336944" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Chicago BW by J. Van hoesen, on Flickr"><img alt="Chicago BW" height="494" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3840/14802336944_415d376033_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Probably my favorite output from this process</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/14617984210" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Arkansas Walmarts by J. Van hoesen, on Flickr"><img alt="Arkansas Walmarts" height="494" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3925/14617984210_55f6920322_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I had a Walmart KML and figured I'd see what this looked like with points rather than background raster images</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/14618083048" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="US Walmarts by J. Van hoesen, on Flickr"><img alt="US Walmarts" height="494" src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2921/14618083048_9ba90d6a74_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Overlay of Walmart points on Blue Marble imagery after CartoBokeh</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So I'm wondering if this technique seems useful - or in the words of Kai Wong "<a href="http://youtu.be/PQNyu74Jd6U" target="_blank">bokehlicious</a>" or is it too much effort for too little cartographic return? Personally I like the effect it has with the Chicago image but like all map decisions there needs to be a reason/value for using this - needs to add to the map rather than seem like an afterthought (which is how the Walmart on Blue Marble feels). So just exploring a new approach and new language to the fog of war.</span></div>
John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-51506007396970302472014-06-27T12:02:00.000-05:002014-06-27T12:02:20.776-05:00Finding The Key For The Keyhole: (or how to make KML files retain attributes)<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's happened to everyone who uses GIS. You're minding your own business, enjoying a strong cup of coffee and happily opening your shapefiles and saving them into proprietary formats so that only those who are 'in the club' can open... oh wait, I mean saving your files into a flexible and friendly <a href="http://j-vh.me/1fkUXRJ" target="_blank">PostGIS</a> database when a co-worker or client sends you a KML file... and you have the same well-practiced response:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because you know more often than not, it won't work and you'll spend the rest of your day futzing around with it, only to have moderate success with elaborate joins or editing in a text-editor. Or you could just hit delete and pretend you never received it...</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the past I've had limited success with <a href="http://www.gdal.org/ogr2ogr.html" target="_blank">ogr2ogr </a>converting from KML to SHP after the 1.8 GDAL update BUT I never understood the underlying issue (or why it - seemingly - worked randomly). I recently received a KML file that threw this error when opening in QGIS: </span></center>
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So I tried GlobalMapper, which opened the file but didn't preserve any attributes just the geometry and then ArcMap (because what better way to store your data than a layer file....) and that too only offered a "<a href="http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#//00vp00000024001143" target="_blank">Background Server Threw An Exception</a>" - ArcMap's cousin to the lovely "Segmentation Violation" - so informative. So I turned to the University of Google and discovered <a href="https://github.com/mapbox/tilemill/issues/864" target="_blank">this</a> post by Dane Springmeyer (who I find frequently ferrets out the weirdest little issues). </div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He describes an issue with the encoding of KML files as they get exported where the KML claims it is encoded in UTF-8 but is actually encoded in iso-8859-1 (or Latin-1). If you have files with unknown - or inaccurate - encoding, he also shares a tool to identify the likely encoding called <a href="https://pypi.python.org/pypi/chardet" target="_blank">Chardet</a>. Once you know the encoding you can re-encode the KML with <a href="https://github.com/mapbox/tilemill/issues/864" target="_blank">one line of code</a> and it will open properly with all the attributes properly preserved. Here is the re-encoding applied to my KML file: </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEh-yoMT18KtWuAcI820zygOvZhiYnLEEAU2D8-sY5Gl0Y8BuyIaVsGQ53Kj2Y6Kz9YBlmPf9zi4rPJDEUvaUD1HtIN3QPk_if-5ebvmXmk62dZ-Bn5IuB6zh3hPUCbylNPInv0JeTTl0/s1600/re-encode.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEh-yoMT18KtWuAcI820zygOvZhiYnLEEAU2D8-sY5Gl0Y8BuyIaVsGQ53Kj2Y6Kz9YBlmPf9zi4rPJDEUvaUD1HtIN3QPk_if-5ebvmXmk62dZ-Bn5IuB6zh3hPUCbylNPInv0JeTTl0/s1600/re-encode.png" height="44" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dane's simple explanation and the easy to use </span><a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">iconv</a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> library might just save you hours of tinkering and frustration. That way you can get back to work fighting the good fight against data silos...</span></div>
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John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-36387279757210545932014-06-20T10:20:00.000-05:002014-06-20T10:23:00.283-05:00GIS Educators Day 2014 - A Clarification<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I really like GIS. AND I really like teaching GIS; you know, the theory and concepts and ideas that are transferable to a variety of desktop/web-based tools. So why <i>wouldn't</i> I be excited for NEARC's annual GIS Educators Day? Well... I am in spirit but not in practice and this post is meant to serve as a warning to folks who can't read between the lines in the proposal <a href="http://northeastarc.org/2014/html/giseducators.shtml" target="_blank">criteria</a> (I certainly couldn't last year).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My peeve is with this language (unchanged from last year): </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">"GIS Educators Day, sponsored by NEARC and Esri, is a full-day conference devoted exclusively to topics and issues pertaining to the use of GIS and <b><span style="color: red;">other geospatial technologies</span></b> in K-12, college, and informal <span style="color: red;"><b>education</b></span>."</span></span></i> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I understand the acronym stands for Northeast Arc User. I understand that it is sponsored by ESRI. I don't understand why the language wasn't changed this year to reflect criteria and better guide proposal submissions that aren't listed online and only discovered via email:</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My Suggestion</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Apparently allowing students to explore a variety of web-based mapping tools (yes, including ArcGIS Online) and asking them to compare and contrast their functionality doesn't count as 'education' and all you folks teaching non-ESRI products aren't really GIS Educators. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I use ArcMap on a daily basis - I have no issue with ESRI's products per se, I do have an issue with hiding criteria that require presenters to explicitly use or integrate a specific software package under the umbrella of GIS Education. I'll refer you to <a href="http://gmcgeology.blogspot.com/2013/08/my-gis-is-better-than-yours-and-other.html" target="_blank">this</a> sarcastic rant for my reasoning. From my perspective, this is less about exploring education and instead co-opting the language of <span style="color: red;"><b><i>GIS</i></b></span> <b><span style="color: red;"><i>Education</i></span></b> (making that acronym synonymous with one vendor) to ensure everyone is drinking the same Kool-Aid. So to all you wanna-be presenters - make sure you're teaching GIS correctly before you go submitting any proposals.. </span><br />
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<br />John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-81928559519626612232014-05-08T18:31:00.003-05:002014-05-08T18:37:29.154-05:00Creating Geologic Maps in QGIS: Strike and Dip Symbols<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Last week I had a brief Twitter conversation with <a href="https://twitter.com/polarwander" target="_blank">@polarwander</a> about the feasibility of using QGIS for geologic mapping. If you've read any of my posts (rants?) before, it will come as no surprise that my usual response to any question that starts out "Can I use QGIS for..." is yes. There are limitations and things that are easier in other software packages but the integration of GRASS, Saga, TauDEM, etc., within the Processing Toolbox makes it a viable option for most situations. However I couldn't find a quick link to share that explained how to use a basic strike and dip symbol in QGIS - so this is my attempt at providing a little guidance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">By default QGIS doesn't install with a library of geologic symbols. I started with SVG symbols from the QGIS repository <a href="http://hub.qgis.org/issues/1694" target="_blank">here</a>. The symbols worked fine when I added them to the view but when I tried rotating them I ended up with weird red lines next to each symbol (Figure 1)</span>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgot_E6HwpQ9eISfjAoCcE0srFejfZ0gl-0uWO8WxGNINlKThpz2uSEsfwEY7eUkzJoT6Bt9NpwOd-Sj7OSZNfzQ98y9Eeq_9yQD32ZeopKH-t7QwHSvTrf6zBOgrIOZLuBMugdlfHtxtk/s1600/SVG+Error.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgot_E6HwpQ9eISfjAoCcE0srFejfZ0gl-0uWO8WxGNINlKThpz2uSEsfwEY7eUkzJoT6Bt9NpwOd-Sj7OSZNfzQ98y9Eeq_9yQD32ZeopKH-t7QwHSvTrf6zBOgrIOZLuBMugdlfHtxtk/s1600/SVG+Error.png" height="464" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Figure 1: Odd red stroke adjacent to each strike and dip symbol in QGIS.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I opened each SVG with <a href="http://www.inkscape.org/en/" target="_blank">Inkscape</a> but didn't find anything except the original symbols, but when I opened them in Illustrator I was able to both see and delete the red lines (Figure 2). I can't for the life of me figure out why they didn't show up in Inkscape - if you've seen this before or have thoughts, please post a comment to help clarify.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSTvPUCZU6bGPjVjrSsEp5Srfc3d5xMELzdr0St_ULgk90Yx0SxYC8kkBE-zZJa7HAinu84PnF44EfxOBByvTtP6WRmqcoSm56zuxN1nvxckrbax74VdIyljJ2OUtYUW8wEkWPB0G3kpY/s1600/SVG+Illustrator.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSTvPUCZU6bGPjVjrSsEp5Srfc3d5xMELzdr0St_ULgk90Yx0SxYC8kkBE-zZJa7HAinu84PnF44EfxOBByvTtP6WRmqcoSm56zuxN1nvxckrbax74VdIyljJ2OUtYUW8wEkWPB0G3kpY/s1600/SVG+Illustrator.jpg" height="456" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Figure 2: Stroke visible in Illustrator. I un-grouped the elements and deleted the offending red line.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The updated SVG library can be downloaded here: <a href="https://github.com/vanhoesenj/FGDC-Joints-SVG">https://github.com/vanhoesenj/FGDC-Joints-SVG</a>. To be clear these are the same files available on the QGIS repository, all I did was open each file, ungroup the elements, delete the red line and re-save. You can download only the SVG files you need, the zip file or the entire repository if you're comfortable using a GitHub client.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Once you download the files of interest you need to copy them into the folder where you QGIS SVG libraries reside. I flip-flop between a PC and Mac these days so if you're using a PC you'll usually find these folders in one of three places depending on how you installed QGIS:</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If you used the OSGEO installer on a 64-bit machine: <span style="color: #990000;">C:\OSGeo4W64\apps\qgis-dev\svg</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If you used the OSGEO installer on a 64-bit machine: <span style="color: #990000;">C:\OSGeo4W\apps\qgis-dev\svg</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If you used the standalone installer: <span style="color: #990000;">C:\Program Files (x86)\Quantum GIS Valmiera\apps\qgis\svg</span></span></li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Note</b>: Your version of QGIS may be different (e.g. - Lisboa instead of Valmiera, etc).</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If you're using a Mac, you need to open Finder and click on Applications, scroll down to QGIS, right-click and 'Show Package Contents." You will want to copy the new SVG library into: <span style="color: #990000;">/Applications/QGIS.app/Contents/Resources/SVG</span> (Figure 3).</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEdbxep1q78aSGZK3QHBVdTaD6VSbi-YOLJm2zlwxPTH541AwMt6jxfz9gk9a5L-_-L0xoDcBK_VNwvPjjDjkBSt4QezTkg8a3_BBFWozFQNxgqFtU9U6s2mjaprMS313zSG0YYvNyqu4/s1600/OSX+QGIS+SVG+Libraries.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEdbxep1q78aSGZK3QHBVdTaD6VSbi-YOLJm2zlwxPTH541AwMt6jxfz9gk9a5L-_-L0xoDcBK_VNwvPjjDjkBSt4QezTkg8a3_BBFWozFQNxgqFtU9U6s2mjaprMS313zSG0YYvNyqu4/s1600/OSX+QGIS+SVG+Libraries.png" height="342" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Figure 3: Location where you need to copy new SVG libraries to use in QGIS (running OSX).</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To add strike and dip symbols to your map, you need to open up the <i>Properties - Style</i> dialog box of your point layer, select SVG Markers and select the appropriate symbol in the Joints folder (Figure 4).</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTnySKL01_KDUUXjGaqay36gM1xShryil5ZeDzkvbV2RXD0DN3ORuiOKNuW5OibcB2aueMDUOFzb7S-ICMqhCACiEe2aQCLJ_zSO1tyvwDl_Eg42hFOhpCPVFPNyIiFTxNAxYOkDNWng0/s1600/QGIS+Joint+SVG.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTnySKL01_KDUUXjGaqay36gM1xShryil5ZeDzkvbV2RXD0DN3ORuiOKNuW5OibcB2aueMDUOFzb7S-ICMqhCACiEe2aQCLJ_zSO1tyvwDl_Eg42hFOhpCPVFPNyIiFTxNAxYOkDNWng0/s1600/QGIS+Joint+SVG.png" height="592" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Figure 4: Style tab under Layer Properties where you can select SVG Marker as the layer type and then the appropriate joint symbol.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This will add the symbol to your map but it won't properly orient your strike and dip symbol so you need to make sure your attribute table has a rotation column (e.g. - strike, azimuth, etc) and go back to the marker dialog, select Advanced - Rotation Field (Figure 5). This is where you need to pay attention to how your data is formatted. All the joint symbols are initially oriented North and follow the right-hand-rule, so make sure you know how the data was collected and ensure your symbols are properly oriented.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgigf_s-oJO8BhybEfA8adPqRgAWZuBG9dNHsRVR1fuKxJpaeXTttQj98qoJJFWXdY60LU_mDraaktbZR3_p6V4FMuOyRbizg6XjAVggb7Pis2ztBpCsyr0eAs0CXolkC1CfGk89VIUQHk/s1600/OSX+QGIS+Symbol+Rotation.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgigf_s-oJO8BhybEfA8adPqRgAWZuBG9dNHsRVR1fuKxJpaeXTttQj98qoJJFWXdY60LU_mDraaktbZR3_p6V4FMuOyRbizg6XjAVggb7Pis2ztBpCsyr0eAs0CXolkC1CfGk89VIUQHk/s1600/OSX+QGIS+Symbol+Rotation.png" height="428" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Figure 5: Marker dialog where you can set the rotation field (the advanced button is next to the symbol button).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">All that's left is resizing the symbols so they look appropriate with the scale of your map. Finally, you will likely want to add dip values to the map. You can use the label tab to set the label field to whatever the name of the field is containing your dip measurements. Another option is to add the Easy Custom Labeling <a href="http://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/EasyCustomLabeling/" target="_blank">plugin</a> to create a new layer containing dip labels. The advantage of using this approach is you can start editing this layer and manually move each dip label so that it is properly situated next to every dip symbol (Figure 6).</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXzZUsZ53BuQvEICJAo8EEIJHI9zTi8Gd6Arx0qLGp-_EduZ-qr8b6uxHF2aw2c2hdDsZw2y9n7JIfcD6awO4EuhUA_-i2q4jkKBFSbXAepKWCuTZX4mGklf5bOWyVliy5BOaiI5eNbE0/s1600/labels.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXzZUsZ53BuQvEICJAo8EEIJHI9zTi8Gd6Arx0qLGp-_EduZ-qr8b6uxHF2aw2c2hdDsZw2y9n7JIfcD6awO4EuhUA_-i2q4jkKBFSbXAepKWCuTZX4mGklf5bOWyVliy5BOaiI5eNbE0/s1600/labels.png" height="352" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBty1oiBXF5UwWSorJF9tkmMuedm8ME34JaXABFizEgY4OUhzNAhO07kkNACI0GuHiCoMr4O5lsT-jCggmQWccWpDS9nAIWpX-JfZ6DpIyOao0fcY7VyyOqqbbqipsCHlV_OZsqNFdHEA/s1600/labels.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Figure 6: Simple bedrock geologic map with rotated and labeled strike and dip symbols.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hopefully this is helpful for folks contemplating migrating at least some of their GIS workflow over to QGIS. There are a lot other ways to streamline labeling and fill patterns using PostGIS too. Feel free to send me 'how to' questions <a href="https://twitter.com/Taconic_Musings" target="_blank">@taconic_musings</a> and when time permits I'll create an equivalent tutorial answering your questions (if I know the answer). If you are looking for additional geology symbols, Ryan Clark (<a href="https://twitter.com/worbly" target="_blank">@worbly</a>) started a GitHub <a href="https://github.com/rclark/geocarto" target="_blank">repository</a> that contains a variety of <a href="http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/fgdc_gds/geolsymstd.php" target="_blank">FGDC</a> compliant symbols - you can explore and contribute to if you want!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span>
John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-34425785011269824232013-12-11T16:33:00.001-05:002013-12-11T16:54:46.127-05:00GIS Was Never Simple... <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I know the boat sailed in <a href="https://twitter.com/briantimoney/status/385499195961901056">early</a>
October but still felt compelled to respond given I have an interest in both disciplines. I saved Thierry Gregorius' blog post to Pocket and finally read it last week. In general I get the sentiment and frustration but found myself disagreeing with a number of points, which is good because I wouldn't want him retiring from blogging either! So this is less of a critique and meant more to initiate (instigate?) more dialogue - Thierry, you <u>did</u> ask for more comments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">First I disagree that the field of GIS itself is less simple now - it was never simple. I'm referring to the underlying science related to map projections, re-projections, neighborhood statistics, autocorrelation - pick your topic. Tobler's 1970 <a href="http://j-vh.me/1coEpV6" target="_blank">seminal paper</a> on autocorrelation is instructive - it was never simple. If you consider the GIS software itself, the GUIs have certainly become more cluttered but in every package I have used it was possible to turn off toolbars and extensions/plugins. If this is really a concern, vilifying software and vendors should cut across all sectors; why is no one clamoring for Cricket Graph, a return to Fortran or Internet Explorer? Ok, that last one wasn't nice. I completely agree with the final conclusion that 'spatial is not special' but then again, neither are geoscientists (I just implied I wasn't special too, don't get feisty).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Geoscientists are not the only folks who consume data that has been 'digitized from analog sources, scraped from literature or intelligence reports, imported from spreadsheets, dug up from archives, copied from network drives, extracted from databases, downloaded from web feeds" or have to develop a story using a variety of data formats and datasets (</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Gregorius, 2013</span>). The same holds true for town planners (not necessarily GIS professionals), historians, biologists, transportation specialists, and many (many) other disciplines. 'Our' issue is not ours alone to claim. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The data format issue is real and it is challenging but certainly not insurmountable. I find it unrealistic to assume that if geoscientists "don't consider themselves to be GIS professionals" but that "no GIS professional today can survive without FME or GDAL" that somehow the vendors have ignored the needs of our profession. Is this issue related to vendors producing software capable of consuming the data or that many data sources are stored in proprietary data formats with complex schemas that require translation? FME and GDAL are completely different in my mind: FME offers translation capabilities in addition to conversion while GDAL supports raster conversion and manipulation (OGR is the vector equivalent). GDAL and OGR are a means to <u>address</u> the issue of data formats not complicate it - both serve us well in the sea of data formats. So, vendors nor software 'require' us to create silos, we (yes, geoscientists too) choose that route (<a href="http://www.courtnewsohio.gov/cases/2013/SCO/0307/121296.asp#.UqiuYcRDt8G" target="_blank">link</a>, <a href="http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1285/pdf/Dohar.pdf" target="_blank">link</a>). Criticizing open standards or open-source GIS packages is akin to couples bemoaning how challenging the adoption process is... there are plenty of children in foster care, they just aren't adopted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The GeoWeb can be abused and neglected by any profession - geologic clearinghouses commit some of the more egregious sins, which result in slow and unfriendly user interfaces (I won't point to at any particular state survey here, but do a random sampling on your own). <a href="http://mapthis.net/tools-apps/six-reasons-why-the-public-hates-your-web-mapping-application/" target="_blank">Eric Edmonds</a> and <a href="http://mapbrief.com/2013/02/11/the-tyranny-of-requirements-why-map-portals-dont-work-part-iii/" target="_blank">Brian Timony</a> have offered thoughts on why these portals are so cumbersome but that isn't <u>because</u> of the GIS industry or GIS professionals per se. Similarly, I'm not sure how developers creating mobile applications - who aren't 'GIS people' or geologists - would know what geoscientists need so they didn't feel like they fell through the cracks. The implication here is that we need apps that can perform 'geological data interpretation' in the field on a smartphone or tablet versus having the capability to collect points, lines and polygons and easily enter data using something like a data dictionary (those apps <a href="http://fulcrumapp.com/" target="_blank">exist</a>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Open-source GIS does provide a viable alternative to a proprietary vendor marriage (this isn't 'new' - GRASS has offered this for 30-years). The various FOSS-GEO options are not the reason we struggle with proprietary formats, again it is the people who choose store them that way. And Google Earth certainly offers an easier interface to work in but I don't think Brian <a href="https://twitter.com/briantimoney/status/385499195961901056" target="_blank">claimed</a> that 'most enterprise <u>GIS</u> requirements would be met' but instead referred to 'data viz' needs. It's a semantic issue but in my mind Google Earth is not a GIS. You can create, store, and visualize spatial data but is missing the most fundamental (in my mind) tools: the ability to query and analyze spatial relationships. So if you want to create a visual depiction of your data, store it in network KMLs and distribute, Timoney's right (again!). But if you want to buffer private water wells, use zonal statistics to characterize the dominant bedrock within a watershed, interpolate an isopach map, etc... you can't do that using Google Earth. If you're 'really' nostalgic for ArcView 3.x then take a look at <a href="http://www.gvsig.org/web" target="_blank">gvSIG</a>, it has a very similar interface and functionality. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I'm a little unclear who the GIS behind the curtain actually IS but here are some thoughts on Thierry's questions: </span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>Where are the innovative solutions for dealing with the variety of geoscience data?</i><br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;">Timoney referred to this in one of his <a href="https://twitter.com/briantimoney/status/385499195961901056" target="_blank">Tweets</a> (circa 2007): Store your data in a PostGIS enabled PostgresSQL database and become a spatial data hipster.<br /><br /> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>Where are the productivity tools to simply assemble digital scrapbooks of georeferenced information?</i></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #660000;">As far as I can tell, QGIS isn't planning a coup of ESRI (nor does their mission allude to that), the interface is entirely customizable, it consumes data stored in PostGIS AND it has the ability to create map books using the Atlas function.<br /><br /> </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>Where are the flexible data models that enable thematic harvesting and analysis irrespective of data type?</i><br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;">PostGIS via command line, the SPIT and DB Manager plugins for QQIS or ST-Links <a href="http://www.st-links.com/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank">Spatial Links</a> for ESRI. <br /><br /> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>Where are the analytical tools that can handle dirty and incomplete data without hours of pre-processing?</i><br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;">If it is dirty, it will probably take some tinkering... I guess I'd have to see an example but my default would be <a href="https://github.com/OpenRefine/openrefine.github.com" target="_blank">Open Refine</a><span id="goog_1187484510"></span><span id="goog_1187484511"></span>. Or just import it into a PostGIS database...<br /></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>Where are the predictive user interfaces that only show relevant options?</i><br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;">Personally I don't want a software package deciding what is relevant to me, I'd much rather selectively turn off things I don't need and set a default workspace. I'm more frustrated by this in Pages or Excel than any GIS. By the way, check out PostGIS.</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So I don't think the GIS community has ignored or let geoscientists fall through the cracks and I certainly don't think geologic data is special or any messier than other disciplines. If you're looking for a geology-flavored GIS, check out <a href="https://code.google.com/p/beegis/" target="_blank">BeeGIS</a> it's built on <a href="https://code.google.com/p/jgrass/" target="_blank">JGrass</a> so you get the spatial tools of GRASS in a simple interface that has tools specific to hydrology and geomorphology. And that's the ultimate rub for me in this discussion - if the existing GIS packages aren't sufficient, perhaps the geoscience community should follow Matt Hall's <a href="http://www.agilegeoscience.com/apps/" target="_blank">example</a> and build their own. Waiting for a vendor or non-geoscientist to create a custom tailored, predictive GIS will likely happen sometime in 20... never. BUT, I encourage you to explore PostGIS and let Pele change your world - she's cute, she's talented and she'll eat up all your spatial data.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTdYxlN-7VxY_JglKGAMDlSXvuHVMlQW1mrE3jn7mmuXS-4RiRJSPa21mt_8Y3Vi32q3corCkHhv6Ntql1S35yaLFsyM0zg1kb0uDdxpDTAF72ZIs_Fv1d8lQfJY0Yqr18chmV974T740/s1600/Logo_square_postgis.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTdYxlN-7VxY_JglKGAMDlSXvuHVMlQW1mrE3jn7mmuXS-4RiRJSPa21mt_8Y3Vi32q3corCkHhv6Ntql1S35yaLFsyM0zg1kb0uDdxpDTAF72ZIs_Fv1d8lQfJY0Yqr18chmV974T740/s1600/Logo_square_postgis.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">http://j-vh.me/1fkUa3n</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-22063954394553309352013-10-21T13:07:00.004-05:002013-10-21T13:07:59.340-05:00Exploring the Vast Sea of Open Source GIS: There Be Dragons No More!<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This is a repost of an article I wrote for GeoFocus, CT's Quarterly Geospatial Newsletter - the original can be found <a href="http://ctgis.uconn.edu/resources/newsletter/Fall_2013.pdf">here</a>.</span><br />
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This year the Geographic Resources Analysis Support System -
a.k.a GRASS - celebrated its 30<sup>th</sup> anniversary, establishing itself
as the Bob Barker of free and open-source geospatial tools. It is this enduring
alternative to a proprietary GIS that often leaves me bewildered by the
surprise at discovering there are other options beyond the typical mainstream
GIS suites. Surprise is often followed by questions about reliability, maturity
and support – after all, “there is no such thing as a free lunch” right?</div>
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I think some of the hesitancy to embrace Free and Open
Source Software for Geographical Information Systems (FOSSGIS) is summarized
well by Gregy Mankiw’s statement that “to get one thing that we like, we
usually have to give up another thing that we like. Making decisions requires
trading off one goal against another." So if something is ‘free’ and I
have access to the underlying code, there <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">must</i>
be a catch. The issue with that assumption lies in the literal interpretation
of the word free; it is best to consider FOSSGIS options through Richard
Stallman’s mantra of "free speech, not free beer." It is also likely
that earlier forays into open source options resulted in frustration with a
graphical user interface that responded differently than more familiar
Windows-based GUIs and less mature (sometimes non-existent) documentation or man
pages (for those folks who explored GRASS on a UNIX/Linux OS). So there are
indeed tradeoffs but depending on your needs and the structure of your
organization, the opportunities for harnessing the power of both free
alternatives are only limited by the null loop that you define (meaning you can
utilize one small tool or migrate completely). Perhaps more importantly,
through supportive user forums, YouTube, blog tutorials, and social media – we
are experiencing what Dan Sui has described as “the wikification of GIS.” Open
access to this ever growing free and archived ‘support staff’ has fostered the
growth of a neogeography, where journalists, statisticians, graphic designers,
web developers, etc. are creating and consuming spatial data to produce
stunning visuals that even the most staunch cartographer would (and do) praise.
If the so-called ‘non-experts’ can utilize these options with success, imagine
how the geospatial community might fair if we used them more often!</div>
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My intention isn’t to encourage anyone to drop their current
software merely because an alternative exists or to convince you that FOSSGIS
is inherently better, but rather assuage some of the common concerns I hear
regarding the alternatives. Most of the questions are usually process specific,
like: “but can I do [<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">insert common GIS
task here</i>] using that software?” And without hesitation, my response is
almost always a resounding YES. In fact, depending on the license you have with
many proprietary suites, you often have access to more tools and analyses. For
example, GRASS offers access to powerful watershed analyses tools and SAGA
offers advanced geostatistical analyses that aren’t provided by default in many
proprietary suites. But in response to the overarching question of “what can I
do” - basically any of the most common geoprocessing tasks (clip, merge, union,
etc.), create and edit shapefiles/attribute tables, georeferencing, geocoding,
spatial joins, topological editing, and - depending on the FOSSGIS tool -
raster analyses and map algebra functions. Deciding on the tool often leaves
people overwhelmed given the extensive list maintained by the Open Source
Geospatial Foundation (<a href="http://j-vh.me/14yHsKN" target="_blank">OSGEO</a>): and I think the effort to discern which to choose is often a barrier to exploring
new tools.</div>
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The second most common question I hear is “so what is the
best option?” As you might imagine, this decision depends on the goal. If you
would like to streamline your workflow using batch scripting of common translation
or projection tasks, you might just be interested in using the standalone
ogr2ogr and GDAL <a href="http://j-vh.me/18Fs3WO" target="_blank">libraries</a>.
These libraries can be accessed via command line, <a href="http://j-vh.me/13iB35j" target="_blank">ogr2gui</a> or from within a
number of desktop packages. Translating between formats is relatively easy with
these libraries and is further facilitated by migrating proprietary formats
into a PostGIS database running on <a href="http://j-vh.me/13iFhKl" target="_blank">PostgreSQL</a>.
If you are wondering about an alternative to proprietary geodatabase solutions,
PostgreSQL/PostGIS is a powerful object-relational database system that can
support geospatial queries and analyses; I highly recommend “<a href="http://j-vh.me/13iH6a3" target="_blank">PostGIS in Action</a>”
as a great primer. </div>
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Three desktop packages rise to my list of alternatives -
again depending on your needs and application. For a gentle introduction to open-source
alternatives I recommend <a href="http://j-vh.me/13iOxOt" target="_blank">MapWindow GIS</a>,
it has fewer tools installed by default but through numerous plugins you gain
access to more advanced tools. <a href="http://j-vh.me/1dIl6Kc" target="_blank">Saga GIS</a>
offers access to advanced geostatistical and terrain analysis functions and specific
algorithms for erosion modeling, fire risk analysis and hydrologic modeling and
others. However the package I recommend most often is <a href="http://j-vh.me/13j0Quo" target="_blank">Quantum GIS</a> for a variety of
reasons: (1) GRASS tools are seamlessly integrated and accessible via the GRASS
plugin or using the Sextante plugin (which also provides access to many SAGA
functions), (2) user-created plugins are frequently added to the repositories,
(3) I find the interface the most user friendly, (3) it is available for
Windows, Apple and Linux operating systems, and (4) it includes cartographic
functionality. Many (not all) open source alternatives don’t include tools for
making cartographically pleasing maps, but QGIS does and <a href="http://www.qgis.org/en/site/index.html" target="_blank">version 2</a> offers even more functionality. If you’re not
happy with the final layout you can export to Adobe Illustrator or a nice
alternative called <a href="http://j-vh.me/13j2P1K" target="_blank">Inkscape</a>
or you could use QGIS to manipulate your data and then use <a href="http://j-vh.me/13j3Hn6" target="_blank">TileMill</a> to produce the final
map, which is also cross platform.</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">There are but a few of the many options and
purely based on my opinion and experience. If you are curious about a specific
software package or how it might increase your ROI or align with your current
workflow, feel free to shoot me an email but your best option would be to
explore the user forums or post your questions there: the community is
incredibly supportive and helpful. So I encourage you to slay those dragons of
uncertainty and jump into what is no longer uncharged waters!</span></span> <br />John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-62233829396102570112013-09-24T10:18:00.001-05:002013-09-25T10:13:58.472-05:00125 Years of GSA Annual Meetings Animated<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This year marks the <a href="http://www.geosociety.org/125/" target="_blank">125th Anniversary</a> of the Geological Society of America and the annual GSA meeting is about a month away (<a href="http://community.geosociety.org/2013AnnualMeeting/Home" target="_blank">October 27-30</a>) and will be held in Denver, Colorado. I was curious about the geographic distribution of historical meetings so I tracked down <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=y5CESCKPlpoC&lpg=PA106&ots=8SiyWsZDVN&dq=Geological%20society%20of%20america%20meeting%201889%20city&pg=PA105#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">this</a> reference, which provided locations from 1888-1980 and filled in the rest using the GSA's website. Using QGIS and Illustrator I created the graphic below, trying to capture the relative distribution of meetings throughout the U.S., Canada and one meeting in Mexico. <br /><b>Note</b>: this graphic only depicts <i>annual</i> meetings not all the section meetings.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/9934890203/" title="GSA Meetings (1888-12013) by J. Van hoesen, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5539/9934890203_13bbae6950_z.jpg" width="640" height="498" alt="GSA Meetings (1888-12013)"></a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Note: larger sizes available <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/9917085384/sizes/l/" target="_blank">here</a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But this static graphic doesn't really capture the temporal aspects of annual meetings locations (primarily held east of the Mississippi River during the early years of GSA). So the animation below allows for a slightly better understanding of how these meetings slowly started migrating to the west starting in the 1980s. You can click <a href="http://bl.ocks.org/vanhoesenj/raw/6644421/" target="_blank">here</a> or on the image below to see a full-screen animation. The animation was created by compiling all the meetings by date, uploading to <a href="http://cartodb.com/" target="_blank">CartoDB</a> and then using their awesome <a href="http://torque.js/">Torque.js</a> library to animate using the date column.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://bl.ocks.org/vanhoesenj/raw/6644421/" target="_blank"><img alt="GSA-Torque Animation" height="338" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7294/9917265924_66eb13b55a_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-10641642317458643112013-09-13T17:07:00.001-05:002013-09-16T09:31:28.149-05:00The Flaming LIPs Tour - 3.5 Billion Years and Counting<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This week a post by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Geomorphology-Rules/279746762082592" target="_blank">Geomorphology Rules</a> on Facebook prompted me to celebrate "<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Worldwide LIP Appreciation Week." Much to the disappointment of Steven Tyler, this is related to <b>L</b>arge <b>I</b>gneous <b>P</b>rovinces. I couldn't find any other reference to this as the official week of celebration, however it seemed like a great topic to mention in my Intro to Geology course. But when I went <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=large+igneous+province+maps&safe=off&rlz=1C1GGGE___US509US509&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=-IQzUoPnPJKx4AO294DwDw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=955&dpr=1" target="_blank">looking</a> for a good map of LIPs I was disappointed, so I decided to create one.</span></span></span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">I started with some Blue Marble imagery from </span><a href="http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=73751" style="line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">NASA</a><span style="line-height: 18px;"> and following some great advice from John Nelson with idvsolutions applied a little </span><a href="http://uxblog.idvsolutions.com/2013/02/severe-satellite-basemaps.html" style="line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">desaturation</a><span style="line-height: 18px;"> and knocked down the brightness in the bright white polar regions. I found ready-made shapefiles (LIPs, hot spots, etc) created by <a href="http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~polsen/nbcp/lipmc.html" target="_blank">Mike Coffin</a> and provided by the <a href="http://www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/plates/data.htm" target="_blank">Institute For Geophysics</a> at the University of Texas, Austin. I also used a <a href="http://www.largeigneousprovinces.org/downloads" target="_blank">dataset</a> from the Large Igneous Provinces Commission to create a simple graph illustrating the frequency of igneous pulses over geologic time (this is meant more as illustrative than definitive - of course). </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Cartographically I chose the orange and red based on the USGS Cartographic Standards </span><a href="http://pubs.usgs.gov/tm/2006/11A02/FGDCgeostdTM11A2web_Sec33.pdf" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">pallette</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"> and the yellow, blue and purple mainly for contrast. I re-projected all the data into Winkel-Tripel (see Goldberg and Gott (<a href="http://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0608501v2.pdf" target="_blank">2008</a>) and <a href="http://bl.ocks.org/syntagmatic/3711245" target="_blank">Comparing Map Projections</a>). I couldn't figure out how to reproject to Winkel-Tripel in QGIS so that was done in ArcMap 10.1 and then symbolized in QGIS and exported to Illustrator for the marginalia (I know, I know I could use Inkscape but we have a site license...)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">So hopefully you find this map useful and I welcome suggestions if you'd like to see something changed or find an error! Other sizes are available for the Atlantic Ocean <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/9735379517/sizes/l/" target="_blank">here</a> and Pacific Ocean <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/9773207542/sizes/l/" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">UPDATE: September, 16th to include views of both the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean basins.</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/9773207542/" title="Large Igneous Provinces - Pacific by J. Van hoesen, on Flickr"><img alt="Large Igneous Provinces - Pacific" height="401" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2829/9773207542_e967b195d7_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/9773405496/" title="Large Igneous Provinces- Pacific by J. Van hoesen, on Flickr"><img alt="Large Igneous Provinces- Pacific" height="401" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5460/9773405496_2d51264de8_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-83288425208397135082013-08-30T14:06:00.001-05:002013-08-30T14:06:47.267-05:00The PowerPoint Conundrum in Geoscience Education<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Microsoft released PowerPoint in 1990 and Edward Tufte published his criticisms of PPT-based presentations in "<a href="http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/powerpoint"><i>The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint</i></a>" in 2006 and yet 7 years later I open up the latest edition of GSA Today to find that Erich Cheney still needs to write an article titled "<a href="http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/23/9/pdf/i1052-5173-23-9-68.pdf">No More Lousy PowerPoint Slides</a>." To be clear, I agree <u>completely</u> but I don't understand why this continues to be an issue... (although, apparently it is also an issue for the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2013/jun/12/prism-nsa-powerpoint-graphic-design">National Security Administration</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eric's criticism is ultimately a commentary on how earth scientists communicate scientific theories and results or rather, how often this process is done poorly. His article - while informative and well-written - isn't groundbreaking, I believe his point was (by including a reference from 1965) to gently chide presenters to be more thoughtful and actually utilize the resources that convey best practices. While most geoscientists are probably not also graphic designers, there are guidelines and there are templates and there are resources to reference when building presentations. Some of Eric's concerns involve overarching design principles and others are simple - like exporting an image at a higher resolution so it isn't pixelated or ensuring there is sufficient contrast to view your content. The latter can often also be double-checked at our home institutions on projections screens...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So the conundrum for me is that best principles have been described and explored for decades (at least). My favorite book - and one of the best written on this topic - by Tufte is "<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142">The Visual Display of Quantitative Information</a>.</i>" The ideas and concepts about design and ensuring proper scaling, coloring, shading, etc. of different types of quantitative data, rich with examples and suggestions isn't something you routinely see as required reading for geoscience students. So while I agree it is important students can properly collect lineation data with a Brunton or run an XRD, then what? Is Excel sufficient? Should they be using R to learn a little coding in addition to producing a graph? How and in what course do they learn what colors are appropriate? Should they be creating static images or developing interactive web-based products? Undergraduate vs graduate curriculum? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Clearly the attention to presentation design that effectively communicates our research/ideas/etc hasn't been integrated into much of the curriculum or we wouldn't still be seeing yellow serif fonts on white backgrounds at professional meetings... This isn't a screed directed outward as I too am guilty of not incorporating these ideas and concepts into my geology courses as often as I should. Pointing them to resources like <b><a href="http://visua.ly/">visua.ly</a></b> or <b><a href="http://datavisualization.ch/">datavisualization.ch</a></b> isn't enough because they still need to learn a software package like Illustrator/Inkscape or understand how to make sense of Javascript libraries.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is more of an open question about how/whether geoscience programs can/should respond to Eric's plea for a better and more professional approach to sharing results and findings with both peers and external audiences. A recent visualization by John Nelson with IDV Solutions really underscores the difference between thoughtful visualization versus a traditional technical approach to sharing earthquake data. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think you'll agree that the first image is easier to interpret (and 'prettier'</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">) than the second.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Source: <a href="http://j-vh.me/13RUDXa">http://j-vh.me/13RUDXa</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Source: </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://j-vh.me/15FqTNg">http://j-vh.me/15FqTNg</a></span></div>
John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-44639960304566016392013-08-21T16:50:00.000-05:002013-08-23T13:24:36.403-05:00My GIS is Better Than Yours (and other lies)<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First, a disclaimer - this is a bit of a rant but I will do my by best to make it non-judgmental and hopefully express some ideas that I've spent a good deal thinking about the last few years but only recently had to grapple with on a professional level.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 1997 I began my foray into the world of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) by deciding it would be a good idea to learn how to transform my mundane (and smelly) blueline-based geologic map into a magical and digital masterpiece (this was but one of many disappointments in my life). My tools were a Sun Workstation (no, I don't remember the model or how little RAM or how <i>slow</i> the CPU was, but it didn't matter then) and PC/ARCINFO. It was a learning experience to say the least, mainly in the art of troubleshooting and self tutoring (oh, and self-restraint by not taking a sledgehammer to the entire lab). By self-tutoring, I mean the joy that was "<a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Understanding_GIS.html?id=Hpx8QgAACAAJ" target="_blank">Understanding GIS - The ARC/INFO Method</a>."</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/program/history/ss2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/program/history/ss2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I miss these fantastic machines...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">(source: </span><a href="http://j-vh.me/188FyOc" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">http://j-vh.me/188FyOc</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">)</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My first semester in graduate school at UNLV (circa 1998) I thought mana had fallen once again when introduced to ArcView 3.0 - what a PRETTY GUI you are! The thrill subsided after the honeymoon of course (I obviously no longer think it's a pretty GUI) and I fought many a segmentation violation (in my mind I always came out victorious). I completed some 'official' coursework in both an introductory course and an advanced spatial modeling course and learned A LOT through trial and error (read that as repetitive and humbling failures) and integrated it as much as possible into research endeavors. So I definitely learned the ropes through a specific platform and software suite but there are numerous options for harnessing the power of a GIS using that foundational knowledge. And therein lies the rub.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Academics like definitions and I'm often wearing that hat, so here's a wordy book definition for a GIS:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold;">A system of hardware, software,
and procedures designed to support the
capture, management, manipulation, analysis, modeling and display of spatially
referenced data for solving complex planning and management problems” - </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold;">Rhind</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold;">,
1989</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Software is only mentioned once in that list of attributes (yes, I did that on purpose) and yet, the platform and software get all the attention and has become a means to define the 'system'. So here's where I get ranty: neither the operating system or flavor of software should be the mechanism by which we judge the analyses or the product nor in the academic sector, </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">how we effectively articulate and teach the fundamentals of using a GIS</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">When I first read </span><a href="http://esripress.esri.com/display/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&websiteID=176" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;" target="_blank">The GIS 20: Essential Skills</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> I thought - with few exceptions - I could teach most of these with PC/ARCINFO; I wouldn't WANT to, but I could. Just like I could teach most of these essential skills with any number of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_geographic_information_systems_software" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;" target="_blank">FOSS</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> alternatives. Which will draw the inevitable chiding that by doing so (that is, by not teaching one specific software package) I would be doing a disservice to my students. Well, I don't buy it. Colleges and universities have the luxury of academic pricing (one way to make the masses demand a product on departure) and therefore every fall or spring I teach the latest and greatest version of any software package I happen to be using (hint, hint - wink, wink). And I too use these great products because I can (you would too, don't lie) but the argument that marching into the world, diploma in hand - with evidence of proficiency with a specific software package - is required to stand in for a proficiency with geospatial literacy doesn't hold water for me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">BUT job postings specify it you say? Sure they do. And I have colleagues working for non-profits, state agencies and the NPS who are still using 10 year old software. So sometimes (and perhaps this is the exception) there is a disconnect between the folks writing a job announcement and the environment where a new hire might end up working. In this fabricated alternative reality I've concocted (if you're using 10 year old software, blow up the comments section please) should I be making decisions based on software or what is necessary to understand how to create and query a database (no, I didn't specify a geodatabase) to produce a cartographically accurate and aesthetically pleasing visualization? Yeah... I'm going to go with the latter too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">The </span><a href="http://www.ucgis.org/priorities/education/modelcurriculaproject.asp" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;" target="_blank">GIS&T</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> doesn't specify software, the </span><a href="http://www.gisci.org/application_materials.aspx" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;" target="_blank">GISP</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> certification doesn't specify software, and the Geospatial Competency Model (</span><a href="http://www.careeronestop.org/competencymodel/pyramid.aspx?geo=Y" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;" target="_blank">GCM</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">) doesn't specify software... So let's be honest and admit your GIS isn't better than mine (or theirs). You might be more comfortable using a certain suite (life-long learning anyone?), you may have written special scripts (pssst, you migrated from AML - Avenue - VB - Python, </span><u style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">you will be OK</u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">), and you might enjoy a semi-seamless integration between various products (I get it, I do) but it doesn't make one version, suite or option better.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; text-align: -webkit-center;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">source: </span><a href="http://xkcd.com/1172/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">http://xkcd.com/1172/</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">)</span><br />
<a href="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/workflow.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/workflow.png" width="230" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To be clear, I'm not advocating for software in either direction (proprietary or FOSS), I'm urging educators and employers to think about what we should be teaching and what skills and expertise they want recent graduates to have (I'm leaning away from monkeys who know how to click buttons in the right order, but let me know...). H</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">opefully it's clear this isn't a diatribe against a company or a choice to use a particular software package per se, but rather about the trend towards defining a GIS by the platform it's using.</span></center>
John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-48577944314339129702013-03-15T13:21:00.002-05:002013-03-15T13:21:41.528-05:00Winter Oddities: Prismatic Ice Crystals<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Yesterday a student in my hydrogeology course brought these unique (to me) ice crystals to my attention. They formed in the middle of our on-campus hockey rink - basically a pond of water within a simple frame covered in Tyvek. I've seen needle ice, large depth hoar crystals, and hoar frost but I haven't seen crystals of this size. Many exhibit a euhedral hexagonal prismatic morphology - as both massive and individual crystals. Looking down on the surface of the ice it looks similar to a birds-eye view of columnar basalt exposures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We had a few days of highs in the 50s followed by a very fast drop in temperature and moderate winds. So these crystals grew vertically in the ponded water and were then disturbed so that they were gouged out onto the surface or pushed up under pressure similar to needled ice. If you've seen this phenomenon before I would welcome a clearer explanation of their formation! I've read through <a href="http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/ice1h.html" target="_blank">this</a> explanation of various ice habits but the actual physical control on formation isn't clear. </span></div>
John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-34785136799124563272013-03-07T00:33:00.000-05:002013-03-07T00:33:43.737-05:00Animated Travels in the Scotia Arc - GSA125<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I just wanted to post and share a short animated video showing the path the Akademic Ioffe followed on the Geological Society of America's <a href="http://www.cheesemans.com/antarctica_jsg.html" target="_blank">Antarctica</a> field trip. This trip was the 'kick-off' to the GSA's 125th Anniversary celebration.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I created the animation using <a href="http://www.qgis.org/" target="_blank">QGIS</a> with the Time Manger Plugin, data from <a href="http://www.naturalearthdata.com/" target="_blank">Natural Earth</a> and the <span class="GL441MUCOQB" id="t-t">Shackleton's Expedition Google <a href="https://productforums.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/gec-history-illustrated-moderated/vygypFyA6qc" target="_blank">Group</a>. The red dots and lines represent the Ioffe and the blue dots and yellow track represent the Shackleton Endurance Expedition. I am planning on building this same project out in an nice TileMill interface.</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span> <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8105/8536251256_a6e59cf726_o.jpg" target="_blank">Static Map of the Akademic Ioffe Tracks</a></td></tr>
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John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-22578462585713478262012-01-16T20:30:00.005-05:002012-01-16T22:41:15.501-05:00Geology of Skiing #2: Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland<span style="font-family: arial;">Last year was a pretty amazing ski year in the northeastern United States - abundant and high quality snow continued well into March for some wonderful spring skiing (which I missed out on since I was in Chile). However winter 2011-2012 in the northeast has so far failed to produce more than a sprinkling of snow, which is why I headed north to Newfoundland with my friends Bruce and Nate in search of natural snow in excess of 3 inches.</span> <span style="font-family: arial;">The journey itself is a story; we left Castleton, Vermont at approximately 2:30AM EST and drove north through New Hampshire and Maine, crossing the border into Canada into St Stephen, New Brunswick. We followed Routes 1 and 2 across New Brunswick and north on Routes 104 and 105 to our final destination, North Sydney, Nova Scotia. Approximately 17 hours after leaving Vermont we boarded a Marine Atlantic ferry at 10:30PM AST for a overnight crossing of the Gulf of St Lawrence and made port in Port aux Basques at approximately 7:00AM NST. We followed Route 1 north through Corner Brook, past Marble Mountain Ski Resort, and turned west onto Route 430, arriving at our ultimate destination and base camp: Rocky Harbor. The entire travel time was approximately 30 hours and well worth the effort.<br /><br />Much to our dismay Newfoundland was experiencing the same warm winter as Vermont... we arrived to barely freezing temperatures and little snow cover on any feature lower than ~1500 feet - even the higher elevations presented thin cover. We spent the first of four nights at Gros Morne Cabins listening to howling wind in excess of 40mph. The wind hadn't abated by morning and looking out into the dark choppy waters of Rocky Harbor cove, it was clear we weren't going to go skiing. We were inspired by a panorama photograph in the convenience store to hike into Western Brook Pond - a small, shallow pond filling an uplifted fjord to the northeast of Rocky Harbor. The Hiking into the pond the temperature dropped, winds increased and frozen precipitation in the form of sleet pellets began to 'fall' sideways. A good sign that skiing was in our future. The northwestern shore of Western Brook Pond was littered with small, think platters of ice and eventually we had to turn back when we discovered there was active Moose hunting in the area in the vicinity of Snug Harbor.</span><br />
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<center><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/6642278917/" title="Western Brook Pond 2 by J. Van hoesen, on Flickr"><img alt="Western Brook Pond 2" height="333" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7020/6642278917_381401256b.jpg" width="500" /></a></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 85%;"> </span></center><center><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 85%;">Looking east into Western Brook Pond canyon</span></center><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />From Western Brook we headed north to Cow Head, which is a small island connected to the mainland by a tombolo created by a classic cuspate spit well-armored in places with clasts of varying lithology. Cow Head itself exposes limestone conglomerates, shales and limestone of varying <a href="http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/content/69/3/315.abstract">thickness</a> that have been weathered and eroded into steep cliffs and long fins that run parallel with the currents. Instead of hiking for snow we found ourselves enjoying an afternoon of 'extreme tide pooling' in blistering wind carrying shards of ice.</span><br />
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<center><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/6636234175/" title="Ice at Cow Head Cliffs by J. Van hoesen, on Flickr"><img alt="Ice at Cow Head Cliffs" height="333" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7153/6636234175_ae2d972ef9.jpg" width="500" /></a></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 85%;"> </span></center><center><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 85%;">Looking north along the western edge of Cow Head</span></center><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Our second and third days were more successful. The wind calmed down, the temperatures dropped and we could see snow accumulating in the higher elevations. We ventured south towards the Tablelands - a large plateau sheared off by glaciers composed of serpentinized peridotite.</span><br />
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<center><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/6636311887/" title="Woody Point Panorama by J. Van hoesen, on Flickr"><img alt="Woody Point Panorama" height="117" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7142/6636311887_9648044aff.jpg" width="500" /></a></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 85%;"> </span></span></center><center><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">A view looking south across the South Arm of Bonne bay into the Tableands from Woody Point</span></span></center><br />
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<center><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/6637503277/" title="Dunite with Serpentinite Weathering by J. Van hoesen, on Flickr"><img alt="Dunite with Serpentinite Weathering" height="374" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7144/6637503277_93f9309ddc.jpg" width="500" /></a></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 85%;"> </span></span></center><center><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">An example of serpentinized peridotite exposed in the slope</span></span></center><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Peridotite is an ultramafic rock derived from the mantle; part of a thin slice of oceanic crust exposed at the earth's surface as part of an Ordovician ophiolite complex. We turned into the first parking lot on the south side of Route 431 just past Winter House Brook and picked our way through a sea of exposed peridotite into an unnamed cirque between Dry Brook and Winter House Brook.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLEFhsiie5H9kkWfBRaIp2GZ-6Ng4bzCQz_eMSThPSCK3v_rV5Am4DQH_r8kpUdZJJEWczPkFZqzEwb9kOqz8JdaFj-oiJ2fqWeMgGSo10Lofl7Y58rtUR33EQLEIC2oWVFCmFiEibAgY/s1600/Map.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5698426406071914178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLEFhsiie5H9kkWfBRaIp2GZ-6Ng4bzCQz_eMSThPSCK3v_rV5Am4DQH_r8kpUdZJJEWczPkFZqzEwb9kOqz8JdaFj-oiJ2fqWeMgGSo10Lofl7Y58rtUR33EQLEIC2oWVFCmFiEibAgY/s400/Map.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 336px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 78%;">Image from: Osborn et al (<a href="http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/e07-016">2007</a>)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br />The first day we skinned up and only skied the lower portion of the bowl because of poor visibility and evidence of recent avalanche activity. The second day we skinned up onto the Tableland plateau itself and skied the upper bowl. We took three runs down a moderately steep gully (Osborn et al. described the gullies as fluvial gorges) filled with knee deep powder and returned to the parking lot via a rock slide channel filled with wind-blown snow. The Tablelands area is littered with solifluction lobes, rock slide channels, sporadic rock-glacier debris, patterned ground, and weakly developed moraines. More than anything else, these features are the reason I would like to return in the summer to hike and explore these unique u-shaped valleys exposing serpentine barrens.</span><br />
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<center><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/6638853477/" title="Unamed cirque near Winter House Brook by J. Van hoesen, on Flickr"><img alt="Unamed cirque near Winter House Brook" height="178" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7157/6638853477_be63ed1552.jpg" width="500" /></a></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 85%;"> </span></span></center><center><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">Small panorama looking southeast towards the Tablelands taken from the parking area</span></span></center><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I highly recommend a visit to Gros Morne National Park any time of year (even though I haven't yet visited in the summer, it can only be more magnificent). The landscape is breathtaking and the geology is incredibly diverse, ranging from calcareous turbidites near Cow Head, to Grenville age gneisses surrounding Western Brook Pond and the Long Range Mountains, to the volcanics of Green Gardens and peridotite making up the Tablelands. Truly a unique geologic and skiing excursion!</span><br />
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<center><span style="font-family: arial;"><object height="300" width="400"> <param name="flashvars" value="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157628730280209%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157628730280209%2F&set_id=72157628730280209&jump_to=">
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<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=109615" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157628730280209%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157628730280209%2F&set_id=72157628730280209&jump_to=" height="300" width="400"></embed></object></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 85%;"> </span></span></center><center><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">Complete slideshow of photos taken during the Newfoundland trip</span></span></center>John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-47459678596308153342011-12-22T16:48:00.006-05:002011-12-22T17:41:40.822-05:00Accretionary Wedge #41 - Memorable Conduit of Oozing Lava<a href="http://ron.outcrop.org/blog/?p=1432">Ron Schott's</a> topic for this installation of <a href="http://theaccretionarywedge.wordpress.com/">The Accretionary Wedge</a> prompted me to get back on the blog wagon. He asked us to ponder the most memorable/significant geologic we've directly experienced and I instantly though of watching lava drip into the Pacific Ocean and turn into pumice while precariously perched on a lava bench in Hawaii. Which by the way, was one of the silliest decisions I've ever made while 'chasing' geology. However it was one of the most memorable thus far (watching Stromboli erupt at sunset is a close second, I'll share that story in a future post).<br /><br /><center><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=109786" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="300" width="400"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=c09de622cb&photo_id=5819078330"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=109786"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=109786" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=c09de622cb&photo_id=5819078330" height="300" width="400"></embed></object></center><br />It may be the 'go to' for a lot of responses to Ron's request but watching lava flow out of a small vent, spill over onto a lava bench, disappear into yet another tube and then slowly dribble out into the ocean was awesome. Awesome in the strict definition of that word. I was both mesmerized by the visual and awestruck at how quiet the process of building new land was; the gulls made more noise!<br /><br />I climbed down a steep, gnarly, crumbly and rotten slope of basalt with one thought in my mind: "pumice, pumice, pumice..." I knew it was forming, the white vapor clouds told the tale of superheated lava encountering seawater but I wasn't sure I would be able to see it actually 'drip' into the water. I was worried it would be below the water level... I should have been worried climbing back up a life threatening slope of manky basalt waiting to slice and dice, but I wasn't. I made it all the way to a postage stamps sized black sand beach (ok, slightly larger than a postage stamp) and waited. I couldn't see anything at first because the steam was blowing towards me (problematic for a number of reasons, least of all obstructed viewing opportunities) but eventually the wind shifted and there it was: the maple syrup of geology, slowly oozing out of a wave battered lava bench (again, take note of throwing caution to the wind), stretching out to touch the water and then sizzle and steam and then... float. It happened just liked I'd been told, read and watched in videos. It was aa'aa-mazing. <-- I know, I know... please forgive the lack of scientific correctness and enjoy the few photos I was able to take that more or less captured the 'event.'<br /><br /><center><object height="300" width="400"> <param name="flashvars" value="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157628529632611%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157628529632611%2F&set_id=72157628529632611&jump_to="> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=109615"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=109615" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157628529632611%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157628529632611%2F&set_id=72157628529632611&jump_to=" height="300" width="400"></embed></object></center><br />Returning up the slope of death was uneventful (for me) and truth be told, I would do it again. Not one of the best decisions I've ever made and in hindsight I would do several things differently but it was an amazing event, one few folks likely take the risk to experience (which just means they make better decisions than I do).John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-78883752504248004842011-06-28T10:58:00.003-05:002011-06-28T13:32:06.747-05:00Chinchorro Cemetary - Gigapan<div style="text-align: left;">This is a Gigapixel image I took of an exposed Chinchorro cemetery on a steep north-facing slope of the Morro, which overlooks the northern city of Arica. My friend and colleague, <a href="http://www.uta.cl/iai/bernardo_arriaza.htm">Bernardo Arriaza</a>, asked me to take this photo to help protect this area from development. This is just one of many cemeteries still waiting to be excavated on the Morro. Apparently the problem is less about funding the excavation as it is having storage for the excavated material.<br /></div><br /><iframe src="http://www.gigapan.org/media/gigapans/80702/snapshots/222650,222647,222613,222597,222596,222594,222592/iframe/flash.html" frameborder="0" height="400" scrolling="no" width="100%"></iframe><br />Standing in this location and looking north out over the city, it is easy to see why this site would have been chosen for a burial and occupation site. The steep slopes provide a strategic defensive position and the views are unparallelled in the area - at least when looking northwest to northeast. They also had easy access to the ocean and rivers, for food, water and wetlands filled with the all important reeds they used for mats, windbreaks, and wrapping their dead prior to burial.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://photosynth.net/embed.aspx?cid=83f1835d-98bf-4f0a-bdab-3e8908edf1e1&delayLoad=true&slideShowPlaying=false" frameborder="0" height="300" width="500"></iframe><br /></div>John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-18167366742524939792011-06-27T17:18:00.006-05:002011-06-27T17:43:10.403-05:00Geologic Mapping on the iPad - For real?I've spent a lot of time over the last year downloading and playing with applications for the iPad that have some relevance to <a href="http://gmcgeology.blogspot.com/2010/06/geology-ipad-and-education.html">geology</a>. However the dream of using a lightweight tablet with a stylus and built-in GPS for field mapping is getting closer to reality. I always thought the limiting factor was the ability to make use of digitizing on the tablet to draw contacts, annotations, etc. However, I think the free <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/icmtgis/id409254102?mt=8">iCMTGPS</a> app provides a viable tool for actual field-mapping. It isn't as slick and easy as using ArcPad, however it works and it's as accurate as many of the GPS units are folks are using for 1:24,000 mapping.<br /><br />You can email the support staff at CMT for a user guide, but it's a little thin on some of the specifics so I put together a short review and tutorial illustrating how it can be set up for field mapping applications. Strengths, weaknesses and quirks are all discussed in the video. Any and all feedback is appreciated!<br /><br /><a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4100236/iCMTGIS/iCMTGIS.html" target="_blank"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 473px; height: 376px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd87z_w-Cq3ukzR2xF76G8ueXCE9MntbCfR7COhDBgFYlOzfLDMorN5XqiS1SNHjEz4XCb_T8_EbeszLUrXWs2fDrOGwDbjjfiWH3VrtmxMIoxQpvbH-iw9ySEdO6lIJwRYVrWWFfCV1w/s400/iCMTGIS.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623032588209024322" border="0" /></a>John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-48236710948736612782011-06-25T12:24:00.004-05:002011-06-25T14:07:10.959-05:00Accretionary Wedge #35: Favorite Geology Word<span class="profile-name-link" style="font-family:arial;">For this month's <a href="http://theaccretionarywedge.wordpress.com/">Accretionary Wedge</a>, Evelyn Mervine from <a href="http://georneys.blogspot.com/">Georneys</a> asked us the impossible... to settle on one favorite geology word. I've been mulling this question over off and on for the last week, and found myself sifting through words like yardgang, pingo, sandur, tor, felsenmeer, molasse, tuya, tombolo, doline, nunatuk, moulin, firnschnee, thalweg, polje, inselberg, tafoni, etc... probably a lot more I can't remember right now. Clearly I like words that are unique and often derived from another language, I'm especially partial to German-based terms. Hopefully I'll get around to blogging about each of these words and sharing my photos of them, although I don't have a good photo of a polje. Guess I need to take a trip to Eastern Europe!<br /><br />However one word that has always fascinated me and drawn me to its country of origin is </span><span style="font-family:arial;">jökulhlaup. A term derived from the Icleandic for glacier (</span><b style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;"> </b><span style="font-family:arial;">jökull)</span><span class="profile-name-link" style="font-family:arial;"> and burst or flood (hlaup), which we use to describe a glacially-derived outburst flood. They are often triggered by a tuya - also in my list - which is a subglacial volcanic eruption. These two events are excellent reasons why Iceland is called the land of 'fire and ice.' Here are two videos that illustrate this process in action following the eruption of </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyjafjallajokull">Eyjafjallajökull</a><span style="font-family:arial;"> in 2010.</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fJII-u-41Lg" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" width="560"></iframe><br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gKRFtm5Z8DM" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" width="560"></iframe><br /><br /></div><span class="profile-name-link"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I didn't become </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family:arial;" >really</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> fascinated with jökulhlaups until after I had read about the Wegner-esque experience of </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=8382">J. Harlen Bretz</a><span style="font-family:arial;">. Faced by similar dogmatic biases from the geologic community, Bretz challenged the status-quo and argued that the scablands of the western United States were created through a catastrophic flood. However, similar to Wegner, he failed to provide a 'smoking gun' that would convince his detractors. The origin of this flood (although, generally accepted as multiple flooding events) was </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/geology/publications/inf/72-2/contents.htm">later</a><span style="font-family:arial;"> identified by J.T. Pardee as jökulhlaup events from </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.glaciallakemissoula.org/virtualtour/index.html">Glacial Lake Missoula</a><span style="font-family:arial;">. Two excellent books on this topic are "Glacial Lake Missoula and its Humungous Floods" by </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Glacial-Lake-Missoula-Humongous-Floods/dp/0878424156/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309027144&sr=8-1">David Alt</a><span style="font-family:arial;"> and "Bretz's Flood" by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bretzs-Flood-Remarkable-Geologist-Greatest/dp/1570615055">John Soennichsen</a>.<br /><br />Fortunately for me, I also lack photographs of a jökulhlaup in action but here are a few photos taken while traveling through the scablands in 2000:<br /><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="profile-name-link"><span style="font-family:arial;"><object height="300" width="400"> <param name="flashvars" value="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157627045444616%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157627045444616%2F&set_id=72157627045444616&jump_to="> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=104087"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=104087" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157627045444616%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157627045444616%2F&set_id=72157627045444616&jump_to=" height="300" width="400"></embed></object></span></span><br /></div><span class="profile-name-link"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><span class="profile-name-link"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span>John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-64870884260271536092011-06-24T16:08:00.003-05:002011-06-24T23:23:48.752-05:00Chinchorro Landscapes - Caleta Vitor, ChileThese panoramas were taken in Caleta Vitor, a small fishing village on the coast of Northern Chile and home to the Chinchorro culture approximately 6,000 - 7,000 years B.P. The primary evidence for their existence is extensive middens and in rare cases well-preserved mummies. The reeds visible in both panoramas were an integral artifact in their culture; they were used to make mats for sun and ground protection and more interestingly they were used to wrap the mummies before burial.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="300" width="400"> <param name="flashvars" value="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157626916371905%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157626916371905%2F&set_id=72157626916371905&jump_to="> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=104087"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=104087" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157626916371905%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157626916371905%2F&set_id=72157626916371905&jump_to=" height="300" width="400"></embed></object><br /></div><br />This is a view looking east towards the Andes along an ephemeral stream that supports the local reeds and abundant vultures. It is lower quality than the Caleta Vitor GigaPan I shot in a similar location but looking south shown below.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><iframe src="http://photosynth.net/embed.aspx?cid=38308e5c-6cb7-44cf-b046-e1b17f88e703&delayLoad=true&slideShowPlaying=false" frameborder="0" height="300" width="500"></iframe><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">This GigaPan provides an excellent perspective on a typical Chinchorro landscape, however wave movement along the beach has created a number of ghosts I couldn't correct. <br /></div><br /><iframe src="http://www.gigapan.org/media/gigapans/75341/options/nosnapshots/iframe/flash.html" frameborder="0" height="400" scrolling="no" width="100%"></iframe><br /><br /></div>John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-77332742575707668222011-04-20T12:31:00.012-05:002011-04-20T14:17:38.496-05:00Accretionary Wedge #33: Geology and the Built Environment: Past, Present, FutureI tossed out the topic of how geologists et al. have or would like to incorporate aspects of their professional and personal passions into their built environment. The response was varied and it was intriguing to discover where folks 'see' geology. If you're like me, you probably tell your students "geology is everywhere" and that claim was only strengthened by the response to this months Accretionary Wedge.<br /><br />Anne from <a href="http://all-geo.org/highlyallochthonous/2011/04/backyard-science-isotope-hydrology-style/">Highly Allochthonous</a> illustrates how she uses her backyard for a geologic purpose rather than altering it to serve her own aesthetic interests... either she has higher morals about terraforming backyards or she wins the geo-nerd award for encouraging citizen science with her daughter. Her description of the dangers associated with conducting science in your backyard will make you smile and illustrates how something as simple as a bucket of water on monkey-bars can be extrapolated back to calculating isotope hydrology... and wow that analyzer is small!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz1onT9q5vYaZZ6GRjZz1KwP10QCc-HH-avl_o3uyl3D3GWgmuvcCA6Vqb2O0qR1F9zKUtROTEGDkYLFZLoQXIkLL2RaDZ_SMP9T9WkwDJSoMfYw-gGy280zu6FxPSVXk6de08ubppLnE/s1600/February-168.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz1onT9q5vYaZZ6GRjZz1KwP10QCc-HH-avl_o3uyl3D3GWgmuvcCA6Vqb2O0qR1F9zKUtROTEGDkYLFZLoQXIkLL2RaDZ_SMP9T9WkwDJSoMfYw-gGy280zu6FxPSVXk6de08ubppLnE/s320/February-168.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597745144585421330" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://geologyhappens.blogspot.com/2011/04/feng-shui-on-trail-aw-33.html">Geology Happens</a> describes two different scenarios involving landscaping of a sort; one that recreated the stratigraphy of the Canyonlands and another where someone incorporated an iron concretion into a retaining wall in Zion National Park. I can't help but wonder why we don't see more of this type of creativity, government rules, lack of inspiration, lack of time? It certainly can't be a lack of interesting rocks!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTf7S9BxhXymeiAABARp4dJB3PonBINguRU9gKjChk88uyIv9W8lLpk4xRfLbLJcjO-ZWxHqZcKUTsigvWeWJZVY0vQbPA-GLY9IsVcIB8TBHd76cwSjVPR4jEzICD-9Q3vIYiZDYqK7A/s1600/IMGP5218.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTf7S9BxhXymeiAABARp4dJB3PonBINguRU9gKjChk88uyIv9W8lLpk4xRfLbLJcjO-ZWxHqZcKUTsigvWeWJZVY0vQbPA-GLY9IsVcIB8TBHd76cwSjVPR4jEzICD-9Q3vIYiZDYqK7A/s320/IMGP5218.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597723428872976546" border="0" /></a><br />Dana from <a href="http://entequilaesverdad.blogspot.com/">En Tequila Es Verdad</a> offers inspiration for letting your rocks out of their boxes and displaying them proudly... everywhere! Her apartment looks like a clean version of the rock room's we all browsed as undergraduates (minus the crystal models of course). She even has zen garden incorporated into her fractal-esque approach to interior landscaping. I think it's time we all brought some of our samples locked away in the office back home!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFfZZjNXpkl62JEQ_-grjXoseWz0aJa_-K3M37ZVyWQM1sRkU6EaEu4LFzVudr2hjdHUKIeIoQyD51ahQ2u_c6Jn_42YyTFqQ0P4nKEAKtTYhyx4P91RXBKFghfpGk1m6MIqTpEt-c9-0/s1600/5615715888_0baaf3defa_b.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 201px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFfZZjNXpkl62JEQ_-grjXoseWz0aJa_-K3M37ZVyWQM1sRkU6EaEu4LFzVudr2hjdHUKIeIoQyD51ahQ2u_c6Jn_42YyTFqQ0P4nKEAKtTYhyx4P91RXBKFghfpGk1m6MIqTpEt-c9-0/s320/5615715888_0baaf3defa_b.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597729569811760546" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://geosciblog2.blogspot.com/2011/04/accretionary-wedge-33-xeriscaping.html">On-the-rocks</a> follows suit with a similar mosaic-like approach to outdoor xeriscaping, describing the significance of the rocks and stones integrated into his retaining walls and patio. He has incorporated his passion for geology with the concept of 'Found Art' by making use of stones collected from previously built structures. A fascinating synthesis of aesthetics with wonderful stories related to his great-great grandfather. I hope he doesn't have to part with his collection any time soon. His stories strike a chord with <a href="http://gmcgeology.blogspot.com/2011/04/accretionary-wedge-33-geology-and-built.html">my contribution</a> to this months AW, where I finally provide visuals for the way my father integrated rocks into the house I grew up in.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCO-wXMcijQKtF9tgciShP8GqIRMvg0vvHDEvlTaCvxca64zIRhyjLugSB_v8GzviAJcg6nsFalXuM4AcVu9NNgUICRJ8x-hUPYhjHNxvHcQ4F1EYvLZOu-CCviQgdfDuVPCMhygE3cRU/s1600/Xeri12.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCO-wXMcijQKtF9tgciShP8GqIRMvg0vvHDEvlTaCvxca64zIRhyjLugSB_v8GzviAJcg6nsFalXuM4AcVu9NNgUICRJ8x-hUPYhjHNxvHcQ4F1EYvLZOu-CCviQgdfDuVPCMhygE3cRU/s320/Xeri12.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597732244457888370" border="0" /></a><br />Hypocentre at <a href="http://hypocentral.com/blog/2011/04/17/accretionary-wedge-33-rock-garden/">Hypo-Theses</a> tells a sadder tale of having his rock garden 'banished' outside, left to summer the ravages of time... okay, I elaborated a little and they are rocks, so they will survive. While his gardens appears to be a little smaller, the diversity of rocks and the stories (many, yet to be told) tied to them are as varied as they are obscure! I also think you'll enjoy the wonderful textures created between the rocks and the just as varied 'shrubberies' growing among them. I hope we can convince Ian to elaborate on his rocks more than the rock of the day blurbs, I know there is more to tell....<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLm8MyhyphenhyphenNGqmoaY5_NLT30xk9F6w7On020lkw4F5QeceoFfmn2j4rAJN3dthDZoPxndh60vuNxnKIpIm5VcrVdvsTKsu9aGRvVGgq6oSxkvL3_gQh_gfHxqVIDpRX3grMGtIGGIihs5FM/s1600/NuL-006-1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLm8MyhyphenhyphenNGqmoaY5_NLT30xk9F6w7On020lkw4F5QeceoFfmn2j4rAJN3dthDZoPxndh60vuNxnKIpIm5VcrVdvsTKsu9aGRvVGgq6oSxkvL3_gQh_gfHxqVIDpRX3grMGtIGGIihs5FM/s320/NuL-006-1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597735335833091442" border="0" /></a><br />Ann from <a href="http://annsmusingsongeologyotherthings.blogspot.com/2011/04/aw-33-feng-shui-my-stuff.html">Ann's Musings on Geology & Other Things</a> takes us back inside and describes a seismic event leading to a new table top and how she created a xenolith in her house. Actually the seismic event was her son providing her with an opportunity to upgrade to serpentine table tops. Her experience illustrates the need for one of us to write a "Field Guide to Commercially Available Building Stones" so everyone can correctly identify rocks... Her xenolith was created when she had slate with two slightly different tones installed in her office. Tell me I'm not the only one who saw a xenolith hiding in the floor?<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsOFSiC2VGqTbkn4dIdN1wA5wRM-Lac1xAqddqE2hBNWxw7xoN1kBlrDGtmL7nc9VPTTAvqm9d1gBwyULaPqyCsPD-nn3WXp38kk9naA_RIFFr4QFX6_RjEAvsF1BuhvmXwhU5xTO8xNc/s1600/100_1884.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsOFSiC2VGqTbkn4dIdN1wA5wRM-Lac1xAqddqE2hBNWxw7xoN1kBlrDGtmL7nc9VPTTAvqm9d1gBwyULaPqyCsPD-nn3WXp38kk9naA_RIFFr4QFX6_RjEAvsF1BuhvmXwhU5xTO8xNc/s320/100_1884.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597738919026885842" border="0" /></a><br />Silver Fox from <a href="http://highway8a.blogspot.com/2011/04/rocks-and-stones.html">Looking for Detachment</a> brings us back to our roots by describing her desire to live in a stone 'hobbit-like' cottage tempered by her acceptance that having rocks in her backyard is just as satisfying - and safer in earthquake country! I may read to far into her 'message' but I think it's appropriate to claim that no matter how many rocks we collect, stack into neat little piles, turn into furniture, hold back sod, etc, etc., we all prefer our rocks in their natural habitat. Where they challenge us with their complexity, provide a substrate to play on, and a library to learn from.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF3bOYfF_649-pa0mybaPl7nmOCHUV4reuTcyvAGd4C0a4tAmdrWRb_-dAttrYc9-G8gYUjD1DMGXYQR0X9pqiIEpO33ExFLRZLbFIOAbqvSamd_uezqryQVeSbvZHXII1YKJNw7sl0dI/s1600/IMG_4347_4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 164px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF3bOYfF_649-pa0mybaPl7nmOCHUV4reuTcyvAGd4C0a4tAmdrWRb_-dAttrYc9-G8gYUjD1DMGXYQR0X9pqiIEpO33ExFLRZLbFIOAbqvSamd_uezqryQVeSbvZHXII1YKJNw7sl0dI/s320/IMG_4347_4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597741572810577442" border="0" /></a>John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-13368345295627951602011-04-20T11:52:00.003-05:002011-04-20T12:31:02.616-05:00Accretionary Wedge #33: Geologic Feng Shui<div style="text-align: left;">I've written about the house my father built a number of times in various posts and described the bedding plane of Devonian limestone, which served as our basement floor and the integration of local limestone and sandstone into rock walls and our hearth. This past fall my parents decided to sell the house, not without difficulty of course - although I think it was harder for me since I associate so many life decisions with the geologic influences of the house and surrounding property. So I thought I would share a few photos of that house and the various 'geologic' features embedded in the property.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://photosynth.net/embed.aspx?cid=a0cf91f3-60a9-4bbb-9fa4-6ecb8843f36c&delayLoad=true&slideShowPlaying=false" frameborder="0" height="300" width="500"></iframe><br /><br /><iframe src="http://photosynth.net/embed.aspx?cid=f34fec0d-3291-418f-b5e8-cf5db102536b&delayLoad=true&slideShowPlaying=false" frameborder="0" height="300" width="500"></iframe><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br />These are views of the front and back of the house, you can see just how many rocks went into the rock wall and the chimney. What is so impressive is that my father literally collected every rock by hand from the property and also while driving along the surrounding roads. Every now and then he would slam on the brakes and jump out to grab a 'prized' rock... how did I become a geologist again?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://photosynth.net/embed.aspx?cid=c2d3aaa0-5674-402b-ba75-5ec7898a1013&delayLoad=true&slideShowPlaying=false" frameborder="0" height="300" width="500"></iframe><br /></div><br />This is a view of the hearth my father built with rocks from the surrounding property; look for fossils they are in there! I was in a bit of a rush when taking all this photos, so I couldn't use the Gigapan, but you get the general gist of the incorporation of geology into the structure.<br /><br />As I dream about building my own house, I envision using local Vermont slate for all the window sills and door thresholds and will likely tile the kitchen floor with mottled slate as well. While granite counter tops seem an obvious choice, we all know that most of what is sold as granite really isn't 'granite.' I'd prefer a <a href="http://www.minsocam.org/ammin/AM34/AM34_573.pdf">diorite</a> counter top from the Barton Mine in the nearby Adirondack Mountains; they sell a stone called "<a href="http://granitesofnorthamerica.com/">Garnet Gem</a>" that contains large porphyblasts of garnet, it's magnificent. I've also dabbled with using sheets of muscovite for lampshades and think that they would work great for covering recessed lighting built into a stairwell for simple night lighting. Finally, for stairs I think it would be neat (although I haven't tested the durability) to make stair treads out of local wood and router out a 1/2" recess in the wood with 2" margins and then install marble treads in the wood. I think the juxtoposition of the light stone with a stained wooden tread would look great. All future projects... <br /><br /></div></div>John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-56971672312222557252011-03-28T14:54:00.003-05:002011-03-28T15:09:00.683-05:00Open Call for Accretionary Wedge #33 - Geologic Feng Shui?I've always wondered how crazy other geologists have gone with incorporating geology into their homes, offices, gardens, etc. I know we all have a mini rock collection on the shelf, or a rock holding open a door but I'm thinking bigger. For example, I haven't done it yet but when I build the next house, all the window sills will be made out of slate. Share <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">your</span> stories, descriptions, photos of your current or past geology-related embellishments and I'll summarize.<br /><br />The deadline for this is April 17th, I'll summarize on the 18th. Please post your contributions in the comment section, thanks!John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-2400896575710093292011-03-11T19:30:00.007-05:002011-03-16T19:34:01.283-05:00La Mariposa del TsunamiAfter today's 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan the <a href="http://ptwc.weather.gov/">Pacific Tsunami Warning Center</a> issued an alert for <a href="http://ptwc.weather.gov/ptwc/?region=1&id=pacific.2011.03.11.233751">many</a> coastal areas bordering the Pacific Ocean, including Chile. <span style=""> After reading the estimates that the waves will likely only crest at 0.25 to 0.5 feet I didn't think they would take the warning all that seriously.<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style=""><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-icQRLbGfyQQyFWlmk2JxSnyVk3E17wFxkq_wQng5TyDInMwoBkRDiO3AprSVYMFqca1WzieMTGlGdbt6mVx1IY6TbnKOitJDVjfTL8PrFRrgee1QwH31A0d8aCzhUmQcCMtl8ma6C9c/s1600/tsunami.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-icQRLbGfyQQyFWlmk2JxSnyVk3E17wFxkq_wQng5TyDInMwoBkRDiO3AprSVYMFqca1WzieMTGlGdbt6mVx1IY6TbnKOitJDVjfTL8PrFRrgee1QwH31A0d8aCzhUmQcCMtl8ma6C9c/s400/tsunami.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582990586678001106" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Source: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/newsgraphics/2011/0311-japan-quake-tsunami/tsunami.png</span></span><br /><br /></div><span style="">However the memory of last years Chilean tsunami that devastated </span><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35644365/ns/world_news-chile_earthquake/">Constitución</a><span style=""> is still fresh and I don't think the Chilean or local government wanted to risk any further causalities. Although they canceled school for all the children, there were still people at the beach and shopping downtown like any other day.<br /><br />However at ~18:00 local time the klaxon went off and the </span><span style="" id="search">Carabineros</span><span style=""> began clearing downtown following <a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_644344.html">orders</a> from Santiago to evacuate everyone living within possible inundation zones. I went to my 7:30 Spanish lesson and at 8:30 when I wandered back out onto 21 de Mayo, the primary shopping district, I was astonished at the celerity with which everyone had <a href="http://www.estrellaarica.cl/prontus4_nots/site/artic/20110311/pags/20110311201250.html">evacuated</a> the downtown area.<br /><br />It was difficult catching a collectivo home so I walked about halfway and was again amazed at the migration inland. I saw families pushing strollers filled with children and belongings, 100s of vehicles normally parked in driveways and estacionamentos, and numerous people who had clearly been living on the beach (</span><span style="">it is legal to camp on some of the beaches in Arica)</span><span style=""> just sitting in the park or in the rotundas. The hospital was clearly on high alert, all the </span><span style="" id="search">Carabineros</span> and their local counterparts were prevalent and they kept their emergency lights on all the time as they drove around the city - the tension was quite tangible and although I've never lived in earthquake or tsunami country before it was very similar to the feeling right before a big snowstorm or strong thunderstorm in the Midwest.<br /><span style=""><br /></span>Any resulting waves aren't expected to reach Arica until <span style="">23:24 so no word on the impact yet but I will update if anything of interest happens in the next few hours.</span><span style=""> It's interesting to think that in 1868 an 8.6 earthquake occurred in Chile that affected New Zealand, Hawaii and Japan and now an earthquake near Japan produced a tsunami that is fluttering back across the Pacific - like earthquakes playing ping pong I guess.<br /></span>John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-77650395020644901112011-03-07T08:16:00.004-05:002011-03-07T08:33:43.340-05:00Desiccation Diversity - Lluta River, Chile<div style="text-align: center;"><cemter><iframe src="http://photosynth.net/embed.aspx?cid=870b2fb2-2356-4321-b6e7-11c13622f15a&delayLoad=true&slideShowPlaying=false" width="500" frameborder="0" height="300"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">A Photosynth composed while standing in the center of the Lluta River, Chile</span><br /></div><br />I take a lot of mudcrack photos, for some reason I am drawn to them. Fortunately while I wandered the Lluta River this past weekend I discovered quite a diverse number of cracks exposed in recently abandoned channels. I brought my Gigapan robot along to capture the above scene in higher resolution but unfortunately the shutter depressor had fallen off in my Pelican case at the house. So I hope you enjoy these modern dessication cracks; there is an aesthetic quality to them that forces me to stop and take their photo every time!<br /><br /><center><object width="400" height="300"> <param name="flashvars" value="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157626086686873%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157626086686873%2F&set_id=72157626086686873&jump_to="></param> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649"></param> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649" allowFullScreen="true" flashvars="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157626086686873%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2F43782063%40N07%2Fsets%2F72157626086686873%2F&set_id=72157626086686873&jump_to=" width="400" height="300"></embed></object></center>John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5367988212402280837.post-61516140080614335292011-03-06T17:51:00.003-05:002011-03-06T18:20:51.743-05:00Accretionaly Wedge #32: Uncertain UnconformityPosting late for this <a href="http://theaccretionarywedge.wordpress.com/">Accretionary Wedge</a> and I was a little overwhelmed by 'favorite' geology photo; I wasn't sure how to decide on my favorite of all time, so I narrowed down my favorite taken during the the last year...<br /><br />Last summer I drove out to Bozeman, Wyoming for a GIS conference and took a rather circuitous route both outward from and back into Vermont. We decided to camp at Buffalo Bill State Park along the reservoir and then return to Cody after setting everything up. On our way back into Cody, just before the famous rodeo stadium, the setting sun illuminated this fantastic angular unconformity exposed in the Shoshone River. Based solely on the descriptions found in Torres and Gingerich (<a href="http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Egingeric/PDFfiles/PDG136_JimMountain.pdf">1983</a>) I think the lower reddish unit is the Eocene Wildwood Formation overlain by the volcaniclastic Aycross Formation. I haven't done any work at all, so this is solely based on reading geologic descriptions, hope I'm close.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/5190604655/" title="DSCN2805 by J. Van hoesen, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4153/5190604655_b732a034e3.jpg" alt="DSCN2805" width="500" height="375" /></a><br /></div><br /><br /><center><iframe marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Cody,+WY&t=h&msa=0&msid=207848554467967954005.00049dd86c72a62d92027&ll=44.517715,-109.114022&spn=0.013372,0.042272&output=embed" width="425" frameborder="0" height="350" scrolling="no"></iframe><br /><small>View <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Cody,+WY&t=h&msa=0&msid=207848554467967954005.00049dd86c72a62d92027&ll=44.517715,-109.114022&spn=0.013372,0.042272&source=embed" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); text-align: left;">Angular Unconformity</a> in a larger map<br /><br /></small><div style="text-align: left;">And here is a closer view of the contact; again I 'think' my interpretation is correct but please advise if I'm off base here!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/43782063@N07/5190605373/" title="DSCN2807 by J. Van hoesen, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4127/5190605373_22fb2eac11.jpg" alt="DSCN2807" width="500" height="375" /></a><br /></div></div></center>John Van Hoesenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641539552539598761noreply@blogger.com1