USGS offers a variety of geological information on its website available to the public.

In this post we want to highlight a server of interactive maps using marine and coastal geological data of the US and the Gulf of Mexico.

On its website you can access the Coastal and Marine Geology Program (CMGP) where you can observe, edit and analyse maps of the US Atlantic East Coast and Pacific Coast, as well as of the Gulf of Mexico that gather data from different geological mapping surveys.

You can also find other interactive maps of different research projects that study issues such as Shoreline Change, Coastal Vulnerability or Sea Floor Stress and Sediment Mobility.

Visit the Coastal and Marine Geology Program to view these interactive maps here.

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Earthquakes happen every day without us noticing the majority of them.

You can observe their frequency of occurrence and the amount of historic earthquakes in these tables.

What not everyone is aware of is how the seismic waves produced by an earthquake work.

For this reason we want to share this fantastic animation showing Denali´s earthquake that took place in 2002 (USGS).

P waves are marked in red, S waves are marked in blue and surface waves are marked in yellow.

In this animation, seismic waves travel 100 times faster than in reality.

• COLA: College, Alaska
• PFO: Pinyon Flat Observatorio, California
• SSPA: Standing Stone, Pennsylvania
• CTAO: Carta Towers, Australia DBIC: Dimbokro, Costa de Marfil
• LBTB: Lobatse, Botswana

Denali´s earthquake took place in Alaska November 3rd, 2002 reaching a 7.9 magnitude and was one of the biggest recorded in the history of the US.

Fortunately this earthquake caused little structural damage and no deaths.

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Now we are going to share with you some of these resources, the most popular around the world:

1. ARCGIS ONLINE

ArcGIS Online is an open platform for sharing geospatial data. Based in cloud technology, it stores maps, data and geographical information. Register with a free personal account in ArcGIS Online and you can create, store and manage maps, applications, data, etc. You can even share them.

2. GOOGLE EARTH

This is the most famous software and it is used in the entire world. It is a virtual globe that shows us a real view of the Earth from satellite images with varying resolution. You can observe countries, cities, vegetation, geology, topography, etc.

You can use this program in Windows, Apple (IOS, Mac OS) and Linux, and there is also an app for smartphones and tablets.

3. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

You can find lots of interesting maps in National´s Geographic web: http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/maps. Since 1915, National Geographic cartographers have charted earth, seas, and skies in maps capable of evoking dreams.

In addition, they created an online visor, the NatGeo Map Maker Interactive (mapmaker.education.nationalgeographic.com/), which you can also use on your tablet. Don´t forget to try it, we really enjoy it!

4. HEYWHATS THAT

HeyWhats That is an interesting platform with a variety of tools that generates information based on Google Maps or Google Earth. To compute an elevation profile for an arbitrary path, which you can choose from any part of the world (Path Profiler); create a panoramic profile to allow you see what your view looks like (Panorama) or simulate lunar or solar eclipses (Eclipse) are just some of its available features.

Panorama

Path Profiler

Eclipse

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As you already know, last Wednesday April 22 was the international Earth Day. This is a special day dedicated to remember all the things that our mother Earth is giving us every day, and how important it is to preserve this patrimony.

During Earth day, the entire world supports the environment, this year under the motto “It´s our turn to lead”. Also this year is the 45th anniversary of this celebration and so 2015 could be the most exciting year in environmental history.

Now we are going to show you some interesting maps commemorating Earth Day.

WORLD´S PROTECTED SEAS

After Gabon (Africa) and the U.S announced new protected marine areas in its nations, National Geographic, along with the collaboration of key partners, has created the first map that represents the protected seas around the world.

HOT SPOTS IN THE WORLD

This map indicates the principal biodiversity hot spots around the world. As we can see, the most areas rich in are the tropical and subtropical, and East Asia has the biggest concentration of hot spots.

WORLD´S VEGETATION MAP 

Here we can see the vegetation distribution in the world. As we can observe, the highest concentration is in the Amazon, North of Europe, North-Est of USA and Canada, and the Philippines Islands.

FIRST GLOBAL MAP OF HUMIDITY IN THE SOIL

This image is taken by the SMAP satellite. In the extreme latitudes it also detects if the water contained in the soil is frozen or not or not frozen. The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) ship will be very helpful for the scientists that are studying the link between the water cycle, energy and carbon in the Earth.

MAPS OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

This is an image from an online tool created by scientists of ESA (European Space Agency) and IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency) from GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite gravity data to indicate the areas that could have geothermal potential. Maps from this tool can help in the research of geothermal reservoirs, and give us more information about volcanic activity.

ATLAS OF POLLUTION

The Atlas of pollution is an interesting map that represents the world in carbon dioxide emissions. As can we see, the biggest country is China followed by the United Sates. In this terms, Asia is the main continent emitting carbon dioxide.

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To be able to create this map we will follow the next steps.

In the first place we have to generate a layer with the meteorological stations, originated from an Excel table with the UTM coordinates, flux direction (degrees) and speed (m/s) information.

With the command “Add XY data”, we generate a layer of temporary points. After exporting it to a shapefile layer, we will be able to do its geoprocessing.

Using interpolation techniques we obtain a Raster, that estimates the speed and direction wind values for those areas that don´t have meteorological stations. The selected interpolation method is decisive and it will depend on the nature of the variables and the quantity of sampling points. As we don´t have many points, we will use the IDW method.

Following this method we interpolate the values of speed and direction to generate an interpolated raster for each of them. We configure Malaga´s map limit as an extension. Like this we estimate the value of the speed variable.

Through a grid of regular points we can use both Raster values (speed of wind and direction), so that we can represent the magnitude (speed) and direction with vectors .

The grid of regular points is generated by selecting “Create fishnet”, and we use the option “Extract Multi Values to Points” to transfer the Raster values of speed and direction to this grid. This way we preserve in its attribute table the values of direction in one field and speed in another, that correspond to the value of the cell on which each point matches.

Finally, we represent the entities by graduated symbology, choosing the speed variable which´s magnitude is represented by the size of the symbol (arrow) and assigning a rotation to the symbol (arrow) to represent the wind direction variable.

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From the US Geological Survey USGS website we can have access to geological information from almost anywhere around the world, using WMS servers that can be included in any GIS program. (* We need to take into account that these online services can be temporarily unavailable or stop working at some point).

If you are ArcGIS users, we include a little guide to load this type of services into your projects. Access from ArcCatalog to GIS Servers, choosing the option Add WMS Server and follow these steps:

1) Copy the URL address from the service and paste it in the first box.

2) Choosing Get Layers will show us the content that we can get from the server.

3) Press OK and search inside Catalog (GIS Servers) the service that we have added. You should expand the tree and drag the layer that we are interested in to the Table of Contents.

4) The information will load as a map layer. We can see its characteristics to manipulate its visualization.

Next we show you some examples of a few of these services.

World geologic map. Scale 1:35000000

World map of operations and installations (mines, refinery…)

We can also find some further detailed maps, with geological information regarding geology, faults and contacts.

Geological units, faults and contact at a 1:100.000 scale, in Hawaii.

These are just a few examples, but there is a huge amount of information accessible in this website.

There are many sources of information that we can find in the internet that we will gather and keep on updating for you to consult them.

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Lake shrinkage, Central Asia 

One of NASA´s ships provides us a unique point of view through which we can appreciate the changes that are produced in our planet during periods of time that cover several decades up to a few days.

Let’s take a look!

Manantali Dam Growth, in western Mali.

The disappearance of Pedersen Glacier, Alaska.

Agricultural growth in the region of Gran Chaco, Paraguay.

Dust storm across the region of Liaoning, China.

For more pictures, visit Nasa´s Images of Change website.

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Besides offering beautiful images of space, the HST gives us a better perception of the universe´s origin. According to Wilford, scientific writer from The New York Times, “the data show convincingly that the universe may be much younger than scientists calculated. Perhaps no more than eight billion years”.

Also, the Hubble provided evidence that can demonstrate the existence of black holes. In 1994, NASA announced they had discovered a cloud of gas in a disc form that rotates at high speed.

In the same year, the Hubble sent images of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet when it was going to Jupiter, and finally disintegrated.

Other discoveries made by the Hubble, like the proto-planetary discs in the Orion Nebula, are an evidence of the presence of extra solar planets around other stars.

The Hubble was also used to research the Solar System. With these studies, it has discovered new dwarf planets, like Pluto, Eris and Ceres.

In conclusion, the HST was and is a very important instrument to research what is outside the universe. It also has a substantial impact in astronomy, with over 9,000 papers based on Hubble data published in magazines, journals, newspapers, etc. Even more contributions have appeared in academic conferences.

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This is the case of the disruptive start up Planet labs. Based in San Francisco, CA and founded in 2012, its purpose is to provide humanitarian aid with almost real-time information as stated on its website: “Fresh data from any place on Earth is foundational to solving commercial, environmental, and humanitarian challenges”.

Take a look at Will Marshal´s (CEO and Co-Founder of Planet labs) TED Talk – Tiny satellites show us the Earth as it changes in near-real-time.

Planet labs designs and develops mini satellites, called Doves, which travel to low Earth orbit being able to complete a full Planet´s tour in 90 minutes at the same time as they capture images from the Earth. These images are received in a ground station and delivered via their cloud to their API and web tools for partners and customers.

As of today, 71 doves powered by solar energy have been launched to space, creating the biggest constellation of Earth imaging satellites on the world.

These satellite images provide fast response to change on a daily basis taking photos of every part of the Earth.

We can already start seeing that its applications are huge (land use, crop monitoring or logistics, to name some examples) and interested industries in using these data are agriculture, government, natural resources and geospatial information.

Keep River Mangroves – Australia

Yazghil Glacier – Pakistan

Trans Amazonian Highway – Brazil

Earth satellite images will help us answer questions such as the effects of climate change, waste management or deforestation, helping us take care of the World with more transparent and precise information to make the best decisions.

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In previous posts we saw how to create a fishnet grid based on coordinates (click to read Creating a fishnet grid using ArcGIS 10). Using this, together with the spatial join tool of ArcGIS, we can easily generate a fishnet of samples to indicate the number of located specimens in each grid.

Let´s start working!

In the first place, we need a shape with the grid and another one with the points where we located the individuals on the field. From here on, we will create a Spatial Join on the grid layer.

Right click the grid layer in the Table of Content to select Join and relates> Join…

The Join dialog box will open and in the first box, where they ask us: “What do you want to join to this layer?”, we indicate a join based on spatial location. Fill in the rest of the options as follows:

• Point 1: indicate the point layer with the individual´s location.

• Point 2: choose the first option “Each polygon will be given a summary of the numeric attributes of the point fall inside and a count field showing how many point fall inside it”, and do not select any summarized options.

• Point 3: indicate where and how we want to save the layer.

The generated layer will be just as the grid, but when opening its table of content we will see at the end a new field “Count”, that indicates the number of points that each fishnet grid contained.

Working with the symbology (Quantities type), adding labels or tags, and adding some transparency the result will be as follows:

This is just an example of the multiple applications that ArcGIS has in for environmental studies.

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