National Geologic Map Database
This is a new, useful tool: an online map that can guide you to rough information about local geology, and then to detailed geologic maps. The National Geologic Map Database appears to be a joint project between the USGS and the Association of American State Geologists. Here's what it looks like when you go to the website:
You can then close the little "About" information tab in the lower right:
Next, grab the screen and scroll to an area that you're interested in:
Double-click or use the "zoom" lever at upper left to zoom in:
Open the "Map Unit Info" tab to select individual map units and learn more about them:
After you do that, clicking anywhere in the map will bring up information about the rock units generally found in that area:
If you need more information, hover over the rock unit name in the "Map Unit Info" tab:
Close the "Map Unit Info" tab and open the "Map List" tab to get a list of all the USGS geologic maps available in your field of view:
Click on one of them to open up a red "footprint" on the map showing the area it covers:
An additional window will pop up with information about the map. Click on the number "2" in this new window to open the map itself:
It opens in a new tab, and is initially quite zoomed-out:
But you can zoom in, of course:
In fact, you can zoom in really far, until you start seeing pixels:
There are some design flaws in the interface, but overall, I think I'm willing to overlook them so I can get access to this sort of information. It strikes me as very, very useful: a rich dataset, waiting to be mined.
You can then close the little "About" information tab in the lower right:
Next, grab the screen and scroll to an area that you're interested in:
Double-click or use the "zoom" lever at upper left to zoom in:
Open the "Map Unit Info" tab to select individual map units and learn more about them:
After you do that, clicking anywhere in the map will bring up information about the rock units generally found in that area:
If you need more information, hover over the rock unit name in the "Map Unit Info" tab:
Close the "Map Unit Info" tab and open the "Map List" tab to get a list of all the USGS geologic maps available in your field of view:
Click on one of them to open up a red "footprint" on the map showing the area it covers:
An additional window will pop up with information about the map. Click on the number "2" in this new window to open the map itself:
It opens in a new tab, and is initially quite zoomed-out:
But you can zoom in, of course:
In fact, you can zoom in really far, until you start seeing pixels:
There are some design flaws in the interface, but overall, I think I'm willing to overlook them so I can get access to this sort of information. It strikes me as very, very useful: a rich dataset, waiting to be mined.
4 Comments:
Thanks for the post. Though this feature is still just a prototype and, as a result, not fully implemented, it's a step in the right direction. Would be nice to think it would spark some individual state geological surveys to step up their game.
oooh, thanks for the screenshot tour ... makes me want to try it now
This is so exciting. Thanks for passing this info along complete with a detailed preview and "how to" plus illustrations. Super. Thanks! I'll pass this along.
Oh, thank you for posting this - I've found a few new maps!
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