52 Innovations in Geoscience Education and Research Using Google Earth and Related Digital Technologies

Tuesday, 19 March 2013
1:30 PM - 5:40 PM
Reagan Room

MAKING M.A.G.I.C. (THE MID-ATLANTIC GEO-IMAGE COLLECTION)

Paper number: 52-12
Program: Theme Sessions
Time: 4:25 PM – 4:40 PM

Authors

Abstract

The Mid-Atlantic Geo-Image Collection (M.A.G.I.C.) is a growing repository of gigapixel-resolution geologic imagery designed to be a resource for geoscience professionals, educators, students, and enthusiasts. GigaPan images permit visual examination of geologic features on a computer screen with a high level of detail, comparable to that which can be seen in the field or in the lab. The images maintain a high level of resolution through every level of magnification. The medium is unique in the combination of context and detail it provides. Advantages of the geological GigaPans include:
  • Physically disabled students can participate in virtual field trips.
  • Instructors can bring inaccessible outcrops into the classroom.
  • Students can zoom in on hand samples without need for expensive microscopes.
  • Widely separated professionals can “share” samples virtually.
  • The images are free to use, print and tag, and instantly accessible via the Internet.

M.A.G.I.C. currently includes suites of images focused on Hamilton College’s Snowball Earth Educational Rock Sample Suite, Eocene invertebrate fossils from Florissant Fossil Beds, AND sediment samples from around the world, in addition to many folded and faulted outcrops along Corridor H through the Valley and Ridge Province of West Virginia AND select outcrops and hand samples from the Blue Ridge and Piedmont Provinces of Virginia. Additional suites of thematically-related GigaPans will be added over the coming year.