The Nevada Geodetic Laboratory has a map showing the displacement of Earth’s surface as measured by GPS stations during the March 11, 2011 Sendai M9.0 Earthquake. “Japan’s coastline has moved up to 5 meters (>16 feet), and the location of the North Pole has been estimated to have moved about 10 cm (4 inches).” Quote from the NGL blog post.
“The Bedrock Geologic Map of Vermont is the result of a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Geological Survey and the State of Vermont. The new map comes 50 years after the most recent map of the State by Charles G. Doll and others in 1961 and a full 150 years since the publication of the first geologic map of Vermont by Edward Hitchcock and others in 1861. At a scale of 1:100,000, the map shows an uncommon level of detail for State geologic maps. Mapped rock units are primarily based on lithology, or rock type, to facilitate derivative studies in multiple disciplines.” Quoted from the USGS press release.
“By using GPS to measure ground deformation from large earthquakes, we can reduce the time needed to locate and characterize the damage from large seismic events to several minutes.”
The boundary between North Carolina and South Carolina was drawn on orders from the King of England before the United States was a country. Now they discover that the boundary is 150 feet off which creates enormous problems for schools, utilities, taxes, laws and property owners.
According to NOAA’s Space Weather Alerts, the potential impacts of Tuesday’s solar storm, the impact of which should arrive at Earth on Thursday morning, include:
Induced Currents – Power system voltage irregularities possible, false alarms may be triggered on some protection devices.
Spacecraft – Systems may experience surface charging; increased drag on low Earth-orbit satellites and orientation problems may occur.
Navigation – Intermittent satellite navigation (GPS) problems, including loss-of-lock and increased range error may occur.
Radio – HF (high frequency) radio may be intermittent.
Aurora – Aurora may be seen as low as Pennsylvania to Iowa to Oregon. (Quoted from the NOAA announcement.)
“This project aims to map the location of a graveyards around the globe and then use marble gravestones in those graveyards to measure the weathering rate of marble at that location.” Quoted from the project website.
“Remote-sensing satellites help scientists to observe our world beyond the power of human sight, to monitor changes, and to detect critical trends in the conditions of natural resources.” Quoted from the USGS press release.
If you are interested in maps or use GIS software to create them, then you should know about NaturalEarthData.com. It is a website that hosts a public domain map dataset available at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110 million scales.
An article in the Proceedings of the Royal Society speculates that Vikings might have used Iceland spar (clear calcite) to detect the position of the sun while sailing in thick fog.
The European Space Agency is launching a constellation of GPS satellites that will provide high resolution navigation abilities that are more accurate than what is available to citizens in the United States. An even higher resolution encrypted signal will be available for companies who want to pay for it.
NASA and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry released a new global digital elevation model of Earth that is the most complete worldwide topographic map ever produced.
“In this episode, we talk with NOAA Chief Geodesist Dru Smith to learn how scientists are using measurements of gravity to refine a complex mathematical model of the Earth’s shape known as the geoid. Once the new model is deployed, the hope is that we’ll be able to use GPS receivers to figure out our current elevation in most places across the nation within an accuracy of two centimeters or less.”
The National Map is a suite of products and services that provide access to base geospatial information to describe the landscape of the United States and
its territories.
These include a collection of data products that define the Nation’s topography, natural landscape, and manmade environment which can be used in geographic information systems and other geospatial programs. Most of these are easily available for free public use.
Computer mapping programs ranging from Google Earth to complex geographic information systems are increasingly used to study the geographic patterns of human actions over time. A new interdisciplinary field known as “spacial humanities” is developing. This New York Times article uses the Battle of Gettysburg (in which geology was a factor) as an example.
Earth scientists use geospatial technology to monitor changes in the Earth’s climate over time. Video from “Geospatial Revolution” by Penn State Public Broadcasting.
Researchers at Caltech’s Seismological Laboratory “are using data from GPS satellite systems in an entirely new way: to measure the solid earth’s response to the movements of ocean tides—which place a large stress on Earth’s surface—and to estimate separately the effects of Earth’s density and the properties controlling response when a force is applied to it (known as elastic moduli).”
“By using measurements of Earth’s movement taken from high-precision, continuously recording permanent GPS receivers installed across the western United States by the Plate Boundary Observatory, the researchers were able to observe tide-induced displacements—or movements of Earth’s surface—of as little as one millimeter.” Quoted from the Caltech press release.
“Economies around the world have become increasingly vulnerable to the ever-changing nature of the sun. Solar flares can disrupt power grids, interfere with high-frequency airline and military communications, disrupt Global Positioning System (GPS) signals, interrupt civilian communications, and blanket the Earth’s upper atmosphere with hazardous radiation.” Quoted from the NOAA article.
“The first large-scale, physics-based space weather prediction model is transitioning from research into operation. [...] The model will provide forecasters with a one-to-four day advance warning of high speed streams of solar plasma and Earth-directed coronal mass ejections. These streams from the Sun may severely disrupt or damage space- and ground-based communications systems, and pose hazards to satellite operations.” Quoted from the NSF press release.
Here is a website where you can view and print as many USGS topographic maps as you want for free. You can also switch back and forth between Google Maps and Google satellite images.
Digital-Topo-Maps.com is affiliated with Geology.com.
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