Have you been to the Recreation.gov website? It is a portal that provides access to recreational opportunities on public land. There you can get a permit to hike to the top of Half Dome, reserve a camp site and much more. They have links to: Autotouring, Biking, Boating, Camping, Climbing, Educational Programs, Fish Hatcheries, Fishing, Hiking, Historic/Cultural Sites, Horseback Riding, Hunting, Lodging, Museum/Visitor Center, Off-Highway Vehicle Access, Recreational Vehicles, Water Sports, Wildlife Viewing, Winter Sports and more.
The Wind Powering America website has a collection of wind resource maps that classify the United States into geographic areas with different wind energy potentials.
Here is a website, Trilobites.info, that contains an enormous amount of information and graphics related to trilobites. A few of the interesting site features: Trilobite FAQ, Trilobite Quiz, Trilobite Photos, Trilobite Preparation, Drawing Trilobites, Trilobite Imposters, and much more.
OpenGeoscience is a free service that provides access to geologic maps, photos, data, reports and much more. Check it out at the British Geological Survey website or get a summary in the video below.
Here’s where you can get a variety of free printable graph papers in easy to use .pdf files. Grid paper, axis paper, isometric paper, ternary paper, polar paper and more.
“The Census of Marine Life is a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10-year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. The world’s first comprehensive Census of Marine Life – past, present, and future – will be released in 2010.” Quoted from the COML.org website.
Need triangular graph paper for ternary plots? Here is where you can download a free .pdf file and print all that you need. You can also get isometric paper, polar paper, grid paper, axis paper and more.
USGS has published “Ground-Water Availability in the United States” as USGS Circular 1323. “This report examines what is known about the Nation’s ground-water availability and outlines a program of study by the U.S. Geological Survey Ground-Water Resources Program to improve our understanding of ground-water availability in major aquifers across the Nation. The approach is designed to provide useful regional information for State and local agencies who manage ground-water resources, while providing the building blocks for a national assessment.” Quoted from the USGS release.
“The Earth Portal is a comprehensive resource for timely, objective, science-based information about the environment. It is a means for the global scientific community to come together to produce the first free, expert-driven, massively scaleable information resource on the environment, and to engage civil society in a public dialogue on the role of environmental issues in human affairs.” (from the EarthPortal “About” page)
NASA has dedicated part of their website to helping people learn about global climate change and its impact on the planet. They have videos about global change, an interactive sea level viewer, climate time machine, information about the spacecraft that study Earth, and much more.
Here is one of the best Geography Dictionaries on the web with over 1400 clearly-defined terms. It includes terms from physical and human geography as well as many terms from cartography, navigation and geolocation.
FEMA now has an online flood mapping system that allows you to view their Flood Insurance Rate Maps online. In addition you can zoom in on specific areas and produce printable .pdf files. Check out the sample below. In the past their system worked poorly but we just tried it again and it worked great. Check your address to see if you live in a flood hazard area.
This paper can be difficult to find. Here’s a website where you can download a PDF and print it for free. Other hard-to-find graphing papers include polar, isometric and isometric dot – all as free PDF files.
An archive of NASA news releases, image galleries and articles on a variety of topics related to planetary geology, earth observation, global climate change, monitoring volcanoes, looking beyond our solar system, monitoring the oceans and more. A few of the most popular ones are:
Here’s a Google map that serves USGS topo map tiles. You can browse topo maps in any of the 48 states and Canada and print a copy of these maps from a PDF document.
USGS has their Ground Water Atlas of the United States online. It describes the location, extent and geologic/hydrologic characteristics of the important aquifers of the United States.
Did you know that you can see the International Space Station orbiting the earth with your unaided eyes? It’s easy if you know when it is above your area and what part of the sky it will pass through. NASA has a website to help you see it.
Google has added contour lines to their terrain maps. They are not quite as detailed as USGS topos but for free-to-use maps they are very nice. Contour intervals vary depending upon local relief.
I really like to see publications like this placed on the web where citizens have free access to valuable information prepared by government agencies. This publication includes chapters on floods, earthquakes, problem soils, mass movements, subsidence and earth fissures, radon, karst, abandon mines, volcanic hazards and radon. Every state should have a publication like this on their website.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has an educational website for children. “FEMA for Kids” has educational materials and activities for children, parents and teachers to help children better understand hazards, disasters, mitigation and more.
BBC has a special page dedicated to the topic of climate change. There you can find frequently updated news, research reports, features, video/audio clips, fact sheets, carbon calculator and more.
All waters can be expected to contain small amounts of contaminants. EPA sets standards for nearly 100 of the most common water contaminants. The standards are guides to be used in determining if water is safe for use.
The-Vug.com is a website owned by Justin Zzyzx and Brandy Naugle. Their goal is to provide a portal to mineral dealers on the web and updates when dealers add new materials to their website. The Vug also has a large list of articles, links to mineral museums, a list of mineral clubs, mineral show announcements and much more. If you like minerals check out The Vug.
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Hobart King
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