Geology and the iPad Remixed

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I think enough time has passed to update the progress made towards interacting with geology and GIS data within the iPad interface.


I had an amazing opportunity to sail on the JOIDES Resolution as part of the 2010 School of Rock (SOR) supported through the Consortium of Ocean Leadership. This was the best professional development experience I've had to date, which was entirely a function of the amazing people who also participated. The primary goal of Expedition 328 was to install an Advance Circulation Obviation Retrofit Kit (ACORK) observatory, which will eventually tie into the existing NEPTUNE network. This network is SO cool, they essentially have 5 sites punching into sediment and bedrock within the Juan de Fuca plate off the coast of Vancouver/Victoria. These observatories are cabled together and transmit real-time data back to shore - including seafloor webcams! If this sounds exciting, you too can join in the fun of exploring this data through the NEPTUNE iPad app. Enjoy!


Not necessarily geology specific, but EMD PTE is a free and useful Periodic Table of Elements app. Hopefully we'll get to see the PTE for Earth Scientists ported over to a digital app soon? This app provides a general overview of each element, the history, discover, a photo of the element, and a summary of products used for analytical testing. A lot of information for free.

Image from here

I'm excited to see how the new Earth Observer app will run on the iPad - it is essentially a mobile version of GeoMapApp. So there's a lot of data behind this interface and I'm wondering how quickly it will be able to respond, however the site suggests there will be local caching available so that should speed things up. The website indicates it will be released on November 20th, so if you use GeoMapApp go check it out.

And just a few other fun and useful apps:

1. Jurassic - a virtual field trip interface of England's Jurassic Coast.
2. GeolCompass - a digital field compass that measures strike/dip and inclination.
3. Lambert - another digital compass, this one has a nicer interface and more options
4. Geologists Little Helper USA - useful for Oil Zone Analysis, Gas Zone Analysis, Leak Off Test, Formation Temperature and a Corrected D Exponent calculation
5. Virtual Microscope - a very cool little app that only has 4 samples right now but allows you to look at gabbro, schist, limestone, and a meteorite collected in Antarctica.

There are a lot of other apps out there that are related but aren't quite polished at this point in my opinion. I still haven't seen a 'game changer' in the world of geology yet. Will continue to update as new apps become available!