To develop and build four-dimensional geologic models that are of use to researchers in diverse;communities within the geosciences.
Main CI Challenges: - The big challenge is the software necessary to undertake 4D visualizations to this point. There aren?
really any killer applications currently, and all of it has become quite cumbersome--we?e kludging together data sources.
ArcGIS is designed for application specialists, not for the needs of geologists;- Need an environment for data management
- An industry/academic partnership to do that? A facility that stores sophisticated maps? A library Data Discovery Challenges:
Data is on people's computers, not accessible;And when you do assemble, resulting data is large;Also the detail level of the
data can be very variable.;USGS isn't addressing the needs Data Types and Formats: ;?ata Source;? Geochronology;?ield data;?tratigraphic
data, including fossil;?bscure things that are hard to quantify: x is older than y, in a way that is built into geologic thinking?omparative
sources;;?ata Format;? Map info that is input into GIS and then adapted into a 3D GIS database ;?imple paper map scanned as
a raster.;?eochronology sources;?tratigraphic formats from available software ;?atellite imagery, including LIDAR formats
Additional Information: Formats for the 4D visualization use several different formats. Midland Valley makes a software called
Move you can? get out into other formats. Google Collada can be adapted for Google Earth for 3D visualization, but not 4D.