DIGITAL MAPPING USING GEOMAPPER/PENMAP

Training in field geology in the U.S. is facing a challenge in academia. These courses are thought by an increasing number of faculty to be time-consuming, expensive, and potentially risking in terms of liability. Like other traditional areas of earth science, faculty are being replaced by researchers in new growth areas of earth and planetary science. Hence, a declining number of faculty have the inclination and experience to teach field classes. Short term field trips in contrast to field classes are becoming the norm but, while useful extensions of the lab, are not an effective replacement for systematic field training. What was once considered the right of passage of a geologist may one day be viewed as an unaffordable luxury unless departments continue to staff and support field courses. The issue is how to continue to offer field-based instruction where geology undergraduates first acquire their mapping skills, gain confidence through systematic practice, and expand their powers of geological interpretation while adding new programmatic areas. This poster addresses how such field experience can be modernized by implementing digital GIS technology to maximize its relevance today. New technology is making its way into field mapping providing not only more efficient methods but ones that expand the powers of interpretation by integrating multiple sets of data including geophysics. Field classes using digital methods provide a unique vehicle to integrate knowledge from diverse areas of earth science with personal experience. At UC Berkeley, our 15 week semester field course includes 5 weeks of mapping on paper topographic maps, followed by 10 weeks using pen tablet PC computers for mapping equipped with digital topographic maps, ortho-images, and PCMCIA-card GPS units. A pen-based computer program called GeoMapper/PenMap was developed at UC Berkeley to conduct mapping. GeoMapper is now been introduced into other courses including our gateway class, structural geology, and strong motion seismology. Digital overlays of seismic epicenters with Berkeley Hills geology show the faults mapped to be active, largely vertical structures indicating that the folds and faults of the area represent neo-tectonic processes. Examples of our mapping as part of the advanced summer field course in south west Montana are shown.