VIRTUAL FIELD TRIPS, GOOGLE EARTH, AND “THE GEOLOGY OF VIRGINIA” WEBSITE

The Geology of Virginia website (http://www.wm.edu/geology/virginia/) serves as a media-rich resource for information, photographs, maps, and summaries of new research concerning Virginia's geology. The website's primary users are K-12 teachers and college students, but a diverse array of users visits the site. We are utilizing Google Earth to enhance virtual field trips by 1) overlaying geologic maps and cross-sections and 2) producing flyovers and interactive tours that highlight distinctive landforms and the role that geology plays in the development of landscapes. Field trip stops have been geo-referenced in Google Earth with interactive points, lines, and polygons. These elements allow users to view images, videos, and textual descriptions, as well as three-dimensional “flyovers” of particular areas of interest. The flyovers can be pre-rendered as standalone media or as Keyhole Markup, Zipped (.kmz) files that users can download and open in the Google Earth environment. The Google Earth three-dimensional “tilt and zoom” interface allows users to more clearly visualize distinctive landforms in western Virginia. For instance, steeply-dipping fracture zones occur in many Blue Ridge mountain wind gaps; the linear nature of these features is easily discerned when “flying over” these features parallel to their strike. We have produced virtual field trips for the Blue Ridge Mountains in the southern part of Shenandoah National Park and the Valley & Ridge province, as well as annotated flyovers of Virginia drainage basins from their headwaters to the Chesapeake Bay.