TEACHING IDAHO GEOLOGY ON THE WEB WITH GIS VISUALIZATIONS

An NSF Geosciences Education Grant is funding the creation of an upper-division undergraduate Idaho Geology web course utilizing GIS software to create 3-D visualizations to highlight various geologic regions for the state of Idaho by draping geologic maps over digital elevation models. The “Digital Atlas of Idaho” website (http://imnh.isu.edu/digitalatlas) is used as a basic geology primer and cross linked with the Idaho Geology web site (http://geology.isu.edu/nsf-isugeol/) as well as the 3-D flythrough visualizations, and web based exercises for lower division geology and geography laboratories. Class surveys and web page counters are utilized as a means of evaluating the effectiveness of web teaching. A new GIS-based geologic map of Idaho at 1:500,000 is being compiled by Link and Reed Lewis of the Idaho Geological Survey.

The following topics will be covered in the upper division Idaho Geology web class: 1. Idaho basement: Teton, Albion and Pioneer Ranges, 2. Mesoproterozoic Belt Supergroup; 3. Idaho's Mining Wealth: Silver Valley; 4. Accreted Terranes, Western Idaho Suture Zone and Hells Canyon; 5. Mesozoic Idaho Batholith; 6. Challis Magmatic Episode and Trans-Challis Mineralization; 7. Cordilleran passive margin and thrust belt; 8. Neogene Snake River Plain-Yellowstone Volcanic Province; 9. Columbia River Basalt Province; 10. Basin and Range Province; 11. Snake River Plain Aquifer; 12. Pleistocene Mountain Glaciation; 13. Palouse Landscape and Post-glacial Climate Change; 14. Lake Missoula Floods; 15. Lake Bonneville Flood.