STUDENT-BASED LEARNING USING GOOGLE EARTH IN SEDIMENTOLOGY AND STRATIGRAPHY COURSES

The use of Google Earth (GE) to demonstrate geologic principles is becoming more popular in introductory geology courses. The freeware is user-friendly, enabling quick viewing of geologic features at a variety of scales. With an internet connection, the program can be used for live demonstrations during class time. However, GE is rarely used beyond introductory courses. Static aerial photographs may not be seen as sufficient for complex geologic areas, or lecture-based presentations do not integrate GE viewing.

Our presentation will demonstrate the use of GE within lower and upper division Stratigraphy and Sedimentology courses to teach a variety of topics including sedimentary processes, depositional environments, sequence stratigraphy, and sedimentary basin types. The goals for using GE are to: 1) give students hands-on, visually-oriented tools to explore modern depositional environments at a variety of scales and 3-D perspectives, 2) give students opportunities to quantify the aerial extent and shape of common depositional facies, 3) have students learn how to overlay geologic maps and stratigraphic columns on GE images to better interpret sedimentary successions, and 4) give students confidence to explore and interpret geologic features from around the world.

During discussions on depositional environments, we introduce various types of deltas (tide-, wave-, river-dominated deltas) by compiling a series of diverse localities within a GE folder. Students are then instructed to complete various tasks using tools such as outlining, filling, quantifying, and labeling various sub-facies to create a final depositional facies map for a particular delta. After analyzing various delta types, we ask students to show how deltas evolve through time using their examples, and to describe the main factors that influence delta size and shape. The results are easily shared between students and with the instructor as e-mailed or posted .kml (keyhole markup language) files. Similar assignments were created for other major facies.

As GE expands its capabilities and increases its high-resolution imaged areas, the opportunities for hands-on learning will grow. As demand increases, GE will eventually provide successive time-calibrated images for certain localities to show how features have evolved through time.