USING THE IPHONE AS A BRUNTON: TECHNIQUES AND APPLICATIONS

Increasingly powerful and affordable “smart-phones” can provide field scientists new tools for data collection and management in remote locations. One popular device, Apple's iPhone 3GS, recently incorporated a compass feature as part of its 3.0 operating system. In addition to the capabilities of the devices GPS and accelerometers this increased functionality allows the phone to be used in the roll of one of the geologists most familiar tools, the pocket transit compass or Brunton. Apple has encouraged the development of third-party applications, or Apps, for the iPhone that can then be distributed to iPhone users through their online App Store already. Here we present a description of comparison of field measurements taken by multiple users with a traditional transit compass and with an iPhone running a combination of currently available Apps. In measuring strike, dip, and location we found the phone to produce results comparable to those of traditional techniques. Furthermore, we have created an iPhone App to integrate the GPS and transit compass capabilities with an SQL database, allowing for easy data export to spreadsheet software on any computer.