A MODEL FOR USING OPEN LAYERS AS A MEDIUM FOR VIRTUAL GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION: EXPLORING IODP CORES AND SMEAR SLIDES USING GIGAPIXEL IMAGERY

The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) maintains an extensive collection of sediment and bedrock cores. Visual and descriptive information about these cores is accessible via CoreWall and in technical IODP expedition summaries. However this digital poster will illustrate a methodology that incorporates high-resolution scans of individual IODP core sections and gigapixel images of smear slides taken using a polarizing microscope and shares them using the OpenLayers API. This approach overcomes the limited annotation functionality of the online Gigapan interface and can also be utilized offline in environments where internet is unavailable or slow. Each gigapixel image is georeferenced within ArcGIS to an arbitrary latitude and longitude, polygon hot spots are created as a separate layer, exported to KML and used as an overlay within OpenLayers.

These annotations can be turned toggled, so in addition to offering an informative tour of cores, the interface can be used for inquiry-based teaching exercise targeting high school or undergraduate students. Teachers can utilize the JOIDES Resolution (JR) website to provide background about how cores are collected, described and how that information is interpreted. Students can use this gigapixel interface to explore and describe the cores using the same process that scientists use aboard the JR. The primary objective of this model is to provide educators a useful tool for increasing student understanding of macro and petrographic characteristics of ocean cores and how these interpretations relate to ocean processes.