STRATEGIES FOR CREATING STANDARDIZED GIS-BASED DIGITAL GEOLOGIC MAPS FOR GEOSCIENCE FIELD EXERCISES

Modern geologic maps are often created and published using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In many geology departments an advanced field course serves as a capstone course for upper-level students, therefore it is important to keep data collection and production methods current and aligned with changing technology. However, integrating GIS into geoscience field schools presents challenges, as the need to teach geologic concepts leaves little time for subsequent data integration and map production, and students typically have limited backgrounds in GIS. Here we present an approach to teaching field exercises that combines traditional and digital data collection methods with a simplified and standardized GIS-based data integration, production, and presentation workflow. The primary goal of this effort is to efficiently teach upper-level undergraduate students how to produce professional geologic maps and cross-sections to aid in geologic interpretation, and in turn gain a valuable technical skill set.

We used the USGS National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program (NCGMP) standard format for geologic map publications as our database structure within the ESRI ArcGIS software program and a custom cross-section toolbar designed for ArcGIS. Cartographic representations and symbology for all point and line data types follow Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) national standards to ensure that the appearance and database content are consistent. We simplified the NCGMP09 database, cartographic representations, and the cross-section toolbar and customized ArcMap data and layout views. We tested this workflow during the 2017 Pennsylvania State University Geosciences Field School in the western US. Despite the steep learning curve inherent to working with ArcGIS, even students with little or no GIS background produced high-quality maps. The database and ArcGIS projects can be easily adapted to other field schools or research projects with only minor modifications.