THE USE OF VIRTUAL FIELD EXPERIENCES IN THE PURISIMA FORMATION OF COASTAL CALIFORNIA FOR SCIENTIFIC STUDY, PUBLIC OUTREACH, AND K-12 EDUCATION (Invited Presentation)

The fossils contained in the Eastern Pacific Invertebrate Communities of the Cenozoic (EPICC) Thematic Collections Network (TCN) are fascinating and of great scientific and educational value. The field sites from which they were collected include classic field localities familiar to paleontologists from the nine collaborating museums in the EPICC TCN. In order to empower K-16 students, teachers, and the public to better understand how the digitized collections are used together with field data to infer past ecosystem and environmental conditions, EPICC has created a series of virtual visits or virtual fieldwork experiences (VFEs) to these field sites. The VFEs blend high-resolution images, panoramas, 3D imagery, and video taken at the site with maps, microscope images, and scientific data. Using the ESRI ARC-GIS Story Map Journal platform, the EPICC education and outreach team combine narrative text and supporting visuals to guide learners of any background to Explore Landscapes, Explore Sediments, and Explore Fossils from the Purisima Formation in California.

The newly-launched EPICC VFEs highlight richly-fossiliferous assemblages from the Pliocene Purisima Formation in coastal sections in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties in north-central California. These units accumulated during a time of significant plate motion, climate and sea level change, and the VFE modules invite inquiry while providing opportunities to analyze and interpret data similar to what scientists do in the field. The well-documented invertebrate and vertebrate fossil record in the Purisima Formation section exposed in this region of California can be shared with a wide audience using the EPICC VFE platform. As the EPICC VFE project expands beyond the initial Kettleman Hills VFEs, we are incorporating state-of-the-art large-scale 3D photogrammetric techniques to Purisima Formation outcrop features to further extend paleontological and geological instructional opportunities using virtual technology.