GOOGLE EARTH ENGINE CLOUD COMPUTING WEB APPS FOR INVESTIGATING AND TEACHING FUNDAMENTAL GEOLOGIC AND GEOMORPHIC CONCEPTS

Cloud computing and web applications make complex raster calculations on remote sensing data accessible to any researcher or student with an internet connection. We present a series of web apps developed on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform that allow users with no experience in computing languages to perform topographic and structural analyses on remote sensing data through a graphical user interface.

Topographic swath profiles display elevation data, local relief, and regional trends in topography – an approach that is commonly used to identify areas of interest to geologists and geomorphologists. The GEE Topographic Swath Profiler web app rapidly queries global 30m terrestrial elevation and 1 arc-minute bathymetric datasets simultaneously, allowing users to produce topographic swath profiles. Users can customize and swath length, swath width, and sampling rate before displaying or exporting the resulting data as text files.

The GEE Plane Orientation Calculator web app allows users to select any three points and yields an orientation of the plane defined by those three points. Understanding the 3-dimensional geometry of structures at depth is a fundamental interest in geologic studies and using topographic data to calculate plane orientations (i.e., 3-point problem) is a well-established tool for structural geologists. The Plane Orientation Calculator employs fundamental geologic mapping concepts and makes it possible to measure structural features globally. Users can make multiple measurements, catalogue locations and orientations, and export data for use in other software.

Our GEE web apps are designed to produce results rapidly, be intuitive to use, and function globally, making them ideal tools for preliminary investigation into remote, inaccessible field areas and introducing fundamental geologic concepts and map patterns to students.