ONLINE VISUALIZATION OF FIELD DATA IN GOOGLE EARTH– AN EXAMPLE FROM THE PALEOCENE GOLER FORMATION

Over the past 5 years, many geology classes have been forced to shift, at times, to online curriculum in their coursework. Although this shift has increased accessibility for students, it is often hard to replicate a geology field experience with online data. The goal of our project is to provide an easily accessible online database within the Google Earth platform, from our observations from the Paleocene Goler Formation. The Goler Formation comprises an ~4000m thick stratigraphic section of terrestrial and marine strata in the northern Mojave desert. Lithofacies evolve within a transgressive sequence from fluvial at the base to coastal in the middle part to deep marine at the top of the section. Originally the focus a PhD thesis (Cox, UC Riverside, 1982), we revisited the Formation as part of NSF grant EAR-1946418. As part of this research, we compiled observational and analytical data that was placed into the web-based online Google Earth platform to provide geology instructors and students real data to apply towards online labs, teaching, virtual field-trips, or field trip guides. Data is freely and easily accessible on the California State University Northridge Geological Sciences website. The Goler Formation is ideal for virtual fieldwork because of the excellent exposures preserved in the Mojave Desert that can be imaged through Google Earth, the variable lithofacies within each section, the multiple datasets that we have collected within the Formation, and the scientific importance of this unit. Data includes 2-and-3-dimensional outcrop photographs, stratigraphic logs, paleocurrent data, and U-Pb geochronology. We have not provided fossil locations in order preserve their integrity for future work, although marine and mammal fossils are abundant in Formation. The Google Earth file has a companion pdf document that works as a “field-guide” and walks the user through each site. Companion labs are available that utilizes the data on the following topics: 1) lithofacies, 2) stratigraphic columns, 3) outcrop descriptions, and 4) interpretation of depositional environments.