DEVELOPING A TEACHING AND LEARNING GEODATABASE OF SANDS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Sand collected from around the globe were donated to the Geology program at Pennsylvania Western University – California by a friend of the program, a retired Petroleum geologist-turned-Physics teacher. The sand samples originally came in vials or prepared slides along with large-format maps with numbered locations for each sample. To make this collection available to our students and to a larger audience, as well as increase its potential for growth and research, we endeavored to create a shareable geodatabase. Each sand sample was photographed using a reflective microscope with an onboard camera (AmScope Trinocular Stereo Zoom microscope and MU503 digital camera). The sand grains are photographed at varying magnifications to record mineralogy, grain properties, and sorting. Comparison of samples may allow for determination of lithic origin and the energy of the environment of deposition. Locations are plotted by their geographic coordinates in ArcGIS and imagery is added as part of the attributes for each site. These are uploaded as part of a web-ready story map. Creating a public database of sand samples allows access to the data remotely. The database is spatially scalable to allow users views of geographically concentrated samples, as well as national or global distribution. It may be expanded or supplemented by other users for research or other educational opportunities.