Virtual Worlds, Virtual Field Trips, and other Virtual Reality Files

This page has links used in my NAGT Distinguish Speaker tour and NSF CCLI Workshop, most being to 3D perspectives about the the Geology of Arizona, Landscapes of the Southwest, structural geology, science-education reform, and using Bryce5 to illustrate geology.  Most of these materials were built as part of the Hidden Earth and Hidden Earth Curriculum Projects, funded by NSF.

Topographic Files

• Shader movie of valley -- Drag vertically to change from a flat contour map to shaded relief 

• Contours draped over digital topography -- Simple valley, spin and tilt QTVR movie

• Contours draped over digital topography -- New River Mesa; spin and tilt QTVR movie

• Contours draped over digital topography -- Crater Lake, Oregon; spin QTVR movie (entire 15 minute quad)

• Contours draped over digital topography -- Crater Lake, Oregon; spin QTVR movie (just the southern half)

• Topowater -- Drag vertically to raise a water plane, coinciding with contours

• Toponumbers -- Spin to view from different perspectives (print out topographic base map from Topo Gallery to have students locate the numbers on map)

• Topo Profiles -- Drag vertically to cut successive profiles

I have lots more of these, but the Dept is upgrading its web server to make room for all my new movies.  Visit the Gallery of Virtual Topography for many other examples and kinds of files.

Interactive Block Diagrams

Geologic Block Diagrams, ala QTVR Object Movies (move mouse sideways to spin the block and up and down to make block more ore less transparent) -- Files are 500Kb to 1-2 Mb --  I'll get them smaller soon.

• Anticline -- Horizontal; drag up to make block transparent
• Anticline -- Gently plunging; drag up to make block transparent
• Syncline -- Horizontal syncline; drag up to make block transparent
• Syncline - Plunging syncline with 3 layers
• Syncline -- Gently plunging; drag horizontally to slice and up to make block transparent
• Syncline -- Gently plunging, with axis parallel to cutting plane; drag same as file above.
• Syncline -- Gently plunging; drag vertically to cut vertically, as in successive map views
• Fault -- Normal fault; drag horizontally to displace fault and up to make transparent
• Fault -- Reverse fault; drag same as above
• Fault -- Strike-slip fault cutting a syncline; transparent block
• Fault -- Dip-slip fault that you can erode upthrown block; transparent block
• Intrusion -- Pluton and dikes that you can cut vertically through
• Intrusion -- Relative dating with fold, intrusion, and fault
• Unconformity -- Remove overlying layers to see folds and faults underneath

Structure Map 3D

• Gently dipping layer interacting with topography -- Drag horizontally to spin terrain of Poland Junction (use these with contour base map to have students learn how to map: I have high-resolution versions, and answer keys, if you actually decide to use them-- generally the same file name with "_hr" or "hr" added to the end of the file name before the ".mov" extension)

• Anticline interacting with topography -- Poland Junction, Arizona (fairly big file)

• Change the orientation of a layer intersecting topography

• Same thing, but with a purple plane projecting out of the ground

• Same thing, but with map view to the left

Visit the StructureMap3D for more maps, along with the corresponding contours maps, which are great for mapping exercises.

Movies of the Southwest shaded by elevation

Southwest US QTVR Movies -- Big files but great! I have a 13 Mb version too, but not here.

• Low quality, smaller file -- QTVR Object Movie
• Better and bigger -- QTVR Object Movie
• Panorama from near the Abajo Mountains
• Newer six-color QTVR object movie (caution 8 Mb file!)
• New six-color QTVR panorama (zoomable, scrollable map)

More of these images are available in my Southwest 3D site

Movies Created by Draping Satellite Images over Digital Topography

Warning -- some of these files are large -- look before you leap.

Lake Powell area (near Page) -- MSS satellite image draped over digital topography

• QTVR panorama
• QTVR panorama (further east)

NEW -- Arizona Thematic Mapper images draped over digital topography (QTVR object movies).  These will be part of AZSAT3D.

• Grand Canyon W 1X1 degree quad (lower resolution, so file 2 MB or so)
• Grand Canyon W 1X1 degree quad (high resolution, so file 7 MB or so)
• Phoenix E 1X1 degree quad (high resolution, so file 7 MB or so)
• Mesa W 1X1 degree quad (high resolution, so file 7 MB or so)

World Topography

Shaded Relief of the Entire Planet, land and sea floor, based on ETOPO5 data and my six-tone coloring scheme.

• Zoomable-scrollable map (QTVR panorama) -- only 380 Kb
• Globe you can spin (QTVR object movie) -- 2 Mb.  Built by wrapping a flat map with colors but no relief on a bump-mapped sphere.
• Globe you can spin, with slightly different appearance (QTVR object movie) -- 2 Mb, done same as above but less specular (shiny).
• Faked-relief globe, done by rendering a shaded relief flat map in Bryce and wrapping it around a sphere.  Less cool, but still 2 Mb.
• Full-control globe.  Lighter colored globe that you can spin and tilt in 10-degree increments, to any perspective. -- Warning, warning Will Robinson, this file is a whopping 23 MB!  Once you download it, save it to your local computer, if you want, for later use.

Biosphere 3D

QTVR movies of maps of the Biosphere draped over digital topography in globes that you can spin and tilt.  Part of NSF-funded Hidden Earth Curriculum Project. Most movies are several Mb.

• Mean Annual Precipitation
• Soil Ph
• Croplands
• The three above movies combined into one -- click and drag vertically to compare the distribution of precipitation, soil Ph, and croplands. Very cool!!!
• Sea Temperatures (El Nino Year)
• Ocean Currents
• Plate Tectonic Globe (using data from Michelle Hall)
• Ocean Currents Combination Movie to study factors about Sea Temperatures, Wind Directions, and Ocean Currents
• Globe with Earthquake Magnitudes (using data from Michelle Hall)
• Globe with Volcanoes (using data from Michelle Hall)
• Earth Lights as viewed from Space.  I used a light source within the globe to make the lights really shine. Movie is 5 MB!

Sedimentary Environments

• Seas moving in (transgression) depositing a layer of beach sand over a broad area (drag vertically to remove some water)
• Seas moving in (transgression) depositing layers of beach sand and mud (drag vertically to remove some water)
• Seas moving in (transgression) depositing layers of beach sand, mud, and limestone (drag vertically to remove some water)
• Seas moving in (regression) depositing beach sand back over the mud (drag vertically to remove some water)
• Sand Dunes building out as the sea drops
• Deposition of layers, followed by erosion of a canyon
• Deposition of sand in a channel and mud on the floodplain, illustrating the concept of facies (different rocks deposited at the same time)
• Deposition of lenses as a river changes position

Virtual Field Trips of Invented Places

Painted Canyon -- A Geologic Wonderland!  These images, done with Bryce4, are of an invented, but representative, Southwestern canyon. They are used in our Intro geology lab.  Some of the files are large (not very compressed), especially the cool QuickTime VR panoramas (pivot 360 degrees). 

Treasure of the Sierra Cobre: Virtual field trip and exploration game for porphyry copper deposits.

Virtual Field Trips to Real Places with Captured Representations (photos)

Virtual Field Trip to Papago Park: Photos, Maps, and Instructions - Old, and not quite finished, but representative of the traditional virtual field trip genre.

Arizona Geology Virtual Tourist: Click Your Way Through Arizona Scenery -- Another type of Virtual Field Trip of a real place.

Movies created by draping geologic maps over topography -- a great way to teach geologic maps!

Geologic map of the Hollidaysburg Quadrangle in the Appalachians.  One way to turn a flat geologic map into a zoomable, scrollable 3D work of art.  Click and drag to pan in that direction, or zoom in and out.   Warning -- File is 2.5 Mb and takes time to download, but well worth it.

Geologic map of the Calabasas Quadrangle, CA.  Same kind of movie as above.   Warning -- File is 3 Mb, but well worth it.

Hickey Mountain, Arizona -- geologic map draped over digital topography (more examples, some of which are good for mapping exercises, are in my Geomap3D Gallery)

• QTVR Object movie -- Spin the place (higher resolution versions, with more tilt options, are in my Geomap3D site)

New Arizona geologic map draped over digital topography (all the rest, for each 1X1 degree quad, are at the AZGEO3D site).

• QTVR Object Movie -- Phoenix East
• QTVR Object Movie -- Tucson East

Durango, Colorado -- geologic map draped over digital topography

• QTVR Object Movie -- Spin the place in your hand
• QTVR Panorama -- Spin around and look in any direction

Many more movies of this type are in my Geomap3D site.

AZ Geophysics 3D

These images have geophysics data, such as gravity measurements, or geophysically derived data, such as depth to bedrock, draped over digital topography. Only static images are included here, but I also have the movies.

Phoenix East and Mesa West 1x1 degree quadrangles (area centered on city of Phoenix AZ)

• Gravity data draped over topography for the Phoenix East and Mesa West 1X1 degree quadrangles. Version with a white background.  For novices, warm colors mean stronger gravity due to denser rocks below and cool colors mean less dense rocks.  For aficionados, this is from the Residual Bouguer Anomaly Map of Arizona (Lysonski and others, 1980). 

• Depth to bedrock (in feet) draped over topography for the Phoenix East and Mesa West 1X1 degree quadrangles. Version with a white background. The bulls-eyes are deep basins. This is from Oppenheimer and Sumner (1980). 

• Magnetic data draped over topography for the Phoenix East and Mesa West 1X1 degree quadrangles.  Version with white background. Warm colors mean stronger magnetic signal, and cooler colors means less magnetic signal. 

Mesa 1x1 degree quadrangle (area centered on Globe)

• Depth to Bedrock map draped over topography for the Mesa 1x2 Quad

• Magnetic data draped over topography for the Mesa 1x2 Quad

• Gravity data draped over topography for the Mesa 1x2 Quad

• Geologic map draped over topography for the Mesa 1x2 Quad (to compare with the others)

• BEST OF ALL -- QuickTime VR movie combining the above four images.  Click and drag vertically to compare magnetic data to the geology, the gravity to the depth to bedrock, whatever.  This is way cool!!!!

Other Files

Arizona Geological Map: Interactive: A Zoomable Map, Legend, and Photos of Map Units

The Hidden Earth -- Visualizing Subsurface Geology --  These images help students and others visualize subsurface geology.  It's part on an NSF-funded project we've begun.

Check out the Geologic Scenery Images I'm doing using Bryce4 and USGS DEM's.

When in doubt, just go to my home page and browse around.

Page created by: S. Reynolds.  All images copyright Stephen J. Reynolds, 2000, 2001.  OK to use them in classes, but ask me.