I've got a nice tough A.W.o.G.E. for you today. Hint: it's somewhere in the Virginia Piedmont. The presence of an airplane over the photographed site may help confirm the location, once you think you've found it.

In the comments section below, be the first to name the location and why the treeless area suffers so much sulfuric acid, and you will win a "GEOLOGY ROCKS" bumper sticker.

Labels: contest, google, maps, nova, piedmont

A fresh location for the new round of A.W.o.G.E. This time we're visiting a syncline that was exposed in a roadcut about 20 years ago. I've blocked out the data source, since that could help narrow the search, and I'd also like to point out that I should have put an "s" on "geologist" in the lowermost annotation. Oops.

In the comments section below, be the first to name the mountain the roadcut goes through, and you will win a "GEOLOGY ROCKS" bumper sticker.

Labels: contest, google

I haven't put up an annotated Google Earth image in a while, so here's one. As with the previous A.W.o.G.E.'s, this is some place where I've been, annotated with a few details about the local geography and my experiences there. Note the scale bar in the lower left.

In the comments section, be the first to name the town or the prominent spit (both have the same name) and you'll win a "GEOLOGY ROCKS" bumper sticker.

Labels: contest, google

I'm also psyched about joining NAGT's ranks because they offer a series of grants. Getting small educational grants is my new hobby, so I'm looking forward to making some good stuff happen at NOVA with some sum from NAGT.

Labels: conferences, field trips, google, msse, teaching

A cool feature from Google Maps allows users to create individualized maps with content centered on specific locations. They call them "My Maps." This maps are then viewable in any HTML browser. Check out the "Earth As Art" demonstration map, or this "Oral Histories of Route 66" map for examples of the kind of stuff that you can do with "My Maps." You can also watch the video about how to create them.

It occurs to me that My Maps might be a good way to share geologic knowledge about outcrop locations. One thing that I found frustrating and limiting in my first few years of teaching was that there was no good single source to go to find out about relevant outcrops. It took time and experience to find out where the cool rocks were. Is it a good idea to put this information online in a publicly-accessible format so beginning instructors and interested students/amateurs can visit interesting outcrops? (I sure would have appreciated it four years ago!) Or does that run the risk of letting rockhounds and less-than-ethical geovandals onto previously-secret locations? Is there a benefit to the ancient barriers in outcrop-information flow? Is it better to pass this information on from wise elder to trusted neophyte?

Labels: google, maps, teaching, tech, websites

Last week, I posted my first of these images. Today I follow up with another spot in the same state as last week's A.W.o.G.E. Annotations are described in detail below. The first one to correctly identify the location wins a "GEOLOGY ROCKS" bumper sticker. The contest is open not just to my students but to the whole world (though I'm hoping someone in the U.S. wins it so I don't have to pay some outrageous postage to send the winner their bumper sticker!) Last time the winner was helped along by comparing the Google Earth image to photos on my website, but I don't have any photos of this area up on the website, so it ought to be more challenging!

Labels: contest, google

The favorite pastime of the geoblogosphere appears to be "Where On Google Earth?" (example 1, example 2, example 3) ...Who am I to buck such a trend? But I've also gotta give it my own spin: so I hereby introduce Annotated "Where On Google Earth?" The difference is that in my version, the game gives you a chance to learn something new about me (via the annotations) while exploring some cool places.

Here are your clues: (A) West of this line is a major Mesozoic batholith. Location (B) is a peninsula where I camped for a week and a half. (C) is a dam which produced the lake that the image is centered on. (D) shows a prominent shadow below a cliff formed by a Paleogene ("Tertiary") basalt flow.

Since today is my first day of classes for the semester, I'm going to make this a contest. The first of my students to deduce the location of this image by naming the lake and the mountain range that hosts it, will win a GEOLOGY ROCKS sticker. Geoblogospheroids, you can guess too, but my students are allowed to check your answers and then adopt them as their own to win the prize. It's kind of like one of those celebrity game shows, or the weekly bigwig- plays- for- a-random- person- getting- Carl- Kasell- on- their- home- answering- machine dealio on "Wait, Wait: Don't Tell Me!" The contest is open... see some of you in class in a few hours!

Labels: contest, google

Labels: google, maps