Topographic differencing: Earthquake along the Wasatch fault
After a big earthquake happens people ask, 'Where did the earthquake occur? How big was it? What type of fault was activated?' We designed an undergraduate laboratory exercise in which students learn how ...

Karst Hydrogeology: A virtual field introduction using Google Earth and GIS
Students will have the opportunity to select and virtually explore the hydrogeology and geomorphology of a karst landscape using Google Earth, lidar data-sourced DEM(s) and geologic maps, and GIS software (QGIS) ...

Lab 8: LiDAR
In this lab students use LiDAR and GPS data to investigate the the amount of woody debris available for habitat in a local river. Students collect GPS data, explorer local LiDAR data and write a Python script to ...

Lab 5: Sea Level Rise
In this lab, modified from Barbara and David Tewksbury's sea level rise lab, students use bathy/topo DEMs from NOAA to predict the location of shorelines after certain amounts of sea level rise and tsunami ...

Geoid Height Calculator
The Geoid Height Calculator returns the geoid height at the latitude and longitude specified by the user. The geoid is one approximation of Earth's shape due to gravity, roughly coinciding with mean sea level. Because the inside of our planet is non-uniform, gravity is not constant at the surface. If Earth were completely covered in an ocean, the water would swell over gravity highs (where there is more mass below the surface) and depress in areas of gravity lows (where there is less mass below the surface). The geoid approximates this hypothetical ocean surface, representing a geopotential surface. To think of it another way, if we were able to walk on the geoid, we would experience a constant value of gravity.

Spatial Analysis of Raster Data - An Antarctic Example
Mark Helper, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Geological Sciences Summary Using Antarctic elevation and ice thickness raster data sets, this exercise uses tools available in the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst ...

Where is that chunk of crust going?
I introduce students to GPS, frames of reference, and the permanent GPS stations in the EarthScope Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) in class, and obtain near-real-time data for two stations from UNAVCO. We use ...

In-situ Density from Gravity by Nettleton
This activity develops students' understanding of gravity data corrections and density estimates by using a gravimeter to collect data and then interpret this data to find an estimate for the local bulk ...

GIS and GPS Applications in Earth Sciences
Theory and practice of geographic information system (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies and their applications to problems in earth sciences. Laboratories and field trips provide hands-on ...