Boulder, Colorado, USA - Over the past decade, the number of virtual field trips created to simulate in-person field excursions has grown, but one aspect of physical fieldwork is not commonly replicated: Virtual explorers do not often return to their desks with collections of virtual rocks. Three-dimensional virtual samples can enhance just about any geoscience activity, from online college courses to remote research collaboration.
Three-dimensional digital models of geological objects are relatively easy to create and geolocate on virtual globes such as Google Earth and Cesium. Emerging technologies allow the design of realistic virtual rocks with free or inexpensive software, relatively inexpensive 3D scanners and printers, and smartphone cameras linked to point-cloud computing services.
With interactive 3D digital models of rocks, minerals, fossils, drill core, geo-archaeological objects, and outcrops, designers and users can
Virtual rocks can also be gradually altered to illustrate geological processes, such as weathering, deformation, and metamorphic mineral growth.
This new GSA Today article by Declan G. De Paor of Old Dominion University surveys digital sampling applications in a wide range of geoscience subdisciplines and includes downloadable examples.
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ARTICLE
Virtual Rocks
Declan G. De Paor, Department of Physics and Department of Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia 23529, USA. Pages 4-11; doi: 10.1130/GSATG257A.1.
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