--- original post 8/4/08 ---

I spent some time "playing" with the OneGeology portal and offer these observations. As a geologist (at least a former practicing one), I hope my colleagues will take these constructive criticisms positively but basically you'll find this map to be extremely well populated with information though the technology of the portal itself is a bit dated (read more).

Content: To develop a comprehensive, single source of geological maps is impressive and worth commendation. The map scale of 1:1,000,000 is certainly adequate for a cursory understanding of the geology but would lack the detail to pursue any evaluation of mineral deposits, obviously. The tectonic maps (fault lines) is quite detailed for Europe but may not exist for other parts of the world as it was not a layer included with the geology of Indonesia, for example. The reader needs to understand that this portal displays surface geology only and should not be expected to have any understanding of the subsurface structure or resource potential.

Web Portal Technology: the technology employed to create the portal looks like web mapping circa 2000 and has the feel of ArcIMS though I'm not sure that was the software used in this case but it appears to be open source. The refresh rate of the map is slow and zooming in/out causes another refresh. The layer legend obscures the right side of the map but does offer a useful means to control map transparency and layer display priority. The portal can import WMF or WMS maps easily and export to KML or WMC (web map context). Using the "i" (information) tool was a bit confusing as I expected to retrieve point information but it will allow the user to draw a box as well. The information that will be retrieved will be displayed in a separate window and there is nothing fancy here; just a tabular output from the database. Depending on the source of the map you may have to scroll through columns to find a true bedrock description. I looked at the geology of the Czech Republic and that for Indonesia and the information varies greatly between source.

Visualization: OneGeology is essentially a thematic map created by digitizing and scanning paper maps and the result is a raster image overly. As mentioned, you can export an window view of the map to KML and view it in Google Earth or other portal that supports KML. That offers the user the ability to include terrain information, but again, you'll find this to be a bit quirky. It takes awhile to dispaly the KML overlay and it may not display in the correct position immediately but eventually GE catches up with the diplay and the map will be rendered in its proper location. And you will find that the terrain and map offers an nice perspective view but the end result looks like the image maps we were creating at the EROS Data Center back in the mid-80s where we would create an IHS transformation of terrain and geologic maps.

Contributions Welcome: The OneGeology project team is offering anyone to contribute to this body of work and offers a "cookbook" on how to create the digital maps for inclusion to the project.

GeoSciML: If you are not familar with the XML specification for geoscienc professionals, its is worth delving into more information.