Dayton University interpret New Zealand’s geologic history and active tectonics

In May 2010 Surveylab hosted ikeGPS customer Dr Allen McGrew of the Department of Geology at The University of Dayton in Ohio.

Dr McGrew, together with Professor/Researcher Umesh Haritashya, Associate Professor Dan Goldman, and fifteen geology students are visiting New Zealand to learn and apply geological field methods to describe and interpret New Zealand’s geologic history and active tectonics.

The course will involve three major components: an exploration of the volcanic centers of the Taupo volcanic zone in the North Island, field study of the stratigraphy and structural geology of the Abel-Tasman and Nelson Districts of the South Island, and investigation of the Pleistocene history of New Zealand, including the history of glacial retreat in the Southern Alps of New Zealand and the stratigraphic record of sea-level change on the North Island.

Dayton University use ikeGPS data collection instruments as an all-purpose geological field mapping tool to locate not only the position of rock units in the field, but also to collect georeferenced field photographs and record field observations.

Their data is imported automatically into ESRI ArcGIS to build and visualize the geologic map as they work. Dayton also use IkeGPS instruments to document the field context of localities where they collect samples, and the standoff remote capture capability of the ike1000 is valuable in mapping inaccessible features such as cliff faces.