Earth Sciences Digital Map Library

Smart phone & tablet apps

iGeology gives you an interactive geological map of the UK for use on phones and tablets. Download iGeology from iTunes or Google Play

Rocklogger Android app for measuring rock orientation, strike & dip, and magnetic field - free. Also available is paid version with stereonet plotter

eGeo Compass 'The ultimate Android geology compass for geologists' says the web site

ArcGIS for iPhone, Android, and Windows phone 7

 

Images – anywhere around the world

  • Google Earth — free to download; Google Earth Pro is better but you need to subscribe to it
  • Dapple: Dapple is a global data explorer sponsered by Geosoft and derived from the Nasa World Wind project (Warning: needs a lot of space and memory. Not installed on department machines)
  • Intute satellite images Intute hosts more than 2,000 satellite images covering many world regions; images include phenomena such as wildfires, coastal waters, mountain ranges, rivers, landmarks, cities, and much more
  • Visible Earth A tour of the World Wide Web for earth scientists
  • USGS Landsat Project

General online resources

These are links from where you can select specific country information.These resources will often just give you an overview of the countrywith some topographic, and sometimes geological information but in ageneral way


  • Intute: general searches in the Earth Sciences section can bring up sets of interesting results for relevant websites
  • Intute’s World Guide - A series of guides for over 270 countries and territories. These include articles, features, demographics, geography data, interactive world maps, satellite photos, scrollable city images and links to resources about each country within the Intute database -Please note The Intute website has been closed as of July 2011 which means the pages are no longer updated, the site itself will remain availabe until 2014.
  • Generalized geological maps for many countries. Some are more detailed than others. Definitely worth a look. Although available via the ‘About’ gateway, many online maps originate from geological surveys of specific countries. Lots of other links as well, some not especially ‘scholarly’
  • Houghton Mifflin - the publisher of books: Geology and Essentials of Geology – not up to date but the virtual field trip section has information about different parts of the world which could be useful
  • A search engine to try: Excite Maps (Search field: Place name + "map")
  • Topographic maps from around the world – an interesting set of topographic maps that have been digitised for a variety of places around the world. It’s worth checking, although you’re guaranteed not to find just the map you want! Just click on the folder of the country whose maps are of interest to you
  • Information Sheets are available from the University Library Map Room
  • Geology.com

General Geological  Resources online

 

  • OneGeology OneGeology is an international initiative of the geological surveys of the world access the viewing portal from here - Remeber to click on the View Layers option to add and remove your chosen layers.
  • OpenGeoScience from the BGS, a brand new site launched in Dcember 2009. Thedre are 6 sections to explore:

Region-specific information

1. USA

  • Microsoft® TerraServer is the world's largest searchable image database with zoomable 1-meter resolution USGS digital orthophotos of the U.S.
  • Topozone – Claims to have every USGS topographic map, orthophotomap, and aerial photograph in the entire United States. Fun to play with – and some very good deals on Map Packs (maps, aerial photos etc)
  • National Geological Map database – USGS resource for geological maps and related data
  • National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program – some potentially useful information about geological mapping projects in general and the ‘how tos’ of mapping. Some useful links on this page
  • Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Data Center United States Geological Survey (USGS) site
  • National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP) – more from USGS
  • U.S. Geological Survey Aerial Photography
  • Electronic Map Library contains a series of maps created by Dr William Bowen, of the Department of Geography at California State University, Northridge. The online collection contains maps which are stored in GIF and JPEG formats and also in PDF, EPS, and TIFF formats. The online maps focus mainly on areas of the United States and include the Digital Atlas of the United States
  • United States Geological Survey publications in the Library. Many of these will have relevant maps for your chosen mapping area. A large amount of USGS material is available on-line at the USGS Publication Warehouse. Search the online catalogue Newton for the Geological Survey

2. UK/Ireland

  • The OS
  • Landmap: provides spatial data and learning resources for the UK - Provides orthorectified satellite image mosaics of Landsat, SPOT and ERS radar data and a high resolution Digital Elevation Model for the British Isles. This data is available in formats that are readily accessible to users of Geographic Information Systems, Image Processing and Desktop publishing software
  • Digimap: Cambridge University Library subscribes to this service which delivers Ordnance Survey Map Data to users within UK Tertiary Education via the Internet. You need to have a Raven authentication account to register free of charge for access to Digimap. For more information about Digimap see the University Library Map Room web pages. Please follow this link for information on Raven
    Important: Registration takes at least 3 days so plan in advance
  • Map and Data Place : EDINA provides key geographic data, especially for the UK, such as digital maps and digital boundaries
  • Geology of Britain (British Geological Survey)
  • GeoIndex: This site provides a map-based index to datasets that have been collected or have obtained from other sources. The Britain Beneath our Feet website provides more generalised maps based on data collected.
  • England’s Geology: A description of England's geology county by county. The descriptions are simple and aim to give a sense of local geological history
  • British Geological Survey publications in the Library. Many of these will have relevant maps for your chosen mapping area. Search the online catalogue Newton for the Geological Survey
  • IRELAND – very little is available online for Ireland – try the Geological Survey
  • Ireland – the Library has a number of geological maps. For topographic maps you will need to go to the University Library Map Room

3. Canada/North America

4. Africa

  • Africa: general resources available
  • Madmappers - "GIS data accessible to all" - a good resource for 1:50K maps of South Africa
  • Alexandria Digital Library for Africa
  • Digital map of Africa This website (Open File Report 97-470A, version 2.0, 2002) was compiled by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). It is a digital map including geology, oil and gas field locations, and geologic provinces of Africa, as part of a worldwide series of maps in CD-ROM. Maps are in PDF format and can be downloaded with Acrobat Reader. The site contains also links to references and contact information
  • South Africa: Geological Scenery of the Cape Peninsula & Surveys and Mapping, South Africa
  • Many African countries have Geological Survey publications, some bulletins, reports or memoirs. We have a lot of these publications, especially the older ones in the Library. Search the online catalogue Newton for the Geological Survey for a specific country

5. Europe – a selection

6. Australia/New Zealand

  • Australia: topographic and geological maps if available
  • New Zealand: topographic
  • New Zealand geological
  • Geological Survey publications for many of the Australian states and New Zealand are available in the Library in print form. Search the online catalogue Newton for the Geological Survey for a specific country.

7. South America

  • Try the general online resources links for South American information, also the USGS often has publications relating to this area
  • Many South American countries have Geological Survey publications, some as bulletins, or reports or memoirs. We have a lot of these publications, especially the older ones in the Library. Search the online catalogue Newton for the Geological Survey for a specific country

8. Asia


Gateways: print & online

  • GeoRef - GeoScienceworld/GeoRef
  • Intute: Intute: Science, Engineering and Technology is a free online service providing you with access to the very best Web resources for education and research, evaluated and selected by a network of subject specialists
  • Web of Science — you need to have a Raven authentication account for access to Web of Science. Please follow this link for information on Raven
  • Newton – the Library catalogue: Newton is the online catalogue – for search tips on effective use of Newton see either the online map tutorial or the guide to Newton – available on the library tutorials and guides page or in printed form in the library.

Institutions/Geological Surveys

  • A useful page from Berkeley for Geological surveys and institutions of the relevant country. A strong US focus but a good starting point
  • BGS geoportal - Good way to find out all the details of academic and commercial organizations for you to get in touch with in the country of your mapping project – try and do a text search on the country/region you’re interested in

Buying maps

Part II Mapping Projects: The Librarian will purchase topographic maps that you need but in some instances (especially if mapping abroad) it will be cheaper for you to buy the maps whilst there. Always make sure that you will be able to do this beforedeciding on this course of action. The Librarian needs plenty ofadvance notice for ordering foreign maps via the normal agents. TheLibrary will buy these maps back from you providing that you havepre-arranged this with the Library staff AND the maps are in goodcondition.


Last updated on 27-Feb-13 16:52