March 26, 2007

You can now ‘fly’ to 15 different geological wonders in Utah from your computer. The Utah Geological Survey (UGS) has created a way to see some of the most interesting and unique places in the state, via Google Earth technology.

"Utah is geologically awesome,” says Lucas Shaw, UGS GIS Analyst. “We hope that by putting images of some of these places on the web, people will be prompted to actually get out and visit them.”

UGS has published GeoSights in its magazine, Survey Notes, since 2000. The sites must have unique features, and be interesting, educational, informative, easily accessible, and identifiable by a non-geologist. The GeoSights include a wide variety of geologically interesting areas such as: Big Rock Candy Mountain, Spiral Jetty, Devil’s Slide, Little Sahara Sand Dunes, Thistle Landslide and Devil’s Playground.

To access the information, users can log onto: geology.utah.gov. Then under “Places To Go” click on “GeoSights”. Users will have to download Google Earth if they have not previously done so. A map of Utah will come up with icons marking the various GeoSights. There is also a list from which to select a site. Double-clicking a selection will ‘fly’ the user to the site. By clicking on the UGS icon, users will link to the full article about the GeoSight.

"For teachers, this capability will help them visually explain their concepts,” said Larry Madden, Science Specialist, Salt Lake City School District. “Plus, technology is something that kids really tune into and grabs their interest.”

UGS plans to add about three GeoSights to the list each year.