Google Earth
3D globe overlaid with satellite imagery with interactive zoom, rotate, and tilt, and the ability to
search, import, and export.
• Download
o http://www.google.com/earth/index.html
• Navigation
o Zoom
o Pan
o Rotate and tilt
o Latitude, longitude, elevation
o View altitude
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Search: fly to
o Type a city and state or country, or a full address
Toolbar
o Add placemark
o Add polygon
o Add path
o Add image overlay
o Record a tour
o Time slider
§ Shows historical satellite images, see the coverage and quality improve through time,
also see effects of nature and humans
o Sunlight
§ Shows position of the sun
§ Time slider also available to “play” the position of the sun, useful for showing
seasons in polar regions
o Planets
§ Switch between Google Earth, Sky, Moon, and Mars
§ Google Moon and Mars are also 3D globes with layers
§ Google Sky explores space from the surface of the earth, constellations can be shown
o Ruler
§ Measure the distance and angle east from north between two points or along a series
of points, the units can be chosen
View
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o Grid: shows latitude and longitude grid with equator, tropics, meridians, and circles
labeled
o Overview Map: shows world map at lower right
o Scale Legend: shows scale bar at lower left
Layers
o Borders and Labels: country and province borders and labels
o Places: airports, food, lodging, national parks, etc.
o Photos: taken and posted by anyone, some are panoramas, more realistic than satellite
imagery
o Roads: everything from major highways to neighborhood streets
o 3D buildings: many places (like the UofA) have been constructed in 3D
o Ocean: many resources for information and environmental concerns, often with videos
and/or links to websites for more information
o Weather: You could play the weather announcer on TV. Clouds, radar, conditions and
forecasts, and ocean observations from stations and buoys.
o Gallery:
§ 360 Cities: more than just cities, you enter a 3D panorama photo
§ Discovery Networks: travel pictures and videos
§ Earthquakes: USGS earthquakes, click for info
§ Everytrail: trail info
§ European Space Agency: photos of places and phenomena from space
§ Gigapan photos: ultra high resolution panoramas, placed in context
§ Gigapxl photos: ultra high resolution photos, placed in context
§ Google Earth Community: facts about places or links to information, created by
anyone
§ NASA: photos of places and phenomena from space, also city lights – good estimate
of population density
§ National Geographic Magazine: Series of wildlife resources
§ New York Times: news and travel articles
§ Rumsey historical maps: can view in info bubble or projected on Google Earth
§ Tracks 4 Africa: travel info
§ Travel and Tourism
§ Trimble Outdoor Trips
§ Volcanoes: shows global volcanoes
§ Webcams.travel
§ Wikiloc: trail info
§ Youtube
o Global awareness: many organizations focusing on wildlife preservation, sustainability,
climate change, etc.
o More:
§ More places, imagery, wikipedia links, etc.
Google Earth Activity
1. Find your school in Google Earth.
2. Record the latitude, longitude, and elevation of your school.
Latitude:
Longitude:
Elevation:
3. Find the peak of Mt. Lemmon in Google Earth
4. Record the latitude, longitude, and elevation of the peak of Mt. Lemmon.
Latitude:
Longitude:
Elevation:
5. Measure and record the distance (as the crow flies) between your school and the peak of Mt.
Lemmon.
Distance:
GeoMapApp
Can choose equator-centered, north pole-centered, or south pole-centered view
This program is slower than Google Earth
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Download
o http://www.geomapapp.org/
Navigation
o Pan: hand or arrows keys
o Zoom in: + hand lens
o Zoom out: - hand lens
Toolbar
o Distance/profile tool
§ Easily draw a topo profile across a region
§ Default is 100x vertical exaggeration
§ Gives lat/lon of endpoints and length in meters
§ Useful for identifying trenches, mountains, plateaus, basins, etc.
Layer Manager
o Uncheck box to hide
o X to remove layer
o i link to information webpage
o Legend, if available, online
o Zoom to layer
o Slide opacity
o Arrow layer position
Overlays: can be moved with arrow tool
o Color scale: appears in upper left, useful for colored data sets
o Distance scale: appears in lower left, in metric
o Global map inset: appears in upper right with red box indicating field of view
o Layer Manager: shows the list of layers
o Coastlines: helps see islands and coastal patterns
o Human night lights
o Lakes and rivers
o Watersheds
o Country boundaries: useful for location
o Local administrative boundaries:
§ Includes state and province borders for countries
§ Geologic provinces
§ Tectonic faults
§ Southern extent of glacial ice
§ Impact sites, etc.
Basemaps: tectonic examples
o Global Grids
§ Bathymetry and topography: different data sets, GMRT is often used by profile tool
§ Seafloor bedrock age: shows symmetry around spreading ridges
§ Seafloor spreading rate: shows that Pacific is spreading faster than the Atlantic
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o Geologic maps: for many places, link to legend in layer manager
o Geophysical/tectonic maps: world lithospheric plates
Datasets: tectonic examples
o Earthquakes and plate boundaries
o Volcanoes and seamounts: major volcanoes and ages of seamounts
Education tab links to several educator resources, mostly aimed at secondary to college level,
but can be adapted to middle school level
Save map window
o KMZ (Google Earth): file that can be imported into Google Earth
o JPEG: smallest file, least memory required
o PNG: highest resolution
GeoMapApp activity
1. Turn on the country borders layer. (Overlays > Country Boundaries)
2. Turn on the lithospheric plates layer. (Basemaps > Geophysical/Tectonic Maps > World
Lithospheric Plates)
3. Slide the opacity in the layer manager so that you can see the lithospheric plates and the
continents underneath.
4. Identify a subduction zone based on the location of plate boundaries and topography.
5. Make a profile across the subduction zone and identify the trench and the volcanic arc.
(Note: when you click the profile tool, GMRT will show up on top of everything. Move this
layer down using the arrow buttons so that you can see the plates and topography.)
(Hint: the more zoomed in you are, the less blocky your profile will look.)
6. Frame your subduction zone in the window, and save it to the desktop as a KMZ file (Google
Earth file).
7. Open this KMZ file in Google Earth and explore the subduction zone in 3D.
Standards that can be easily addressed with these tools:
All grades
Strand 1: Inquiry Process
Strand 2: History and Nature of Science
Strand 3: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
6th grade
Strand 6: Earth and Space Science
Concept 1: Structure of the Earth
Describe the composition and interactions between the structure of the Earth and its atmosphere.
PO 1. Describe the properties and the composition of the layers of the atmosphere.
PO 2. Explain the composition, properties, and structure of the Earth’s lakes and rivers. GeoMapApp
PO 3. Explain the composition, properties, and structures of the oceans’ zones and layers.
PO 4. Analyze the interactions between the Earth’s atmosphere and the Earth’s bodies of water (water cycle).
GeoMapApp: watersheds and drainage divides
PO 5. Describe ways scientists explore the Earth’s atmosphere and bodies of water. Google Earth and GeoMapApp
data and resources
(See Strand 2 Concept 1)
Concept 2: Earth’s Processes and Systems
Understand the processes acting on the Earth and their interaction with the Earth systems.
PO 1. Explain how water is cycled in nature.
PO 2. Identify the distribution of water within or among the following:
• atmosphere
• lithosphere
• hydrosphere
PO 3. Analyze the effects that bodies of water have on the climate of a region. GeoMapApp precipitation maps
PO 4. Analyze the following factors that affect climate:
• ocean currents
• elevation GeoMapApp precipitation maps – rain shadows clearly visible
• location
PO 5. Analyze the impact of large-scale weather systems on the local weather. GeoMapApp hurricane tracks
PO 6. Create a weather system model that includes:
• the Sun
• the atmosphere
• bodies of water
7th Grade
Strand 6: Earth and Space Science
Concept 1: Structure of the Earth
Describe the composition and interactions between the structure of the Earth and its atmosphere.
PO 3. Explain the following processes involved in the formation of the Earth’s structure:
• erosion
• deposition
• plate tectonics
• volcanism
PO 4. Describe how the rock and fossil record show that environmental conditions have changed over geologic and
recent time.
Concept 2: Earth’s Processes and Systems
Understand the processes acting on the Earth and their interaction with the Earth systems.
PO 1. Explain the rock cycle.
PO 2. Distinguish the components and characteristics of the rock cycle for the following types of rocks:
• igneous
• metamorphic
• sedimentary
PO 3. Analyze the evidence that lithospheric plate movements occur. Google Earth and GeoMapApp earthquakes,
volcanoes, hotspots, seafloor ages, etc.
PO 4. Explain lithospheric plate movement as a result of convection.
PO 5. Relate plate boundary movements to their resulting landforms, including: Google Earth and GeoMapApp
• mountains
• faults
• rift valleys
• trenches
• volcanoes
PO 6. Describe how earthquakes are measured.
Concept 3: Earth in the Solar System – Google Sky
Understand the relationships of the Earth and other objects in the solar system.
PO 1. Explain the phases of the Moon in terms of the relative positions of the Earth, Sun, and Moon.
PO 2. Construct a model for the relative positions of the Earth, Sun, and Moon as they relate to corresponding
eclipses.
PO 3. Explain the interrelationship between the Earth’s tides and the Moon.
PO 4. Explain the seasons in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres in terms of the tilt of the Earth’s axis relative to
the Earth’s revolution around the Sun.
PO 5. Identify the following major constellations visible (seasonally) from the Northern Hemisphere:
• Orion
• Ursa Major (Great Bear)
• Cygnus
• Scorpius
• Cassiopeia
Google Sky Constellations
PO 6. Explain the relationship among common objects in the solar system, galaxy, and the universe.
Resources
• Google Earth
o Google Earth for Educators
§ http://sitescontent.google.com/google-earth-for-educators/
o Earth Observation Day
§ http://www.earthobservationday.com/pages/resources-lessonplans.htm
o Carleton College, plate tectonics exercise
§ http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/google_earth/examples/49004.html
o UNAVCO
§ http://www.unavco.org/edu_outreach/data/data.html
o There are interactive Google Earth files of almost anything online.
• GeoMapApp
o GeoMapApp Education
§ http://www.geomapapp.org/education/index.html
o Carleton College, teaching with data, simulations and models
§ http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/data_models/toolsheets/geomapapp.html
o This is a newer tool, but the education resources should expand quickly
• Plate tectonics
o USGS: This Dynamic Earth
§ http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/dynamic.html#anchor3819844
o UT-Austin
§ http://www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/plates/links.htm#education
o USGS: Cascades Volcano Observatory
§ http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/PlateTectonics/description_plate_tectonics.html
o CalTech Tectonics Observatory
§ http://www.tectonics.caltech.edu/outreach/