Ch-1-Lab-1

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Metropolitan Community College, Maple Woods *

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101

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Geology

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Dec 6, 2023

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docx

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9

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Introduction to Geology and Google Earth™ (Lab 1) For this lab you will need the following: Google Earth (Desktop Version) Using Google Earth KMZ file (Located in the Chapter 1 Lab assignment in Canvas) Calculator In order to use these lab exercises, you must have Google Earth™ software installed on your computer. The program is available at Google Earth . Scroll down to download the desktop version. There is a browser version of Google Earth, but for your labs we will be using the desktop version. Running the program requires a high-speed internet connection, and you will find navigating is easier with a mouse than it is with a touch pad and keyboard, though either will work. Getting Started. Open Google Earth Pro from your computer desktop. Click the “Help” tab at the top of the Google Earth menu bar, and view the help resources, keyboard shortcuts, and start-up tips. Then, PLAY! Open the Google Earth mapping service software and fly around the globe, find your state, your city, and your home or campus. On the left side of the screen you can search the globe. Try typing in famous locations or cities in the search bar and see what happens. Fly to your home and to your favorite vacation spots. Give yourself some time for this—it will familiarize you with the controls, and reduce the distraction of play when you do get to work on these lab exercises. Once you have spent some time moving about, find your house (it may or may not be there depending on how old your house is, and the date of the images being used). Google Earth Lab Exercises In the lab assignment in Canvas, download the link for the Using Google Earth KMZ file. (This is the same file you’ll see later in Plate Tectonics—Divergent and Transform Boundaries.) Clicking on the downloaded link should launch Google Earth™ and open the file in your “Places” frame. If not, you can right click on the KMZ file, select “Save Target As…” and save the file to your desktop. Then open Google Earth™ and under File at the top of the page select “Open” and browse to the KMZ file you just saved on your desktop. Once you have opened the file in Google Earth, you can use it to follow the figures and instructions that follow.
To the right of the screen in Google Earth you will see the “sidebar” that appears when you first open the program. There are 3 panels in the sidebar: Search, Places, and Layers. Each of these panels can be expanded or hidden by clicking the triangular icon next to the panel label. You will not typically need the Search feature is where you can find locations by typing in an address, common location name, or more specifically latitude and longitude. The Places panel is where most of the action takes place. When you click a KMZ file to open it, it will appear in the Temporary Places folder within the Places panel. In the figure below it shows the Plate Tectonics —Divergent and Transform Boundaries exploration has been loaded. You can work from the Temporary Places folder, or you can right-click content in Temporary Places to save it to the My Places folder (it really doesn’t matter; you will be given the option of saving your Temporary Places content to My Places when you exit at the end of your session). Content in My Places will be saved when you close the application, and will appear there the next time you open it. Once you have downloaded a KMZ file, there are several controls used to manage the display of the file contents. Refer to figure to the left, and notice the following controls: A - Checking or unchecking the boxes will display or hide the content. B - Content folders can be expanded or hidden by toggling between + and – in the boxes next to the folder name. C - Some content, like overlays and paths, can be made more or less opaque with this slider. D - The view will automatically fly from placemark to placemark within a folder when the play button is clicked.
The Layers panel contains all sorts of “built-in” content, and you should take the time to browse those various layers. They can be turned on and off by clicking the rectangular boxes next to the layer names. You will definitely want the Terrain layer turned on as you work through the lab exercises (it provides the 3D view of the Earth), but you should turn off all the other layers to avoid cluttering the views as you work. Content Notice that the Search and Layers panels have been hidden in the figure to the left, leaving the entire sidebar for the Places panel. You will probably find it easier to work through these lab exercises with your sidebar set this way, too. There are several types of content in these lab exercises: Each lab exercise requiring Google Earth will download as a .kmz file (A in in the figure to the left). Within that file there will be one or more folders (B and C in the figure), and each folder will contain some combination of placemarks, paths, shapes, and overlays (D in the figure). Placemarks are content that is locked to a particular place on Earth’s surface. They may simply mark a place, or they may contain some combination of text, hyperlinks, and images. A placemark can be viewed by clicking it in the sidebar, or by clicking its icon in the main display. Each investigation area will be marked with a placemark having a “?” icon, as indicated in the figure. Specific placemarks within the investigation area will be assigned other icons. A path is simply a line or route drawn on the main display. In the figure, the Red Sea Rift and the San Andreas Fault are traced with paths. A shape is a flat geometric shape that can be displayed at any elevation in the main display.
An overlay is a map or other image that is draped over the surface of the main display. An important feature of overlays is that the opacity of the overlay can be adjusted. This feature is very helpful when comparing the appearance of a landscape with a map image of it. Other Tools and Controls Google Earth contains a number of useful tools that you will use as you explore. Click “View” in the toolbar at the top of the Google Earth window, and click the listed features on and off each to see what they do. Make sure that at least the Status Bar is turned on. It provides latitude and longitude and elevation information at the bottom of the main display. You will use the ruler frequently as you work through these investigations. It is accessed by clicking “Tools” in the top toolbar and selecting “Ruler” from the dropdown menu (see below). Notice that you can select from a variety of measurement units, and that you can measure the length of a path as well as make simple point-to-point measurements. You will also find it necessary to make other adjustments as you work with the software. If you select “Options” from the Tools dropdown, you are presented with this dialog box (See below). (Mac users will find this feature under Google Earth > Preferences.)
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