AZGS has posted a new Web mapping service that allows you to view our digital geologic maps in various browsers or software applications like Microsoft's Virtual Earth [right, 3D oblique view at the Grand Canyon], Google Earth, or ArcGIS Explorer.
Our geo-magician Ryan Clark described it on the Geologic Frothings blog this way:
At the Arizona Geological Survey, we’ve put together a map service for the geologic map of the State of Arizona. You can view it here:
AZGS Map Services: Geologic Map of Arizona
Quickly and easily view and query the map within ArcMap
In the future we’ll be putting together more and more of these services, and including with them more information – photos, field notes, descriptions of important contacts and structures, etc. Perhaps the most intriguing part of all this though, is how easy it is to create these map services. If you have a functioning web server and have access to ArcGIS Server, then you have absolutely no excuse not to start figuring out how to use it. If you don’t have a web server or ArcGIS Server, well, stay tuned, because the AZGS is also working on putting together a software package, or “stack”, of entirely free, open-source applications that do very similar things to what ArcGIS Server can do. Our goal is to make it possible for everyone to begin exchanging maps and data using map services.
We ran a live demo using the free ArcGIS Explorer software this morning at the ESRI Petroleum User Group meeting in Houston, and got great response. As part of the Geoscience Information Network, we'll be working with other state geologic surveys over the next few months to get this capability installed and used widely.