MARs Tools for Interactive ANalysis (MARTIAN): Google Maps Tools for
Visual Exploration of Geophysical Modeling on Mars
Lada L Dimitrova 1, Mark Haines
2,
William E. Holt 1,
Richard A. Schultz 3,
Glenn Richard 4,
A. John Haines 5
1Department of Geosciences, Stony Brook
University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2100, United States
2Robinson College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 9AN,
United Kingdom
3Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering, University of
Nevada, Reno, NV 89557-0138, United States
4Mineral Physics Institute, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook
11794-2100, United States
5Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge
CB2 3EQ, United Kingdom
Interactive maps of surface-breaking faults and stress models on Mars provide important tools to engage undergraduate students, educators, and scientists with current geological and geophysical research. We have developed a map based on the Google Maps API -- an Internet based tool combining DHTML and AJAX, -- which allows very large maps to be viewed over the World Wide Web. Typically, small portions of the maps are downloaded as needed, rather than the entire image at once. This set-up enables relatively fast access for users with low bandwidth. Furthermore, Google Maps provides an extensible interactive interface making it ideal for visualizing multiple data sets at the user's choice. The Google Maps API works primarily with data referenced to latitudes and longitudes, which is then mapped in Mercator projection only. We have developed utilities for general cylindrical coordinate systems by converting these coordinates into equivalent Mercator projection before including them on the map.
The MARTIAN project is available at http://rock.geo.sunysb.edu/~holt/Mars/MARTIAN/. We begin with an introduction to the Martian surface using a topography model. Faults from several datasets are classified by type (extension vs. compression) and by time epoch. Deviatoric stresses due to gravitational potential energy differences, calculated from the topography and crustal thickness, can be overlain. Several quantitative measures for the fit of the stress field to the faults are also included. We provide introductory text and exercises spanning a range of topics: how are faults identified, what stress is and how it relates to faults, what gravitational potential energy is and how variations in it produce stress, how the models are created, and how these models can be evaluated and interpreted. The MARTIAN tool is used at Stony Brook University in GEO 310: Introduction to Geophysics, a class geared towards junior and senior geosciences majors. Although this project is in its early stages, high school and college teachers, as well as researchers have expressed interest in using and extending these tools for visualizing and interacting with data on Earth and other planetary bodies.