I captured this Google Earth image of the east face of Fairview Peak, with north to the right and the scale bar on the left showing 4112 feet, and then set about drawing the fault scarp created by the 1954 Fairview Peak–Dixie Valley earthquake. The location of the fault line (in magenta) is somewhat approximate in places, and I've left gaps where the trace is unclear. Identifying the fault line on Google Earth is complicated by the fact that two or more scarps occur in some areas. The line, as drawn, has not been field checked.
An example of the scarp, as seen in an oblique Google Earth image.
The scarp angles across the hill above the loop road near the center, and above the linear road to the left.
Images below are broken into two halves and shown with north to the right (first two images), and then with north up (second two images). These images enlarge fairly well, with the horizontal (north=right) images being best in enlargement and the vertical images (north=up) being best on the blog.
North half of the Fairview Peak strip with north to the right.
South half of the Fairview Peak strip with north to the right.
Two images: north and south half of the Fairview Peak strip with north up.
Can't really say why I did this. I was just fascinated by the fact that you can take Google Earth, rotate the eye view to oblique and — especially after a visit to the area (early December) — can easily identify the fault scarp(s) in most places.
Related Posts:
Where in the West - March
Fairview Peak, Nevada
Friday Fault Photos #6
5 comments:
Fantastic! You have a great blog.
Nice. Are you drawing a line in 3D space in Google Earth, or a line on an image (in GIMP or whatever?). Curious --- if the former --- whether you can take than line and render a plane through it. Would be pretty cool. I guess I could probably just crack it open and try it myself :)
@Kea Thanks! :)
@kwinkunks I was drawing in a paint program in 2-D while looking at Google Earth from various oblique angles, mostly from the east. I'm thinking that one simple plane wouldn't really describe the fault completely, it splits here and there - but it would be interesting to try something like that in GIS to see how much the fault deviates from a perfect plane.
This is so awesome! Who knew you could do so much fun stuff with Google Earth? So glad you did this!
I spent an hour the other night bouncing around Mt St Helens, seeing what it looked like from different peaks and valleys, and then went and played in the Sea of Cortez for a while. Too freaking great. Not a substitute for actually being there, but a nice way to jog memories, and give folks who haven't got a chance to explore in person a way to see a little for themselves.
Dana, every now and then I do something crazy like mapping from Google Earth or other air photos. It's fun! Would be nice to be ground checked - but it won't be me who does that. :)
I think eventually folks like Ron Schott will have it so that being in Google Earth will be almost exactly like being there. Right now, computers aren't quite fast enough and don't have quite enough memory. Think: his gigapans merged with ground views from Google Earth.
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