The upgrade of the Digital Mapping and Modeling Laboratory in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will provide an integrated training and research facility where graduate and advanced undergraduate students, in a range of geoscience fields, can synergistically engage in problem solving using state-of-the-art computers. In this work, the areas of research include (1) computer mapping and visualization that integrate numerical data, movies, animations, images, other multi-media datasets (2) understanding the feedback in the largely water-driven movement of mass and energy in subsurface environments, (3) understanding coastal, estuarine and fluvial processes, with a focus on sediment transport and deposits, to improve the understanding of paleoclimate, coastal morphology, and sea-level rise, as well as their interconnections, (4) understanding the evolution of three-dimensional geologic faults by using cutting-edge software to visualize and develop models of them, and solve for how they deform rocks, and (5) applying geologic constraints to create a coupled climate-ice sheet model to understand, for example, the 60-million-year history of the Antarctic ice sheet, and role played by sea ice feedback in its evolution.
All of these areas of research have a component of practical significance to the public. For example, by including movies and animations of the processes that created the geology shown on maps, the public can gain an immediate understanding of the processes that formed the features seen. Our understanding of coastal processes, for example those that lead to local changes in sea-level, may have a direct impact on land-use planning. Similarly, our understanding of the possible location, magnitude, and geometry of a given movement on a fault could also have an impact on land use planning, to highlight three of these five areas.
Major Goals: The project goal was to update the UMass Amherst Geosciences Digital Mapping and Modeling Laboratory to continue to provide an integrated training and research facility where a range of geoscience students, across fields, could synergistically engage in problem solving using state-of-the-art computers. Project Outcomes: Since the installation in 2011 of sixteen 27" iMacs, the use of radmind (a file-server disk image reset program for maintaining and updating software) has assured the lab has been totally functional >95% of the time. The new SmartBoard computer projector lets instructors interact during lecture like a large touchscreen. Each semester we cycle over 100 Physical Geology students through the lab, teaching them the use of Google Earth with GeoTour exercises to examine 13 different major parts of geology, observing and analyzing geologic features world wide, demonstrating with the Smartboard. Professor Woodruff has taught three 20+ student Sedimentology classes in the lab. In 2011 and 2012 students mapped floodplain sedimentation along the Connecticut River from Hurricane Irene; in the fall of 2013 sediments were obtained from three Massachusetts coastal environments. All measurements from Woodruff’s Sedimentology lab are post-processed by students using the DMML/Matlab facilities. The class projects have been resounding successes, with students learning data processing and numerical modeling techniques in the context of an exciting, high impact research project with clear societal implications. Professor Dave Boutt taught 5 classes in the DMML since its upgrade. His goal in his undergraduate Hydrogeology class of 20+, taught each spring from 2012 to 2014, was to integrate more active learning through the use of the workstations, to improve student quantitative skills. He re-invented several quantitative labs and had students perform analyses and computations using state of the art tools, such as MATLAB. With the initial update of the DMML, Dave taught an introductory course in MATLAB to the whole department. Professor Bill McCoy, in his Quantitative Methods course made use of the computing capabilities of the DMML in the fall semesters of 2012 and 2013. The course uses several software packages, especially the R computing environment, for quantitative analysis and visualization of geologic and geographic data. PI Chris Condit has taught two upper level undergraduate/graduate courses twice since DDML’s update. Planetary Geology, a 16+ person class, uses a planetary GIS program, JMARS, on the iMacs to analyze images of planetary surfaces, and NIH’s ImageJ and Photoshop to learn the basics of image processing for planetary geology. The capabilities of the lab are now essential for planetary geologic studies because of the large high-resolution image data sets used. The Making Dynamic Digital Maps class has resulted in the on line publication of 26 DDMs, all can be downloaded from http://ddm.geo.umass.edu. They link maps to field guides, images, movies, animations and analytical data to provide a complete look at an area. Chris updates the DDM-Template used for each DDM class. Each semester Chris and Geophysics Professor Laurie Brown co-teach a popular 1-hour Planetary Geology Seminar in the DMML, using it to display the journal articles they are reviewing and examine data discussed in them. Professor Michele Cooke teaches several labs of the upper-level undergraduate course in Structural Geology and the graduate level course in Rock Fracture Mechanics in the DMML. Within Structural Geology students solve problems using industry standard software (Move and Poly3D). With the interactive software students explore issues of fold evolution and the stress fields around earthquakes. The graduate level Rock Fracture Mechanics course uses the Poly3d software at a more advanced level of inquiry solving more complex and computationally demanding problems. The fracture mechanics course makes use of Matlab examining the relationships between parameters controlling fracture propagation and deformation. Michele and Laurie are also co-teaching a graduate course in the Physics of Plate Tectonics in the spring of 2014. Since upgrade, Rob DeConto has taught multiple sections of upper division and graduate-level courses in Physical Oceanography and Climate and Environmental Modeling (> 100 students). These courses rely on the new capabilities in the DMML. Of particular importance has been the capability of the hardware to handle large climate/ocean data sets, and access to Matlab for student programing, and statistical analysis of climate/ocean data visualization. Importantly, the new DMML has made high-level computation, numerical model development, and model post-processing accessible to undergraduates. Each semester since upgrade, the facility hosts from 3-5 courses and its software has been continually updated using radmind, with an estimated 95%+ performance record. All sixteen 27" iMac computers are totally functional after 3 years of service, and have been updated to 20 MB of RAM to extend their life as long as possible. The file server, a Supermicro AS2021M-UR with six 1 TB disk drives has been functioning well, and facilitates the on-line use of the Dynamic Digital Maps of PI Condit, making their data accessible to the public.
