9451368 Philpotts Electronic total stations are now used almost exclusively for routine engineering surveys, but they have not yet been used widely in geology, despite their obvious potential. Many geological features, such as outcrops, geological contacts, etc., are irregular and require large numbers of surveyed points for accurate definition. This type of detail can now be collected rapidly and stored directly into portable computers with electronic total stations. The data, which can be output as x, y, z coordinates, can be used not only to construct geological maps directly in the field, but also to determine the attitude of layering and the orientation of structures. The data can also be transferred rapidly to geographic information systems (GIS) for computer assisted cartography. These instruments are also easily operated, and require less skill and practice than did their predecessors- - the chain and transit. The significant increase in accuracy and amount of data on geological maps made with a total station is likely to open up entirely new ways of analyzing geological structures. The Department of Geology and Geophysics is using four total stations which, with the one that it already owns, allow total-station-mapping to become an integral part of its Geology Field Course. This four-week total immersion field school, the only one offered by a public university in New England, typically enrolls about twenty undergraduates, including all geology majors, some civil engineers and natural resource majors, and some students from other universities. This project resulted from a feasibility study in which two undergraduates undertook an independent mapping project using the Department's total station. The resulting map was so outstanding that the Department was convinced that all geology field courses should teach the use of total stations. To this end, the Department is planning a technical session and a short course on the total station in geological mapping for the 1995 Northeastern Geological Society of America meeting, which it is hosting.
