Friday, March 04, 2011

The Environmental Impact of Gas Extraction

Fractracker DataTool

Fractracker is a web-based data tool for tracking and visualizing data related to gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale region in the north-eastern U.S.. Using the tool it is possible to upload and visualise a number of data sets related to the Marcellus Shale region and the extraction of gas. Fractracker says to think of it as the 'Google Maps for gas extraction impacts'.

Using Fractracker it is possible to visualise the uploaded data sets on top of Google Maps. Fractraker is a great resource and tool for anyone interested in the environmental impact of gas extraction. The site already has a huge number of Google Map visualisations of the uploaded data. Here are just a couple:

Snapshot of Shale Plays in the U.S.
Shale Plays are geographic areas which have been targeted for exploration due to favorable geoseismic survey results for oil or gas. This Google Map shows the areas currently seen as Shale Plays in the United States.

Thickness of the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania

A Google Map showing the thickness of the Marcellus Shale formation in Pennsylvania. The dataset shows the thickness in feet of the Marcellus Shale formation in Pennsylvania based on data released by Piotrowski and Harper, 1979.

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1 comment:

Josh Knauer said...

The FracTracker.org data tool was actually built using a web-based software tool called Rhiza Insight, which gives users really powerful (but simple to use) data collection, visualization and publishing options to Google Maps. You can learn more about Rhiza Insight here: http://rhiza.com/insight