Thursday, January 24, 2019

Earthquake Activity on a WebGL Globe


Nine Point Five is a WebGL visualization of earthquakes around the world from 2000 to 2010. It shows, and allows you to explore, U.S. Geological Survey data of ten years worth of earthquakes on top of an interactive globe.

The globe includes a timeline which allows you to filter the results shown on the globe by date range and by the magnitude of the quakes. Nine Point Five lists the significant earthquakes in the time period selected next to the interactive globe. A tour option allows you to open a non-interactive globe which takes you on a tour of some of the significant earthquakes during the chosen time.

The globe also has options which allows you to view the earthquakes displayed on the map as a particle cloud, as lines or as circles.


The Pacific Ring of Fire stands out on the Nine Point Five interactive globe. You can learn more about earthquakes and the Ring of Fire on John Nelson's Seismic Illumination. This map uses historical earthquake data going back to 1898 to show how earthquake activity reveals information on the location of the Earth's tectonic plates.

Seismic Illumination visualizes historical earthquake activity, particularly around the Pacific Ocean. By concentrating on the Pacific Ring of Fire the map is able to show how continental drift causes  seismic activity where the Earth's tectonic plates meet & grind beneath each other.

If you like the luminescence effect and the curved place-name labels used on Seismic Illumination then you might like John's two tutorials: Luminescence Hack and Envelope-Transformed Label Shadows.

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