Revolutionizing Geological Mapping Through the Introduction of Electronic Total Stations (Laser Surveying) to the Undergraduate Geology Field Course

9451368 Philpotts电子全站仪现在几乎只用于常规工程测量，但它们尚未广泛用于地质学，尽管它们具有明显的潜力。 许多地质特征，如露头、地质接触等，是不规则的，需要大量的测量点来精确定义。 这种类型的细节现在可以快速收集，并直接存储到便携式计算机与电子全站仪。 这些数据可以输出为x、y、z坐标，不仅可以直接用于野外地质填图，而且可以确定地层产状和构造方位。 这些数据还可以迅速转移到地理信息系统，供计算机辅助制图之用。 这些仪器也很容易操作，比它们的前辈-链条和经纬仪-所需的技能和练习更少。 用全站仪制作的地质图在精度和数据量上的显著提高可能会开辟分析地质结构的全新方法。 地质学和地球物理学系正在使用四个全站仪，加上该系已经拥有的一个全站仪，使全站仪绘图成为其地质学实地课程的一个组成部分。 这所为期四周的全浸入式野外学校是新英格兰唯一一所公立大学，通常招收大约20名本科生，包括所有地质专业的学生，一些土木工程师和自然资源专业的学生，还有一些来自其他大学的学生。 该项目源于一项可行性研究，其中两名本科生利用该部的全站仪开展了一个独立的测绘项目。由此产生的地图非常出色，因此该部确信，所有地质实地课程都应教授使用全站仪。 为此目的，该部正计划为它主办的1995年美国东北地质学会会议举办一次技术会议和一次关于全站仪地质绘图的短期课程。

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.