Conference Agenda

As part of the Earth Sciences curriculum at Utrecht university, first year master degree students get the option to join a Field Research Instruction Geology course in SE Spain. This course focusses on the internal zone of the Betic Cordillera, which is characterized by a spatial alternation of metamorphic ranges and fault-bounded intramontane basins, strongly affected by normal faulting. Every year, several student teams carry out a project in one of the intramontane basins, the Sorbas basin. The broad aim of these projects is to analyze the kinematic and depositional evolution of this basin.

This year, the Covid-19 crisis forced us to transform this fieldwork into a virtual field project. For that, we provided the students with a dataset composed of kinematic measurements, sedimentological columns, numerous measurements of bedding and sediment transport directions, and a detailed imagery of outcrops composed of long panoramic photos, few other photos, Street View images available in Google Earth, and high-resolution 3D drone imagery.

Students study all the available data and based on that build their own map, make composite drawings, and present an interpretation of the kinematic and depositional evolution. In total they can spend about 100-150 hours on this project, in a team of two.

In this conference contribution we’ll show the data set, guide you along critical exposures including ones with 3D imagery, and inform you about our experience with this MSc degree virtual fieldwork.

Field trips are essential for geologists and engineers to develop interpretation skills and to get a sense of scale. Unfortunately, attendance to field trips has become less frequent due to cost, with only a handful of team members attending a field trip once or twice a year. Sometimes access to key outcrop analogues can be difficult or too hazardous. COVID-19 has made attendance to field trips even more challenging. An alternative solution is the interpretation of outcrop models derived from drone data, visualised on a laptop or desktop. In this case, the user field of view is determined by the size of the screen. In contrast, in virtual reality the user is placed in the digital world where the user is surrounded by data in the 3D space. This immersive experience increases cognition, speed of analysis and retention. In this talk, we will demonstrate the application of immersive learning to Geological Field trips in Virtual Reality, with examples from different depositional settings. One of the key advantages of adopting Virtual Reality to support learning is that entire teams can have access to areas that would normally be too hazardous or too expensive to reach. Virtual reality also makes geological field trips more inclusive, giving the opportunity for people with disabilities to attend more field trips. Virtual reality also improves knowledge capture, by creating the option of field trip repeatability. This technology has a wide range of applications in subsurface learning, reservoir characterisation, environmental assessments, infrastructure planning, etc. We developed 3DGaia, a virtual reality platform for immersive learning and remote collaboration in Geoscience. Users have the ability to ‘fly’ over outcrops or ‘walk’ along these at real scale. 3D Gaia integrates data from basin scale to pore scale. 3DGaia enables teams to connect to the same immersive virtual field trip, helping to connect expertise across the Globe.

Large-scale cliff sections on Edgeøya in the remote eastern part of the Svalbard Archipelago (Spitsbergen) comprise mostly Triassic sedimentary successions. These outcrops expose formations found on the offshore Barents Shelf, and contribute to studies of subsurface geology and geophysics, allowing the scale gap between detailed well and seismic data to be filled. One locality is Kvalpynten, where seismic-scale features such as growth faults, paralic deposits and low-angle clinoforms are observed, providing the opportunity to compare offshore seismic data with the outcrop using seismic modelling. Synthetic seismic modelling is used to aid seismic interpretation by quantitatively and qualitatively assessing resolution, scale and level of detail of modelled onshore structures. Virtual outcrop models allow the accurate and high-resolution capture of large and inaccessible outcrop sections, at scales comparable with seismic vertical resolution. This gives new possibilities for generating georeferenced input to seismic modelling, which allows generation of highly visual end products for educational purposes. Here, we present a virtual field trip to the Triassic outcrops around Kvalpynten. The dataset is based on virtual outcrop models acquired using boat-based photogrammetry, covering around 25km of continuous cliff sections. The 3D outcrop model is combined with geological interpretations, logs, field photos and information panels, and regional elevation data to set the context of the trip. In addition, synthetic seismic models are modelled from the virtual outcrops to highlight the scale of the exposures compared to offshore seismic data.