Summary

Two models of the Blanco Fracture Zone, located in the eastern Pacific off the coast of Oregon, USA: 1:2,000,000 and 1:5,000,000. Both models print with a size of 150mm.

Both models have a vertical exaggeration of 5X.

Instructions

These bathymetry models were created using data obtained from the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/bathymetry/). The tools required were MapWindowGIS (www.mapwindow.org) and Sketchup (sketchup.com) with the "Heightmap to Mesh" plugin. Cleanup was done with Netfabb and Meshlab (www.netfabb.com, meshlab.sourceforge.net, respectively).

See the link below for how these and other bathymetry and elevation models are being used in an educational setting.

https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Paper232739.htmll

Update 5 Nov 2013: We have added several files under the "Thing Files" tab that includes our inspiration of Universal Design for geoscience education (reported as a poster at a recent Geological Society of America meeting), map scales conversion to use conventional scales often taught in introductory-level college geology courses, an .mp4 video walking through the workflow and freeware used...including the real data (x-y-z coordinates) sources, transcript of the video for better accessibility, and other education-related resource about why we "do" this.

Blanco Fracture Zone, Eastern Pacific