91̽�� geologists had set out to create computer-based field experiences long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. , a 91̽��associate professor of Earth and space sciences, first got a grant from the National Science Foundation to send a former graduate student and a drone to photograph an iconic Pennsylvania geological site and pilot a new approach to field geology.

Her team has now completed a virtual field visit to that site, the , where decades of coal mining have exposed 300-million-year-old folds in the bedrock. A pilot version of the web-based tool was used during the pandemic, and a version that allows people to wear virtual reality headsets to explore the geological site just launched. A 91̽��field class used both tools in an undergraduate summer course that for the first time blended virtual and in-person field trips.

The 91̽�� project has many goals: to make geology field experiences accessible to more people; to document geological field sites that may be at risk from erosion or development; to offer virtual “dry run” experiences that complement field courses and help new students acclimate to the field; and to allow scientific collaborators to virtually visit a field site and explore it together.��

, a 91̽��doctoral student in Earth and Space Sciences, used his background in geology to help develop the virtual field experiences. He is lead author of a published this fall that presents the first two sites: the Whaleback site and a fictional site called “Fold Islands.”

“Virtual experiences provide access to more people, they let us visit sites that are completely inaccessible, and we think everyone can benefit from a new way to interact with the tools of field geology,” Needle said.��

Last summer, instead of the traditional 91̽��geology six-week field course in Montana, the department held a hybrid version led by Crider and , a 91̽��assistant professor of Earth and space sciences. It combined classroom teaching and digital experiences with day trips to the many geologic sites within driving distance of the Seattle campus.

“Moving forward, these virtual field trips are likely going to play a key part in making the geosciences more accessible and more equitable,” Condit said. “They provide the opportunity for all students to be able to begin experiencing fieldwork remotely, and learn about how vital the geologic field context is for the geosciences.”

The pandemic altered the project’s trajectory. When COVID canceled field trips, the team put the virtual reality programming on pause and focused on creating a web-based version that would be accessible most quickly to the most people. Since the site launched, it’s been accessed more than 1,700 times by 91̽��undergraduates and, after sharing among the geology teaching community, around the world. The team recently completed the VR version.

Even though people can now travel and assemble, the team believes virtual experiences could become part of a “new normal” for geology research and education.��

“Part of increasing access to the field is to help people know what to anticipate,” Crider said. “To the extent that we can help students anticipate both the outdoors experience and the science experience, then the uncertainty and maybe anxiety is reduced, and people can focus on the learning goals.”

The virtual experiences allow people to visit the field site and use common geology tools to measure angles in the rock layers or orientation of cracks that explain a landscape’s history. While a virtual option benefits anyone challenged by the travel and access to a remote field site, it also lets all students and researchers have a “dry run” experience and review techniques before reaching the actual location.

In the , keyboard commands let a user walk across the landscape. Users can try various tools to measure distances and angles. Selecting three points creates a virtual plane and displays its orientation. Data can be downloaded into a spreadsheet or directly into a popular geology software program.

“What’s unique about this experience is that it’s open-ended, which allows instructors to tailor the lessons and the goals,” Crider said. “Students decide what to measure, and where to measure, to answer the questions — it’s not predetermined. Making those decisions is an important thing to learn.”

The virtual experience also gives the scientist superhuman powers to instantly swoop from one place to another, zoom in and out to explore a site at different scales.��

“One of the cool advantages of the game is that you can fly. There’s a little jetpack icon and then you go up in the air, and all of a sudden your perspective changes, and you can travel quickly from place to place,” Needle said.��

It also provides access to sites that have limited or risky access.��

“At the Whaleback anticline a lot of the interesting, curved rock geometry is exposed at a height of 30 feet, where you can’t walk without risking fatality,” Needle said.

The team recently demonstrated the virtual reality version of the Pennsylvania site. Although VR requires a special headset, the field of view is larger, and VR offers a sense of scale that’s helpful at sites like the 30-foot-tall Whaleback anticline. An interactive feature lets the user pick up a rock hammer and split open a 3D model of a rock.

“As a teaching assistant, I’ve seen students confronted with challenges in the field that go beyond the academic aspect,” Needle said. “Or maybe someone can’t go into the field because they have bad asthma, or a particular field site can only be accessed with specialized climbing gear. We think a lot of people can benefit from these tools.”

Needle ran a short course at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting in October showing other geologists how to use the 91̽��software to create other virtual field visits. This was the third such workshop he’s given, and the largest so far. All the software used for the 91̽��experiences are freely available.

Projects are under way for sites in Pennsylvania, Vermont and California. Needle hopes that someday the software might be used to visit the bottom of the ocean or the surface of another planet.��

“I think this is a prototype of where the field of geology could be headed in the future,” Needle said.

The lead designers are , a recent 91̽��graduate in computer science and engineering who is now a software engineer at Lockheed Martin, and John Akers of the 91̽��Reality Lab. It was one of the first projects of the , which pairs 91̽��undergraduates with projects needing augmented-reality or virtual-reality programming. The effort and required tools for this work was funded by the National Science Foundation, 91̽��Research Royalty Fund, 91̽��Department of Earth and Space Sciences, 91̽��Student Technology Fund, and the Geological Society of America.

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For more information, contact Needle at mneedle@uw.edu, Crider at criderj@uw.edu and Condit at ccondit@uw.edu .��

A new project uses virtual reality to help communicate what climate models are predicting: Greenhouse gas emissions are increasing Earth’s temperature, melting glaciers that could create many feet of global sea level rise by the end of this century.

The project, available to community groups through The Seattle Public Library, uses Oculus Quest 2 goggles to help viewers imagine rising seas from a vantage point along the South Seattle waterway.

“Creative, interactive communication tools like virtual reality experiences offer a powerful way to spark conversations and action around climate change by helping show how a global-scale issue shows up in a very real way in our own communities,” said project leader , who began the effort at the 91̽��Climate Impacts Group and is now at the University of Minnesota.

The headsets and accompanying are available as of this spring for checkout by community groups, such as Boys and Girls Clubs, youth groups or 4-H Clubs, which agree to take responsibility for the equipment. The Seattle Public Library is looking at more ways to make the experiences available to the public.

The VR experience builds on a Seattle Public Library project that used historical photos, maps and artifacts to show the history of the Duwamish River — from times when the Duwamish Tribe used the waterway for transportation, through the industrial pollution of the 1900s, to today’s ongoing . It extends the timeline to a future in which the riverfront is clean but rising sea levels lead to more flooding of coastal and lowland areas.

Through the headset, the user sees the shores of the Duwamish River, first with large conifers and then with small buildings in the foreground and today’s South Park Bridge in the distance. A voiceover explains how emissions cause sea-level rise, and an aerial view shows how that might look on city streets. Users can pick blueberries, clean up garbage along the shoreline, and finally set sea-level rise along the shoreline from 1 to 5 feet.

“We developed this experience so that Seattle communities could virtually walk through a future Seattle and see how climate change is shaping our landscape, including drastically rising sea levels,” said , the digital media and learning program manager at SPL. “We hope that creating an immersive experience will make the concept more tangible and inspire communities to think about how to adapt and build resilience to climate change.”

The VR experience ends with recommendations for reducing fossil fuel emissions, such as choosing to ride a bike instead of driving a car that burns fossil fuels and engaging in local climate action efforts, with contacts listed in the booklet.

“Although I had experience with video game development, I had never made anything for VR. I associated VR mostly with entertainment uses before working on this project,” said lead developer , a 91̽��undergraduate in computer science. “I hope the experience makes people more aware of the history of the environments they exist in, and more mindful of their influence into the future.”

In addition to the VR experience, the team worked with Tableau to create an , available on the Climate Impacts Group website, that displays the projections for sea level rise depending on the location along the Washington coast, the climate scenario and the amount of geological rebound after the last ice age. Both products are based on sea-level rise projections published in 2018 for Washington state.

“These sea level rise projections and visualizations are hyperlocal — they are specific to the Washington coast, Elliott Bay and the Duwamish River valley,” said , the climate adaptation policy lead at Seattle Public Utilities.

“The VR experience provides an on-the-ground experience for sea level rise in South Park,” she said. “It’s more than gradations on a map, it’s about really getting a sense for what 5 feet of sea level rise would feel like.”

The VR experience was support by an from 91̽��EarthLab, Seattle Public Utilities, the National Science Foundation, the University of Minnesota and the Academy of Interactive Entertainment in Seattle. Additional programming was by Seattle developer , with support from artists and . The experience is narrated by KEXP sound engineer .

For more information, contact Roop at hroop@umn.edu, Strong at stront2@cs.washington.edu and Grodnik-Nagle at Ann.Grodnik-Nagle@seattle.gov. At SPL, contact communications manager Elisa Murray at elisa.murray@spl.org. Community groups can request a kit .