EarthViewer phone app

[KimTexan]

I’m sure some of you have seen the EarthViewer app, but I never have and stumbled across it this AM by accident while looking for a different app.

I’ve been playing with it for a bit. I’m not sure how helpful it really is, but it definitely provided some education to me.

The main feature is a globe or flat map of the earth. You can switch between the two views.

On the left is a geologic scale in brief. You can turn on a feature (white bar) which allows you to scroll up and down the scale and see ocean water levels around the globe at points in the chart.

   One annoying problem I found was the map location didn’t stay put as you scrolled. Maybe that was intentional to demonstrate continental drift, but I think it’s more than that.

   It also affected the zoom in. If I zoomed in on the southern US it zoomed out as I scrolled through geologic time.

 

You can turn on cities feature and it shows a few select cities.  Dallas, Houston or Mexico City aren’t included. These are huge cities.

Houston is the 4th largest city in the US.

   One odd thing is their location relative to each other didn’t seem to remain stagnant as you scroll through time. In other words cities moved. I.e. Taranto and NYC.

 

You can turn on Impact feature and see significant impact crator locations and get specs on it.

 

You can turn on a Fossils feature and it shows where important significant discoveries were made. You click on one and it pops up a window like this. This one had a video link in it with an 18 min, well done educational video.

 

I’m still playing with it and learning. I thought it was kind of cool and fun to play with. So I thought I’d share it.

I’ve been wanting something that shows me geography and ocean levels in my specific area. I’m still looking for that, but haven’t been very intentional in my search.

[Kane]

It's not bad for an eyeball view, but there are some inaccuracies in the maps. There could also be far more events added to it. I don't think this app is being updated anymore, so it could remain as-is. There are comparable paid ones out there like Ancient Earth, or Geotimescale Enhanced, but there isn't one I've found yet that has all the features I would like, or that doesn't have a number of inaccuracies. 

[KimTexan]

20 minutes ago, Kane said:

There are comparable paid ones out there like Ancient Earth, or Geotimescale Enhanced.

Thanks for the app names. I’ll have to check those out.

I wasn’t even looking for this or something like it. So now I’m interested.

[Heteromorph]

Interesting app. I have never heard of it before. So far I have mainly been using this to see continental drift in the North American region over time. Thanks for posting! 

[Fruitbat]

Very interesting indeed!  Unfortunately, I have a phone to make PHONE calls (and to do a little texting)...not to play around with a wide variety of apps!  My eyes aren't good enough (up close) to use most of them anyway! 

-Joe

[Kane]

Just now, Fruitbat said:

Very interesting indeed!  Unfortunately, I have a phone to make PHONE calls (and to do a little texting)...not to play around with a wide variety of apps!  My eyes aren't good enough (up close) to use most of them anyway! 

-Joe

Lol, ditto... but I have an iPad, so I can pinch zoom out to read tiny print or inspect visual details. Phone screens are too tiny for me, and my fingers make typing on them a major challenge. 

[MeargleSchmeargl]

That looks like quite the fun app you got there!

 

What I'm looking for is one that can give me formation names and potential finds for any given area. A kind of sampler, if you catch my drift.

[Miocene_Mason]

2 hours ago, MeargleSchmeargl said:

What I'm looking for is one that can give me formation names and potential finds for any given area. A kind of sampler, if you catch my drift.

It exists! It’s an app called Rockd, doesn’t say what you will find but if you know your geologic timescale you can figure that out. It gives formation names and locations, an interactive geo map. Also utilizes crowd sourcing which helps fix old, inaccuracate maps.

[Miocene_Mason]

3 hours ago, Fruitbat said:

Unfortunately, I have a phone to make PHONE calls

If you have a computer, you have EarthViewer

[Heteromorph]

10 minutes ago, WhodamanHD said:

It exists! It’s an app called Rockd, doesn’t say what you will find but if you know your geologic timescale you can figure that out. It gives formation names and locations, an interactive geo map. Also utilizes crowd sourcing which helps fix old, inaccuracate maps.

There is also an IOS app called Mancos that works quite well and does the same thing.