Exploring Effects of the Haitian Earthquake

Web technologies for visualization and information dissemination have brought the devastation wrought by the Haitian earthquake to the desktops of the worldwide community. Here is a very small sampling of the resources available.

Services like Bing and Google Earth permit one to explore the aerial views of destruction. The Search Engine Land blog has created a video demonstrating how to use these services.

Supersites is a collaborative effort of the geohazard scientific community. As described by their home page, “The Supersites provide access to spaceborne and in-situ geophysical data of selected sites prone to earthquake, volcano or other hazards.” Here you’ll find a USGS ShakeMap, a simulated ground deformation map, historical seismicity, stress change maps among others. At the Google Crisis Response site, a number of post-quake layers can be viewed and downloaded in KML format. The New York Times has created an interactive map using GeoEye technology.

YouTube is replete with videos from a number of sources, while Immersive Media puts you at ground level with 360 degree videos.

The Physical Environment Link: Tectonics and Landforms