Virtual geographic environments (VGE) are environments pertaining to the relationship between post-humans and 3-D virtual worlds. Post-humans are defined as a combination of humans in the real world with 3-D avatars in 3-D virtual worlds. Five types of space, namely Internet space, data space, 3-D graphical space, personal perceptual and cognitive space, and social space are used to explore the...

In this paper, we address two challenging issues underlying spatial cognitive simulation using software agents immersed in Virtual Geographic Environments (VGE). First, the way to describe virtual VGE models using accurate spatial decomposition approaches structured using graph theory techniques. Second, the use of graph abstraction techniques to realistically support advanced navigation and pa...

Interpretation of subsurface geology is greatly enhanced by 3-D seismic data, and this accounts for its ubiquity in today’s search for hydrocarbons. Seismic interpretation has two fundamental disciplines at its core: seismic geomorphology and seismic stratigraphy. Plan views allow the explorationist to apply principles of geomorphology, based on analogies with modern sedimentary systems, to int...

The evolutionary success of planktic calcifiers during the Phanerozoic stabilized the climate system by introducing a new mechanism that acts to buffer ocean carbonate-ion concentration: the saturation-dependent preservation of carbonate in sea-floor sediments. Before this, buffering was primarily accomplished by adjustment of shallow-water carbonate deposition to balance oceanic inputs from we...

It is the great challenge of geomicrobiology to study microorganisms in the context of their environments, both in Earth’s distant past and in the present. Planet Earth and its biosphere have evolved together, and a chronicle of Earth’s ecosystems and their geochemical cycles is recorded in sedimentary rocks spanning billions of years. A relatively new and very powerful approach to read these s...

by intermittent land masses on the northeast and southwest. The area has been cut by numerous right-lateral transcurrent faults and the stratified rocks now lie along the northeastern flank of the Coast Plutonic Complex. leletzky and Tipper (1968) described a faunal stratigraphy for the Taseko Lakes map sheet and discussed the role of the Qaughton trough in the geological history of southwester...

The Curiosity rover discovered fine-grained sedimentary rocks, which are inferred to represent an ancient lake and preserve evidence of an environment that would have been suited to support a martian biosphere founded on chemolithoautotrophy. This aqueous environment was characterized by neutral pH, low salinity, and variable redox states of both iron and sulfur species. Carbon, hydrogen, oxyge...

The strong dissipative effects cohesive sedimentary environments have on waves are well known, but little understood. The commonly accepted long wave paradigm (only low frequency motion is affected due to strong interaction with the bottom) is contradicted by observations (Sheremet and Stone 2003) showing strong dissipation also in high frequency bands, where the direct wave-bottom interaction ...

A model for the emplacement, bioturbation, and preservation of fine scaled sedimentary strata has been used to evaluate the impact of interacting physical and biological sedimentary processes on preserved sedimentary fabric in three contrasting shelf and estuarine depositional settings: Eckernförde Bay, German Baltic Sea; the Eel Shelf, northern California, USA; and the northern Gulf of Alaska ...

Plastic pellets are worldwide contaminants that accumulate in the ocean, especially in sandy beaches, where their historic standing-stock quantification relies on surface sediment samples. We demonstrated these particles present a three-dimensional instead of a simple along-across shore distribution, being found as deep as 2.0 m, with surface layers accounting for <10% of the total abundance in...