I'm a geochemist. My main interest is in-situ mass spectrometry, but I have a soft spot in my heart for thermodynamics, poetry, drillers, trees, bicycles, and cosmochemistry.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
A planet full of WoGE
In celebration of the first anniversary of Where on (Google) Earth, I decided to have a quick look at the locations the geoblogospheroids have chosen for this highly successful quiz meme.
Below is a pie chart of the area of continents and major islands.
Compare this to the distribution of WoGE sites:
As you can see, Asia and Africa are under-represented, Antarctica is badly under-represented, while North America, Europe, and small islands are over-represented.
But there is more to geology than surface area. Below is the breakdown by tectonic regime (using the USGS plate boundary kmz file):
While “craton” here incorrectly includes the deforming interiors of several continents (Asia, Africa, North America), I’m still surprised that more sites weren’t close to active margins.
that's cool ... I love stats like these.
ReplyDeleteI suppose Antarctica is under-represented because people think it might be too easy? Cuz it's all ice? Not sure.
I should probably rejig the continental areas to show ice-free areas for Antarctica and Greenland...
ReplyDeletejust excellent !!
ReplyDelete