Started in 2003 as a desktop application, it has become a widely adopted standard for video presentations and visualizations of Earthquake information. This edition of Earthquake 3D represents a third generation of this very popular computer program. This database (updated periodically) is built-in to Earthquake 3D and is available even when you are off-line. The Atlas database shows over 4000 years of Historic Earthquake information. In addition to providing several 'live' sources of current Earthquake information, an Atlas database is also included. Filter Earthquakes by magnitude and age with slider controls. Uses "point and drag" to position and spin the Earth. Can import up to four external Earth images that are supplied by the user. Earthquake details include Local Maps, Local News, and Advanced Seismic Information. Tap on individual indicator 'flags' to show details for each Earthquake. Individual quake indicator 'flags' that show magnitude or depth. Current worldwide Volcano activity display. Data from USGS, European EMSC, British Geological Survey, and New Zealand Geonet. Includes 4000+ years of Historic Earthquake information. Control Speed, Decay, and Sound of Earthquake sequencer loops. A Sequencer that shows Earthquakes as they occurred using animation loops. Solid and wire frame 3D views with transparent Earth ability. Eight different Earth display types that include population and tectonic plate maps. Go where no seismogram has gone before with a fascinating and mesmerizing look at the world's Earthquakes. Earthquake 3D uses animated graphics to show you the "big picture" and visualize large amounts of Earthquake data quickly and easily. A “Zoom to” makes it easy to find a specific earthquake on the map.Zoom and spin your way around the world with this fully immersive 3D Earthquake display app. To provide a quick overview of last year’s most important earthquakes, I’m displaying a list of all earthquakes with magnitude 7 or greater. To create this type of visualization, I used a SimpleRenderer with two visual variables: a colorVariable and a sizeVariable. For the smaller earthquakes, I think it’s important to see that they are many, but the differences between them are not so important, so a small symbol for all of them works as well. I made this decision because I wanted to see the nuances when it comes to bigger earthquakes (which also occur less frequently). It is an interesting mix between a visualization with classes and a continuously mapped values. Between 6 and 7 the values are interpolated, which is why there are also middle sized, orange spheres. For this reason, the earthquakes between 4 and 6 are represented as small, yellow spheres and the ones stronger than 7 as large, dark red spheres. I wanted to have a clear distinction between earthquakes that go beyond a magnitude of 6 and produce catastrophic damage and the ones lower than 6. The magnitude of the earthquake was mapped both on the size and the color of the symbols. In ArcGIS API for JavaScript I am waiting for the view to finish updating to make sure that all the points are loaded, and then I call the goTo() method moving 0.1 degree longitude east on every frame. How did I rotate the globe? Rotating basically means moving the camera around the globe. This is why the application initially starts with the globe rotating: However, it becomes easier to locate the points in space when the scene is in motion. In this map, the exaggerated depth makes it even harder! The basemap is also very minimal, containing only the borders of the countries and those of the tectonic plates. In images of 3D maps it’s sometimes hard to figure out where the features are in space. In this case featureExpresionInfo.expression = "-$pth * 6".
How to exaggerate the depth of the earthquakes? With ArcGIS API for JavaScript you can set the featureExpressionInfo on the elevationInfo property of the CSVLayer.
Take for example the Tonga trench, a very active tectonic region with many earthquakes reaching very deep, all the way to 700km. The earthquakes are stretched now much more and you can notice differences between regions. On the right, the earthquake depths are exaggerated by a factor of 6.
Notice how you couldn’t really tell the difference between a 12km deep earthquake and a 410km deep earthquake. The screenshot on the left is using real depth. Comparison between a visualization with exaggerated depth and without.