News Releases

USM Using Space Age Technologies To Map Geologic History of Maine's Coast

July 8, 2004

Two USM professors and a group of undergraduate students are using space age technologies and sea kayaks to map the collision between North America and Africa that happened 500 million years ago.

USM Associate Professor of Geography Matthew Bampton, USM Professor of Geology Mark Swanson and a team of students are analyzing previously undocumented evidence of the complex geologic history of the Maine coast. The two professors and students use sea kayaks to navigate the Muscongus Bay region, and set up their recording equipment on rocky outcrops. "We're at a turning point in our ability to analyze data" Bampton says. "We now have the tools to map with a precision that allows us to understand more, working on a scale that allows you to see the distribution of features, patterns, linkages, and orientation that were previously invisible."

The researchers' tools include a Global Positioning System (GPS) that's integrated with infrared equipment to pinpoint tiny geologic details along Maine's coastline. The information gathered is then displayed using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology which combines a powerful database and a three-dimensional graphic capacity. Using this digital mapping capability, they can map much more precisely and zoom out via computer from tiny details to the large scale.

This collaborative professor-student research project is part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. The program is designed to attract talented undergraduate students and to encourage them to continue their careers in scientific and technology-based research. More information on the program is available at www.nsf.gov/home/crssprgm/reu

The USM-based project, which has attracted nine students throughout the country, is one of only three or four such programs in the country using the emerging spatial technologies of GPS and GIS.ÊÊ

Bampton, Swanson and the team of nine students have spent much of the past six weeks on Muscongus Bay, mapping the region's geologic features. The students now will spend the next two weeks (through Friday, July 23) in the GIS lab at USM, analyzing the data they gathered and preparing it for publication at a scientific conference.

EDITOR'S NOTE:Ê USM Professors Bampton, Swanson and the team of student researchers will be working in USM's Geographic Information Systems Lab, Mondays through Saturdays, beginning Friday, July 9, up to and including Friday, July 23. The lab is located in Room 302 of Bailey Hall, on USM's Gorham campus. Students also will be out on the Gorham campus to test equipment. To make arrangements for a story, please call Bob Caswell or Judie O'Malley of USM Public Affairs at 780-4200. You also can contact Rosemary Mosher, the curriculum development assistant, in the GIS Lab, at 780-5916.Ê

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