GMDE Mobile for Android

9 things about GMDE Mobile

1. GMDE Mobile, for iPad only, is one of the first mapping programs to allow the user to load a digital elevation model (DEM) for off-line use in the field.

2. Most mobile device field mapping software is excellent for locating the geologist horizontally (in X and Y, longitude and latitude, etc.) but does not bring the third dimension, elevation (i.e., Z), into the picture.

3. • Calculate orientations from three-point problems, yielding strike and dips that reflect much more accurately the orientation at the map scale rather than the outcrop scale (of course, you can also enter outcrop scale orientations measured with a compass or with the iPad itself).

4. • Project a planar contact across topography, giving the mapper an immediate hypothesis to test in the field as well as improving mapping overall by plotting planar contacts exactly as they should cross topography.

5. • Upload these large digital files to the iPad using iTunes File Sharing to transfer the digital files to GMDE Mobile’s document folder.

6. • Calculate a planar orientation by best-fitting a plane to the vertices of a contact drawn on the map.

7. However, to do significant calculations that can aid the geologist while in the field, you need X, Y, and Z.

8. Determine map thickness of stratigraphic units just by tapping a point on the base and a point on the top of the unit.

9. •Download GridFloat DEMs of the area in which they are interested.