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National Geoscience Maps Online Even Better

The most visited part of Geoscience Australia website has recently undergone a substantial upgrade, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Science and Resources, Warren Entsch MP announced today.

Mr Entsch said the National Maps Online GIS (Geographic Information Systems) facility is the most comprehensive online visualisation tool for Australian geoscience maps on the Internet, and generates more than 3000 maps per week for visitors.

The new website features over 70 different spatial geoscience datasets. These online datasets provide snapshots of Australia's onshore and offshore mineral and petroleum resources and their geological and geophysical contexts.

"It offers users the ability to zoom to selected geological regions, mines and towns, as well as general pan, zoom and query capabilities," Mr Entsch said.

The GIS tools available as part of the site enable users to select themes of interest from a large range of geoscience elements to combine them to form tailor made maps.

These themes include national scale geophysical images - such as aeromagnetics, gravity and crustal heat flow - and they can be overlain with data drawn directly from Geoscience Australia's national databases including those for earthquakes, geochemistry and geochronology.

"The result of this upgrade is a substantially better service for those wanting to create their own geoscience maps online or browse datasets available for download," Mr Entsch said.

With new software, the look and feel of this facility has been made even more flexible and user-friendly. The facility will be continually developed to provide evermore-comprehensive national geoscience information in a fast, flexible, convenient format.

"The major impact of this upgraded facility will be greater access to spatial geoscience of relevance to resource issues for national and international clients," he said.

This site will be of interest to resource companies, emergency managers, educational institutions, land managers, and any other people interested in Australian geoscience.