One key skill all students need to master is how to use the vast amounts of information available in online databases.

In today's workshop, Andrew Goodwillie from the Marine Geosciences Database Group, will highlight various approaches to exploring and mapping the seafloor using GeoMapApp http://www.marine-geo.org/geomapapp/

GeoMapApp, is a freely downloadable Java(TM) application, which permits users to generate and download attractive custom maps of the ocean floor, view time sequences of earthquake swarms, view exotic sea creatures around hydrothermal vents, and explore a variety of other marine geoscience data sets.

The underlying database includes high-resolution seafloor depth data collected from hundreds of research cruises.

These data have been integrated into GeoMapApp to allow seamless viewing and analysis of the world's oceans. High-resolution land elevations have also been included and these allow spectacular maps of the land areas to be created.

GeoMapApp is under active development. New bathymetry data are periodically added to the database, new functions are added to existing database interfaces, and new data sets are being developed. Data sets that we hope will be accessible through GeoMapApp in the next year include ODP (Ocean Drilling Program.)