Global viewport to deep-sea vents : dataset for spherical display systems

Abstract

Spherical display systems, including digital globes, are new technologies increasingly used in both informal and formal education to display global datasets. By creating a narrative using multiple datasets, inter‐disciplinary concepts and linkages between Earth systems ‐ lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere ‐ can be conveyed. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in collaboration with New Bedford Ocean Explorium, invites you to explore the deep sea with the Global Viewport to Deep‐Sea Vents: Dataset for Spherical Display Systems. Our content was developed for public audiences by a team of scientists, educators, and graphic artists. We created new content for digital globes that interweaves imagery obtained by deep‐diving vehicles with global datasets, including a new dataset locating the world's known hydrothermal vents and an animation showing where these vents were discovered every year since the first discovery in 1977. We provide site‐specific movies to show the diversity of geological settings and life at deep‐sea vents. Our two narratives, "Life Without Sunlight" and "Smoke and Fire Underwater,” are provided as compilation movies matched to interactive playlists for docent‐led presentations. Each narrative focuses on a set of Earth Science and Ocean Literacy Principles to educate and excite the public about dynamic geophysical and biological processes and exploration in the deep ocean. In Version 1, we provide datasets, movies, and educational materials prepared for NOAA’s Science on a Sphere® (SOS; http://sos.noaa.gov/), with our two compilation movies also formatted for Magic Planet (http://globalimagination.com).