GPlates x Digital Directory: re-linking people with earth system science in an opportune moment of pause

The Digital Directory contains a selection of playful websites from across the internet, including the GPlates Portal. By clicking-through, self-navigating and situating within place from a new perspective somewhere on the Digital Directory, the sit… — The Digital Directory contains a selection of playful websites from across the internet, including the GPlates Portal. By clicking-through, self-navigating and situating within place from a new perspective somewhere on the Digital Directory, the site allows for a renewed sense of remote connection with our non-human counterparts (plant, animal, machine). Image: TERRAIN Projects

COVID-19 lockdowns have stimulated major behavioural change, new thoughts, reflections, experiments and even dreams as many of our human-created systems have come to a raging halt. As traffic has continued to dim, we have found ourselves in the opportune moment to ‘remind ourselves that we are embedded in a more-than-human world — and have some fun along the way through digital ecotourism’, according to Cristina Napoleone (CN) and Matilda Sutherland, the imagineers of the Digital Directory, a playful space for people to sense the world around them a little differently.

To celebrate National Science Week, we connect this creative pair from TERRAIN and Girl On Road with leading geoscience researchers Prof Dietmar Müller (DM) , Dr Maria Seton (MS) and Dr Adriana Dutkiewicz (AD) from The University of Sydney to discuss GPlates’ new residence in the Directory.

CN: Seeing Michael Chin’s topographic reconstruction model on GPlates, often our instinct is to place ourselves on the globe, as a relative point of reference to the remaining topography of the world. Have you noticed growth in community science literacy that has come with the shift from static maps to interactive digital representations such as these, and where do you see these maps headed next — live data, immersive interaction using virtual or mixed reality technologies?

DM: Our virtual interactive globes on the GPlates Portal have increased in popularity, with over a million visits (and ~530 views per day) since we created the first globe in 2014. This web-browser technology is free and easy to use from any mobile device without downloading anything – and there are no ads!

We see them headed towards an interactive, immersive reconstruction service, where users can quickly investigate where the landscapes surrounding them were located tens or even hundreds of millions of years ago. A prototype of this kind of globe is our geology globe (pictured), where you can time travel back 200 million years. Using virtual reality technology, in the future people will be able to immerse themselves into ancient worlds, traversing supercontinents and ancient mountain ranges.

A GPlates geology reconstruction from 200 million years ago to present on the GPlates Portal, where colours represent different geological units.

CN: For any new visitor to the GPlates site who haven’t interacted with this kind of earth data before, it can be overwhelming to comprehend not only the mass of information, but mapped into such deep time scales that we have not been conditioned to think in due to the type of short-termism we suffer from in modern society. How did it feel for you to initially grasp the concept of deep time back when you started learning about the Earth? Is this something we as humans will always struggle to grasp or are we gradually waking up to long-termism?

DM: I grew up in a place in northern Germany that was covered by a huge ice sheet 18,000 years ago. The retreating glaciers left huge piles of sand, rocks and boulders behind, which fascinated me – my appreciation of geological time kicked in back then. I think animations and virtual globes play a key role in helping humans understand that our planet didn’t always look like today’s Earth.

A snapshot of the GPlates Portal, which canvases a myriad of different views of Earth for people to explore. Image: EarthByte Group, The University of Sydney

CN: How does the science of GPlates reveal one interconnected Earth? Furthermore, does showcasing a living Earth visualisation unbound by political borders from a planetary view help in breaking the static uniformity of our comfort culture?

DM: GPlates allows us to reconstruct the continents and ocean basins to their previous positions – this reveals how evolution and the migration of animals and plants has been enabled by the emergence of land bridges and seaways. GPlates can also reveal how the churning hot interior of the Earth is connected to volcanism on moving continents through time. Paleogeographic maps also show how the distribution of oceans, continents, and mountain ranges has influenced climate change.

MS: Reconstructing the earth requires a whole of earth perspective and political boundaries just don’t come into the process. All naturally occurring features on our planet, whether they be mountain ranges, rock units, basins, plains or our oceans, are agnostic to and often transcend political boundaries.

Even river systems that are used as hard boundaries between states and countries are forever shifting. By providing visual guides of the vast changes that have occurred on our planet, we hope people will reflect on their place, both in time and space.

The Earthrise photograph of the Apollo 8 astronauts revealed a perspective of the world that transcended our individualised systems (national, political, religious). Revisiting this image fifty years after it was taken continues to reveal a world wh… — The Earthrise photograph of the Apollo 8 astronauts revealed a perspective of the world that transcended our individualised systems (national, political, religious). Revisiting this image fifty years after it was taken continues to reveal a world where species, climate, and other Earth processes all interact in one shared home. Pictured: a still from Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee’s Earthrise video, Emergence Magazine

CN: In Ptolemy’s geography used in cartography, it was observed that we were always in a state of terra incognita (a state of unknowing). When cartographers used three-dimensional modelling they eventually had to address the fact that they were missing a critical axis of time, allowing for this research to arise on Earth processes — which now underpin our curiosities moving forward. Could you elaborate on what makes these maps a four-dimensional model and is there such a thing as a five-dimensional model?

DM: Plate tectonic reconstructions are 4-dimensional because they reveal Earth's evolution through geological time – the 4th dimension added to 3D space. GPlates is an exciting technology because it allows anyone with a computer to reconstruct the Earth through deep time – it makes “experimental planet” technology available to the public. The fifth dimension is uncertainty: The further we go back in time, the more fuzzy becomes our knowledge of what the Earth may have looked like.

It is often difficult to strike the balance between too much information that lacks engagement, or too much activity with very little information as a missed opportunity for learning; understanding how we learn is critical for increasing community s… — It is often difficult to strike the balance between too much information that lacks engagement, or too much activity with very little information as a missed opportunity for learning; understanding how we learn is critical for increasing community science literacy. The University of California, Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science, use five foundational ideas of learning when communicating climate and Earth sciences, these are: (1) an active process of engagement, (2) building on prior knowledge, (3) making the experience authentic to the learner (relatability), (4) learning in a social environment, and (5) sustaining learner motivation and engagement. Image: TERRAIN Projects and Emergence Magazine’s TREES multisensory exhibition (13-16th February 2020 in Fitzroy), photo by Medium.

CN: A knife can be used as a weapon or to prepare a beautiful meal. The map you have created on deep-sea polymetallic nodule probability, has been described to provide an improved basis for decision and policy making in the controversial area of deep-sea exploration. How can this map be used to prepare a beautiful meal, that is, in highlighting vulnerable areas where we may need more international Earth laws and potentially rights of nature to enable environmental protection?

AD: One of the key factors in the formation of the nodules on the seafloor, is their “symbiotic” relationship with deep-sea bottom-dwelling organisms such as octopods, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, soft corals, starfish, and sea anemones. By foraging for food on and around the nodules these organisms prevent the nodules from being buried and destroyed below the sediment surface; the nodules, in turn, provide a hard surface for some of these organisms to live on. The map not only predicts the areas where the nodules occur, but also highlights regions of potential ecological vulnerability, should deep-sea mining ever proceed.

According to this recent Nature article, seabed mining is coming — bringing mineral riches and fears of epic extinctions. This global distribution of polymetallic nodules on the seafloor, visualised in GPlates (left) will be a critical tool in under… — According to this recent Nature article, seabed mining is coming — bringing mineral riches and fears of epic extinctions. This global distribution of polymetallic nodules on the seafloor, visualised in GPlates (left) will be a critical tool in understanding and protecting deep sea creatures who maintain a symbiotic relationship with the nodules (right). Images: GPlates Portal and GEOMAR (CC BY 4.0), respectively.

CN: We rely on stories to understand what is happening around us. It is statistically true that the world has changed the most in the last ten years because we have been moving so incredibly fast. What stories are GPlates revealing to us now, especially if we use this time of pause to reflect on our possible futures shaped by this next wave of digital mapping?

DM: The first wave of mapping Earth’s tectonic evolution came about when Alfred Wegener proposed continental drift, but his theory was rejected because he did not know the underlying mechanism.

The second wave arrived when plate tectonic theory was developed, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, revealing the mechanism for moving continents. We are now in the third wave, enabled by community software like GPlates.

Dr. Keir Winesmith currently undertaking the Digital Collections Catalyst Residence with the State Library of Queensland observes two distinct waves of Brisbane’s mapping, first in the 1880s and the second in the 1980s. Keir believes we are now in the third wave, with each of these waves of mapping coinciding with waves of development and renewal. Video: State Library of Queensland

CN: Further articulating the magnificence of this Earth in languages beyond those in the field of science might require the help of artists to create works not to persuade our minds but to affect our hearts. Would you like to work with more artists in the future, and could such collaborations assist in reconciling and compensating for gaps and erasures of information (physical and socio-cultural)?

DM: We would love to work more with artists to translate Earth terrains through time into objects for every-day life – how about printed geo fabrics and fashion that capture the changing patterns, geometries and colours of the Earth through time?

MS: Yes, sure! We’ve interacted with artists in the past from writers to sculptors to digital architects! They have each made us see the material we work on, whether it be data, maps, or rock samples, from a different perspective.

Interdisciplinary scholar and media artist, Grayson Cooke recently worked with Digital Earth Australia and Geoscience Australia to engage critically with cloud-filtering algorithms employed by Geoscience Australia’s “Digital Earth Australia” (DEA) p… — Interdisciplinary scholar and media artist, Grayson Cooke recently worked with Digital Earth Australia and Geoscience Australia to engage critically with cloud-filtering algorithms employed by Geoscience Australia’s “Digital Earth Australia” (DEA) platform. The photography series draws attention to the constant erasure of clouds in spatial imaging by emphasising how aerial imagery looks with clouds, rather than without — as is typically normalised for scientists. Pictured: ‘Eyre Peninsula 2018_08_22’ artwork from Grayson’s 'Invalid Data' series.

CN: Before COVID-19, information overload and analysis paralysis seemed a common diagnosis. In this time, where the seismic hum of humans has literally mellowed, we are being provided an opportunity for balancing our lives again, with more listening and deepened reflection. Have there been any shifts in your work (or field) of how this time is being used to synthesise information differently?

DM: COVID-19 has slowed the incessant expansion of humanity on our planet – at the expense of many other species – and allowed us to reflect on the role we play on this planet.

Geological time and the vast tectonic shifts that our planet has experienced in the past helps us to appreciate that we cannot expect the Earth to be static and stay as it is. On the other hand, we should be very careful with changing the state of our planet at a fast pace without comprehending the long-term consequences.

COLLABORATORS
An interview by Cristina Napoleone of TERRAIN Projects and Prof Dietmar Müller, Dr Maria Seton and Dr Adriana Dutkiewicz; and produced and edited by Jo Condon and Cristina Napoleone

LEARN MORE
If you would like to learn more about GPlates, step over to EarthByte

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