Andrew Michael of the US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, will give the annual Lawson Lecture, sponsored by the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, on April 24 at 4pm in 50 Birge Hall on the UC Berkeley campus.

This year's lecture, Parkfield 2004: Lessons From the Best Recorded Earthquake in History, will discuss the September 28, 2004 earthquake in Parkfield, California.

From BSL web site: "Obtaining high-quality measurements close to a large earthquake is not easy: one has to be in the right place at the right time with the right instruments. Such a convergence happened, for the first time, when the September 28, 2004, magnitude 6, Parkfield, California, earthquake occurred on the San Andreas fault in the middle of a dense and diverse network of instruments designed by the scientists of the Parkfield Earthquake Prediction Experiment to record what occurred before, during, and after this event. The resulting data reveal aspects of the earthquake process never before seen. These data, when combined with data from a sequence of at least 6 earlier Parkfield earthquakes dating back to 1857, provide important lessons about earthquake processes, prediction, and the hazards assessments that underlie important policies such as building codes."

This lecture is free and open to the public.

EART now has a way to scan Microforms onto a USB drive.

Instead of making paper prints, you can preview, scan, and adjust the image quality as well as the file format. With this new system, you can take digital copies of microfilm material with you. This is perfect for students and patrons who need digital versions of Sanborn maps and other Microfiche items (such as USGS publications, including Open-File Reports).

You must bring your personal USB drive, the library does not have any available for use or sale. Scans are free for all users.

Looking for an antique map of Oakland? Interested in knowing more about the Ranchos of California?

The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection is a great resource for finding and accessing antique maps. The site currently hosts 15,800 maps, all accessible online. New maps are being added and are all viewable using the Insight Browser. You can download maps and/or purchase reproductions from the site as well.

You can see historic maps from the David Rumsey Collection as layers in Google Earth too.

The scope of the collection is large. From the site's homepage:

The David Rumsey Collection was started nearly 20 years ago, and focuses primarily on cartography of the Americas from the 18th and 19th centuries, but also has maps of the World, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. The collection includes atlases, globes, school geographies, books, maritime charts, and a variety of separate maps, including pocket, wall, children's and manuscript.

Google Earth Pro is now available on one of the GIS workstations in the library.

From the Google Earth Pro web site:

In just a few clicks, you can import site plans, property lists or client sites and share the view with your client or colleague. You can even export high-quality images to documents or the web.

Share your Google Earth views and data representations with your clients as a KML, Google Earth‘s original file format. With your upgraded Pro subscription, you get additional measurement tools (square feet, mile, acreage, radius and so on), so simply select the points on the screen using your mouse and let Google Earth calculate the rest.

To use Google Earth Pro, please ask at the Cirulation Desk.

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