Geological Field Exploration
Everything a geologist needs between the car and the outcrop, in one place: where you are and how high, the compass and the clinometer, the weather to expect, the rocks under your feet, the drawing and description of the outcrop, the structures, the sections and the trip itself. The tools work on the phone, and the field ones keep working without a network.
- 1Before you go: plan the trip, save the areas for offline use, check the weather and pack the kit.
- 2At the outcrop: fix the station, read the ground, measure, sketch, describe and sample.
- 3After the field: plot the stereonet, build the sections and write the report.
At the station
Position, compass and clinometer, the station sheet, the outcrop sketch and the camera that names the mountains.
Field Station: Position, Compass and the Ground Around You
Stand at an outcrop and the phone tells you where you are, which way you face, the dip of the bed, the weather to expect and what the ground around you is made of.
Learn moreOutcrop Sketch and Field Description
Photograph the face, draw the bed boundaries with a finger, describe each bed — and get an annotated sketch and a measured section.
Learn moreField Survey Companion
The geologist’s field notebook on the phone: stations, measurements, samples and photos, even without a connection.
Learn moreWhat Is in Front of Me? Geology Camera
Point the phone at a mountain: the geological units you are looking at are named on the picture, and photos and videos keep the labels.
Learn morePlanning the trip
Routes and stops, a geological report for any site, flood and rain alerts, and the geological heritage along the way.
Offline Field Survival Map
Save an area before the trip; in the field, with no network, see where you are and the nearest water, village, road, clinic and high ground, with the slopes and stream beds to avoid.
Learn moreGeological Field Trips
Ready field excursions with verified stops: what crops out, what to measure, which fossils to look for, and the tools to use at each stop.
Learn moreSite Report
Pick any point on Earth and get its terrain, rocks, faults, earthquakes, climate, soil and rivers, screened for natural hazards, in one report.
Learn moreHydrological Early Warning
Hourly rainfall tested against landslide thresholds, now and for the week ahead.
Learn moreGeo-Heritage & Archaeological Tourism
Iraq’s natural, geological and archaeological places, read on the ground they stand on.
Learn moreStructures and sections
Stereonets of bedding, joints and faults, automatic geological sections, and the quality of the rock mass.
Stereonet Lab
Orientation statistics, pole density, rose diagrams and kinematic counts on the lower hemisphere.
Learn moreAutomatic Geological Cross-Section
Draw a line on the map: topographic profile, surface geology, projected dips and a constructed section ready for the report.
Learn moreStructural & Geotechnical Survey
Your phone becomes a geological compass.
Learn moreRock Mass Classification Lab
RMR89, Q, Q-slope and GSI with Hoek–Brown strength and deformation modulus.
Learn moreRocks, units and fossils
The geological unit at any point, the stratigraphic column, the fossils and the mineral wealth of Iraq.
Geological Unit Finder
Any point on Earth: rock unit, age, succession and sources.
Learn moreStratigraphic Column Designer
Publication-standard stratigraphic columns with a written interpretation.
Learn moreFossil Sites Explorer
Every fossil site on your map, read and interpreted.
Learn moreIraq’s Mineral Wealth
Oil, gas, phosphate, sulphur, silica sand and clays: where they are, the rocks that hold them, how much there is and what they are used for in Iraq and the world.
Learn moreHow to hold the phone
A phone measures direction with a magnetometer and tilt with an accelerometer. Each measurement needs its own hold.
Flat — a direction on the ground
Screen to the sky, held level at waist height, the top edge pointing where you want the bearing: along a fault trace, a joint, a fold axis, a stream or a path. Keep the bubble centred.
Upright — a bearing to a distant target
Held upright in front of you like taking a photo, the back camera facing the target: a peak, a ridge, a well or the next station. The phone gives the bearing and the tilt of the line of sight.
On the bed — dip and strike
The back of the phone flat against the bedding, joint or fault surface, screen facing out. On rough rock, lay a field notebook on the surface first and the phone on the notebook. The phone gives the dip, the dip direction and the strike.
Measuring dip and strike
Strike is the direction of a horizontal line on the bed; dip is the steepest angle of the bed below the horizontal, measured at right angles to the strike. Record them as dip direction / dip (for example 225/30), or as strike and dip with the right-hand rule: with your right hand pointing along the strike, the bed dips to your right.
Good practice
- Measure both limbs of every fold and at least 20 readings for each joint set.
- Check the first stations of the day against a real compass-clinometer; differences above 5° mean the phone needs calibrating.
- Write the reading in the notebook as well: phones run out of battery.
- Photograph each measured surface with the phone or the hammer on it for scale.
With the phone (field station)
- Open the field station, fix the position (for the magnetic declination) and start the compass.
- Calibrate: move the phone in a figure of eight, and step a few metres away from the car, the hammer and anything of iron.
- Choose «On the bed» and find a true bedding surface, not a joint or a weathered slab that has moved.
- Lay the back of the phone flat on the surface (on a notebook if rough) and hold it still for two seconds.
- Press «Lock and record». Repeat on two or three places of the same bed and keep the values that agree.
- Send the planes to the stereonet at the end of the day.
With a compass-clinometer (Brunton or Silva type)
- Set the declination on the compass for the area (the field station shows it).
- Strike: hold the edge of the compass against the bed, level the bull’s-eye bubble, and read the bearing of the edge.
- Dip: turn the compass on its side at right angles to the strike line, read the clinometer at the steepest angle.
- Dip direction: note which way the bed goes down (strike + 90° or − 90°), and write e.g. 225/30.
- On gentle dips or rough surfaces lay the notebook on the bed and measure on the notebook.
Safety and field kit
Tick what you have before leaving. The list is kept on this device.