INNOVATION Mar-Apr 2020

A “hoodoo” (or, “tent rock”), located in Pinnacles Provincial Park

taking a geology course. Any way that we can make connections between the geology of BC and its history—the Gold Rush era, for example—helps them see how the province grew and changed because of its geology: why towns were established where they were, why roads went a certain way. It’s very exciting. My students can virtually hold in their hands samples that are in some cases over 100 years old, and see through the Below BC map that there is not a corner of BC that has not been touched by mining.” The first few GigaPan pictures of geological heritage sites taken during the 2019 road trips are now up on the Below BC site, too. With these new images, created using a robotic motor that automates a gigapixel camera to take hundreds of images over a single area, such as fossil plant beds near Oliver or the largest recorded landslide in Canada near Hope, viewers are able to zoom in to examine even minute details with great clarity. The recent road trips also resulted in an unanticipated viral moment for Below BC. On June 17, 2019, Jacob Moffat snapped a quick photo of fellow Below BC team member Allegra Whistler, P.Geo., standing next to

Another use for the 3-D images, says Randell, is professional development. “We had teams travel over 11,000 kilometres last summer, taking pictures of more than 1,200 specimens [about 250 have been uploaded to date, resulting in a 1,000 percent increase in website hits], and we have big plans to do many more when funding is available. Geologists and mining engineers will be able to spin and zoom and examine samples up close and get to know the rocks of pretty much any area of the province before they head out to a site.” Each 3-D image in the digital museum comes with a detailed description that includes what the specimen is, where it came from and the history of that site, and where the original sample is kept. Visitors to the Below BC site can access images directly, under the Geology of BC tab, or through an interactive map on the home page that provides a visual record of past and present mining exploration, as well as fossil and artifact discoveries, throughout British Columbia. “It’s really powerful as a tool,” says Derek Turner, P.Geo., who teaches in the Earth and Environmental Sciences department at Douglas College. “As an educator, I see it as a unique resource. Most of my students are not geology students; they are just

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