Collaborative Research: Improving the Generic Mapping Tools for Seismology, Geodesy, Geodynamics and Geology

University Of Hawaii, Honolulu

Investigators

Abstract

1347184 Wessel This EAR Geoinformatics Program (NSF 11-581) grant supports a three year project to develop enhancements to the Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) software package for analyzing and displaying geoscience data. GMT now includes more than 80 modules that share a common set of command options, file structures, and documentation. It is used widely to produce publication-quality graphic presentations. GMT now has more than 25,000 individual registered users. This award will support expansion on GMT capabilities to include: 1) code for plotting, velocity vectors from GPS measurements and their uncertainties as arrows with confidence ellipses, earthquake focal mechanisms as hemispherical projections on cartographically correct maps, ternary diagrams and geologic symbols; 2) an Application Programming Interface (API) between GMT and Python to support computational workflow scripting; and 3) tools for Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) processing and analysis for spatially resolved imaging of Earth surface deformation associated with earthquake-generating faults, active volcanoes, moving glaciers, and unstable landslides, as well as the engineered withdrawal and/or injection of petroleum, natural gas, geothermal fluids, and carbon dioxide. The developed GMT source code will be distributed, free of charge, under the GNU Lesser General Public License. ***