Help :: Data Explorer

Click on the "Explore Data in Google Earth" link or right click and select “save link as” to save the kml file to your own computer then double click the downloaded file. Google Earth should open automatically, if you have the application installed. Alternatively, open Google Earth and select File > Open and navigate to GSBC_Startup.kml. You will be flown to the QUEST study area and presented with a white outline. A link called DATA EXPLORER will be available in the places area of Google Earth and a number of options will be available.

Data Explorer Startup

You will be flown to the QUEST study area and presented with the QUEST Geophysics Survey Area (yellow outline), and the QUEST Study Area (white outline). A link called DATA EXPLORER will be available in the places area of Google Earth (see below) and a number of options will be available.

Click on the DATA EXPLORER link and you will be presented with a window with a detailed explanation of the project and the application. More information on this project and Geoscience BC can be found on the Geoscience BC website and specific information on the QUEST project can be found here.

Options and Data Layers

Under the "New Data Search" entry a layer called "Cross hairs" is available. Once you have found the area you want to look at on the map, check the box next to "New Data Search" layer to turn it on. The crosshairs represent the center of the map screen. Below this, a link will also be available. Click on the "Query This Location" link to explore geochemistry data.

You will be presented with a web page called “Geoscience BC Data Explorer”. Depending on your operating system, this will either be available inside Google Earth (MS Windows XP) or your default web browser such as Internet Explorer, or Safari (MS Windows Vista, or Mac OSX). It should be noted that when using Google Earth's internal browser, the data explorer is best viewed whilst docked to the bottom of the Google Earth map or in an external browser.

The sample locations are also available if you would like to view the locations for all the samples included in the Data Explorer. Check the box next to the layer "ICP Sample Data" in the Places area of Google Earth to turn on the location points in the view. Click on the + sign next to the checkbox to expand this data layer to list out the three different layers of samples (Reanalysed Stream Sediments - red points, Lake Sediments - blue points, and New Stream Sediments - yellow points).

Explore ICP Data with a Query

A “Query” is a term used to describe the process of asking a database a question. When you “Queried This location” earlier, the application remembered the center point of the map and will now use that point as a geographic reference to ask any further questions. This point will be remembered in the application until “Query This Location” is clicked again. Note, if you pan or zoom away from this view subsequently, the center point remembered by the application will not be updated until the link is clicked again.

Initially you must choose which data set you wish to query from the reanalysed stream sediment data, the lake sediment data or the new stream sediment data:

Reanalyzed stream sediment data: ICP-MS results of all reanalysed stream sediment data, released as Geoscience BC Report 2008-3
Lake sediment data: ICP-MS results of all new and reanalysed lake sediment samples, released as Geoscience BC Report 2008-5
New Stream Sediment Data: ICP-MS results of new stream sediment data in the Pine Pass (NTS 093O) map sheet

Alternatively, you may choose to query them all. Click the radio button which suits you. The default is all the data.

The data explorer, at this point, just includes the ICP-MS results from each GBC report. Full Results are available from Geoscience BC. Jackaman and Balfour have a useful description of all the datasets in their report: QUEST Project Geochemistry field Surveys and Data Reanalysis, Central British Columbia.

How to Build Your Query

Now you are able to design your query. From your knowledge of geochemical data you are able to ask about specific elements. For example:

As the selected element is changed so to will the units and the maximum, minimum values change, to reflect the different data held within the database. Thus you will have an idea of the variability of each element within the study area.

On pressing the button you are able to add a further element to the query, up to a maximum of five elements.

On pressing the button the bottom element will be removed, down to a minimum of one single element.

The user is prompted with the max and min values for each dataset, if a query is initiated outwith the possible data ranges, the prompting text turns red to indicate that the user should review the input values.

On the right side of the page the user is able to choose between searching through all the features, which may result in a large number of points, or searching through a geographic subset defined by the radius from the center point of the screen.

To help choose a radius, a scale bar can be activated in Google Earth. Click View > Scale Legend

Note: The point used to define the center of the radius was collected when “Query This Location” link was clicked earlier, subsequent map moves or zooms will not be taken into account by the application until that link is clicked again.

Once the query has been designed, click the “Submit Query” button and the application will deliver the query to the database and return a KML (Google Earth) file to you.