See also: Virtual-reality cave (Quicktime, 1 min 40 sec)
Andy Fell, producer; Ken Zukin, videographer
Geologists plumb the depths, immersed in a three-dimensional illusion
UC Davis geologists are making virtual field trips to the depths of the Earth, the interior of earthquake faults and perhaps the rocky plains of Mars as a result of a $1 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles.
Working in a room walled with projection screens to create the illusion of an immersive, three-dimensional environment, the geologists study topics ranging from the structure of the deep Earth to the atomic structure of minerals and looking for traces of the first life on Earth or Mars.
"You can essentially be inside your data," says Louise Kellogg, professor and chair of the Department of Geology at UC Davis and a principal investigator on the grant.
On the home page: The virtual-reality cave shows the interior of the Earth.