THE GEORGIA GEOLOGY AND AGGREGATE MATERIALS EXPLORER (GAME): LAUNCHING A GEOINFORMATION PORTAL FOR GOVERNMENT, INDUSTRY, AND EDUCATION

The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is charged with evaluating and monitoring the characteristics and quality of construction aggregate resources mined from more than 70 rock quarries and 50 sand pits across the Southeastern United States. In the course of meeting those responsibilities, GDOT geologists collect large amounts of petrologic, geochemical, structural, and engineering data that reflect the three-dimensional variability of a diverse set of deposits. In order to make these data available in a format useful to government, industry, academia, and the general public, we are launching a web-based application in the autumn of 2013. The Georgia Geology and Aggregate Materials Explorer (GAME) is an ESRI-based SharePoint map-delivery and geodatabase platform.

The Georgia GAME provides a searchable and filterable geologic database that users can query to produce custom maps relating lithology and structures to a variety of physiographical, political, and imagery datasets. All users can access petrologic (e.g., petrographic descriptions, photographs, and optical photomicrographs), crystallographic (powder X-ray diffractograms), and geochemical (X-ray florescence data) data from samples representing each unit. The datasets, including the base geologic maps, will be updated frequently from GDOT investigations along with contributed and cited sources. The platform also is designed to provide aggregate producers a secure portal for accessing historical documents and data maintained by GDOT for each company’s deposits and processing facilities. Our objective is that the Geologic of Map of Georgia (last published by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in 1976) henceforth will be a dynamic document readily available to support education and infrastructure delivery.