How true are geological maps? An exercise in geological mapping

Abstract

This paper describes a student exercise in mapping, designed to highlight the fact that maps within the field of Earth Sciences (geological, geophysical etc) are most often made from sparsely and spatially non-uniformly distributed data implying that the final products depend both on sampling strategies and interpretation. The pedagogic, take-home lesson from our exercise is that no map is better than the input data and no map represents the absolute truth. To convey this, individual students, or students divided into groups, are provided with data points derived using different sampling strategies over one defined area. From this set of data samples, the students have to interpret and produce maps, which are then compared. None of the maps created by the students will be identical, which will clearly demonstrate the main point of the exercise, i.e. no map represents the absolute truth, and stimulate a critical view of published maps in Earth Sciences.