ABSTRACT
This review attempts to summarize contributions by authors who, in the last decade, have dedicated their efforts to making geoheritage accessible to the public. Geoheritage is composed of geosites, which are, nowadays, real milestones on which field-based geological education can be conducted. However, the COVID-19 pandemic in particular has made it clear that a new paradigm is needed;a series of tools must be introduced and increasingly used to make it possible for potential users, be they academics, students, or the lay public, to experience geosites from locations that can be thousands of kilometers away. All these have been achieved over time by a wide range of evolving techniques and advanced technologies such as GIS tools, virtual reality applications and further innovative technologies such as WebGIS platforms accompanied by appropriate navigation tools (VR headsets and thumbsticks). The viewers, in this way, are provided with a complete view of a virtual geosite, which enables visualizing its characteristics at different scales. VR technologies, especially, have revealed a high degree of satisfaction, based on feedback collected from VR geosite visualization events, both by scientists, students and the general public, and could be the forefront of geosite visualization and valorization in the near future.
ABSTRACT
In this body of work, we showcase a historic virtual geotrail on the eastern flank of the iconic Mt. Etna volcano (Italy), along a series of outstanding geological sites and features subsequent to an important eruption that took place in 1928. A geohistoric account of such a major eruption, is of great interest, since it is the only event since 1669 to have caused the destruction of a town (Mascali) in the Etna region. Volcanologists, educators, the lay public, tourists and volcano explorers can now access a series of “virtual geostops” belonging to this virtual geotrail, such that “visitors” can virtually fly above these sites by scanning a QR code on the printed or electronic version of the present manuscript, as well as on the poster provided as additional material for this manuscript. The virtual geostops that comprise the virtual geotrail were developed using the structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry technique from images captured by using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The main result of our work is the virtual geotrail, subdivided in two parts and composed of eight geostops, each showing outstanding examples of geological features resulting from volcanic phenomena that took place also during 1979. Our approach is designed to support classical field trips, and it can undoubtedly become complementary to traditional field teaching in earth sciences, both now and in the future.