The past decade has seen a rapid increase in the application of high-resolution imagery and geographic-based information systems across every segment of society from security intelligence to product marketing to scientific research. Google Earth has positioned itself at the forefront of this spatial information wave by providing free access to high-resolution imagery through a simple, user-friendly interface. Whereas Google Earth imagery has been widely exploited across the earth sciences for spatial visualization, education, and place-based searches, few studies have utilized the high-resolution imagery to yield quantitative insights about the processes and mechanisms acting at the earth's surface. In this paper, we detail the benefits of the underlying high-resolution imagery available within Google Earth, review the limited published research to date, and utilize this imagery to quantitatively illuminate previously difficult and unresolved questions within the discipline of geomorphology involving: (1) channel-width variability and scaling relations in the tectonically active Himalaya; (2) landslide characteristics related to large magnitude climatic and tectonic events in Haiti; and (3) identification and quantification of laterally offset geomorphic features within eastern California. In each example, we compare analyses using freely available Google Earth imagery with standard imagery and techniques (e.g., Landsat, ASTER, lidar) to demonstrate the potential benefits of using high-spatial resolution Google Earth imagery over established methodologies. In addition, we discuss the potential limitations and problems with using the imagery currently available in Google Earth and propose favorable future applications, namely studies in remote terrains and those requiring high-resolution imagery across a large spatial extent, where purchasing such imagery in an academic environment would be cost-prohibitive. Whether as a supplement, for reconnaissance, or as the primary data set, high-resolution Google Earth imagery, when properly applied, holds great promise for quantitatively tackling previously unresolved problems in the study of earth surface processes.

The Grenadine Islands and the marine environment surrounding the islands were mapped over a five-year span. The project—Grenadines Marine Resource and Space-Use Information System (MarSIS)—involved merging local knowledge with existing scientific data into a geographic information system (GIS). Located in the Caribbean, the Grenadines share an international boundary between Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, creating numerous challenges for not only collecting data but sharing those data with the residents of the islands. Project geospatial information was collected in a GIS, but Google Earth was used as a way to share the findings on the web and through a series of tutorials and workshops. Though project GIS shapefiles will be made available through the project website, Google Earth was used as a ready delivery tool because it is cross platform, easy to use, and free. Using aftermarket GIS extensions, shapefile layers were exported from ArcGIS into Keyhole Markup Language (KML) layers. Over 400 photographs and videos were geolocated in the project KML. Once the Grenadines marine map was assembled as a KML project, we gave workshops on various islands. From user feedback following the first series of tutorials, we modified the KML by fixing problems, correcting mistaken information, and making the KML project file more understandable. When the project was finalized we put the KML on the MarSIS project web page and sent it as an attachment to the project email list. We traveled a second time to the Grenadine Islands to give another series of tutorials and workshops. We also created a video to help users navigate the project KML.

A re-examination of the rock types and depositional environments of Trinidadian sediments, combined with a consideration of the structural controls on sedimentation and subsequent translation, have enabled the division of Trinidad’s stratigraphy into three stratigraphic groups: the Upper Jurassic through Maastrichtian Northern Range Group metasediments, the Cretaceous and Tertiary Trinidad Group sediments and the Cretaceous igneous and sedimentary rocks of the Sans Souci Group.The Sans Souci Group rocks are stratigraphically and structurally distinct from Trinidad’s other rocks, and have probably been transported from the west with the Caribbean plate over many hundreds of kilometers. In contrast, the Trinidad and Northern Range Groups, which make up the majority of Trinidad, were deposited on the northern South American margin. Depositional environments interpreted from both groups suggest a rapid deepening around the Late Jurassic/Earliest Cretaceous time which may have been the result of the transition from a Middle/Late Jurassic phase of Proto-Caribbean rifting to Cretaceous passive margin development. The majority of the Late Jurassic through Late Eocene sedimentation history of both groups was on the outer shelf or middle to upper continental slope, and sedimentological variations appear to relate almost exclusively to long period eustatic variations in sea level and/or shifts in sediment pathways. Global oceanic anoxia, combined with upwelling and excessive fluvial run-off, at a time of high eustatic sea level, may explain the deposition of quality source rocks of the Gautier and Naparima Hill Formations from the Albian through to the Campanian time in Trinidad.Deep-water passive margin sedimentation is interpreted to have continued in Trinidad through to Late Eocene/Early Oligocene time. Rapid shallowing, indicated by Late Eocene biostratigraphic data leads to an upward transition from the pelagic marls of the Navet Formation into shallow-water limestones and localised conglomerates in the San Fernando Formation. Following this, Early and Middle Oligocene sedimentation was very slow or non-existent. A similar shallowing and slowing of sedimentation is known from eastern Venezuela in the late Middle Eocene time, slightly earlier than in Trinidad, and at progressively older times farther west along the northern South American margin. Progressive west to east uplift induced by the passage of the flexural forebulge in front of the eastwardly migrating Caribbean plate, or in plane stresses resulting from the convergence of North and South America, both explain this diachroneity in uplift.Trinidadian depocenters subsided rapidly in the Middle to Late Oligocene time, and up to 3 km of deltaic clastics and deep-water marls accumulated over 10 Ma (Late Oligocene to early Middle Miocene time). This is in sharp contrast to the thick passive margin sequence underlying these deposits that accumulated over an 80-Ma time period (Barremian to Eocene) and represents the onset of foreland basin sedimentation in Trinidad.With the progressive approach of the Caribbean plate in Early to Middle Miocene time, the foreland basin was deformed causing depositional environments to generally shallow through the Early to Middle Miocene time. Thrust, and/or strike-slip pop-up highs locally reached the photic zone in the Central Range, resulting in deposition of early Middle Miocene inner neritic platform limestones of the Tamana Formation.From the Late Miocene to Recent time, much of central and southern Trinidad subsided rapidly. In the last 5 Ma, up to 10 km of deltaic sediment accumulated in the Columbus basin to the south of Trinidad. The proximity of the Orinoco delta to the foreland basin is largely responsible for this rapid increase in sedimentation rate and may partially explain the subsidence. However, the subsidence observed in, and to the north and west of Trinidad may also be related to right-lateral strike-slip pull-apart basin development, possibly aided by a component of north-south extension as the Caribbean/South American plate boundary zone transforms into a zone of transtension.