{"id":433,"date":"2026-02-17T10:25:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aurelieng.fr\/?p=433"},"modified":"2026-02-17T10:25:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:25:44","slug":"geological-field-mapping-at-the-university-of-montpellier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/aurelieng.fr\/index.php\/2026\/02\/17\/geological-field-mapping-at-the-university-of-montpellier\/","title":{"rendered":"Geological Field Mapping at the University of Montpellier"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Geologic mapping is a <strong>highly interpretive, scientific process<\/strong> that can produce a range of map products for many different uses, including assessing ground-water quality and contamination risks; predicting earthquake, volcano, and landslide hazards; characterizing energy and mineral resources and their extraction costs; waste repository siting; land management and land-use planning; and general education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/paleturquoise-reindeer-331443.hostingersite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/f395c0_2ae19a57ff824ad6ab6d77d065812b4dmv2.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-430\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"viewer-784ta\">Field mapping can be <strong>physically and mentally challenging<\/strong>. Although maps are two-dimensional sheets of paper, they portray the geology in three-dimensions. This is because most structures tend to dip or plunge and, therefore, one can infer the direction and degree of dip or plunge through outcrop patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"viewer-6b37n\">The art and science of geologic mapping involves the accurate depiction of contacts between rock units on a base map of some sort. This is what it\u2019s all about \u2013 <strong>being able to draw a contact on a topo-map or air photo !<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/paleturquoise-reindeer-331443.hostingersite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/f395c0_208b2ad8030a42b89dbdc3269d4de0aamv2.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-431\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"viewer-diq6a\"><strong>Field mapping is the ultimate application of the scientific method<\/strong> \u2013 a good field mapper is constantly testing predictions about the next outcrop and evaluating multiple hypotheses about the structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"viewer-cpo9a\">In France, <strong>the University of Montpellier in Earth Sciences is considered as a reference in field mapping in Europe<\/strong> and beyond because it is located between the Alps and the Pyrenees and most outcrops are accessible in a day. Our students go in the field almost every week ! At the end of each academic year a long (5 to 10 days) field camp is organized in order to test concepts acquired during the courses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Geologic mapping is a highly interpretive, scientific process that can produce a range of map products for many different uses, including assessing ground-water quality and contamination risks; predicting earthquake, volcano, and landslide hazards; characterizing energy and mineral resources and their extraction costs; waste repository siting; land management and land-use planning; and general education. Field mapping&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/aurelieng.fr\/index.php\/2026\/02\/17\/geological-field-mapping-at-the-university-of-montpellier\/\" rel=\"bookmark\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Geological Field Mapping at the University of Montpellier<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15,45],"class_list":["post-433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teaching","tag-coordinates","tag-map"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/aurelieng.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/aurelieng.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/aurelieng.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aurelieng.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aurelieng.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/aurelieng.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434,"href":"http:\/\/aurelieng.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions\/434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/aurelieng.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aurelieng.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aurelieng.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}