Earthquakes!

Visualizing earthquakes is pretty satisfying: they happen at a specific location and time, the global database extends back 100+ years, and they occur in a distinct spatial pattern that tells us a lot about the inner working of our planet. Here are three great visualizations:

1. As an animated map (1915 to 2015)
2. As a heatmap (1915 to 2015)
3. As a beautiful static map

Now...which data viz is the 'best'?

How about tremors over the past day, week, or month?
Or Understanding Earthquakes (based on 10 years of data)?

DownGlacier

Here's a nice example of open-source / community-reviewed / cutting-edge scientific research: The DownGlacier statistical downscaling tool that is used in a paper published in the open-access journal The Cryosphere - Discussion.

Projection Wizard

Give it at try! Projection Wizard

IMO - projections is one of these 'legacy' topics from 20+ years ago that geographers and cartographers still love to be obsessed with while the our software has made dealing with projections 99.5 percent unnecessary. Get over it folks!

I like this spatial pattern!

Liberals don't get married!

As opposed to people from Utah and southern Idaho - the spatial patterns are remarkable! More at How Your Hometown Affects Your Chances of Marriage

What's Warming The World?

What's Warming The World? by Bloomberg Business is a beautiful and subtle data visualization that answers the question that some folks still have problems with: what factors (= forcings) can account for the observed rise in temperature?

• Natural forcings (solar, orbital, volcanic): No!
• Human forcings (land use, ozone, aerosol pollution, GHG): Yes!

There is no new science here - these things have been known for quite a while, but the data viz is well-done. And minimalistic = letting the data to the talking.

Google Street View on El Cap

This has caused a lot of buzz on the web: Google slepped their Street View 'orb' up The Nose on El Cap and (as expected...) captured some pretty cool images. Somehow I'm not all that impressed - sure, this was a pretty big effort to do, but ultimately simply a function of throwing enough $$$ at it.

Have a look at Project 360 by Mammut for 360° experiences of the Eiger, Matterhorn, and other mountains.