usgsI will never understand this irony: I’m a card-carrying member of ACM SIGGRAPH and this year’s conference was held in the gorgeous city which I only recently moved away from, but I could not make it back for the conference.  Good thing Randall was there and diligently reported on the proceedings each day.

The USGS has just published a geo-visualization geek’s dream: an interactive map of newly-standardized terrestrial ecosystems, bioclimates, topo moisture, landforms and lithology of the continental United States.  (Granted, our nation is dominated by three outstanding Holocene lithologies – glacial, fluvial/alluvial and aeolian – but it’s nice to see them subdivided further properly).  Mapping criteria are provided in the link below.

USGS | A New Map of Standardized Terrestrial Ecosystems of the Conterminous United States