Gondwana Lab

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Researchers analyzing the geological map of Gondwana. In this picture, from left to right: Rafael Fragoso (Brazil), Igor Gomes (Brazil).

Inauguration of the Gondwana Lab in October 2011. Prof. Maarten De Wit (South Africa) with students and researchers from UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro.

Researchers analyzing the geological maps of the Gondwana-derived fragments. In this picture, from left to right: Dr. John Bradshaw (New Zealand), Dr. Rudolph Trouw (Brazil), MSc. Pâmela Richetti (Brazil)

Researchers from the Gondwana Lab at UFRJ working on the revision of the maps.

MSc. Evânia Alves, researcher from the Gondwana Lab, and Dr. Nicholas Barnett-Moore, researcher from the University of Sidney (Australia), at the Gondwana Lab in Rio de Janeiro.

Building up the new Gondwana map is not an easy task. Most of the activities are developed in the Gondwana Digital Center of Geoprocessing (GDCG) at the Department of Geology/Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). The lab is furnished with modern equipment (computers, printers, plotter and scanner) and specialized software to conceive the geological database that will sustain the new map. All these data will be available through the internet, our website, in a digital Gondwana library.

Activities developed in the last years include:
• Compilation of geological database available in GIS (institutions, scientists, papers, internet, others), from scales of 1:25M down to 1:1M;
• Compilation of geological data available only in paper maps. These maps were scanned and vetorized;
• Comparison of the distinct maps in the same area to select best option;
• Build up a GIS Gondwana database table, that coexists with the previous GIS table from the original geological database;
• Building up a special Gondwana new legend;
• Organization of a bibliography database of Gondwana papers/maps/books/reports;

The lab is run by a multidisciplinary team of researchers and technicians and also graduate and undergraduate students.