Cover photo: Aerial view of California Stadium and Lidar Image of Same
Cover photo: Aerial view of California Stadium and Lidar Image of Same

In urban areas it is sometimes difficult to perform geological research. The native landscape has been highly altered by human activity, like building roads, houses, sports facilities and many other structures. Geologic features are covered over by infrastructure or hidden inaccessibly on private property. Aerial or satellite photography sometimes helps to reveal the underlying landscape, but often enough such images show very little of interest to the Earth scientists, like in the top panel of our cover picture. A 3D-scanning technique called Lidar (Light detection and ranging) uses laser beams to scan a region mostly from aircraft. Using numerical calculations researchers can then strip such scans of buildings and vegetation to gain a detailed image of the hidden landscape. The lower panel of our cover shows such a Lidar image of the same area as the satellite picture above. The imagery covers the area of much of the tour described in this pamphlet, from the California Memorial Stadium on the left to the track field of Clark Kerr Campus on the right. The red line indicates the location of the Hayward Fault.