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Welcome to GNS Science's internet-accessible maps. There are two ways of viewing our geoscience maps via the internet; Web Maps and Web Services.
Web Maps
Web maps are geospatial information provided by applications accessed from GNS Science web pages. The user requires internet browser software e.g. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome and a broadband connection only. The following web maps are available:
Web Services
Web Map Services (WMS) and Web Feature Services (WFS) provide geoscience map information direct from GNS Science servers. These services comply with the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards and can be visualised with GIS or other map-enabled software (e.g. ArcGIS, MapInfo, QGIS or GoogleEarth) installed on the user's computer. A WMS layer is an image delivered for a specified area with its colours preset, typically rendered quickly. The layer features can be interrogated with a GetFeatureInfo request. A WFS layer provides features that can be searched and selected by attributes, as well as resymbolised, although large datasets can be slow to load. GNS Science's WMS and WFS layer data can be combined with other WMS/WFS and GIS data over a variety of common projections.
The following URIs return an XML document that describe the map layers available from GNS Science's publicly available servers:
https://maps.gns.cri.nz/geology/wms/?SERVICE=wms&REQUEST=getcapabilities
https://maps.gns.cri.nz/gns/wms/?SERVICE=wms&REQUEST=getcapabilities
These map layers are neatly tabled (select Layer Preview on sidebar) in:
https://maps.gns.cri.nz/geology/web
https://maps.gns.cri.nz/gns/web
Many layers with different resolution, coverage and feature types are available from these servers. They include geological map layers (e.g. geological units, boundaries, faults, structural measurements) at various scales (e.g. 1:1M, 1:250K, 1:50K), active faults, fossil and rock sample collection sites, mineral occurrences and groundwater data. Most are for all or part of New Zealand but some layers have Antarctic and wider coverage.
For ArcGIS (v10.x) users, to load a WMS service:
Add Data | look in: GIS Servers | select Add WMS Server | add URL: https://maps.gns.cri.nz/geology/wms or https://maps.gns.cri.nz/gns/wms | select OK | Double-click service from Add Data list (GNS Science Web Map Service on maps.gns.cri.nz) | Double-click the WMS Service (GNS Science Web Map Service) | Double-click the WMS Group Layer (GNS Science Web Map Service) | select the desired Layer or Layers | select Add to data load into map view.
For ArcGIS (v10.x) users, to load a WFS service:
Open ArcCatalog | In Catalog Tree select Interoperability Connection | select Add Interoperability Connection | select WFS (Web Feature Service) from format drop down list | select Parameters | add URL: https://maps.gns.cri.nz/geology/wfs | select Feature Types | select desired layer | select OK 3 times | Drag the new connection to ArcMap.
For QGIS (v3.0) users, to load a WFS service:
right-click WFS on Browser bar | choose New connection... | enter Name: <anything> and URL: https://maps.gns.cri.nz/geology/wfs or https://maps.gns.cri.nz/gns/wfs | OK Expand service layer on Browser bar and drag desired layer into map view.
For QGIS (v3.0) users, to load a WMS service:
right-click WMS on Browser bar | choose New connection... | enter Name: <anything> and URL: https://maps.gns.cri.nz/geology/wms or https://maps.gns.cri.nz/gns/wms | OK Expand service layer on Browser bar and drag desired layer into map view.
Our data are available under the Creative Commons Attribution "CC-BY" license unless otherwise specified. Under this license you may freely use our data so long as you credit GNS Science as the originator of the data.
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