Display of Munsell color values, earthquakes, and other three- and four-parameter datasets in stereo 3D

Abstract

A new version of the program 3D.BAS facilitates display of three- and four-parameter datasets, particularly earthquake distributions and Munsell color measurements, by using stereoscopic 3D scatterplots. With respect to earthquakes, hypocenters can be plotted on whole-earth spherical plots or on rectangular plots for specific regions. The program allows a series of earthquakes to be examined quake by quake, with coding of symbol shapes and/or colors for depths, magnitudes, time intervals, or individual identification. It also allows a variety of panning, zooming, slicing, rotation, projection, and stepping. It can handle datasets of 10 4 earthquakes, and can filter such a dataset for quakes below, between, or above specific depths or intensities, or within chosen distances on either side of an oblique line. With respect to Munsell colors, the program can plot the three constituent parameters (hue, lightness, and chroma) on a rectangular coordinate system that mimics the arrangement of a stack of pages of color chips, or on cylindrical and spherical coordinate systems (the Munsell “color cylinder” or “color sphere”).