# EarthObserver — user reviews > 34 indexed App Store user reviews of EarthObserver by Columbia University, rated 3.90/5 from 26 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/earthobserver/id405514799/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/earthobserver/id405514799.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 14 · 4★ 5 · 3★ 1 · 2★ 3 · 1★ 3 ## Newest reviews (10 of 34) ### 5/5 — Amazing app *2011-01-24, version 1.1* I love to explore the various views on this application. It is very informative and easy to use. ### 5/5 — Awesome! *2011-01-22, version 1.1* I hardly ever review apps, but this one is exceptional. I plan to use it in my teaching this semester! ### 5/5 — Excellent! *2011-01-10, version 1.1* Very well designed app that is fun to explore and extremely useful for young earth scientists like me! Glad to have gotten the free release, but definitely worth paying for! Thanks! ### 5/5 — Very Instructive! *2011-01-08, version 1.1* This is a great free program that gives one a lot of information about the earth. You can explore this app for hours. Recommended. Two items: 1) the map for some reason tends to jump to the South Pacific. 2) it would be very helpful to include a little button to call up a key to the data one is seeing (not the info page, but a color key). Really great job! ### 5/5 — So much here! *2011-01-04, version 1.1* The amount of information this app provides is astounding. Very grateful to have this at my fingertips. ### 5/5 — Impressive *2011-01-01, version 1.1* For Free or for money it's Fantastic ! ### 5/5 — WOW! *2010-12-31, version 1.1* This is an awesome app. I cannot believe it's free. So much information is included. Thank you. ### 5/5 — Geography teachers perk up! *2010-12-28, version 1.1* So much information in this free app. Great opportunities for students to make predictions & inferences and to draw conclusions. ### 5/5 — Nice. *2010-12-28, version 1.1* Great job. ### 5/5 — Too good *2010-12-24, version 1.1* Maps Illustrated w/ # of underweight children, carbon monoxide, human footprint, ocean floors, DAILY view from NASA... and more ! These nerds are awesome for making this & putting it up for free! ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Not detailed *2016-09-05, version 2.3* Maps are not detailed Can't zoom in to see basic details. Some areas bottled out or fogged out basically I bout a smoke screen ### 1/5 — East sea!! *2011-01-13, version 1.1* Not sea of japan, but East sea!!!!! ### 2/5 — Key Overlays don't work *2017-10-17, version 2.3* Had high hopes for this app, but the roads and place names overlays don't work. Downloaded MapQuest in hopes that would solve the problem, but no such luck. I can figure out where I am by overlaying the NM geology map, but it is at such a low resolution that the formation codes are illegible. ### 3/5 — Needs to be updated *2014-09-20, version 2.3* The newer iPad screen abilities far exceed the focus and resolution of this app. Zooming in on some maps looks extremely grainy. ### 3/5 — Bug *2011-10-16, version 1.1* Just the negatives here: When dashboard is accessed a second time it pops up as a small line at the bottom and iPad must be rebooted to make it reappear. This may be a function of REV 5 I pad update. Please fix! Also, cloud resolution could be a bit higher and there should be an option to show roads and more named locations. ### 3/5 — Good start needs higher resolution *2011-04-17, version 1.1* Wonderfully ambitious with much promise for improved versions. The presentation resolution for several of the datasets is frustratingly inferior and inadequate for the quality of the underlying data, even at max zoom. EG, the state geology maps are barely legible in detail, and even the color key pages (showing codes and names of geological formations) are practically illegible. The US streams set does not include ANY names of the rivers, lakes, and other water bodies. You have to zip back and forth to the US Topo map set to get any context of what you're looking at. ### 4/5 — This rules! *2016-02-12, version 2.3* I'm a student at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, and we use geomapapp in our geology classes all the time. Huge fan now that I've got it my pocket with easy to access ocean floor and geology maps. An update for the newer OS would be cool but still going to be using this regardless! ### 4/5 — on the verge of greatness *2012-12-13, version 2.3* I like this app. It's a wonderful way to explore the earth. My main complaint is the inability to increase the level of detail on the base map itself, e.g., I'd love to add more place names to help get oriented. ### 4/5 — Great app *2012-11-02, version 2.3* This is way freakin' cool! A must have... ### 4/5 — Great but quirky *2011-01-26, version 1.1* Love the app and would willingly pay money for it. Occasional quirks a bit irritating - legend keeps appearing and disappearing randomly, etc. If you could apply two overlays at the same time it would make a great app even better for teaching! Hint, hint! ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — earth observer *2019-04-25, version 2.3* This is a wonderful app but now doesn’t work on iOS devices. I hope that it is updated soon for the Apple app store...please. ### 5/5 — Amateur rock guy *2016-08-29, version 2.3* GREAT APP!! Best $1 I ever spent! Thank You ### 5/5 — From an earth science teacher *2014-10-25, version 2.3* I use this app regularly in class for many reasons. The maps are great! Thank you for making this! I recommend it for earth science classes. ### 5/5 — This is What I'm Talking About! *2014-09-13, version 2.3* I've had this program on my iPad for some time now and have started referring to it once again only recently. Would that I had returned to it sooner. In between all the automatic updates, I've tried other programs that have left me nearly bereft what with the flash of pictures and pretty graphs. I started looking through this application about a week ago and was very surprised and ecstatic, nearly, to see what updates had been taking place while I was "cheating" on this one. I'm still going through this App and experimenting with the plethora of options and real scientific datum available. Occasional crashes I can take knowing that the programmers are working out the bugs. Worth the money easily. ### 5/5 — LOVE this!!! *2013-02-01, version 2.3* I love this app! I teach sixth grade science and will definitely use this app when we talk about plate tectonics, sea-floor spreading, volcanoes, earthquakes, rocks, etc. I'm past these topics now, but am excited to use it next year. It has so many uses for all of the earth science topics I cover. One thing I'd like to see is a way to switch out of the metric system of measurement. Since I teach in the US we don't use the metric system, so I would love to be able to use feet, miles, etc. since it is the form of measurement my student are familiar with. The other comment would be to have the ability to turn on outlines of states all the time so when we look at the different maps and overlays, it's easier to observe what is being shown in specific locations, like our state. Otherwise, super great app! ### 5/5 — Map nerd heaven *2012-04-23, version 2.1* Earth viewer works really well. Fun to play around with real data and try new viz combinations. ### 5/5 — Awesome app *2012-02-06, version 2.0* I'm a geology major and this app is very helpful in structural geology. ### 5/5 — Love, love, love it! *2012-01-09, version 2.0* Used this with a discussion of ocean floor features and plan to put the kids in research groups for my unit on plate tectonics. Really cool to show depth of continental shelf and slope, and trenches and find submarine canyons that rival the Grand Canyon. The kids were asking millions of questions. A wealth of information! Well done! Early bug had problems with the menu, was happy to see the update that addressed it locking up. ### 5/5 — Amazing! *2012-01-02, version 1.2* Bravo to columbia on this app. Fascinating information and data in a clear and easy to use app. This is a huge value at $0.99 and would be even at $99. Thanks! ### 5/5 — Wow! *2011-06-29, version 1.1* Just a wealth of fascinating information. Only one complaint. Please give us the option to choose measurements in feet, not meters. That this app is free is amazing to me. I would feel that I got my monies worth had I paid $10 for it. Well done. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*