THE GEOROC DATABASE AS PART OF A GROWING GEOINFORMATICS NETWORK

Since its introduction in 1999, the geochemical database GEOROC (Geochemistry of Rocks of the Oceans and Continents, http://georoc.mpch-mainz.gwdg.de) of the Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie in Mainz established itself as a major online resource available to the scientific community. GEOROC provides geochemical data published for volcanic whole rocks, glasses, minerals and inclusions from ocean islands, large igneous provinces, convergent margins, Archean greenstone belts, rift and intraplate volcanic regions. The database now provides about 350,000 analyses published in about 7,300 papers (status: 04/2008).

The web interface of GEOROC allows the selection of samples by bibliographic, tectonic, geographic, petrological as well as chemical criteria. As part of the bibliographic query, the search for the GEOROC_Reference_Number permits an easier reproduction of published compilations created with the help of the database. With the most recent update, a Google maps-based search is added to the query by geography.

Another new service for the GEOROC users will be a discussion forum. It allows comments and suggestions on the spur of the moment, while working with the database, as well as flagging of typos (either by the database team or in the original prints).

To get a quick idea on the geochemical signature of samples from certain localities or of a special rock type, GEOROC includes “ready-made” compilations of published data. Besides these unvalued data, we soon will offer so-called expert datasets. These datasets are compiled by non-GEOROC scientists and can include more than just measured data (e.g., normalized data, element ratios).

GEOROC joined with the databases PetDB and NAVDAT to initiate the NSF-funded EarthChem consortium (http://www.earthchem.org/), with the aim to increase the synergy between the three geochemical database efforts. The EarthChem Portal (http://geoportal.kgs.ku.edu/earthchem/jtest/) offers a seamless search across different databases.

References in GEOROC are cross-linked with the geochemical database GeoReM (Geological and Environmental Reference Materials, http://georem.mpch-mainz.gwdg.de/) for reference materials and isotopic standards. The detailed information of the analytical conditions available in GeoReM enables users of GEOROC to estimate the quality of the analysed rock samples. Vice versa it is possible to go directly from GeoReM to the respective papers in GEOROC to get the analyses of the studied samples.