DOCUMENTING AND ANALYZING EXPLOSIVE VOLCANISM IN EAST AFRICA USING EARTHD

EARThD is a NSF funded data compilation project that seeks to integrate, standardize, and investigate tephra datasets from the tectonically and volcanically active East African Rift (EAR) focusing on the past approximately 5 million year record. Extensive literature data mining efforts by the PIs supplemented through community involvement are identifying references documenting collected tephra occurrences and analyses. Led by an undergraduate student workforce, datasets and associated metadata are being entered and formatted using standardized templates through IEDA (i.e., the Petrological Database (PetDB) template). Data will be easily searchable and accessed through the IEDA EarthChem portal and the GeoMappApp science exploration and visualization application.

The EARThD website (https://sites.psu.edu/earthd/) is set to document project progress, offer a venue for community input, and provide simple instructions and direct links for searching, accessing, and downloading EARThD datasets. The development of EARThD will fulfill the crucial data integration role needed to support the growing EAR tephra record and the increasingly complex and multidisciplinary research questions being studied.