BUILDING A WEB-ACCESSIBLE DATABASE FOR CHRONOSTRATIGRAPHIC RESEARCH

Research in the geosciences is increasingly interdisciplinary and conducted by diverse research teams whose members can be geographically widely separated. This distributed research process, facilitated by the wide availability of the Internet, holds tremendous potential for accelerating the advancement of scientific discovery. However, inefficiencies in data storage and search and retrieval processes hamper full realization of this potential. The few sets of geoscience data that are captured in a database are usually contained in a discipline-specific repository (e.g., geochemical, sedimentological or biostratigraphic) rather than a thematic database (e.g., chronostratigraphic). This absence of unified, thematic database repositories is a significant barrier to effective distributed research in the geosciences.

Within the geosciences, cyclostratigraphic/paleoclimatic and time-scale recalibration studies garner significant funding, and routinely require the integration of biostratigraphic, radiometric, lithologic, paleomagnetic, stable isotopic, geochemical, and sedimentologic data. Unfortunately, data produced by this type of study, unlike the results, are often not published; there is no definitive repository for the data, nor are there established processes for locating and retrieving the data. Expensive to acquire and critical to subsequent research, these data should be maintained as a valuable resource. To address this problem, we are currently engaged in the creation of a publicly accessible, centralized, web-enabled data repository for all types of time-stratigraphic data. This database system will benefit the geoscience community by: 1) providing greater efficiency in the formulation and implementation of research; 2) presenting geoscience researchers with synergistic opportunities revealed by the centralization of data; and 3) creating improved scientific cooperation, both domestically and internationally.

We currently possess a biostratigraphic database of over 3400 research localities donated to the University of Utah by BP-Amoco in 1999. The database donation also included Amoco-developed, proprietary software that allows for data archiving as well as utilization of data in many chronostratigraphic applications. Through a combination of corporate and NSF funding, we are currently expanding database capability in several major areas: 1) facilitation of web-based visualization and data review through integrated, intelligent maps using geographic information system (GIS) and Internet map server (IMS) technologies; 2 addition of non-biostratigraphic datums to the database to further enhance resolution; and, 3) in conjunction with the Geoinformatics Program, creation of direct web-linkages to complimentary databases housed at other academic and research facilities throughout the world. Ultimately, we believe that our chronostratigraphic database will provide centralized time-stratigraphic data storage and retrieval of value for all Earth Science disciplines.