GEOINFORMATICS: EXTRACTING KNOWLEDGE FROM THE ROCK RECORD THROUGH CONSTRUCTION OF DISCIPLINARY DATABASES AND DEVELOPING A FULLY INTEGRATED GEOSCIENCES INFORMATION NETWORK

Fundamental advances in developing a coherent scientific vision of the dynamic interaction of geologic processes that have shaped the 4-D evolution and architecture of the earth requires the fusion of data from all disciplines of earth sciences. To bring together this vast and disparate data requires not only information technology based strategies that are capable of sorting and merging complex data whose interactive results may provide the newer paradigms in earth science research, but high quality disciplinary datasets that will become the nucleus for establishing national databases. The earth science community through numerous National Science Foundation supported workshops over the past several years has developed a vision of Geoinformatics: " The rock record that preserves nearly 4.5 billion years of history has been meticulously gathered through observations over the centuries, and highlights the scientific problems associated with studies of biodiversity, climate change, planetary processes, and the 4-D architecture and evolution of continents. As the complexities and interactions of these processes are only recently being recognized, it has become evident that an enormous gain in understanding can be realized through the application of modern IT tools to the geosciences."(From White Paper submitted to NSF, and available at geoinformaticsnetwork.org). Through this activity it is likely that a new unifying theme of Earth System Research will emerge, and lead to a fundamentally better understanding of earth processes at all scales and rates. To achieve this scientific goal of understanding and quantifying the 4-D evolution, architecture and earth system dynamics of the planet, the community should consider the formation of a consortium to facilitate and maintain national focus on creating integrated and searchable databases. Geoinformatics should be recognized as an opportunity for developing more relevance and need for research towards creating a new paradigm after the plate tectonics era, as well as developing more innovative ways to communicate the educational and societal benefits of earth science.