A PRELIMINARY DATA SET FOR THE 'TETHYS' DATABASE

Researchers from four institutes (SUNY Buffalo, UIC, UMC, UH) are collaborating to develop a web-based GIS that will incorporate a wide range of data sets for areas affected by the Tethys tectonic belt. The Tethys database is intended to facilitate interdisciplinary research on plate collisions through the compilation, integration, analysis, visualization, and distribution of raw and processed data sets over the Earth's most active zone of seismicity and volcanism. The database upon completion is envisioned to incorporate digitized geologic, structural, and geodetic data, data for historic seismic and volcanic events, remote sensing data; sample-based major and trace element abundances, radiometric ages, and isotopic abundances for ophiolites, ultra-high pressure metamorphics, and collision-related magmatic bodies; and seismic data pertaining to mantle and crustal velocity structure and fabric.

The following co-registered data sets are currently available on line for the entire Tethys belt: (1) false color Landsat thematic mapper (TM) data (bands 2,4,7) at 30m resolution; (2) digital elevation model at 1 km spatial resolution; (3) geologic maps at 1:5,000,000 scale, (4) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) summer and winter scenes, bands 1 through 7, at a 500m resolution; (5) Seismic hazard data (grid size: 0.1 degree); (6) global population density data (grid size: 1 degree). Metadata is available for each of the data sets in FGDC compliant format .

The data sets have been combined on an enterprise RDBMS package that resides on UB's Earth Sciences Remote Sensing lab (ESRSL) windows server. Queries are made to the database using an ArcIMS interface through ArcSDE. A suite of customized public domain image processing tools are being incorporated to provide basic image processing capabilities (e.g., stretching, mathematical operations, extraction of stick spectra and comparison to library spectra, etc.). These customized tools use a combination of XML commands, and java routines and call on existing software libraries. These custom tools will allow users to manipulate, combine, and interpret image data directly on the web site. Data could be downloaded as raw and/or processed data depending on the propriety issues involved. The data is being served from a Dell Poweredge server, with an initial 1.1 TB of fiber channel.

URL: http://isis.geology.buffalo.edu/tethys.htm