DEVELOPING DISCIPLINARY PROTOTYPES TOWARDS A NATIONAL EARTH SCIENCE CYBERINFRASTRUCTURE: IGNEOUS ROCKS AND PLATE TECTONICS

GEON (GEOscience Network) is a new NSF-sponsored initiative designed to create the cyberinfrastructure for the earth sciences through information management. Its fundamental objective is to facilitate interlinking of earth science data in four-dimensional space by establishing an interoperable network consisting of digital resources, including both data and tools, for access, analysis, visualization and modeling. In order to achieve data and tool integration, a critical component of GEON research is the creation of conceptual relationships of information (data and processes) within and across disciplines. It is well recognized that interpretations in earth science are often made by comparing new data to existing data and knowledge, but the existing knowledge is often implicit or not explicitly stated in a form amenable to computation. As such, explicit and computational capture of disciplinary concepts and their relationships is a critical requirement to making databases and tools interoperable. In order to achieve such goals, a component of GEON research has emphasized the development of prototype concept spaces as they apply to plutons and tectonics/terranes. We have developed a field based schema for plutons with geospatial control that includes most datasets necessary for identifying differences/similarities between plutons, and placed it in the context of a knowledge representation diagram which allows for explicit formulations that exist between an entity (pluton) and its constituent mineral phases, chemical and isotopic properties, and structural features. We have also constructed a prototype concept space for tectonic environments as a means of organizing and testing scenarios leading to characterization of tectonic affinities for plutons. For example, the tectonic environment of supra-subduction zone complexes may be inferred through coupled isotopic-geochemical fingerprinting techniques. However, to allow for the various ways concept spaces between plutons and plate tectonics can be related, research is required to connect an information –oriented concept space, e.g. plutons, to a causal-process interpretive concept space, such as plate tectonics.