Paper No. 1
Presentation Time: 9:00 AM

GEOCHRON.ORG: THE PROGRESS AND STRUCTURE OF A DETRITAL MINERAL DATABASE (PART OF EARTHCHEM/IEDA)


YOKELSON, Intan1, GEHRELS, George2, MCLEAN, Noah M.3, WALKER, Douglas3, BOWRING, James F.4, BOWRING, Sam5, ASH, Jason6 and TOCHILIN, Clare7, (1)Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, (2)Dept. of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, (3)Department of Geology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, (4)Department of Computer Science, College of Charleston, JC Long 207, Charleston, SC 29424, (5)Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, (6)Department of Geology, Univ of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, (7)Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85719, iny@email.arizona.edu

Conducting detrital mineral geochronologic research is challenging because of the large volume of geochronologic and geologic information already reported in publications, and the rapidly increasing number of sample analyses. These challenges are being addressed through use of a geochronology and thermochronology database called Geochron [Geochron.org] that is part of EarthChem and Integrated Earth Data Applications (IEDA).

To facilitate data discovery, we have developed a search interface that is tuned to examine detrital samples. This interface displays U-Pb data on a world map based on sample collection location, and then it can be further sorted by age of formation, rock type, year, and lab of analysis.

At present, Geochron contains only published data. For each publication, the available geochronologic data and accompanying geologic and analytical metadata are collated in tables that can be uploaded into Geochron using U-Pb_Redux (Bowring et al., 2011). Redux also produces publication-quality concordia diagrams, probability density plots, and data tables. U-Pb_Redux is constantly updated and improved and is open to user suggestions. Geochron currently holds data from almost 1200 legacy samples.

Infrastructure is being developed to automatically reduce U-Pb data as it is collected so that researchers can improve their access quality and make analytical decisions in real time. Users can also create a private account and upload data that is only accessible to password holders. The goal for the database is that it will become a powerful tool for accessing the large and growing number of detrital zircon analyses, and to provide a more efficient and robust method of analysis of geochronologic data.