ADDITIONS TO STRABOSPOT FOR SEDIMENTARY FIELD DATA COLLECTION AND CONSTRUCTING STRATIGRAPHIC COLUMNS

StraboSpot consists of an iOS/Android mobile app for field data collection and a backend database system accessible through a web application. Though initially developed for structural geology, it has been expanded for use in sedimentology by leveraging existing StraboSpot infrastructure and Spot concept (information applicable to a specified area of interest), and by adding vocabulary developed through several community workshops. Observations are stored as Spots or collections of Spots related through common attributes or spatial hierarchy. All Spots are assigned real-world coordinates using the device GPS. The app supports vocabulary for clastic, carbonate, evaporite, and other sedimentary rock types and facilitates collection, organization, and sharing of sedimentary field and core data.

Sedimentological data is collected and organized in two ways: 1) Strat Mode that adds data as successive ‘Interval Spots’ preserving stratigraphic relationships between observations to construct and display stratigraphic columns, and 2) Mapping mode to record map-scale features of sedimentary units. Descriptions of beds and packages of beds are recorded in Spots with texture, composition, and sedimentary structure attributes along with measurements (e.g., bedding orientation, paleocurrents). Users can add interpretations to Spots or demark facies by adding Tags which list characteristics and attributes commonly shared between Spots. Samples and images are linked automatically to the appropriate Spot in the stratigraphic column. The app organizes the variety of input data types and co-registers them in geographic and stratigraphic positions allowing Map and Strat Mode to be combined and to facilitate investigation of spatial relationships between data sets. Stratigraphic columns can be added along lines on a basemap to track their path, aiding transparency and reproducibility of measurements.

The vocabulary-based structure makes it is possible to standardize and organize a back-end database that can capture, sort, and broadly share sedimentologic/stratigraphic data. This approach makes the app useful for activities ranging from teaching applications, by guiding the students through traditional workflows and reinforcing hierarchy of sedimentary terms, to high-level data collection for research.