ONLINE DATABASES OF THE GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS OF INDIAN PLATE, CHINA AND INDOCHINA, WITH DISPLAY BY A SINGLE CLICK ONTO PLATE RECONSTRUCTIONS OF EAST ASIA

Building paleogeographic maps onto tectonic plate reconstruction models requires team efforts to compile databases of regional sedimentary and volcanic facies, data sharing standards, and computer projection methods. Two goals of the Deep-Time Digital Earth (DDE) program of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) Paleogeography Working Group are: (1) to interconnect online national databases for all geologic formations, and to compile these online "lexicons" for countries that currently lack these; (2) to project the combined paleogeographic output of these distributed databases for any time interval onto appropriate plate tectonic reconstructions.

Therefore, we have worked with regional experts to compile new cloud-based lexicons for East Asia regions and developed new user-interfaces and interactive visualization techniques. Independent online lexicons with map-based and stratigraphic-column navigation are currently completed for the Proterozoic through Phanerozoic of the Indian Plate (ca. 800 formations), China (ca. 2000 as of July 2022), Vietnam (over 200) and Thailand (ca. 200 formations). A multi-database search system (age, region, lithology keywords, etc.) enables all returned entries be displayed by-age or in alphabetical order. Then, if a geologic age had been specified, a user with a single click can plot the original extent of the corresponding regional formations (filled with their appropriate lithologic facies patterns) onto any of three different proposed plate reconstruction models. Essentially, the goal is to create a view of the accumulating sediments and volcanics onto the Earth's surface at any past time. Our team is currently working with the Macrostrat and eODP teams at Univ. Wisconsin (Madison) to interlink to their regional facies-time compilations for the Americas and the ocean basins.