THE EXTENDING OCEAN DRILLING PURSUITS (EODP) PROJECT: SYNTHESIZING MARINE STRATIGRAPHIC, CHRONOSTRATIGRAPHIC, AND MICROPALEONTOLOGIC DATA

Scientific ocean drilling (SOD), through the International Ocean Discovery Program and its predecessors, has produced vast quantities of data, the results of which have transformed geoscience. Meta-analytical studies from SOD efforts exist for micropaleontology, paleotemperature, and marine sedimentation, but they are few due to the decentralized nature of the data. Each study requires another synthesis of data from numerous sources; a slow, difficult process that limits reproducibility and is largely redundant effort. The emphasis on adhering to Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) Data Principles and the establishment of community-lead databases now provide a pathway to unite SOD data and further harness the potential of SOD.

This presentation describes workflows for compiling, cleaning, and standardizing SOD fossil assemblages, lithologies, and age models, and subsequent import into the Paleobiology Database (PBDB) and Macrostrat, database systems with versatile, open data distribution mechanisms suitable for many applications. Notably, we are organizing and harmonizing SOD records with as little revision and interpretation as possible, providing a data-centric foundation upon which to build interpretive records. To date, eODP (an NSF funded project dedicated to moving SOD records to FAIR repositories) has processed all of the data listed above from the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) repository, along with many datasets that were never deposited in a database system and were manually transcribed from the original shipboard reports. The resulting dataset contains over 78,000 lithological units from 1,048 holes from 390 sites, with over 26,000 fossil-bearing samples containing more than 5,000 taxonomic names. All lithological units and fossil collections are associated with a chronostratigraphic age assignment as well as a continuous time age estimate based on position within cores. Information is available via the PBDB and Macrostrat APIs, which render the data retrievable by a variety of parameters, including age, taxon, site, and lithology.

There are two companion abstracts to this introductory one: Fraass et al. covers trends in these data and plans for future work, and Jamson et al. will showcase geographic analyses using these data.