STANDARDIZING MINERAL DATA FROM TERRESTRIAL AND EXTRATERRESTRIAL MATERIALS FOR REUSE IN MINERAL INFORMATICS

Mineral data sources are highly diverse and heterogeneous, encompassing everything from field observations and laboratory analyses to remote sensing and spectroscopy data. This leads to variations in measurement techniques, data formats, units, and nomenclature. The integration of these diverse datasets is a critical aspect of creating analysis-ready mineral datasets.Standardized procedures and data models that are uniformly accepted within the mineralogical community are still lacking. EarthChem (operated by IEDA2) and Astromat, two data facilities that curate mineral data with funding from NASA and NSF, respectively, are mitigating these issues by facilitating the creation of community best practices for mineral (meta)data that can be used to transform raw mineral data into a unified format, and prepareing it for downstream analysis.

Data curation standards are needed to ensure that essential information such as sample location, geological context, and measurement conditions, analytical uncertainties and quality indicators is available in a consistent manner, wherever possible, to enhance data transparency and reliability. Complete metadata and accuracy also facilitate effective data integration and harmonization within the EarthChem and Astromat our synthesis databases and APIs. The development of comprehensive data curation standards and the advancement of the state-of-the-art in creating analysis-ready mineral datasets can only be achieved through collaboration. Both data facilities are partnering with initiatives such as OpenMindat for standardizing vocabularies and ontologies.

Astromat and EarthChem are committed to promoting data accessibility and shareability, by leveraging advances in data management infrastructures and enabling centralized storage and collaborative data sharing within the mineralogical community. Embracing FAIR data principles, advanced data processing methodologies, and collaborative approaches, these data systems strive to empower researchers to bridge the gap between raw data and actionable insights, leading to a deeper understanding of mineralogical diversity both on Earth as well as other planetary bodies.