Paper No. 105-4
Presentation Time: 8:00 AM-5:30 PM
ONLINE DATABASES OF THE GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS OF ASIA AND AFRICA WITH DISPLAY ONTO PLATE RECONSTRUCTIONS
Paleogeographic maps are a synthesis of what our Earth's surface looked like through the past millions or billion years. These are usually based on extensive interlinked databases of regional sedimentary and volcanic facies. 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 geologic formations, and to compile these online "lexicons" for countries that currently lack these; and (2) to project this vast amount of information for any time interval onto the estimated positions of the continents and seas.
Our team, In partnership with UNESCO's Commission for the Geologic Map of the World and other geological surveys, has worked with regional experts to compile and interlink such cloud-based "lexicons" for large parts of Asia and Africa. Currently, this includes the Indian Plate (ca. 800 formations), China (ca. 3200), Vietnam-Thailand-Malaysia (ca. 600), and all major basins in Africa (ca. 700) and in the Middle East (ca. 700 formations). The main website "geolex.org" has links to the growing array of regional lexicons.