EarthCube Domain End-User Workshop for Structural Geology and Tectonics

University Of Kansas Center For Research Inc, Lawrence KS

Investigators

Abstract

This project is supporting a two-day workshop that will be held identify the possible interactions between the Structural Geology and Tectonics community (SGTC) with the EarthCube effort. The workshop will assemble a group of about 40 Structural Geology and Tectonics researchers to define better the cyberinfrastructure needs as well as the required interactions within the community as well as with the EarthCube to take the next steps in creating a more integrated digital framework. This effort includes: 1) establishing science drivers and challenges of the SGTC; 2) identifying the impediments to using data and tools both within and external to the SGTC; 3) listing existing and more critically needed data, tools, and visualization to form a cyberinfrastructure for the community; 4) creating several use cases that demonstrate how the cyberinfrastructure will be used to address the science drivers or provide critical connections for teaching and research; and 5) initiating conversation with existing databases on how to interact constructively. A catalyzing issue of the workshop concerns the nature of field data. Structural data is collected on an extremely wide range of spatial (10-8 m to 104 m) and temporal scales, and the collection requires observation, inference, and interpretation at most of these scales. These data are critical to any tectonic modeling and inference. This data at the core of Structural Geology and Tectonics and presents a fundamental challenge to digital representation/integration that can be aided by the interaction with the EarthCube effort. This project is important for both the scientific and cyberinfrastructure development of the geosciences. Future progress of the geosciences will be based on the integration of rich and diverse datasets. This workshop will identify the needs of one of the most important and data-rich as well as data complex areas in geology. There will be a vast array of intellectually challenging tasks in describing and integrating data across a spectrum of scales as well as granularity. The construction of a cyberinfrastructure for Structural Geology and Tectonics data will make these data accessible to a much larger group of researchers. This field describes and quantitatively documents the surface geology of the Earth. That itself has impacts into individuals, groups, and organizations that study the earth. In addition, the digital presentation of such data can be used by private and governmental organizations across the local to global spectrum. Lastly, the integration of Structural Geology and Tectonics data and models into the EarthCube effort will be fundamental to the success of EarthCube.