This extended abstract describes the 1:1 million scale Surface Geology of Northern Territory digital dataset and advances in digital data delivery via WMS/WFS services and the GeoSciML geological data model.

GeoSciML version 3.0 (http://www.geosciml.org), released in late 2011, is the latest version of the CGI-IUGS* Interoperability Working Group geoscience data interchange standard. The new version is a significant upgrade and refactoring of GeoSciML v2 which was released in 2008. GeoSciML v3 has already been adopted by several major international interoperability initiatives, including OneGeology, the EU INSPIRE program, and the US Geoscience Information Network, as their standard data exchange format for geoscience data. GeoSciML v3 makes use of recently upgraded versions of several Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and ISO data transfer standards, including GML v3.2, SWE Common v2.0, and Observations and Measurements v2 (ISO 19156). The GeoSciML v3 data model has been refactored from a single large application schema with many packages, into a number of smaller, but related, application schema modules with individual namespaces. This refactoring allows the use and future development of modules of GeoSciML (eg; GeologicUnit, GeologicStructure, GeologicAge, Borehole) in smaller, more manageable units. As a result of this refactoring and the integration with new OGC and ISO standards, GeoSciML v3 is not backwardly compatible with previous GeoSciML versions. The scope of GeoSciML has been extended in version 3.0 to include new models for geomorphological data (a Geomorphology application schema), and for geological specimens, geochronological interpretations, and metadata for geochemical and geochronological analyses (a LaboratoryAnalysis-Specimen application schema). In addition, there is better support for borehole data, and the PhysicalProperties model now supports a wider range of petrophysical measurements. The previously used CGI_Value data type has been superseded in favour of externally governed data types provided by OGC's SWE Common v2 and GML v3.2 data standards. The GeoSciML v3 release includes worked examples of best practice in delivering geochemical analytical data using the Observations and Measurements (ISO19156) and SWE Common v2 models. The GeoSciML v3 data model does not include vocabularies to support the data model. However, it does provide a standard pattern to reference controlled vocabulary concepts using HTTP-URIs. The international GeoSciML community has developed distributed RDF-based geoscience vocabularies that can be accessed by GeoSciML web services using the standard pattern recommended in GeoSciML v3. GeoSciML v3 is the first version of GeoSciML that will be accompanied by web service validation tools using Schematron rules. For example, these validation tools may check for compliance of a web service to a particular profile of GeoSciML, or for logical consistency of data content that cannot be enforced by the application schemas. This validation process will support accreditation of GeoSciML services and a higher degree of semantic interoperability. * International Union of Geological Sciences Commission for Management and Application of Geoscience Information (CGI-IUGS)

Part-page item of matters related to stratigraphy. This column discusses informal units, the role of authors and reviewers, and is the 50th Stratigraphic Column produced by the Australian Stratigraphy Commission. Journal ISSN 0312 4711

Approximately 75% of Australia is covered by public-domain, airborne gamma-ray spectrometric surveys. However, all the older surveys are in units of c/s and their data values depend on the survey instrumentation and acquisition parameters. Also, many of the newer surveys were inadequately calibrated with the result that data values on adjacent surveys are not necessarily comparable. This limits the usefulness of these data Geoscience Australia and State Geological Surveys are working towards establishing a national baseline database of Australian gamma-ray spectrometric data that is consistent with the global radioelement baseline. This will be achieved by: (a) ensuring consistency in the calibration and processing of new gamma-ray spectrometric data through the use of standard processing procedures and calibration facilities that are tied to the global datum, and; (b) adjusting older surveys to the global datum through back-calibration and automatic grid merging. Surveys that are registered to the same datum are easily merged into regional compilations which facilitate the recognition and interpretation of broad-scale regional features, and allow lessons learnt in one area to be more easily applied to other areas.

Although there are several resources for storing and accessing geochronological data, there is no standard format for exchanging geochronology data among users. Current systems are an inefficient mixture of comma delimited text files, Excel spreadsheets and PDFs that assume prior specialist knowledge and force the user to laboriously and potentially erroneously extract the required data manually. With increasing demands for data interoperability this situation is becoming intolerable not only among researchers, but also at the funding agency level. Geoscience Australia and partners are developing a standard data exchange format for geochronological data based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language) technology that has been demonstrated in other geological data applications and is an important aspect of emerging international geoscience data format standards. This presentation will discuss developments at Geoscience Australia and the opportunities for participation. Key words: Geochronology, data management, metadata, standards.

Proceedings of the Second National Forum on GIS in the Geosciences, 29 - 31 March 1995, held at the National Library of Australia.

part page item. This article discusses the International Stratigraphic Guidelines and Australian practices relating to stratigraphic unit names, when there is a change to the name of the geographic feature that the unit is named after. Australian examples demonstrate both the advice of the Stratigraphic Guidelines not to change the unit name, and a particular case where it was more appropriate to change the unit name for local reasons.

Marine science is expensive. Duplication of research activities is potentially money wasted. Not being aware of other marine science studies could question the validity of findings made in single-discipline studies. A simple means of discovery is needed. The development of Earth Browsers (principally Google Earth) and KML (Keyhole Markup Language) files offer a possible solution. Google Earth is easy to use, and KML files are relatively simple, ASCII, XML-tagged files that can encode locations (points, lines and polygons), relevant metadata for presentation in descriptive 'balloons', and links to digital sources (data, publications, web-pages, etc). A suite of studies will be presented showing how information relating to investigations at a point (e.g. observation platform), along a line (e.g. ship borne survey) or over a region (e.g. satellite imagery) can be presented in a small (10 Kbyte) file. The information will cover a range of widely used data types including seismic data, underwater video, image files, documents and spreadsheets. All will be sourced directly from the web and can be downloaded from within the browser to one's desktop for analysis with appropriate applications. To be useful, this methodology requires data and metadata to be properly managed; and a degree of cooperation between major marine science organizations which could become 'sponsors' of the principal marine science disciplines (i.e oceanography, marine biology, geoscience). This need not be a complex task in many cases. The partitioning of the sciences is not important, so long as the information is being managed effectively and their existence is widely advertised. KML files provide a simple way of achieving this. The various discipline-based KML files could be hosted by an umbrella organization such as the AODCJF, enabling it to become a 'one-stop-shop' for marine science data.

The AGSO Web server now has a page that allows public access to many of AGSO's Oracle database lookup tables. These tables are the key to the nomenclature and classifications used in our geoscientific databases, and provide a valuable resource to many Australian geologists. For example, the geological time scale table provides a comprehensive list of time terms used in Australia and elsewhere, their rank, scope, parent term and older and younger age boundaries in millions of years PB - according to the latest information. Or, the OZMIN mineral deposits attributes table, with nearly 2000 terms, provides a complete and authoritative classification of Australian ore deposits, as well as other attributes such as alteration, mineralisation style, gangue minerals, ore texture and relationships to host. with nearly 4500 terms, the largest of the 37 tables so far included is the extent-names table for our metadata system. The smallest, with just 9 terms, is the analyte categories table for the GWATER database. The table may be downloaded from the Web, or alternatively you may purchase them as ASCII files, as per AGSO Catalog No. 24488.

This documentation manual for the national mineral deposits dataset provides the necessary description of AGSO's mineral deposit database (OZMIN) - its structure, the main data and authority tables used by OZMIN, database table definitions, details on the Microsoft Access version of the database and a listing of those deposits in the dataset.