GSA Abstracts

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.

The Australian National Marine Data Group was formed by the Heads of Marine Agencies (HOMA) to promote improved interchange of marine data in Australia. The ANMDG held a workshop of practitioners in May 2002 with the intention of identifying major areas of interest and tasks for working groups to address in order to make progress with development of marine data interchange in Australia. This Proceedings CD contains the presentations by speakers in the form of PowerPoint slides and a few Acrobat documents. It was distributed to participants in the workshop.

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.

Part-page article on matters relating to Australian stratigraphy. This column discusses what constitutes a publication for the purpose of establishing and formalising stratigrphic units. ISSN: 0312 4711

In this age of state-of-the-art devices producing analytical results with little input from analytical specialists, how do we know that the results produced are correct? When reporting the result of a measurement of a physical quantity, it is obligatory that some quantitative indication of the quality of the result be given so that those who use it can assess its reliability. Without such an indication, measurement results cannot be compared, either among themselves or with reference values given in a specification or standard. It is therefore necessary that there be a readily implemented, easily understood, and generally accepted procedure for characterising the quality of a result of a measurement, that is, for evaluating and expressing its 'uncertainty'. The concept of 'uncertainty' as quantifiable attribute is relatively new in the history of measurement, although error and error analysis have long been part of the practice of measurement science or 'metrology'. It is now widely recognised that, when all of the known or suspected components of error have been evaluated and the appropriate corrections have been applied, there still remains an uncertainty about the correctness of the stated result, that is, a doubt about how well the result of the measurement represents the value of the quantity being measured. This presentation will discuss the latest practices for the production of 'reliable' geochemical data that are associated with small measurement uncertainties, and will provide an overview of current understanding of metrological traceability and the proper use of reference materials. Correct use of reference materials will be discussed, as well as the role of measurement uncertainty and how it is affected by such issues as sample preparation, sample heterogeneity and data acquisition.

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.

Codes, guidelines, and standard practices for naming and describing Australian stratigraphic units have been discussed for more than 60 years since the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) set up a Research Committee on Stratigraphic Nomenclature in 1946. Like today's Australian Stratigraphy Commission, its aims were 'to encourage the orderly use of names and definitions for stratigraphic units'. .......

Launched in 2003, the Geoscience Australia National Petroleum Wells Database web site http://www.ga.gov.au/oracle/apcrc has proven an extremely useful tool for petroleum explorers wishing to access scientific and well header data for Australian petroleum exploration wells. This web site provides access to comprehensive databases representing over 100 person years of data entry by geologists, geochemists, biostratigraphers and technical staff. The databases contain information that includes well header data, biostratigraphic picks, reservoir and facies data (porosities, permeabilities, hydrocarbon shows and depositional environments), organic geochemistry data (Rock-Eval pyrolysis, molecular and isotopic analyses), and organic petrological data (vitrinite reflectance, maceral analyses). A major revision of the web site will be released at APPEA 2006. The revised web site has many improved features in response to industry and government client needs. These features include: 1 Easy retrieval of Acreage Release data, 2 An improved map for spatial searching and display of data, 3 Ability to retrieve age restricted and isopach data for many data types in the database, 4 Query and produce multiple summary reports (including graphs) for wells, 5 Generation of multiple oil and gas reports for wells, 6 Links to scanned documentation, and 7 Improved graphical displays of data.

The national mineral deposits dataset covers 60 commodities and more than 1050 of Australia's most significant mineral deposits - current and historic mines and undeveloped deposits. This release adds more than 100 new deposits to the previous release of OZMIN plus upgraded resource and production figures.