Geological Society of America

18 Geoscience Education

Friday, 3 April 2009
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM

STRATAPENDIUM—A COMMUNITY-BASED, INTERACTIVE WEB ARCHIVE FOR GEOLOGIC DATA

Paper number: 18-2
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:20 AM – 8:40 AM

Authors

Patrick McLaughlin Presenting Author
Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, Madison, WI
Shanan E. Peters
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Norlene R. Emerson
University of Wisconsin - Richland, Richland Center, WI

Abstract

Stratapendium is an evolving database-driven web application aimed at compiling geologic knowledge into more accessible, complete, and quantifiable forms. This new technology addresses three major issues in geoscience: 1) difficulty of synthesizing an ever expanding literature, 2) preservation and dissemination of “legacy” data, and 3) the impending loss of institutional knowledge with the retirement of the baby boomers.

The site provides tools to efficiently populate a relational database of geologic data built around mapped “localities”. Functions of the site include Google Maps/Earth-driven spatial distribution of localities, amendable (i.e., wiki) locality summary pages, image tagging tools, and social networking. This initiative focuses on outcrop and subsurface data and emphasizes community involvement to keep that data current.

We firmly believe that significant new advances in education, research, and outreach can be easily and inexpensively achieved by the creative development of such participatory, database-driven web applications.