Geoscience after IT

Abstract

-Information technology can lead to more efficient, versatile and less costly ways of supplying and using information. The familiar paper journals and books of the geoscience literature are being supplemented, and some supplanted, by electronic versions offering new facilities. Geoscience repositories gain efficiency and flexibility in storage, management, access and presentation of data. Global standards help communication, sharing of facilities, integration of ideas, collaboration and delegation of decisions. An example from geological mapping illustrates how a broad view of computer methods leads, not just to better ways of delivering the same product, but to more fundamental improvements in expressing, sharing and generalizing the geologists' conceptual models. Familiarity with existing systems can blind us to their shortcomings: familiar methods may hide assumptions that are no longer relevant. The example suggests that maps, reports and supporting evidence can be linked by hypertext in a tightly connected model. Targeted distribution of appropriate, up-todate information can replace the high-cost scattergun approach of conventional publication. This leads to a tentative identification of user needs.

Knowledge engineering in volcanology: Practical claims and general approach

“…Moreover, the shape of the graph and semantics of labels in its nodes would channel the discussion and, finally, the thinking of researchers. Thus the whole body of volcanology would be eventually rethought on a new basis, materializing the vision of pioneers of application of information technologies in the geosciences, see Loudon (2000), who foresaw that these techniques would transform the very way of thinking in the Earth studies.…”

Developing a geoscience knowledge framework for a national geological survey organisation

“…Although geological and thematic maps have served the geoscience user community effectively for nearly 200 years, they have some basic deficiencies as a communication medium for explicit, spatially located 3D geological information (Loudon, 2000). In particular, the knowledge they convey is explicit in 2D, but largely implicit in 3 and 4D.…”

“…However, it has taken well over a quarter of a century for the necessary information technology to become available and affordable, and the understanding of human computer interactions to become sufficiently mature, to make this vision a practical proposition (Loudon, 2000). In 2005, BGS published a strategy for development of a National Geoscience Framework (British Geological Survey, 2005), which will eventually establish 3D spatial models or 'LithoFrames' (Smith, 2005) at the core of the evidence base for UK geology, replacing the geological map.…”

E-learning in the Geoscience Domain: The Indian Perspective

“…As such, these applications have always been an integral part of the evolution of various branches of geoscience, which is centered on geology, but it inevitably, overlaps into various subjects like geophysics, geobiology, geochemistry, applied geophysics that includes geophysical prospecting and exploration, general geology that includes internal geodynamics, geotectonics, tectonophysics, external geodynamics, historical geography or stratigraphy, economic geology, and soil science. While atmospheric science, environmental science, surveying and geomorphology are related to the geoscience, one should not confuse these with subjects like hydrology, meteorology or oceanography, which are broadly into the domain of the Earth sciences 5 . The geosciences encompass an enormously complex human-natural system that operates over vast temporal and spatial scales.…”