Isotopic Atlas of Australia: Lu Hf and O isotope data structure and delivery. Version 1.0: North Australian Craton compilation

Newer version v1.1 available at eCat 147720
Isotopic data from rocks and minerals have the potential to yield unique insights into the composition and evolution of the Earth's crust and mantle. Time-integrated records of crust and mantle differentiation (as preserved by the U-Pb, Sm-Nd and Lu-Hf isotopic systems, for example) are important in a wide range of geological applications, especially when successfully integrated with other geological, geophysical, and geochemical datasets. However, such integration requires (i) compilation of comprehensive isotopic data coverages, (ii) unification of datasets in a consistent structure to facilitate inter-comparison, and (iii) easy public accessibility of the compiled and unified datasets in spatial and tabular formats useful and useable by a broad range of industry, government and academic users. This constitutes a considerable challenge, because although a wealth of isotopic information has been collected from the Australian continent over the last 40 years, the published record is fragmentary, and derived from numerous and disparate sources. Unlocking and harnessing the collective value of isotopic datasets will enable more comprehensive and powerful interpretations, and significantly broaden their applicability to Earth evolution studies and mineral exploration.
As part of the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program (https://www.ga.gov.au/eftf), we have designed a new database structure and web service system to store and deliver full Lu-Hf isotope and associated O-isotope datasets, spanning new data collected during research programs conducted by Geoscience Australia (GA), as well as compiled literature data. Our approach emphasises the links between isotopic measurements and their spatial, geological, and data provenance information in order to support the widest possible range of uses. In particular, we build and store comprehensive links to the original sources of isotopic data so that (i) users can easily track down additional context and interpretation of datasets, and (ii) generators of isotopic data are appropriately acknowledged for their contributions.
This system delivers complete datasets including (i) full analytical and derived data as published by the original author, (ii) additional, normalised derived data recalculated specifically to maximise inter-comparability of data from disparate sources, (iii) metadata related to the analytical setup, (iv) a broad range of sample information including sampling location, rock type, geological province and stratigraphic unit information, and (v) descriptions of (and links to) source publications. The data is delivered through the Geoscience Australia web portal (www.portal.ga.gov.au), and can also be accessed through any web portal capable of consuming Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)-compliant web services, or any GIS system capable of consuming Web Map Services (WMS) or Web Feature Services (WFS).
This Record describes the database system and web service tables. It also contains full tabulated datasets for data compiled from the North Australian Craton as part of the EFTF program. These data are predominantly micro-analytical zircon analyses which are linked at the spot-level across Lu-Hf, O, and U-Pb measurements. This data release comprises 5974 individual analyses from 149 unique rock samples.

Tags: Data Structures, Database Management, EARTH SCIENCES, EFTF, Exploring for the Future, Isotope Geochemistry, Lu-Hf isotopes, Northern Australian Craton, Oxygen isotopes, Published_External
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data