THE EARTHTIME NETWORK: Developing an Infrastructure for High-Resolution Calibration of Earth History

我们所知道的关于生物进化、严重气候变化的事件以及海洋和大气的进化的大部分信息都记录在地质记录中。 然而，任何一个地理区域的地质记录都是不完整的。 因此，为了建立一个详细的地球历史，我们必须整合来自整个地球的记录，使用化石记录和岩石测年（地质年代学）的组合。 在过去的20年里，我们确定岩石年龄的能力有了很大的提高，计算的不确定性从1%降低到了0.1%。 随着精度的提高，有机会探索时间上的微小差异以及实验室和不同地质年代学技术之间微小但系统的差异。 这些差异绝不会威胁到技术的有效性，而是从未想过可能的精确程度的结果。在进一步发展利用高精度地质年代学了解地球历史的过程中，一个必要的步骤是建立一个协调的基础设施和分析设施，以便在未来十年内对至少过去8亿年的地球历史进行高分辨率的“测序”。 我们建议开发一个网络基础设施，地球时间网络，它将在分析协议和标准报告方面联合世界各地的地质年代学实验室，以便我们消除或进一步减少实验室和技术之间的小系统差异。 我们将把联合收割机与一个积极的教育和公众宣传计划结合起来，重点是地球科学家和公众。 我们的目标是了解地球在过去45.6亿年中所经历的变化，以便更好地预测我们的未来。

EAR-0451802BowringMuch of what we know about biological evolution, episodes of severe climate change, and the evolution of our oceans and atmospheres is recorded in the geological record. However, geological records in any one geographical area are incomplete. Thus, to establish a detailed history of the planet we must integrate records from across the entire planet using a combination of the fossil record and the dating of rocks (geochronology). Our ability to determine the age of rocks has improved dramatically over the past twenty years and calculated uncertainties have been reduced from about 1% to 0.1 %. With increased precision has come the opportunity to explore very small differences in time and small but systematic differences between laboratories and different geochronological techniques. These differences by no means threaten the validity of the techniques but are a consequence of a level of precision never thought possible. A necessary step in the further development of understanding earth history using high-precision geochronology is the establishment of a coordinated infrastructure and analytical facilities necessary for the achievement of high-resolution "sequencing" of at least the last 800 million years of earth history in the next decade. We propose to develop a cyberinfrastructure, the EarthTime Network, that will unite geochronology labs around the world in terms of analytical protocol and the reporting of standards so that we will eliminate or further reduce small systematic differences between labs and techniques. We will combine this with an aggressive program of education and public outreach focused on both earth scientists as well as the general public. Our goal is to understand the changes our planet has undergone over the past 4.56 billion years so as to better predict our future.