EarthCube Building Blocks Collaborative Proposal: Digital Crust ? An Exploratory Environment for Earth Science Research and Learning

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This project develops the Digital Crust, an online workspace where the geosciences community can contribute data and knowledge, visualize, explore, synthesize and test multiple hypotheses across space-time and themes, and derive 4D data product from multiple data.The platform can serve as a resource to bring together geoscientists working on separate aspects of the Earth system, by bringing their data/ideas together and by providing an environment to view the Earth from different perspectives. It will also be a "one-stop shop" for Earth science educators to expose the growing minds to the multi-faceted nature of Earth science problems and to see data and knowledge gaps which are powerful motivators for the young (not all problems have been solved ? there is a place for me to contribute). The Digital Crust platform prototype will demonstrate technology that has the potential to transform the way geoscientists conduct research and learning, by (1) linking existing data repositories on all aspects of the Earth?s crust created by all disciplines of geosciences, communities as well as individuals, (2) creating a multi-context environment (e.g., tectonics, structural geology, stratigraphy, sedimentology, geomorphology, paleontology, archeology, mineralogy, geochemistry, soil science, hydrology, terrestrial ecology) at any given space (xyz) and time (t) for synthesis-type explorations, hypothesis-testing or learning, (3) allowing for multi-scale (e.g., outcrop to continent) data extractions and downloads for all research and learning applications, and (4) exposing data-knowledge gaps to identify the most rewarding future investments. Hosting multiple data types and sometimes conflicting interpretations and hypotheses of Earth processes will promote community discussion and debate on Earth processes that will foster interaction, collaboration, and data/idea sharing among scientists who might otherwise never have met. From the CI perspective, Digital Crust leverages and links with existing Building Blocks, explores the application of "loose-schema", noSQL databases to allow the flexibility necessary in a geoscience research database, and utilizes a modular software design to facilitate long-term maintenance and evolution of the platform.