CAREER: Towards a high-resolution quantification of the North American rock record: integrating field data, citizen science, and participatory education for macrostratigraphy

职业：北美岩石记录的高分辨率量化：整合野外数据，公民科学和参与式宏观地层学教育地球的岩石包含了我们大部分的物质，能源和水资源，它们是许多重要的物理和生物过程的主要长期档案，包括有机进化，全球气候变化的原因和后果，以及造山运动和地貌演化的速率和风格。 虽然存在大量关于岩石的分布和特征及其所含资源的知识，但目前还没有一个框架来整合这些信息，将其置于更大的背景下，或对其进行定量分析。 这是不幸的，因为形成和破坏岩石的过程是不连续的，在时间和空间上是有选择性的，导致地球表面的物质分布复杂而不均匀。宏观地层学使用在不同地理位置单独编译的岩石包作为整合不同地球科学数据集和定量分析岩石记录的框架。 Macrostrat（macrostrat.org）目前包括来自北美830个地理位置的21，521个岩石单元的年龄，厚度，一般岩石类型，名称和许多经济用途。 这项职业研究将使用Macrostrat目前的数据作为一个脚手架，在此基础上建立一个更严格和完整的知识体系，了解岩石的分布，它们的材料特性，以及它们在北美的资源潜力。 将采取三方面的办法来完成这项任务。 首先，将从文献中汇编新地点的数据，并输入Macrostrat数据库。 其次，一个强大的新的网络应用程序将建立在Macrostrat上，这将用于使地质学家参与国家地质调查，学术机构和能源行业。 最后，现有的地点将更新与现代数据从文献和外地。 由此产生的新数据汇编不仅将使提案中概述的关于碳埋藏地质历史和沉积模式的具体假设得到检验，但它也将作为一个平台，描述现有资源的特征，并在地球科学的许多领域提出新一代的问题。了解岩石今天出现在哪里，以及它们在地球历史上何时形成，对地球科学至关重要，在这方面，我们认识到，收集新的岩石记录全面定量数据，然后通过直观和位置感知的网络应用程序向公众提供这些数据，其广泛影响是很难高估的。 构建这种网络应用程序的动机源于以下事实：（1）许多主要的野外观测具有很大的分析价值，特别是与宏观地层背景相结合，（2）许多没有受过科学训练的公民仍然经常对他们的直接环境感到好奇，以及（3）某些类型的地质现场数据几乎可以由任何人产生，包括学生和参与的公民，当他们被提供以基于位置的上下文用于他们自己的观察时。 该项目最重要的最终成果之一将是一套新的研究和教学工具，可以满足专业地质学家的需求，同时更有建设性地吸引学生和“公民科学家”参与科学过程。

CAREER: Towards a high-resolution quantification of the North American rock record: integrating field data, citizen science, and participatory education for macrostratigraphyThe Earth's rocks contain most of our material, energy and water resources and they serve as the primary long-term archive for many important physical and biological processes, including organic evolution, the causes and consequences of global climate change, and rates and styles of mountain building and landscape evolution. Although there exists a large body of knowledge on the distribution and character of rocks and the resources they contain, there is currently no framework for consolidating this information, for placing it into a larger context, or for analyzing it quantitatively. This is unfortunate because the processes that form and destroy rocks are discontinuous and selective in time and space, resulting in a complex and heterogeneous distribution of materials at Earth's surface.Macrostratigraphy uses rock packages compiled separately at different geographic locations as a framework for integrating diverse Earth science data sets and for quantitatively analyzing the rock record. Macrostrat (macrostrat.org) currently consists minimally of the ages, thicknesses, general rock types, names, and many economic uses for 21,521 rock units from 830 geographic locations in North America. This CAREER research will use the data currently in Macrostrat as a scaffolding upon which to build a much more rigorous and complete body of knowledge on the distribution of rocks, their material properties, and their resource potential here in North America. A three-front approach will be taken to accomplish this task. First, data for new locations will be compiled from the literature and entered into the Macrostrat database. Second, a powerful new web application will be built upon Macrostrat and this will be used to enable the participation of geologists at state geological surveys, academic institutions, and the energy industry. Finally, existing locations will be updated with modern data from the literature and the field. The resultant new data compilation will not only enable the specific hypotheses concerning the geological history of carbon burial and patterns of sedimentation outlined in the proposal to be tested, but it will also serve as a platform for characterizing existing resources and formulating a new generation of questions in many domains of Earth science.Knowing where rocks occur today and when they formed in Earth history is so central to geoscience and resource discovery that it is hard to overestimate the broader impacts of assembling new, comprehensive quantitative data on the rock record and then making those data publicly accessible via intuitive and location-aware web applications. The motivations for building such web-applications stem from the fact that (1) many primary field observations are of great analytical value, particularly in combination with macrostratigraphic context, (2) many citizens who are not trained in science are nevertheless often curious about their immediate environment, and (3) some types of geological field data can be produced by nearly anyone, including students and engaged citizens, when they are provided with location-based context for their own observations. One of the most important end results of this project will be a new set of research and teaching tools that can serve needs of professional geologists while at the same time more constructively engaging students and 'citizen scientists' in the scientific process.