1. BOOSTING
DATA SCIENCE
IN GEOCHEMISTRY
We Need Global Geochemical Data
Standards and Networking!
Kerstin Lehnert Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, USA
Lesley A Wyborn Australian National University, Australia
Simon J D Cox CSIRO Land and Water, Australia
Jens F Klump CSIRO Earth Science Resource Engineering, Australia
Brent McInnes Curtin University, Australia

2. Data Science is Happening in
Geochemistry (and Mineralogy, Petrology, etc.)
V21A-08: Boosting Data Science in Geochemistry: We Need Global Geochemical Data Standards and Networking! 2
Goldschmidt 2018 Workshop
“Data Science in Geochemistry”

3. Just Reflecting on this Session ...
■ How much work went into assembling the data to do the data-driven
research in each of the talks?
■ What standards were followed to compile the data? What
information about uncertainties or analytical procedure was
included, what terminology was used?
■ Can I integrate the data compiled for talk A with the one from talk B?
■ Can we use the tools presented in talk X with the data from talk Y?
V21A-08: Boosting Data Science in Geochemistry: We Need Global Geochemical Data Standards and Networking! 3

4. Obstacles for Data Science
■ Surveys in recent years show that data scientists still spend 75-80%
of their time ‘data wrangling’.
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Source:
Crowdflower
• RDA EU survey 2013 (75%)
• Brodie 2015 (80%)
• CrowdFlower 2017 (80%)
Did you?

5. Example: Data Synthesis for DECADE
■ 15 scientists working for 5 days
■ Major progress was only made
with the compilation of melt
inclusion geochemistry because
data were discoverable in PetDB
and GEOROC.
■ Another 2 months of effort of the
EarthChem data manager
required to format & integrate
data from different databases
and unpublished data.
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6. Urgency for a Geochemical Data
Standard
■ We need to be able to share & integrate data globally from multiple
databases each with their own schema.
■ We need to integrate & link data across disciplines (transdisciplinary).
■ We need to ensure compliance with FAIR data principles.
■ We need it to
– Be more comprehensive with respect to data documentation,
– Be aligned with modern standards, e.g. RDF,
– Use, where possible, internationally endorsed vocabularies.
■ Above all, we need to have a more formal approval and governance.
– We need to think of standard specifically for both technical and 'social' reasons.
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7. A Never-Ending Story?
V21A-08: Boosting Data Science in Geochemistry: We Need Global Geochemical Data Standards and Networking! 7
IGC 2008

8. Can We “Standardize” Geochemical
Data?
V21A-08: Boosting Data Science in Geochemistry: We Need Global Geochemical Data Standards and Networking! 8
I believe that our failure to unite our
voices as geochemists has a simple origin
– it is the complexity of our subject.

9. We Made Some Progress
■ Editors Roundtable recommendations with geochemical journals and
databases
■ EarthChem XML schema
■ Rise of the IGSN
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Goldstein et al. 2014, published in the
EarthChem Library
doi:10.1594/IEDA/100426

10. EarthChem Data Templates
V21A-08: Boosting Data Science in Geochemistry: We Need Global Geochemical Data Standards and Networking! 10

11. EarthChemXML
• Developed for the EarthChem Portal (ECP) in 2006
• Locally developed XML schema for data exchange that partner data
systems use to encode their database content for inclusion in the
ECP database.
• Not comprehensive with respect to metadata, uses EarthCem
vocabularies (so does not align with broader community
vocabularies)
• XML format is voluminous, especially for databases with hundreds of
thousands of records.
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12. EarthChem Portal
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• 22,074 publications
• 1,054,738 samples
• 30,059,995 analytical values
Global Federation of Geochemical Databases:
• PetDB
• SedDB
• GEOROC (Germany)
• USGS
• MetPetDB
• GANSEKI (Japan)
• Data exchange protocol: EarthChemXML
• APIs & web services (WMS, WFS)
• Interoperability with modeling tools
More formal & community governed
standards needed for FAIR

13. Interoperable EarthChem Data
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DECADE Portal (beta)
http://decade.iedadata.org

14. V21A-08: Boosting Data Science in Geochemistry: We Need Global Geochemical Data Standards and Networking! 14

15. V21A-08: Boosting Data Science in Geochemistry: We Need Global Geochemical Data Standards and Networking! 15

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17. V21A-08: Boosting Data Science in Geochemistry: We Need Global Geochemical Data Standards and Networking! 17

18. Proliferation of Geochemical
Databases
■ International
■ Science programs
■ Thematic
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sponsored by the State Key Lab of
the Geological Processes and
Mineral Resources in the China
University of Geosciences

19. ‚long tail‘ communities:
• Analogue modelling
• Rock physics/ mechanics
• Paleomagnetics
• Geochemistry
Slide contributed by Kirsten Elger, GFZ Potsdam
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20. Spain, 11, 41%
Netherlands, 1,
4%Portugal, 3,
11%
Italy, 12, 44%
27 Analytical labs, 4 countries
Spain
Netherlands
Portugal
Italy
Barcelona Workshop (Nov 2018):
• Agreement to use EarthChem
Library templates for data
publications via GFZ Data Services
• Interest in collaboration for the
development of global standards for
geochemical data
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Slide contributed by Kirsten Elger, GFZ Potsdam

21. Data Standards in Geochemistry
are no longer an option
■ Publishers & funders are demanding FAIR data.
■ In order to do Data Science, we need to have a global network of
geochemical data that can be accessed in a standardized format.
■ No one can do it alone – no one organization, no one group, no one
country has the required resources or expertise. We need to build a
global geochemistry data platform together!
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“We must, indeed, all hang together or, most
assuredly, we shall all hang separately”.
Benjamin Franklin

22. AGU Town Hall
“Building a Global Network of Geochemical Data”
Tuesday, Dec 11, 6:15-7:00pm
Marriott Marquis, Independence E
Panel:
Roberta Rudnick (President, Geochemical Society)
Catherine Chauvel (Editor, Chemical Geology)
Maria Uhle (NSF Program Director for International Activities)
Lesley Wyborn, ANU
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