TM19 | OneGeochemistry: Towards a Global Network of Geochemical Data
OneGeochemistry: Towards a Global Network of Geochemical Data
Convener: Alexander Prent | Co-conveners: Marthe Klöcking, Lesley Wyborn, Kerstin Lehnert, Dominik Hezel, Kirsten Elger
Mon, 24 Apr, 19:00–20:00 (CEST)
 
Room 0.96/97
Mon, 19:00
Acquisition and analysis of geochemical data are the fundamental and first step for research in the Earth, environmental, and planetary sciences. Geochemical data are key for understanding past, present, and future processes in natural systems, from the interior of the Earth to its surface environments on land, in the oceans, and in the air, to the entire solar system. However, accessibility and preservation of geochemical data has been sporadic and fragmented. Whilst thematic databases, such as EarthChem or GEOROC, have enabled new ways of mining and statistically analysing large volumes of geochemical data, leading to new discoveries and a demonstrable impact on science, their maintenance is time-consuming, expensive, and not scalable. As more geochemical database systems are emerging at national, programmatic, and subdomain levels in response to Open Science policies and science demands, the need for global standards and best practices for geochemical data is increasingly urgent so that we can better share and link all data resources in a global network.

The OneGeochemistry initiative is an international collaboration between organisations that support geochemistry capability and data production. The initiative focuses on coordinating and consolidating global efforts in geochemical data standardisation in order to create a sustainable data infrastructure that guarantees persistent, machine readable access to the global wealth of FAIR geochemical data. OneGeochemistry has formed a Working Group as part of the International Science Council’s Committee on Data (CODATA) and invites the wider community to engage in the creation and publication of standard geochemical data formats and data gathering-creation-storage workflows.

During this Town Hall, the OneGeochemistry initiative will give an update on activities and progress and invite feedback and suggestions from all disciplines. We invite you to join a discussion on how the community can best help and participate in the creation of geochemical data standards. Our goal is to broaden community awareness of and participation in the initiative, and to further learn from successful initiatives in other disciplines.