Academics who are heavily engaged in research are always
scrambling to obtain two things: 1) Money and 2) Data. The process involves
writing proposals, sending tons of emails and there is always a certain element
of just…begging! It is sometimes a very stressful and frustrating endeavor. This is the reason why I find it
absolutely refreshing when certain institutions and governments just provide
data for “free” or almost “free.” These are some of my favorite sites:
Norwegian Interactive
Offshore Stratigraphic Lexicon (NORLEX): Hosted by the University of Oslo
it “provides a relational stratigraphic database for the North Sea, Norwegian
Sea, Barents Sea and Svalbard.” This online tool also allows users to
“instantly access updated formation and member tops or microfossil events in
all wells, plus a map contouring routine for unit thicknesses and depths.” One
of my students pursued her master’s thesis in offshore Norway and this tool
proved to be remarkably useful. Norwegian legislation (Norwegian Petroleum Directorate) requires
companies to release subsurface data (including seismic) to the public domain
after certain number of years and therefore this multi-billion dollar database
is available to the wider world. Isn’t that brilliant?
 |
Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous syn-
rift wedge in the Heidrun Field, offshore Norway. Well log and seismic data
courtesy of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. Well tops and lithological
information from NORLEX (Sarika Ramnarine’s master thesis)
|
The Online Exploration
Database from the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development also allows
users to search their database to find a variety of subsurface information.
Similarly to the Norwegian legislation, New Zealand grants access to data after
certain number of years. We have been able to obtain seismic data from the
Taranaki Basin for a PhD project under this scheme.
 |
Taranaki
Basin, seismic and well data base map. Study area PhD candidate Migdalys
Salazar.
|
The Department of Mines and Petroleum from the Government of
Western Australia also implements a similar approach through their Petroleum and Geothermal Information
(WAMPIS) system. Geoscience Australia
also allows users to search and request access to subsurface data. Most of
these entities only charge fees for transferring data to your institution. I’ll
take that!
I think the United States should implement a similar
approach. There are probably hundreds of seismic volumes sitting unused in
servers all over the place. It would be also useful to mandate companies to
release the first few seconds of data from seismic surveys. The first hundreds
meters of data often times do not contain sensitive information of commercial
interest but tons of good science. Don’t get me wrong; companies and individual
“champions” do a great deal of effort in trying to release as much data as they
possible can under tight restrictions and mountains of paperwork. A good
example of that, not the only one, is the recent data donation by BP and partners of
shallow high-resolution geophysical data from the GOM to academic institutions
(we got that one too!). However, the lack of governmental regulations and requirements
to release data make this process cumbersome, this drains resources from the
companies and from those of us trying to access data to study some esoteric
topic. This was my whining paragraph!
 |
BP and partners data release in the Gulf of Mexico.
High-resolution geohazard surveys in Holstein, Mad Dog, Atlantis and Thunder
Horse. Study area PhD aspirant Maria Isabel Prieto.
|
Last but not least (even though it needs some refresh! I wonder
why?). Codigo Geologico de Venezuela
was created on the 90s by the research branch of the then National Oil Company
of Venezuela. It contains a lot of good information about Venezuelan geology,
even though it could use a bit of an update?
No comments:
Post a Comment