An updated internet-based Global Paleomagnetic Database
Team members from EDRG have been instrumental in establishing a new internet-based Global Paleomagnetic Database, updating the MS Access-based version of McElhinny and Lock (1996), enabling the future development of machine learning applications to paleomagnetism. Details of the database have been published in Earth-Science Reviews.
The availability of global, uniformly formatted, and easily searchable databases is essential for big data-based and machine-leaning oriented geoscience research. We present a new and data-updated version of the online Global Paleomagnetic Database (GPMDB; http://gpmdb.net/). This version inherits most of the structure from the previous MS Access-based version of McElhinny and Lock (1996), but includes a new RELIABILITY table with Q and R quality factors, as well as the optional inclination shallowing-corrected data where applicable. It now contains 10,021 paleomagnetic poles (994 of them being high quality poles with Q > 5) from 8247 rock units, presented in 4175 publications. The database, publicly available from the GPMDB website, provides a user-friendly graphical interface with the navigation page, an interactive world map showing the localities of all paleomagnetically studied rock units and menu bars. Multi-parameter and multi-stage search of the database is available through a SEARCH menu bar, and users can export the search results as CSV files. We compare the Q and R quality factors for a selection of database entries, and provide examples of database queries. This database will be continuously updated, maintained and improved, providing a unique source of high-quality global paleomagnetic data for a wide range of Earth science research including paleogeographic reconstruction and testing of geodynamic models, and enabling future development of machine learning applications.
Contact person: Dr Sergei Pisarevsky & Prof Zheng-Xiang Li, Earth Dynamics Research Group, Curtin University.
Relevant publication:
Pisarevsky, S.A, Li, Z.X., Tetley, M.G., Liu, Y., Beardmore, J.P., 2022. An updated internet-based Global Paleomagnetic Database. Earth-Science Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104258