(See our annual reports 2008 and 2009 for details, work plan for 2009-2010, and the extensive set of objectives originally assigned to this subcommission).
OVERALL OBJECTIVES
Mission Statement
The ICS Task Force for Stratigraphic Information aims to promote and coordinate the gathering of selected stratigraphic information worldwide and to organize logically its presentation through its website. The Task Force priority is to enable the world geoscience community to have quick and free access to a vast amount of stratigraphic information, thus helping to spread the knowledge of Earth’s history and foster the advancement of stratigraphic sciences.
Goals
The Task Force[formerly called “Stratigraphic Information System (SIS) Subcommission”] was established in 2000 to gather selected stratigraphic information (such as databases, compilation of biozonal schemes, regional time scales, stratigraphic standards, and geohistory teaching modules), to logically organize the databases and related links, and make easy search and use of the contents through its website to the world scientific community.
The main tasks are:
(1) Geologic time scale information (from posters and cards to multi-author compilations)
(2) Stratigraphic database center and links (with visualizations; links to lexicons, etc.)
(3) Stratigraphic standards (GSSP information, stratigraphic code in different languages)
(4) Geohistory education and links
ORGANIZATION
The Task Force Bureau consists of:
Officers and current Voting Members
Name |
Office or Expertise |
Country (Institution) |
Ogg, James G. |
Chair; TS-Creator database and visualization |
USA (Purdue University) |
Ogg, Gabi M. |
Secretary/Webmaster; graphics, GSSP tables |
USA (Purdue University) |
Crampton, James S. |
Vice-Chair, Global Change Through Time Programme of GNS |
NEW ZEALAND (Inst. Geol. Nucl. Sci.) |
Asch, Kristine |
OneGeology Europe; Chair IUGS Comm. Geoscience Information |
GERMANY (BGR) |
Fan, Junxuan |
Geobiodiversity database |
CHINA (Nanjing Inst.) |
Filipescu, Sorin |
Microfossils (Ceno-Mesoz.) |
ROMANIA (Babes-Bolyai Univ.) |
Galeotti, Simone |
Microfossils ; co-founder of 2002 subcommission |
ITALY (Univ. Urbino) |
Howe, Richard |
Global stratigraphy |
USA (Chevron) |
IODP (Jamus Collier) |
Information and Data Manager |
JAPAN (IODP) |
Koren', Tat'yana N. |
Head of Russian stratigraphy (bio, litho, etc.) database group; |
RUSSIA (All-Russian Geological Research, Institute) |
Nowlan, Geofrey S. |
Paleozoic stratigraphy; geo-education |
CANADA (Canad. Geol. Surv.) |
Van Couvering, John |
Microfossil databases |
USA (Micropress) |
James Ogg was Secretary-General of ICS (2000-2008), co-editor of Geologic Time Scale 2004, developer of ICS’s TimeScale Creator databases and visualization system, and lead author for Concise Geologic Time Scale (2008).
James Crampton was a coordinator for the New Zealand Geological Time Scale program, specializes in Mesozoic stratigraphy, and helped with the previous Stratigraphic Information subcommission.
Gabi Ogg, a micropaleontologist, was illustrator for Geologic Time Scale 2004 and for the Concise Geologic Time Scale (2008). She has prepared most of the graphics and GSSP-summaries for the ICS and SSI websites; and the various ICS time-scale charts
INTERFACES WITH OTHER INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS
(1) One-Geology and One-Geology-Europe geoinformatics teams. We are working to provide an RSS-feed of the main ICS standards, especially GSSP definitions and approximate ages, to the One-Geology program. We will be working with One-Geology-Europe program during to interface our database structure with their preliminary one and the lexicons.
(2) UNESCO Commission for the Geologic Map of the World (CGMW). We have worked with CGMW in Paris on standardizing the CMYK and RGB colors for chronostratigraphic units, and co-produced a poster with these colors and GSSPs. We will be coordinating with CGMW on inter-linking our databases and lexicons to their geological maps.
(3) National geological surveys and stratigraphic commissions. Currently, we have joint projects or coordination (mainly TimeScale Creator datapacks) with – Geoscience Australia, New Zealand geologic survey, British Geologic Survey, Austria Stratigraphy Commission, German Stratigraphy Commission, German Geological Survey (BGS), Norwegian offshore lexicon, Russia (stratigraphic database group coordinated by Tatyana N. Koren’, All Russian Geological Institute) and Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology (China).
CHIEF ACCOMPLISHMENT AND PRODUCTS
We have concentrate on global distribution of free or “at cost” teaching resources for Earth History. Many of our products are joint efforts with other teams; and have been partially supported by contributions from geological surveys and the petroleum industry.
a. Printed material on Earth’s History – books (e.g., Concise Geologic Time Scale, under the auspices of ICS and IUGS), posters (e.g,, History of the Earth, and in coordination with UNESCO’s CGMW A Geologic Time Scale 2008), mousepads, and pocket cards.
b. Databases and Visualization – especially the extensive “global” database suite that supports our “flagship” TimeScale Creator visualization and chart-making package.
c. Regional Lexicon-linked databases and other datapacks – recent products include datapacks for Australian Geo-History, Phanerozoic Biostratigraphy of Russian Basins, Lithostratigraphy of Russian Hydrocarbon Basins, Lithostratigraphy of British Isles, New Zealand Biostratigraphy Database, Lithostratigraphy of Svalbard and Norwegian Sea, Lithostratigraphy of Alaskan and other Arctic Hydrocarbon Basins, Phanerozoic Sequence Stratigraphy and Onlap Curve, Cenozoic Oxygen Isotope Trends, Global Impact, and Large-Igneous-Province records.