Knowledge Management System for Geosciences: An Approach to an Igneous Rocks Analysis Data Model

Abstract

Petrology, petrography and ordinary geologic data compose an ever increasing collection of information for post-processing analysis. Geoscientists at Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, are consistently working with these data collections for research purposes. Scientists record this information, as well as that obtained in bibliography references, in order to study it and lead to important research findings. Yet, the quantity of data is frequently so overwhelming that it is impossible to keep track of all the relevant information when it is allocated in different data sources. Likewise, computer engineers specialized in Data Analysis & Knowledge Management find an invaluable "data treasure" in big amounts of information, whether or not it is divided among different data sources. We address this geoscientists' problem by presenting the design of an igneous rocks data model, ready for data integration, processing and analysis using the Business Intelligence and Analytics (BI&A) tools, eventually illustrating the efficacy of this approach on several real geological research related problems, by providing useful insights and decision-making supports.