Ontology-driven data integration and visualization for exploring regional geologic time and paleontological information

Initiatives of open data promote the online publication and sharing of large amounts of geologic data. How to retrieve information and discover knowledge from the big data is an ongoing challenge. In this paper, we developed an ontology-driven data integration and visualization pilot system for exploring information of regional geologic time, paleontology, and fundamental geology. The pilot system (http://www2.cs.uidaho.edu/∼max/gts/) implemented the following functions: modeling and visualization of a geologic time scale ontology of North America, interactive retrieval and display of fossil information, geologic map information query and comparison with fossil information. A few case studies were carried out in the pilot system for querying fossil occurrence records from Plaeobiology Database and comparing them with information from the USGS geologic map services. The results show that, to improve the compatibility between local and global geologic standards, bridge gaps between different data sources, and create smart geoscience data services, it is necessary to further extend and improve the existing geoscience ontologies and use them to support functions to explore the open data.