Petrological Database of the Ocean Floor
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Petrological Database of the Ocean Floor (PetDB) is a relational database for global geochemical data on igneous and metamorphic rocks generated at mid-ocean ridges including back-arc basins, young seamounts, and old oceanic crust, as well as ophiolites and terrestrial xenoliths from the mantle and lower crust and diamond geochemistry. These data are obtained by analyses of whole rock powders, volcanic glasses, and minerals by a wide range of techniques including mass spectrometry, atomic emission spectrometry, x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, and wet chemical analyses. Data are compiled from the scientific literature by PetDB data managers, and entered after methodical metadata review. Members of the scientific community can also suggest entry of specific data that has been entered into the EarthChem Library. PetDB is administered by the EarthChem group under the Integrated Earth Data Applications (IEDA) facility at the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory headed by K. Lehnert. PetDB is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
About
Developments of PetDB began in 1995, by Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) scientists C. Langmuir (now at Harvard University), W. Ryan, and A. Boulanger, when they realized what impact the World Wide Web and relational databases could have on the use of scientific data in research and in the classroom.
The initial funding phase of PetDB (1996–2001) supported the development of the database structure and population with data values. Renewed funding (2002–2007) permitted the migration of the database into an ORACLE-based environment administered by the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) of Columbia University, continued data entry, and enhancement of the web-interface with a more user-friendly design.
PetDB is now maintained by EarthChem and funded by the US National Science Foundation, and is governed by the Interdisciplinary Earth Data Alliance facility as part of an ecosystem of related projects, including The System for Earth Sample Registration (SESAR), and the Astromaterials Data System (AstroMat).
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