Making Arctic Field Geology Accessible by Digitizing Outcrops
Boulder, Colo., USA: The Svalbox Digital Model Database (DMDb) just made
its formal debut into the scientific community
in a new article published
in the journal Geosphere.
The Svalbard archipelago, located north of Norway halfway to the North Pole
and well within the Arctic Circle, is a remote geological wonderland.
Svalbox DMDb is a new regional database which currently collates 135
digital outcrop models (DOMs), making data from 114 km 2 of this
incredibly difficult-to-access area freely available to anyone with
internet access.
Digital outcrop models are georeferenced three-dimensional digital
representations of geologic outcrops that have revolutionized the way
twenty-first century geoscientists work. In the Svalbox DMDb, these models
are integrated with other geoscientific data. 3D drone footage is also
available. “It is like Google Street View…minus the street part,” explains
first author Peter Betlem. While DOMs are routinely used in research,
education, and industry, they are often only available in their
stand-alone, fully processed form. What is unique about the Svalbox DMDb is
that it is composed of data and metadata shared according to FAIR (i.e.,
findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) principles. Each database
entry includes raw input and processed output data and has a DOI so that it
is traceable and citable.
While working in Svalbard, Betlem quickly realized that the amount of drone
data collected in a single field campaign is enormous and only grows with
every step of processing. Having a good digital infrastructure to archive
the data was critical to his success. “These were the early days of DOMs,
and there was a lot to figure out,” recalls Betlem. It took many years and
several iterations to get to the current form of the Svalbox DMDb.
Today, the Svalbox DMDb provides a unique resource for all geoscientists
working in the archipelago, as well as a great teaching aid. Its digital
outcrop models complement traditional field work by extending the field
season indefinitely and expanding scientists’ reach to sites that are not
accessible through traditional field work, as well as allowing them to
better prepare for upcoming expeditions. “Not knowing what a field site
looks like can really hold you back,” clarifies Betlem, “especially in the
Arctic, where the landscape changes rapidly as glaciers recede.” These
changes can now be preserved in time-lapse through the Svalbox DMDb, their
geological potential thus safeguarded for generations to come. “In the
months leading up to field season we get a couple of inquiries per week on
the datasets: do you have more? Can we use them?” This has already led to
collaborations and publications, two fundamental pillars of scientific
research.
The Svalbard archipelago offers an incredible variety of quality outcrops
spanning a wide range of lithologies and tectono-magmatic styles. A
personal favorite of Betlem’s, detailed in the Geosphere paper, is
the Festningen profile, Svalbard’s only geotope. This outcrop spans 400
million years across a 7 km transect with vertical stratigraphy. “You
literally walk back in time, starting in the Paleogene and crossing the
Permian-Triassic boundary before reaching Carboniferous sequences,” says
Betlem.
Sometimes data acquisition is drone-based; sometimes it is handheld.
Precisely constraining the GPS location of each individual image is
fundamental to extracting key geological measurements such as strike and
dip a posteriori. All images get oriented and merged through
photogrammetry, the science of extracting 3D information from photographs.
But it is getting to the outcrop to be digitized that is a real adventure.
Any means of transportation is fair game, from boats to snowmobiles. The
field season is restricted to about 100 days per year in late spring and
summer, squished in between the long polar night that extends from October
to February.
Svalbox DMDb is constantly expanding with the addition of more DOMs. Betlem
is currently gearing up for his next field season, and as he heads up to
80ºN with the Svalbox team they will collect additional drone footage of
hot springs and other volcanic remnants. Visit
https://www.svalbox.no/map
to see it come to digital life.
FEATURED ARTICLE
Svalbox Digital Model Database: A geoscientific window into the High Arctic
P. Betlem, N. Rodés, T. Birchall, A. Dahlin, A. Smyrak-Sikora, and K. Senger
Contact: Peter Betlem, The University Centre in Svalbard,
peterbe@unis.no
https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02606.1
GEOSPHERE articles published ahead of print are online at
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/geosphere/early-publication.
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