233-4 Old Cores, New Questions: Utilizing Data Visualization to Analyze Legacy Datasets

Abstract:

Over the past 50+ years scientific ocean drilling has collected kilometers of marine sediment and rock cores and generated a massive volume of data including measurements such as physical properties, visual core descriptions (VCD), and downhole logging data. Much of this data remains untouched, ready for new questions long after the original expeditions have concluded. Realizing that potential depends on shore-based infrastructure that makes archived data easily accessible to revisit and integrate with newly and future collected measurements. Such infrastructure will lower the technical barrier to data access, which will facilitate increased use of legacy datasets and save these resources from being underutilized. Here we present a portion of our shore-based data integration effort centered on an Ocean Drilling Data Science Toolbox, built to make archived and future scientific ocean drilling data mutually explorable within a single workflow.

One of the toolbox’s primary interactive components, IODP Explorer Dashboard, ingests standard data products, including data of IODP LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System; JOIDES Resolution), J-CORES (Japan Core Research Information System; Chikyu), and PANGAEA (Mission Specific Platforms) as well as OCR-parsed VCD PDFs, and integrates them with physical properties and downhole logging data in a linked, browser-based interface. By eliminating the need for coding or manual data processing, the dashboard enables users to rapidly generate interactive visualizations from multiple data sources within a single environment. These quick-look tools can support efficient sample planning, collaborative efforts during workshops, or basic investigation of data relationships in research and proposal planning. 

© Copyright 2026 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved.