Abstract:

In the era of big data, the effective utilization of massive geological data should be based on effective storage, management and sharing of these information. As the earliest national geological survey, British Geological Survey (BGS) has an unprecedented wealth of geological data. They are also at the forefront of sharing data worldwide through a comprehensive system in this decade. This paper aims to investigate and analyze their current geological data resources and data management and sharing status. Special emphasis is devoted to elaborate their integrated data platform, “OpenGeoscience”, as well as databases maintained by them and their collaborators. OpenGeoscience is a comprehensive platform to store and manage various types of digital data of BGS. Furthermore, it integrates various datasets by data sharing mechanism and seamlessly linking data and application models, in order to meet the personalized needs from various disciplines. Therefore, OpenGeoscience sets a good example of geological data management and sharing system for the Earth Science community, especially for the on-gonging Deep-Time Earth initiated by Chinese geologists and their peers.

Key words: British Geological Survey, OpenGeoscience, data sharing, geological data