An Integrated Golden Spike Information Portal Enabled by Data Visualization and Semantic Web Technologies

The purpose of the portal (http://geotime.tw.rpi.edu/) described in this paper is to provide formal background information of Golden Spikes. Golden Spike is the nickname for Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point, or GSSP, which a stratigraphic section is serving as the reference unit for a particular boundary on the geologic time scale. In this work we deployed a number of state-of-the-art information technologies, such as semantic modeling and encoding, data visualization, SPARQL query, and online map layers from Web Map Services. The portal received positive feedbacks from researchers in the domain of stratigraphy and we are assembling further information and updating the portal to make it more useful.