A. Krishna Sinha¹*, Zaki Malik², Abdelmounaam Rezgui², David L. Fox³, Calvin G. Barnes⁴, Kai Lin⁵, Grant Heiken⁶, William A. Thomas⁷, Linda C. Gundersen⁸, Robert Raskin⁹, Ian Jackson¹⁰, Peter Fox¹¹, Deborah McGuinness¹¹, Dogan Seber¹²**, Herman Zimmerman¹³

1 Dept. of Geosciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
2 Dept. of Computer Science, Wayne State Univ., Detroit, Michigan 48120, USA
3 School of Information Sciences, Univ. of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA
4 Dept. of Geosciences, Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, Texas 79409, USA
5 San Diego Supercomputer Center, Univ. of California, San Diego, California 92093, USA
6 331 Windantide Place, Freeland, Washington 98249, USA
7 Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Univ. of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506, USA
8 U.S. Geological Survey, National Center, Reston, Virginia 20192, USA
9 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 300-320, Pasadena, California 91109, USA
10 British Geological Survey, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK
11 Dept. of Computer Sciences, RPI, Troy, New York 12180, USA
12 San Diego Supercomputer Center, Univ. of California, San Diego, California 92093, USA
13 National Science Foundation (ret.), 1337 NE Stanton Street, Portland, Oregon 97212, USA

Abstract

An integrative view of Earth as a system, based on multi-disciplinary data, has become one of the most compelling reasons for research and education in the geosciences. It is now necessary to establish a modern infrastructure that can support the transformation of data to knowledge. Such an information infrastructure for geosciences is contained within the emerging science of geoinformatics, which seeks to promote the utilization and integration of complex, multidisciplinary data in seeking solutions to geoscience-based societal challenges.

*Adjunct, Dept. of Geological Sciences, San Diego State Univ., San Diego, California 92182, USA

**Now at Nuclear Regulatory Commission, One White Flint North, Rockville, Maryland 20852, USA

Manuscript received 3 Nov. 2009; accepted 13 Apr. 2010

DOI: 10.1130/GSATG85A.1