Data Management of the SFB 267 for the Andes — from Ink and Paper to Digital Databases

Abstract

The Collaborative Research Center 267 (SFB 267), Deformation Processes in the Andes , focused on interdisciplinary research in the Central and Southern Andes and involved nearly all geoscientific disciplines. Over a period of 12 years, 17 interdisciplinary and international task groups investigated the crustal processes that act at the convergent plate margin of central South America, through both laboratory work and large field campaigns. Since the early 1990s, the ever-growing digital database of the SFB 267 has required extensive data documentation to guarantee its long-term use and avoid redundancies. A meta-data information system has also been developed to facilitate queries by internet and intranet. The Internet module mingles new data sets from laboratory work, field research, and remote sensing with diverse geoscientific meta-data in a way that makes it more useful to both scientists and the general public. Based on an earlier version, the current SFB 267 website has been turned into a geo-service tool that provides data, meta-data, and numerical tools for three-dimensional modeling, mapping, and visualization.