GeoChem: a volcanic data model for solid and gas samples

Abstract In recent decades, advances in analytical chemistry and the development of sampling and measurement techniques in different geochemical spheres have significantly increased the amount and kinds of available data. However, to optimise their usefulness, geochemical data must be reproducible and reusable, and collection and analysis methodologies must be transparent. At the European level, the need for a comprehensive conceptual database arose among the geochemistry community that contains the broad range of geochemical data describing gas and rocks obtained by in situ and/or laboratory analyses. In particular, the lack of data and metadata standards has made it difficult and sometimes impossible to compare and integrate between different and similar geochemical observations. With the aim of supporting the geochemistry community in starting to use a common language, here we propose a data model for geochemical data (GeoChem) that incorporates the fields already standardised by the scientific community (e.g. IGSN sample code). GeoChem enables managing diverse types of geochemical data and is compliant with research infrastructures dealing with Earth Sciences such as EPOS (European Plate Observing System) at the European level. Unlike the existing databases, our data model not only provides a standard schema to represent geochemical data of a diverse nature, but it also offers a tool to efficiently organise data in a way such that researchers can track every data detail starting from original sample (sample description, sampling site, sampling date, etc.) to the kind of analyses performed and the derived information. Further, our proposed data and metadata model aims at promoting data FAIRness and thus, the Open Science paradigm, at the national and European level as well as the scientific collaboration and networking among the European volcanological community .