Rock-forming-process Extraction through the Integration of Visualization, Informatics and Measurement

Abstract

In order to extract physicochemical processes related to rock formation, it is necessary to acquire quantitative data at the maximum extent from the rock samples by measurement and analysis, and to obtain essential information from the acquired data through quantitative modeling. This paper introduces the author’s researches using the integration approach between informatics and measurement. Two typical petrological problem settings are discussed: process extraction from micro texture in a single rock sample and process extraction from bulk chemical compositions of multiple rock samples. In both of problem settings, visualization plays an important role in promoting the utilization of the expertise of a petrologist in a series of research processes such as acquisition of measurement data, interpretation of processes, and quantitative modeling. In the future, it is especially desirable to develop novel visualization and information-processing methods that promote the discovery of unknown rock-formation processes by considering the characteristics of geoscientific data.