Making Arctic field geology accessible by digitizing outcrops

The Svalbox Digital Model Database (DMDb) has made its official debut to the scientific community in a new article published in the journal Atmosphere.

Located halfway to the North Pole within the Arctic Circle, the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norway is a remote geological wonderland. Svalbox DMDb is a new regional database that currently collects 135 DOMs, making data from 114 km away.² This incredibly inaccessible area is freely available to anyone with access to the Internet.

Digital outcrop models are geo-referenced 3D digital representations of geological outcrops that have revolutionized the way geoscientists work in the 21st century. In Svalbox DMDb, these models are integrated with other scientific geological data. 3D drone footage is also available.

“It’s like Google Street View… without the street part,” explains first author Peter Bethlem. While DOM is routinely used in research, education, and industry, it is often only available in its standalone, fully processed form.

What’s special about Svalbox DMDb is that it consists of shared data and metadata according to the FAIR principles (i.e. findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable). Each database entry includes raw input and processed output data and contains a DOI so it can be tracked and cited.

While working in Svalbard, Bethlem quickly realized that the amount of drone data collected in a single field campaign is enormous and only grows with each step of processing. Having a good digital infrastructure to archive data was crucial to its success. “It was the early days of DOM models, and there was a lot to figure out,” recalls Bethlem. It took many years and several iterations to reach the current form of Svalbox DMDb.

Today, the Svalbox DMDb provides a unique resource for all geologists working in the archipelago, as well as being a great educational tool. Their digital outcrop models complement traditional fieldwork by extending the field season indefinitely and extending scientists’ access to sites inaccessible through traditional fieldwork, as well as allowing them to be better prepared for upcoming expeditions.

“Not knowing what a field site will look like can really set you back, especially in the Arctic, where the landscape changes rapidly as glaciers recede,” Bethlem explains. These time-lapse changes can now be preserved through the Svalbox DMDb, thus preserving their geological potential for future generations. “In the months leading up to the field season, we get a few inquiries weekly about datasets: Do you have more? Can we use them?” This has already led to collaboration and publication, two essential pillars of scientific research.

The Svalbard archipelago offers a stunning array of high-quality outcrops covering a wide range of rocks, tectonic and magmatic styles. Bethlem’s personal favorite, detailed in Atmosphere The paper is a profile of Westningen, the only geological site on Svalbard. This outcrop extends over a period of 400 million years across a 7 km section with vertical layers. “You literally go back in time, starting in the Paleogene and crossing the Permian-Triassic boundary before arriving at the Carboniferous sequences,” Bethlem says.

Sometimes data is acquired using drones; Sometimes it is hand-held. Constraining the GPS location of each individual image is key to extracting key geological measurements such as strike and subsequent dip. All images are vectorized and combined through photogrammetry, which is the science of extracting 3D information from photographs.

But getting to the outcrop to digitize it is a real adventure. Any means of transportation is fair game, from boats to snowmobiles. The field season is limited to about 100 days per year in late spring and summer, and is confined to the long polar night from October to February.

Svalbox DMDb is constantly expanding as more DOMs are added. Bethlem is currently preparing for his next field season, and as he heads to 80 degrees north with the Svalbox team, they will collect additional drone footage of hot springs and other volcanic remains. Visit https://www.svalbox.no/map to see it come to digital life.