The Terrane Mapping School is intended to duplicate the experience of the GEOMAR Summer School, training students to access relevant geoscience data sets, compile the data, and integrate them into regional-scale tectonostratigraphic assemblage maps. This type of mapping is a critical tool for the identification and characterization of metallogenic provinces of prime importance for future resource discovery. A challenge in developing terrane models is the lack of seamless data compilations at appropriate scales and the expertise needed to combine and interpret those data. Creating these products requires advanced training in geoscience data discovery, handling, and synthesis.
“How do I create a regional geodynamic interpretation from so many small pieces of the puzzle?”
In the Terrane Mapping School, students learn how to construct relevant map layers, group units into lithostratigraphic and lithotectonic assemblages, establish time-stratigraphic correlations across the map areas, and interpret large-scale structures in terms of regional geodynamics. These results enable both paleogeographic and paleotectonic reconstructions that are fundamental steps in resource exploration. Students learn to recognize distinct histories of different assemblages from conventional bedrock mapping data and to express that history in terms of igneous or metamorphic events and structural evolution relevant to regional-scale mineral endowment. They are tasked with identifying how different terranes formed; what was the nature of the basin fill; where and when did the major magmatic-hydrothermal events occur; what tectonic elements were the critical melt and fluid pathways.
The course provides a thorough and practical understanding of techniques for assembling large geoscience data sets (geology, geophysics, geochemistry) at a range of scales and introduces students to important data repositories, including legacy maps and geophysical surveys. They learn how to set up map projects in ArcGIS with the relevant tools and editors and how to begin interpreting the compiled data using a combination of automated analysis and expert knowledge.
Participation: 10-15 students (MSc, PhD and postdoctoral level), 10 days x 8 hrs/day.
The course is delivered in-person by iMAGE-CREATE researchers on location and by videoconferencing.
The first 2-3 days are an introduction to lithotectonic maps, ranging in scale from 1:100,000 to 1:1 million. The remaining 5-6 days examine available data sets to determine how they can be integrated into a regional synthesis. Practical training includes ArcGIS proficiency, data merger, remote-predictive mapping techniques, and geological interpretations.