Massive sea bottom data archive launches on the Web
A new Internet database of over 200,000 samples of sediment from the seafloor will be launched at the Eurocean 2000 exhibition in Hamburg from 29 August to 2 September 2000. The EU-SEASED database includes records of the many seabed samples and cores which have been gathered since the 19th century and since been held by marine geology departments of the European national Geological Surveys, European universities and marine research institutes. It includes data on an area of sea floor extending over 200 miles offshore and more than twice the size of the EU's land area. Until now, researchers have been unable to fully exploit this data, which was stored at different locations across Europe. EU-SEASED aims to make the data more accessible and to maximise the scientific return on the initial investment made in collecting the samples. Assembly of the database began in November 1998 as a European Commission funded joint project, supported by two concerted actions - EUMARSIN and EUROCORE - through the MAST III programme under the Fourth Framework Programme. The project partners included 14 of the European national Geological Surveys, EuroGeoSurveys and the Dutch MARIS. Nine major European marine research institutes, marine stations and universities collaborated for EUROCORE. The data 'is vital to end users in governments, industry and academia,' says the European Commission. 'For example, to help sustain a healthy marine environment, for problem solving in global climate change, sea floor slope stability, and pollution control.' EU-SEASED is designed to be easy to use and visitors to Eurocean 2000 will see a CD demonstration of it on the project stand. It enables on-line entry and editing of metadata by the project partners and data retrieval, including GIS-based user interface and data presentation After 2001, the national partners will continue to maintain EU-SEASED as a public access facility on the Internet, updating their own countries' datasets from national programmes. Sectors likely to benefit form EU-SEASED include: fisheries; agriculture, energy, the nuclear industry, the manufacturing industry, the construction industry, tourism, transport, communications, conservation, waste management, human health, defence, education and research.