What Do Geologists Need to Know about Metadata?

Downey, Don¹ (1) Chevron ETC, San Ramon, CA, CA

Over the life of an average interpretation project, gigabytes of information are stored. A geologist may generate an average of 2 to 3 important documents each week resulting in hundreds of files created yearly. The problem is how find the critically important files needed for the next project. What is the solution? Metadata is searchable information about a data resource. For an example, look at how the government manages data, they had to get organized and created geospatial metadata standards.

What are the metadata elements and standards needed by geologists? The goal is populate the metadata, make the metadata searchable and to maintain metadata elements for ownership and data retention time. Properties of the datasets such as title, author and creation date are harvested and recorded in metadata documents automatically, but the most useful search items will be manually entered through a metadata editor program. Theme codes and keywords from the metadata standards can be added in a special metadata profile that allows entry of metadata elements useful for hydrocarbon exploration. Custom metadata editors, metadata templates and xml stylesheets are especially useful for populating multiple datasets within a project.

Metadata standards and formats of image metadata, geospatial metadata for ArcGIS and the “document properties” of Microsoft Office files and Adobe Acrobat pdfs differ; however, the basic principles of data ownership and responsibility apply. By practicing adherence to standards, metadata is the key to sharing the data needed for geologic interpretation projects.