Data Sonification
Although it would likely be a waste of time, I have always been tempted to somehow turn geologic data I have collected into sound. It is commonplace to convert data into visual representations by which qualitative patterns are evaluated by simply looking at it (e.g., maps). Less common is converting data into sound and listening for patterns. The idea of turning data into sound for analysis is certainly not new (e.g., the Geiger counter was invented in the first decade of the 20th century), but the application of sonification to varied data types across scientific disciplines has seen more activity in the last couple of decades.
It is important to make the distinction between music and sound. A separate, but related, discussion would deal with the potential for creating new kinds of avant-garde music within this realm (check out here [1] and here [2]), but that’s not what I’m talking about. Data sonification is simply the auditory equivalent of data visualization. Yes, some visual data is certainly striking in its beauty, but aesthetic value and scientific value are mutually exclusive. In recent years, data sonification has been applied especially in biomedical disciplines (e.g., here and here), but what about the geosciences?
What data types in geoscience would be amenable to being listened to? One answer to why we haven’t seen the value of data sonification demonstrated in this regard is because it has none. This approach can most easily be applied with time series data (and potentially ‘thickness series’ data as I discuss below) but what about spatial information? My intuition is that turning spatial data into something that one can listen to would create something extremely difficult to interpret.
The two figures below show a waveform (top) and associated sonogram (bottom) for an eruption event at Mt. Etna (click on the image to go to the webpage for those figures, here for the home page [3], or here for a BBC report about the project in general [4]).
I listened to some of the data from the above project and I have to say I was underwhelmed. It should be noted, however, that I am currently sitting in a room where clicking, whooshing, and otherwise white-noiseing of a magical machine that knows when a zircon was born is overpowering all other sound. Additionally, this particular dataset is a gradual and subtle crecsendo…all-in-all, not a very exciting pattern. That being said, one of the objectives of what they are doing is to figure out a workflow.
Being a sedimentary geologist, I measure and describe a lot of vertical sections of stratigraphic successions that are exposed in outcrop or part of wellbore data (e.g., core, logs) for the subsurface. At right is an example of a measured section from outcrop. How might we go about sonifying this? From my perspective, I would want attributes such as lithology, grain size, bed thickness, prominent sedimentary structures, presence/absence of trace fossils, and so on captured in the data. The question is: would doing this add any value to the process of recognizing and then interpreting observed (heard) patterns?
Perhaps the value might be when multiple sections are combined? I don’t know. This is one of those topics that is perfect for a blog because I’d like to hear what people think. Do you think your particular type of data could be converted to sound and be of any use?
Further reading (and some listening) on the web:
(1) Article from Feb 2007 SF Chronicle about Stanford music professor turning data into sound
(2) Heart Chamber Orchestra
(3) Mt. Etna Volcano Sonification: Listening to Seismograms
(4) BBC News report about Mt. Etna project
(5) A Spatialized Meterological Data Sonification Project (PDF)
Blogging in 7 minute increments
I haven’t blogged in a while — it’s been really hectic around here. But, I finally have some free time…the only catch is that in comes in increments of approximately 7 minutes in duration. I am spending the next few nights dating some detrital zircons on the SHRIMP. A couple of months ago, I posted about this avenue of research here. Each grain takes about that long to cycle through…there’s a few numbers to be checked and recorded, and then you move the beam on to the next grain.
The good news is that colleagues in my research group are willing to help me out with this analysis. The bad news is that since the machine runs 24/7 and they are my samples, i’m the one who gets to sit here from 7pm until 7am….good times. I don’t mind working the graveyard shift, but I really have a hard time the first night…once ya get into the groove it’s not so bad. There is something a little strange being opposite from the rest of society though. One of the several random jobs I worked during college was as a night watchman — it is definitely a lonely existence. Some people work these hours for years and years…I don’t know how they do it.
Anyway….hopefully, I’ll have a chance to catch up on the latest in the geoblogosphere….in 7-minute increments.
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Where on (Google)Earth? #7
Good luck.
Deep sea observatory in Monterey Bay
This is really cool — check out the article on ScienceDaily.
In a multi-institution effort managed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and funded by the National Science Foundation, 52 kilometers (32 miles) of cable were laid along the seafloor of Monterey Bay. This undersea cable will provide electrical power to scientific instruments, video cameras, and robots 900 meters (3,000 feet) below the ocean surface. It will also carry data from these instruments back to shore, for use by scientists and engineers around the world.
MBARI is a very cool organization, I was able to go out on a short research cruise last fall, which was a great experience. Very high tech…exploring the deep sea floor is like exploring another planet. It will be exciting to see how well this new system works out.
Old and eccentric scientist entertainment
I just returned from the 2007 American Assoc of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) annual conference in Long Beach, CA. All in all, a decent meeting this year.
Although I would argue that publications coming out of AAPG have declined in quality in recent years (too many case studies about oil fields…yawn), the meeting still attracts many great researchers from the broader sedimentary geology community.
If you’ve never been….the AAPG meeting is a single meeting for two general types; those who use geology to find oil and those who use the oil industry to do geology. If you can’t tell by this blog, I fall into the latter. The amount of data and information about sedimentary geology that this industry produces is phenomenal. If you’re an Earth data junkie like me, this is a good meeting. The topics are typically split nicely for both the nerdy and business types.
A highlight for me was seeing Emiliano Mutti speak. This guy is a legend in the sedimentary geology (particularly turbidite researchers) community. He is a short, old, Italian professor and extremely fiesty….quite entertaning. Like many scientific communities, there are always some eccentric characters that stand out. This guy is one of those characters. One of my favorite moments was watching one of my colleauges who was chairing a session decide when to cut Mutti off when he went off on a ranting tangent after asking a speaker a question.
That title doesn’t quite roll off the tongue…oh well.
A debate is currently going on (or at least now making it into the news) regarding the origin of a conspicuous feature found in the subsurface of the North Sea.
Here is the original BBC article.
Geologists from the oil exploration company BP discovered a circular structure about 3 km wide and 1 km deep in the subsurface about 130 km off the coast of England. Some are claiming it to be an impact crater while others have some other thoughts.
Two studies by Dr Stewart and Mr Allen (of BP), the latest of which mapped the structure in 3D, concluded that it was the result of a space impact.
But, University of Edinburgh geology professor, John Underhill, has examined some of the data and disagrees.
“I decided to throw a more regional view at it, and ended up finding a whole load of these features with very similar cross sections,” he said.
It turns out that Underhill’s approach has either uncovered a field of impact cr
aters…or perhaps there’s an alternative explanation.
[Underhill] says that the swarm of structures is the result of movement of a thick layer of salt of Upper Permian (248-256 million years ago) age that lies below the whole area.
Granted, I’ve never worked the North Sea…I have worked on projects in the subsurface of the Gulf of Mexico, which is also influenced by the flow of salt, and it can produce a fantastic and wild subscape full of nearly circular minibasins. It seems that this explanation is a pretty good one, especially with this little tidbit:
“The key observation is that every single syncline is exactly coincident with where the salt has thinned or withdrawn,” [Underhill] said.
But, the ones who discovered the original feature in question still disagree.
Dr Stewart is un-moved. He points to a 300m-high central peak, or nipple, in the centre of the inner bowl, typical of impact craters.
Alas…the debate is interesting enough to draw other researchers into it. The only real way to settle this is to drill, sample, and look for evidence of impact in the rocks (e.g., shocked quartz).
Hmmm….what are the chances BP will pay for that?
Giant sandy bedforms seaward of the Golden Gate Bridge
High-resolution sea-floor mapping done in 2004 and 2005 by the US Geological Survey (USGS) and Cal State Monterey Bay (CSUMB) reveals a field of gigantic sand waves just west of the Golden Gate of San Francisco Bay.
More than 40 large sand waves were mapped, with crest-to-crest lengths of as much as 220 meters and heights of as much as 10 meters. Although the tidal range is not huge here, the narrowness of the Golden Gate straight augments the tidal force significantly (tidal currents > 2.5 m/s). Note in perspective bathymetric images how the area directly under the bridge (blue/purple colors) is kept clean of sediment.
Here is a short synopsis from the USGS’s website.
Here is an article from the San Francisco Chronicle from last summer.
Check this out for another submarine view of San Francisco Bay.
Nature to launch a geoscience journal
Not sure if this has been blogged about yet.
I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I stumbled upon news that Nature is launching a specialized journal called Nature Geoscience in January 2008.
Here’s their description of it:
Launching in 2008, Nature Geoscience will be a monthly multi-disciplinary journal aimed at bringing together the most significant research across the entire spectrum of the Earth Sciences. Published monthly, in print and online, the journal’s content will reflect the core subject disciplines and other related areas with direct links to Earth Sciences.
In addition to primary research, Nature Geoscience will also publish review articles, news and views, research highlights about important papers published in other journals, commentaries, book reviews and correspondences.
Nature Geoscience will take an interdisciplinary, integrated and balanced approach to all areas of geoscience and foster the exchange of ideas between scientists involved in different disciplines. Nature Geoscience will be an invaluable resource for all researchers who are active in the process of discovering and developing an understanding of the Earth, environmental and planetary sciences.
I subscribe to the general Nature journal and enjoy it quite a bit…especially their review articles for the technical papers outside of my field — like in genetics, quantum physics, astronomy, etc. But, there’s typically only about one or two Earth science-related papers per issue (if that). I’m actually quite surprised it took this long for Nature to get this going considering how important the disciplines of Earth science are to the scientific community.
Will this be a good thing for the science? Any thoughts?
Giant selenite crystals
Some of you may have seen these photos….they have been circulating via e-mail over the last few weeks.
Pretty amazing….probably the largest selenite (CaSO4·2H2O) crystals found, i’d imagine. Miners discovered them in Naica Mine, Chihuahua, Mexico. Note people for scale in photos.
From the perspective of a guy from Buffalo at a Tragically Hip concert in San Francisco
This story is from the perspective of a guy from Buffalo at a Tragically Hip concert in San Francisco.
Really…the only way to see these guys is in a small (and famous) music club in San Francisco and not in a giant arena in Calgary. Don’t get me wrong…I love ’em…but they are better suited to the smaller room. This is, by far, the most concentrated collection of Canadians in San Francisco tonight — maybe the most all year?
In the bathroom between the opening band and The Hip, a voice calls out “Who’s from Vancouver, eh?” — this is answered by “Go Canucks!” from the opposite corner and, slightly overlapping in timing, “Go Leafs, Go” from right next to me in a clear combative tone. A couple more Crown and Coke’s and I would have added in my own $0.02 and screamed something clever like “Buffalo rules…wooo”. The ‘wooo’ is pretty standard really…seems trite, but how can you leave it out. C’mon.
The Canadian national anthem was ‘sung’ outside the club afterwards by competing packs of drunks waiting for their friends. It was beautiful…I wanted to pull the sweater over this guy’s head next to me and start beating the crap out of him…but in a fun and friendly way. The kind of fun fight where the involved parties make sure to take care of their eyeglasses beforehand and do so with a giant and somewhat maniacal smile on their face. Although I never did find my friends — the guys who flew down from Calgary just for this show — and they now have my coat from the coat check, dammit.
Even though they didn’t play ‘Naughtical Disaster’…the Sabres have clinched a playoff berth. All is well.
once in a while…I stray from geo topics…no worries, it’s just a random post
Clastic Detritus 