The Spinel Explorer - Interactive Visual Analysis of Spinel Group Minerals

Information

• Publication Type: Journal Paper with Conference Talk
• Workgroup(s)/Project(s):
  • Visualization Group
• Date: December 2014
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
• Volume: 20
• Number: 12
• Location: Paris, France
• Lecturer:
  • María Luján Ganuza
  • M.
• ISSN: 1077-2626
• Event: VAST 2014
• Conference date: 9. November 2014 – 14. November 2014
• Pages: 1913 – 1922

Abstract

Geologists usually deal with rocks that are up to several thousand million years old. They try to reconstruct the tectonic settings where these rocks were formed and the history of events that affected them through the geological time. The spinel group minerals provide useful information regarding the geological environment in which the host rocks were formed. They constitute excellent indicators of geological environments (tectonic settings) and are of invaluable help in the search for mineral deposits of economic interest. The current workflow requires the scientists to work with different applications to analyze spine data. They do use specific diagrams, but these are usually not interactive. The current workflow hinders domain experts to fully exploit the potentials of tediously and expensively collected data. In this paper, we introduce the Spinel Explorer-an interactive visual analysis application for spinel group minerals. The design of the Spinel Explorer and of the newly introduced interactions is a result of a careful study of geologists' tasks. The Spinel Explorer includes most of the diagrams commonly used for analyzing spinel group minerals, including 2D binary plots, ternary plots, and 3D Spinel prism plots. Besides specific plots, conventional information visualization views are also integrated in the Spinel Explorer. All views are interactive and linked. The Spinel Explorer supports conventional statistics commonly used in spinel minerals exploration. The statistics views and different data derivation techniques are fully integrated in the system. Besides the Spinel Explorer as newly proposed interactive exploration system, we also describe the identified analysis tasks, and propose a new workflow. We evaluate the Spinel Explorer using real-life data from two locations in Argentina: the Frontal Cordillera in Central Andes and Patagonia. We describe the new findings of the geologists which would have been much more difficult to achieve using the cur- ent workflow only. Very positive feedback from geologists confirms the usefulness of the Spinel Explorer.

Additional Files and Images

Weblinks

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2014.2346754

BibTeX

@article{Groeller_Eduard_2014_TSP,
  title =      "The Spinel Explorer - Interactive Visual Analysis of Spinel
               Group Minerals",
  author =     " Mar\'{i}a Luj\'{a}n Ganuza and Gabriela Ferracutti and
               Maria Florencia Gargiulo and Silvia Mabel Castro and Ernesto
               Bjerg and Eduard Gr\"{o}ller and Kresimir Matkovic",
  year =       "2014",
  abstract =   "Geologists usually deal with rocks that are up to several
               thousand million years old. They try to reconstruct the
               tectonic settings where these rocks were formed and the
               history of events that affected them through the geological
               time. The spinel group minerals provide useful information
               regarding the geological environment in which the host rocks
               were formed. They constitute excellent indicators of
               geological environments (tectonic settings) and are of
               invaluable help in the search for mineral deposits of
               economic interest. The current workflow requires the
               scientists to work with different applications to analyze
               spine data. They do use specific diagrams, but these are
               usually not interactive. The current workflow hinders domain
               experts to fully exploit the potentials of tediously and
               expensively collected data. In this paper, we introduce the
               Spinel Explorer-an interactive visual analysis application
               for spinel group minerals. The design of the Spinel Explorer
               and of the newly introduced interactions is a result of a
               careful study of geologists' tasks. The Spinel Explorer
               includes most of the diagrams commonly used for analyzing
               spinel group minerals, including 2D binary plots, ternary
               plots, and 3D Spinel prism plots. Besides specific plots,
               conventional information visualization views are also
               integrated in the Spinel Explorer. All views are interactive
               and linked. The Spinel Explorer supports conventional
               statistics commonly used in spinel minerals exploration. The
               statistics views and different data derivation techniques
               are fully integrated in the system. Besides the Spinel
               Explorer as newly proposed interactive exploration system,
               we also describe the identified analysis tasks, and propose
               a new workflow. We evaluate the Spinel Explorer using
               real-life data from two locations in Argentina: the Frontal
               Cordillera in Central Andes and Patagonia. We describe the
               new findings of the geologists which would have been much
               more difficult to achieve using the cur- ent workflow only.
               Very positive feedback from geologists confirms the
               usefulness of the Spinel Explorer.",
  month =      dec,
  journal =    "IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics",
  volume =     "20",
  number =     "12",
  issn =       "1077-2626",
  pages =      "1913--1922",
  URL =        "https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2014/Groeller_Eduard_2014_TSP/",
}