Thursday, 8 September 2005

This presentation is part of: Poster Session II

Database and web-based solutions for in situ cosmogenic dating

Xiuzeng Ma1, Yingkui Li2, Preston Smith1, Marc Caffee1, David Elmore1, Darryl Granger1, and Paul Muzikar1. (1) PRIME Laboratory, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, (2) Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907

Cosmogenic nuclide (CN) techniques are increasingly being utilized in geoscience research. For this it is critical to establish an effective, easily accessible tool for cosmogenic nuclide calculations. This paper introduces two solutions to calculate surface exposure ages and erosion rates based on the nuclide concentrations measured by the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Web-based solution (WebCN) is designed as a three-tier architecture with the open source database PostgreSQL for data management, and PHP for interface design and calculation. Database solution (DBCN) is client/server application and designed for quick multi-samples calculations. The common data for both solutions is kept in PostgreSQL database. In DBCN, the sample related topographic data and AMS measured nuclide concentrations are kept in the local Microsoft Access tables. Microsoft Access and Visual Basic provide a simple yet robust facility for client application interfaces. Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is used to link PostgreSQL and Access. WebCN and DBCN account for both spatial and temporal distribution of the cosmic ray flux to calculate the production rates of in-situ produced CN at the Earth's surface.

Keywords: Cosmogenic nuclides; Surface exposure age; Erosion rates; PostgreSQL, PHP, Microsoft Access, ODBC,


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See more of The 10th International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (September 5-10, 2005)