Geological information available at click of a button

Mining industry explorers, earthquake and climate change scientists and members of the public can now access a 'stack' of information about Australia's geology at the click of a button.

Developed by CSIRO and AuScope in collaboration with other research organisations around the country, a new open-access network of geospatial data, and its supporting infrastructure – the Spatial Information Services Stack (SISS) –  will enable users to explore Australia's geology on a national scale.

"Using this network of data anyone can investigate the geological history of the continent and researchers can use it to gain a greater understanding of climate change, sustainable energy, water and mineral resources and, extreme geological activity such as earthquakes," AuScope CEO, Dr Bob Haydon, said.   "This is clearly just the first step but it is very timely as some of the really big challenges that we face nationally and globally require multi-organisational, as well as multidisciplinary approaches."

SISS has already been distributed to multiple Australian Government agencies and research organisations. 

The Director of CSIRO's Minerals Down Under National Research Flagship, Jonathan Law, said collaboration is integral to ensuring SISS's success.

"Once deployed, it will also be a fundamental tool for cross-discipline technical collaborations," Mr Law said.

"Australia has fantastic data, but unless we get complementary data from all jurisdictions delivered seamlessly to users its full impact cannot be realised.   "Quality integrated data products will provide national impact by attracting mineral explorers to Australia and helping drive successful exploration outcomes," Mr Law said.

SISS users can discover, browse, save and process geospatial information from earth science data sources around Australia. They can view data, filter the data based on user specific queries and download data to their computer.