These column ingestion sheets can be used to describe chronostratigraphic charts (i.e., based on age), measured sections (height), or boreholes (depth), using the following sheets of tabular data.

  • The units sheet is the core of the ingestion format, carrying information about individual stratigraphic units and their positions within a column (in age or depth/height space).
  • The columns sheet carries metadata about columns
  • The metadata sheet carries information about the project, compiler, and import defaults
  • Other sheets (e.g., facies, refs) provide additional metadata that helps fill the data table
  • Column-linked data sheets can be included to provide additional information about units, facies, or other aspects of the column.

Altogether, these formats provide a flexible way to describe stratigraphic columns and associated information. They are good target for data ingestion but may also serve as an easy-to-produce archival format as well (e.g., for paper supplementary materials).

Columns ingested using these tools will be ready to be represented in Macrostrat's database and open-source visualization tools. For example:

Templates

Two Excel templates are provided in the Excel Templates folder as starting points. Both follow the same format and are read the same way on upload; they differ only in which fields the units sheet offers.

  • The simple template is a measured column with one position per unit, and is the one the quickstart guide walks through.
  • The expanded template has every field: separate b_pos / t_pos, sections, minor lithologies, covered intervals, contacts and top ages.

Their tabs follow the quickstart's steps, headers are colour-coded by whether a field is required, and each data tab is paired with an example tab explaining every field. This documentation is subsidiary to the full specification.

Ingestion approach

The units sheet is the core of the ingestion format, carrying information about bodies of rock within a column and the stratigraphic names, lithology, and environmental information that describe them. However, the scale of units varies dramatically between scales of stratigraphic columns. These templates support a range of approaches to defining units, with shorthands that can speed data entry for common use cases.

Ingestion of chronostratigraphic columns, measured sections, and borehole logs are supported using the same ingestion process and fields, but the formatting requirements differ slightly in order to accommodate different patterns that are present across scales and types of data.

Composite columns

Composite columns (col_type: composite) represent chronostratigraphic charts with no direct physical measurement of unit thicknesses or positions. Instead, units are defined by their age ranges. For chronostratigraphic columns, age information must be provided to define an age model, in the form of relative positions within chronostratigraphic intervals (e.g., "Lower Silurian", "Upper Devonian"). Absolute ages are not currently supported.

Measured columns

Measured columns are detailed measured sections or borehole logs defined in terms of physical positions (height or depth). These columns (col_type: measured) are typically much more detailed than chronostratigraphic charts (i.e., an individual unit may represent a single cm- to meter-scale bed, rather than an entire Formation or Member). Measured columns are typically simpler than chronostratigraphic columns, without overlapping units or complex hierarchical structures. Efficient entry of these columns is supported by several affordances for rapid data entry, including:

  • A Facies table, which summarizes of environmental and lithologic information that can be applied across many units
  • Top positions are inferred from the unit above, so each unit needs only one position (plus an empty closing row at the top) where units don't overlap.
  • Shorthand fields and rows relating to typical lithostratigraphic measurement practices, such as grainsize, covered, and rows named covered or gap.

Most importantly, unit descriptions such as lithology, strat_name, and facies can "fill up" into blank cells above them (with fill_values: y in the Metadata sheet; downward, for cores logged by depth), allowing for more rapid data entry when many adjacent units share similar characteristics. See Attribute filling.

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