AGN and Museums Victoria collaborate to power curiosity
You can now find unique mineral and rock specimens from the Museums Victoria (MV) collection via the NCRIS enabled AusGeochem platform. Image: Museums Victoria
Recently, teams from our AuScope Geochemistry Network (AGN) team and Museums Victoria (MV) collaborated to enhance researcher access to an extensive collection of data for museum-held rocks and mineral specimens via the NCRIS enabled AusGeochem platform. Here collaborators share details of their successful project.
Could you describe this collaboration and how it came about?
BM (AGN): The collaboration combines MV’s significant collection of rock and mineral samples and related research data available via AusGeochem, an open data repository that captures open access data requirements of the Australian geoscience community.
The collaboration between AGN and MV began in 2021 when our two groups began discussing how our strategic initiatives could be aligned. In June 2022, we agreed to collaborate on a project designed to test whether the AusGeochem data platform can be used to deliver against AuScope and MV strategies. With AuScope’s interest in making Australian geoscience data FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) and MV’s priority initiative to ‘develop digital initiatives that enable research access to Museum Victoria’s collections’, a collaboration was naturally born.
Who will benefit from this collaboration and why?
OL(MV): The ultimate purpose of public collections is to preserve specimens for the future and facilitate their use for research, education, and exhibition. Collections can be thought of as research infrastructure, with museums providing the expertise needed to maintain and interpret the specimens and data, and facilitate access to them.
As well supporting the research of our own staff in the Museums Victoria Research Institute, each year geological specimens in Victoria’s State collections are loaned to researchers around the world. They support projects spanning a range of disciplines, including systematic and applied mineralogy, environmental science, regional and economic geology, palaeo-climatology and materials science.
Making our collection data available on the AusGeochem platform will enable a wider range of researchers to discover our collections, and facilitate innovative projects that would not otherwise have been possible.
BM (AGN): A key objective of the collaboration is to enable the geoscience community to focus efforts on tackling continental-scale research problems. Each partner institution of the AGN (13 institutions and growing) has agreed to contribute information on its sample and data collections so that they can be shared, aggregated and potentially reused for further research.
The importance of being able to access samples became obvious during the COVID-19 pandemic when researchers were unable to conduct fieldwork. Coincidentally, MV contacted the AuScope team to say ‘hey - we’ve got all these unique rock and mineral samples available here for research that perhaps you don’t know exist.’ It was a no-brainer.
AusGeochem allows users to geospatially explore the Museums Victoria geological collection, whose more than 50,000 rock and mineral specimens come from all around the globe. Image: AGN/AusGeochem
What can you tell us about the collection being made accessible?
OL (MV): Founded in 1854, Victoria’s State geoscience collections contain over 50,000 mineral specimens and 16,000 specimens of rocks and ores. The mineral collection covers over 2,800 mineral species and includes over 130 type mineral specimens that are used to identify and describe new mineral species.
This makes our mineral collection the most species diverse in Australia, and Museums Victoria the largest repository of type mineral specimens nationally.
Around a third of these specimens originate from Victoria, a further third are from other parts of Australia, and the remaining third are from overseas. Particular strengths in coverage for specimens originating internationally are Germany and the USA. Some outstanding specimens are pictured below.
The ages of specimens in the collections span the full range of geologic time, from the oldest Earth materials known, 4.4 billion year old zircon grains from Jack Hills, Western Australia, to examples of basalt that solidified in the 2018 eruption of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, and everything in between. There are even meteorites in the collection that contain mineral grains that pre-date the formation of our solar system!
In addition to rare geological specimens, a research strength of our collections is their coverage of areas that are now difficult or impossible to access. These include cases where access would be prohibitively expensive (remote areas and the deep sea), dangerous or restricted (historical mines or areas that are now reserves) and entirely inaccessible (built up areas, exhausted mines).
Where can we find this data on AusGeochem?
SB (AGN): Rocks and mineral specimens from the MV geological collection can be geospatially explored via AusGeochem by selecting the Museums Victoria Petrology or Museums Victoria Mineralogy data packages, respectively. Once there, visitors can find detailed information about the locations, sources, and types of rock and mineral specimens while viewing them in their geographic context.
A view within AusGeochem showing a map of Australia populated with data points from the MV collection, with pop up windows showing visual, specimen and geochronology data for one opal specimen. Image: Dr Fabian Kohlman
Has the collaboration led to any unexpected new directions for you?
OL (MV): Seeing our collection spatially displayed with the geological map overlay on AusGeochem for the first time really was exciting. The relationships our specimens have to regional geology, as well as the thorough spatial coverage we have, particularly in south-eastern Australia, were immediately apparent. Our original motivation for this collaboration was sharing collection data with researchers and the public, but it is now clear that there are tools we will use in day-to-day management of the data as well. It has also been interesting to note areas where samples of other AusGeochem contributors filled gaps in our coverage.
We hope that this collaboration will set a precedent for other collection-holding institutions to share their data through AusGeochem. Being able to view and access data on specimens from multiple institutions on one platform is an enormous step forwards for users of public geological collections in Australia.
BM (AGN): During a recent course taught at the University of Melbourne, a graduate student used AusGeochem to search for samples from his research project area in a National Park. The student’s project was behind schedule due to lengthy delays in getting permission from park authorities to collect samples.
The AusGeochem platform indicated that there were samples available in the Museums Victoria collection, and the student was very happy to see that was now able to contact the Museum researchers and access the collection, which will enable him to get his research project back on track.
In closing, are there any final comments you would like to make?
SB (AGN):
The successful utilisation of AusGeochem to bolster MV’s outreach efforts is a wonderful example of how geoscience infrastructure can be adapted to serve a range of communities across the academic, government, private and public sectors.We hope to build on this successful cross-sector cooperation by attracting other partners across society, from museums and beyond, wishing to geospatially display their data.
AUTHORS
An interview between Philomena Manifold (AuScope), collaborators Prof Brent McInnes (BM) and Dr Samuel Boone (SB) from the AGN, and collaborator Oskar Lindenmayer (OL) from MV. Edited by Jo Condon (AuScope).
FURTHER READING
AusGeochem is a platform designed by collaborators in the AGN and Lithodat.