Sm-Nd Isotope Data Compilation from Geoscientific Literature Using an Automated Tabular Extraction Method

Area of Science:

• Geochemistry
• Isotope Geology
• Earth Sciences

Background:

• Rare earth elements Samarium (Sm) and Neodymium (Nd) are vital for understanding crustal growth and evolution.
• The Sm-Nd isotopic system is key for determining crustal formation ages due to element immobility during metamorphism.
• Geoscience data on Sm-Nd are fragmented across literature, hindering comprehensive analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an automated method for extracting tabular geoscience data, specifically Sm-Nd isotopic data.
• To overcome challenges of scattered data and improve efficiency in data acquisition for earth science research.

Main Methods:

• An automated tabular extraction technique was employed to harvest Sm-Nd data from geoscience publications.
• Data were collected from 9,138 tables across over 20,000 publications, yielding 10,624 Sm-Nd data entries.
• A subset of 2,118 data points was manually curated to augment existing global datasets.

Main Results:

• Successfully collected over 10,000 Sm-Nd data entries using the automated method.
• Significantly increased the size of the global Sm-Nd dataset by over 20% with curated data.
• Demonstrated the efficiency and scalability of the automated data collection methodology.

Conclusions:

• Automated data extraction significantly enhances the efficiency of acquiring critical geoscience data.
• This methodology provides a scalable solution for compiling fragmented datasets across various scientific domains.
• Improved data accessibility facilitates more robust research into fundamental questions of crustal evolution.