submitted to:
North American Micropaleontology Society Newsletter

DSDP Paleo data converted to ASCII Spreadsheets

By Pierre A. Zippi, February 1999
paz@airmail.net

Introduction: 
From 1968 to 1983 the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) drilled over 1000 holes at 624 sites worldwide. The DSDP data management group at Scripps Institution of Oceanography compiled the marine geological and geophysical data files. In 1989, the National Geophysical Data Center produced a CD-ROM set containing the DSDP digital data. See the web site describing the data sets at: <http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/geology/drill.html>

A great wealth of paleontological data is compiled on disk 1.  However, this data is stored in multiple coded parts and is not in a format suitable for use by most paleontologists with standard software.

For my independent research and my work at ARCO, I undertook to convert this data to a more useful spreadsheet format of samples in rows and categories (mainly taxa plus some sample specific information) in columns. The data portion of the spreadsheet is preceded by several header lines that provide hole specific information, such as location, DSDP publication, page references, etc. The converted data files may be used with any spreadsheet, statistics and plotting applications on any computer platform.

All the paleontology data contained on the DSDP CD-ROM Vol.1 was converted to 2093 individual data sets for 21 different fossil types. The data sets were defined by hole and fossil type (For example: dinoflagellate data from hole 214 is a separate data set from nannofossil data from hole 214).

DSDP Paleonotology data types in CD-ROM data set

Fossil types (21)	Taxa	Data files 
Algae	17	19 
Ammonites	3	1 
Aptychi	37	3 
Archaeomonads	67	13 
Benthic foraminifera	3246	167 
Bryozoans	190	4 
Calcispherulides	26	3 
Crinoids	7	3 
Diatoms	1748	221 
Dinoflagellates	562	55 
Ebridians & Actinicidians	54	39 
Fish debris	22	4 
Nannofossils	1746	558 
Ostracods	195	31 
Phytolitharia	11	2 
Planktonic foraminifera	2062	414 
Pollen and spores	608	32 
Radiolaria	2172	340 
Rhyncollites	2	2 
Silicoflagellates	692	175 
Trace fossils	3	7 
Totals: 
21 fossil types	13470 taxa	2093 files 

The uncompressed collection of data sets is 19.5 Mb. The compressed archive of the data sets is 3.9 Mb. See detailed data description at:
<http://web2.airmail.net/paz/DSDP-PaleoData.html>

File names: 
Each fossil type has it's own folder (directory). Within a folder, data files are named by the 6-digit leg-site-hole designation.

New paleontology data format: 
The converted data was saved as tab-delimited ASCII text files.
- All hole and author specific data are recorded as a header in the first lines of the data file as comment lines. 
- Comment lines start with the "#" symbol. Comment lines may be deleted from the spreadsheet for plotting etc. 
- Species names are in the first row of the spreadsheet portion as the column headers, 
- Species codes are in the second row (if selected in options), 
- Core depth, sample depth, age, core, section and other sample specific references in the first 11 columns of each row. 
- The resulting sam ple-by-species matrix is filled out with the coded fossil abundance data. The abundance code legend is contained in the header of each file.

All sample analyses for each hole are grouped into a single data set. Many holes have analyses performed by more than one analyst (author). The authorship for each sample is listed in the 3rd column.

How to obtain the DSDP paleo data: 
1) Data conversion software (Mac only) is available for those who already own the DSDP CD-ROM set available from NGDC. DSDP-to-Spread 1.0 was written by me to convert the wealth of under-utilized DSDP paleontology data to a format more readily useful with range charting and stratigraphic analysis software. The data conversion software will be useful to anyone who already owns the DSDP CD-ROM set available from NGDC. See conversion software description at:

http://web2.airmail.net/paz/DSDP-to-Spread.html http://web2.airmail.net/paz/DSDP-to-Spread.html

2) Download converted data from NGDC/NOAA ftp site (when it is up and running). The entire collection of converted DSDP paleontology data has been given to NGDC/NOAA with the understanding that it will be made freely available to the public via ftp transfer. NGDC is in the process of establishing this ftp site.

3) Michael Knappertsbusch (Natural History Museum Basel) is planning to make the newly formatted data available on a CD with other micropaleontological data. Contact:

Dr. M. Knappertsbusch
West-European Micropaleontological Reference Center
Natural History Museum Basel
Augustinergasse 2
4001-Basel, Switzerland
email: Knappertsbus@ubaclu.unibas.ch

The Natural History Museum Basel will also make the data available via http and ftp at: http://www.unibas.ch/museum/nmb/

NOTE:
Data files are NOT directly available from me (PZ) for general download. 

HELP! This is public data. Is there anyone else who would be willing to make this data freely available to the public via an ftp site? I do not have the time or facilities to serve as a data repository. However, I will gl
adly transfer the data to one or two sites that agree to serve as a data repository and ftp/http site.

Once in spreadsheet format, the utility of the occurrence data is greatly enhanced. Range charts may be constructed or statistical analyses performed. Use a proven commercial spreadsheet or statistics application to manipulate the data.  WellPlot 1.0 (available from Pierre Zippi http://web2.airmail.net/paz) can be used to plot many different styles of range charts that may be incorporated into virtually
 any Mac or PC graphics document.

Absolute depth reference: 
The method for recording the absolute depth reference for DSDP data sets changed with time. For general stratigraphic study purposes, the depth of a sample is apparent (one of the increasing depth-related values in meters). I believe the absolute depth reference calculation is only important for re-locating exact sample positions in cases where re-sampling the archived core is desired. If I am wrong, please contact me at paz@airmail.net. 

Formula for absolute depth calculations: 
ZSL  = Zero Section Length 
SECT = Section Number 
INT  = Interval in centimeters within the section 
LSL  = Length of last section (cm) 
TCD  = Depth to top of core (M) 
LS  = Number of last section 

If sample occurs in:	Formula used is: 
===============================================================
Zero section	AbsDepth = TCD + (INT/100) 
Sections 1,2,3, etc.	AbsDepth = TCD + ZSL/100 +(SECT#-1)*1.5 + INT/100 
Core Catcher (pre-leg47)	AbsDepth = TCD + ZSL/100 + LS*1.5 + INT/100 
Core Catcher (post-leg47)	AbsDepth = TCD + ZSL/100 + (LS-1)*1.5 + LSL + INT/100 

Note: Occasionally no explicit centimeter interval is assigned to a sample taken from within a core catcher. In these cases, a length of 10 cm is assigned. 

References: 
DSDP CD-ROM Data Set, 1989: Marine Geological and Geophysical Data from the Deep Sea Drilling Project. CD-ROM Data Set. Joint Oceanographic Institutions, Inc. US Science Support Program and National Geophysical Data Center.

Absolute depth: EXPLAN.DOC from DSDP CD ROM Data Set (above), DSDP Explanatory Notes 4/87: Page 5-6.

What's New! 
A consolidated database of available paleo data, age at TD and general site summary information for both DSDP and ODP is being compiled. It will be made available when complete. Check HYPERLINK http://web2.armail.net/paz , http://web2.armail.net/paz> for the updated details.