The Significance of Geochemical Data Bases and the Impact of GEOROC and PetDB

The GEOROC and PetDB databases have compiled peer-reviewed literature data on geochemical compositions of igneous rocks and minerals for >25 years (https://georoc.eu/; https://search.earthchem.org/). While initially the focus lay on ocean island and mid-oceanic ridge basalts, respectively, both databases have widened their scope and now include the complete compositional range of igneous rock types as well as mantle xenoliths and minerals, comprising: 22 geological settings; 351 lithologies; 533 mineral species; and all common major, trace and rare earth elements, isotopic ratios as well as analytical ages. Today, the two databases contain >47 million single data values from ~27,000 publications, with 28,942,143 in situ and 18,330,454 bulk data points. Continued data curation of PetDB and GEOROC ensures that the databases continue to grow. The EarthChem Portal enables harmonized access, filtering and download from the combined databases (http://portal.earthchem.org/).

The comprehensive data collections offered by PetDB and GEOROC present a unique opportunity to the research community to undertake advanced analysis of large-scale regional and global datasets. New research questions have been tackled, making PetDB and GEOROC an essential tool for digital geochemistry. Both databases have accumulated more than 4000 citations ranging from highly detailed, regional comparative research to machine learning studies using thousands of data points. We present a detailed analysis of the usage of GEOROC and PetDB data products to highlight the wide range of research topics that GEOROC and PetDB have supported, and the impact of global geochemical data compilations on past, present, and future trends in the Earth System Sciences.