Topological conceptual model of geological relative time scale for geoinformation systems

Abstract

In geological information systems, the methods of encoding geological age, both relative and absolute, play an important role. Interoperable exchange of information between these systems requires application of solutions based upon recognized international standards. The ISO 19108 standard can serve as a basis for elaboration of a conceptual model for geological data, as well as its implementation, for instance in Extensible Markup Language (XML). The nature of the relative geological time scale requires application of topological elements in this model, and the model presented here is a complex construction of such elements. As a result, operations of the interface used for objects belonging to classes derived from the “TimeTopologicalOrdinalEra” class may return a value in the form of topological time relations such as: “Before”, “After”, “During” and “OverlappedBy”.