eScience Gateway Stimulating Collaboration in Rock Physics and Volcanology

Earth scientist observe many facets of the planet's crust and integrate their resulting data to better understand the processes at work. We report on a new data-intensive science gateway designed to bring rock physicists and volcanologists into a collaborative framework that enables them to accelerate their research and integrate well with other Earth scientists. The science gateway supports three major functions: 1) sharing data from laboratories and observatories, experimental facilities and computational model runs, 2) sharing computational models and methods for analysing experimental and observational data, and 3) supporting recurrent tasks, such as data collection and running application in real time. Our prototype gateway has worked with two exemplar projects giving experience of data gathering, model sharing and data analysis. The geoscientists found that the gateway accelerated their work, triggered new practices and provided a good platform for long-term collaboration.