The MagIC Database: A Rock- and Paleomagnetic Online Comprehensive Archive, Scientific Analysis Environment, and Rich Visualization Platform

The Magnetics Information Consortium (MagIC) is commissioned to implement and maintain an online portal (http://earthref.org/MAGIC/) to a relational database populated by rock and paleomagnetic data. The goal of MagIC is to archive all existing measurements and derived properties for future studies of paleomagnetic directions (inclination, declination) and intensities, and for rock magnetic experiments (hysteresis, remanence, susceptibility, anisotropy). Conveniently retrieving these data in a digestible, yet comprehensive, format has been a recent focus of this initiative. To address this task the MagIC Online Database has undergone significant revisions in the past six months. New features include a much more responsive Web 2.0 interface, result set filtering, integrated and asynchronous plotting and mapping, advanced saving options, and a rich personalized tabular layout. Queries can be saved for future use and can be built based on location, reference, methods applied, material type and geological age, as well as a visual FlashMap interface to browse and select locations. Users can also browse the database by data type (e.g. inclination, intensity, virtual geomagnetic pole (VGP), hysteresis, susceptibility) or by data compilation to view all contributions associated with previous databases, such as the Paleointensity Database (PINT), the Global Paleomagnetic Database (GPMDB), the Paleosecular Variation of Recent Lavas (PSVRL), or other user-defined compilations. The MagIC Database is continuously striving to enrich and promote Rock- and Paleomagnetic research by providing the scientific community with the tools for retrieving and analyzing previous studies, and for organizing and collaborating on new activities.