Time Scale Creator
Reference time scales and graphical output system
International Commission on Stratigraphy and CHRONOS
Database coordinator – James Ogg (Secretary-General, ICS)
Software design – Adam Lugowski
“TimeScale Creator” is a time-scale database with visualization package (in Java, which should work on most platforms). This is the second installment of our dream of having time-scale graphics “generated on demand”. We invite you to give it a whirl, and provide feedback to us (jogg@purdue.edu) about any aspects of the output and underlying databases.
What it does:
(1) Screen display of user-selected time-span and selected columns of geologic time scale information (stages, bio-zones, bio-events, magnetics, sea-level, geochemistry). Vertical-scale, width, color, titles, column ordering, range charts and other features are designated by the user. Optional pop-ups provide additional background information on columns and events.
(2) Save the final graphic as an SVG (scalable vector graphics) file for direct import into Adobe Illustrator or other common drafting software. All text, boxes, colors, etc transfer as “objects”, therefore these can be modified by graphics software packages.
Database (approximately 10,000 event-age entries are included in the tables of this version):
TS-Creator version 2 has a very detailed Cenozoic-Mesozoic suite, a basic Late Paleozoic suite, and an Early Paleozoic framework. There are over 200 stratigraphic columns grouped into about 60 categories. All events are calibrated to Geologic Time Scale 2004 (Gradstein et al., 2004, Cambridge University Press). A list of stratigraphic categories is under the “Choose Zonations” menu, and clicking on a category directory displays sub-column choices. The database includes the following:
How to use it: (a simple
step-by-step
tutorial)
A. Exercise #1 -- Default
settings
(1) Begin the program by double-clicking on the TS-Creator.jar icon. If Java is not installed on your computer or you have a pre-2000 version that is the default with Windows XP or earlier, then download the most recent version from Sun Microsystems at http://www.java.com/
(2) An opening screen window with our sponsors and data-providers appears, an the internal database is automatically loaded (~10,000 event-ages). Stretch this window to fill your particular screen size, because this will determine the “fit to window” size of the output graphic display.
[NOTE: The default screen display is independent of the actual diagram, but you can rescale the image to actual size. The saved SVG graphics will be scaled according to the scales set by you, and will not be the sizing that you initially see on the screen.] Advanced users can go under the File-menu to append external databases or replace the default suite– but, don’t worry about this for now.
(3) Click the “Settings …” button. This opens a new window.
There are 3 tabs. Begin with “Choose Time Interval”. For your first adventure, set the "Top of Interval" as "Thanetian" stage, and the "Base of Interval" as "Campanian" stage. [Notice that you can also designate the Top/Bottom of the interval in millions of years.] Click "CLOSE".
(4) On main window, now Click "Generate Chart". A message about "Rendering" should be displayed. The initial run takes about 20 seconds, but later runs will appear much quicker.
(5) VOILA! The image has the default set of zonations – international divisions of geologic time, magnetic polarity chrons, ammonites zones of Tethyan and Sub-Boreal Realms, major planktonic foraminifer and calcareous nannofossil zones, sequences and major sea-level trends.
B. Exercise
#2 -- User-selected stratigraphic
columns and other options
Now, suppose we wish to plot planktonic foraminifer datums and named global sequences through the late Campanian through mid-Paleogene (75 Ma to 60 Ma).
(1) First, click the Choose Zonations tab of the Settings window. The available stratigraphic columns are indicated. Scroll down to see the choices, then return to the top of the list. For now, we will turn OFF the Ammonite columns. Scroll down to Sub-Boreal Ammonites – Click the highlighted box to OFF, then to Tethyan Ammonites – Click it OFF. Also, click OFF the T-R Cycles and Major T-R Cycles (but leave ON the Sequences).
(2) Scroll near the top of the list, and Click the box ON next to the GSSP. This will display which stages have been defined by global stratotype section and points ("GSSP").
(2) Scroll to Planktonic Foraminifers, and click the gray-triangle to open the directory. Click the boxes ON next to Foram Zone Marker and Other Foram FAD/LAD. Notice on our screen display that the column for N,P,Cret Zones was too narrow to adequately display the full zone genera-species names. Highlight the name N,P,Cret Zones, and notice that a set of options appears on the right panel, plus a brief explanation of the sources in a box at the bottom. In the middle is "Width", which has a default of 80. Change this to 150, followed by a Return to activate that choice.
Notice that you can also change the column title, font sizes, direction of labels, move the column relative to adjacent ones, change background color, and other options.
(3) Now, we want to select the time interval and enlarge the vertical scale. Click the "Choose Time Interval" tab. Click ON the Millions of Years option for the Top of Interval, and enter 60. Then, click ON the Millions of Years option for the Base of Interval, and enter 75. Set the underlying vertical scale to be 2 myr per 1 cm on printed page (rather than the default of 1 myr per cm). Click CLOSE.
(4) Click Generate Chart of the main menu. Depending on your screen size, it will be possible to read the names of the different planktonic foraminifer species that appear or become extinct through this time interval. To see this information easier, you can either use the Zoom In or Zoom Out icons on the upper menu, or use a bit of magic – While continuously pressing down the CONTROL key on the keyboard, hold down the right-button on the Moue and drag over the region that you wish to display on the screen. You can use the scrollbars on the display to pan over the magnified image. To return to the full display, either use the Zoom Out icon as needed, or select "Fit to Window" from the Image menu.
C. Exercise
#3 – Pop-ups, Internet access, and
selected other display options
(1) Hot-Mouse
Now, return to the "Choose Time Interval" menu under Settings. At the bottom, click ON the Add MouseOver info. This will activate pop-up windows of additional information.
(2) Click the Choose Zonations tab, and scroll to the Sequences (SEPM Global or Tethyan). Highlight the name to bring up options on the Right panel. Click ON "Show Age Labels" (just below the Width box), and ON "Name Labels" (the last option at bottom of the panel). CLOSE, and Generate.
(3) Notice that all Sequence boundaries now have tiny age-labels next to the displayed names. One can display such ages for any selected zone or datum columns.
Move your Mouse-pointer over Sequence boundary "Ma5". As you put the Mouse-pointer over the name "Ma5", notice a red-dot blinks. Click directly on the text "Ma5", and a window will appear with information on the calibration of this sequence boundary.
Now, move the Mouse-pointer over the column title "Sequences (SEPM Global or Tethyan)", and a new pop-up window appears with the source of information. This "MouseOver" option is currently installed for all Column headers (either major or minor), Sequence boundaries, and most of the Planktonic Foraminifer and Calcareous Nannofossil zones and datums. Eventually, we will try to provide such background information and hot-links for the other thousands of items.
[Note – do not save SVG graphics with the MouseOver option ON, or the resulting file will have excessive number of layers if opening in Adobe Illustrator. However, some new browsers, will support this type of dynamic SVG file.]
(4) Internet links – Move your Mouse-pointer over the title "Standard Chronostratigraphy". A red-dot blinks. Click on the title, and another window will appear that says: "International Commission on Stratigraphy (2006). Click GSSP for official boundary (GSSP) definitions, status and nomenclature." If your Internet connection is active, then click on the word "GSSP", and an Internet site will be opened that has a table of the definitions of all international divisions of the geologic time scale. Now, back to the diagram, click on the GSSP arrow next to the base of the Maastrichtian Stage, and another window will open, which says "The base of the Maastrichtian Stage [click GSSP for graphics] is defined … ". When you click on that GSSP, then an Internet site will open with a description and links to location map and outcrop graphics.
(5) Saving Display Parameters -- If you create a screen display that you like, then under Settings, there are bottom-buttons that enable you to SAVE … a "Settings file" that contains the necessary instructions for TimeScale Creator, or to LOAD … an earlier one to re-generate that same graphic for an audience or for additional revisions. If you are working on a major diagram, then we suggest using this feature to periodically save intermediate graphics, just in case the operating system has problems.
Details on the many other capabilities and display options are illustrated under "Features" in the Help menu (main window).
Have fun exploring the data sets and graphic options, and we hope that you will find this suite useful for reference and generating base-graphics for your research and teaching.
A word of advice during exploring – there are numerous close-spaced Foram and Nanno events in the Neogene in the current database (and an abundance of Sequences in the glacial-pulsed Pleistocene), so the auto-adjust software sometimes has problems to display these details unless a vertical scale of at least 4 cm to 1 million years. A similar high-density of detail occurs with the brief North American ammonite zones in the Campanian-Turonian interval and ammonite subzones within much of the Jurassic-Cretaceous. Therefore, we have placed some of this dense-detail into "additional" columns with the lesser-used secondary events, plus shorten the genera names for the ammonites and other taxa.
A problem that may occur -- The default Java installation on some operating systems limits the amout of memory a program can use. This Java default may cause large or information-heavy displays may run out of memory. If this happens, a message will appear on the screen -- you can still save the Settings file to regenerate the on-screen display, and usually can save the non-displayed SVG graphic file to be opened in another graphics program or Firefox-type browser. If "Out of Memory" appears, then the TimeScale Creator will also explain how to increase the Java memory allocation. Unfortunately that means you have to restart TSCreator, but you can save your current settings and not loose much time.
We welcome your suggestions for major and minor improvements in the default database, visualization graphics, and overall system! Please convey your ideas, desires and critical evaluations to us at jogg@purdue.edu.
**********************************
James Ogg
(Database coordinator; secretary of
International Commission on Stratigraphy) [
Adam Lugowski (Visualization software developer)