confidence of correlations

[poulton@xxxxxxxxxx]

David Campbell's query regarding the level of confidence between different 
zonations prompts two comments:

1. the (incomplete) schism between publishing scientists in academia- 
government, and industry-consultants, must be overcome by somehow 
encouraging more industry and consulting scientists to make their data and 
interpretations public, as well as by enhancing mechanisms to encourage 
greater inter-sector collaboration, with publication as a more prominent 
goal, and 

2. More emphasis should be placed on bringing together existing knowledge 
from a variety of sources, and making it widely available in publications. 
The huge investment in resources, and duplication of effort, by competing 
companies and consultants can perhaps never be completely overcome, but 
economics and the depleting pool of expertise available for paleontology, 
require that we should try as best we can. The multi-company Gulf Coast 
initiative seems to be a valuable initiative along these lines, as are 
multi-author volumes on regions such as the North Sea, the Atlantic, SE 
Asia, etc., but most of them are just a small step forward, and don't 
really address the question of duplication of effort. Somehow, 
industry-government-academia must proceed on a common front, and large 
internet-available data bases are an obvious tool.


Terry Poulton
Chief Paleontologist 
Geological Survey of Canada
3303-33 St, NW, Calgary 
Canada T2L 2A7

ph. (403) 292 7096
FAX (403) 292 6014
internet poulton@gsc.emr.ca