Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) – Finale Workshop (Oct 23-25)

I’m here in Washington, DC to attend the Finale meeting of the decade long science initiative funded by the Sloan Foundation to catalyze multi-disciplinary research into the cycling of carbon from the Earth’s surface into its interior. Subduction plays a key role in carrying carbon into the mantle. While most of that carbon comes back to the surface through arc volcanism, some of it may get subducted into the deep mantle (sometimes forming diamonds).  Oliver Kreylos from UC Davis KeckCAVES has been collaborating with groups of DCO-related scientist to build tools to allow them to visualizae their unique data sets using head-mounted virtual reality hardware (e.g., VIVE). Oliver’s software infrastructure (VRUI) makes it possible for multiple scientists to simultaneously view and interact with a 3D digital  data set (like a DEM of Montserratw with  a volcanic gas cloud measured by drones). This VR tool enables scientists to intuitively explore the 3D structure, which facilitates more rapid understanding and building and testing of hypothesis.