Why does dbSEABED hold its underlying data in documents rather than a relational database like Oracle?
This is one of the most successful features of dbSEABED. First, it is more efficient to bring in data sets from geologists in the form of written core-logs rather than tables, especially as tables and sub-tables. This is how dbSEABED has been able to quickly absorb a million data sites. Second, it is not possible (easily, inexpensively) to do some sedimentological operations on the data in software like Oracle. For example, parsing the word-based descriptions. Third, in the documents, it is possible to have data which was obtained at the same time (such as replicates, suites of analyses) to be kept right next to each other. The same is true for the metadata; a person can read the data and the metadata about it easily and at the same time. Fourth, it keeps the data very faithfully in its original form. Relational databases require that data be shuffled and diced, and that sets of rules are obeyed before the data can be entered. Data are kept faithful to that of the original observers. R
