Data Levelling Panel with Pedro Acosta-Gongora & Tom Carmichael

About this episode

This episode features a panel discussion on the complexities of levelling geochemical data with insights from a government survey geochemist and a mathematical geologist.

For our 50th episode of GeOCHemISTea , we’re doing something a little different... a panel discussion that brings together two very different perspectives on one deceptively simple problem: levelling geochemical data. Joined by a government survey geochemist, Pedro Acosta-Gongora, and a mathematical geologist, Tom Carmichael, this conversation digs into what levelling really means in practice, why it’s become standard in regional datasets, and where it can quietly distort the geological signal. From legacy data and batch effects to the tension between clean maps and real-world noise, this episode explores the intersection of applied geochemistry and data science. If you’ve ever worked with multiple datasets and wondered “can I actually trust this?...” this panel is for you. For this episode we read: Exploratory data analysis of geochemical exploration data (Arne and Garrett, 2026) Data Leveling of Multi-Map Geochemical Exploration Data Using Compositional Data Analysis: A Case Study from the Baiyinchagan-Maodeng Area, Inner Mongolia, China (Tang et al., 2025) Levelling of multi-generational and spatialyy isolated geochemical surveys (Main and Champion, 2022) G-BASE data…

People in this episode

Host: Sam Scher

Guests: Pedro Acosta-Gongora, Tom Carmichael

Topics covered

• geochemical data
• data levelling
• panel discussion
• geochemistry
• data science
• regional datasets

Keywords

• geochemical data
• data levelling
• geochemistry
• data science
• regional datasets
• exploratory data analysis
• batch effects

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: GeOCHemISTea

Books & works: Exploratory data analysis of geochemical exploration data, Data Leveling of Multi-Map Geochemical Exploration Data Using Compositional Data Analysis: A Case Study from the Baiyinchagan-Maodeng Area, Inner Mongolia, China, Levelling of multi-generational and spatially isolated geochemical surveys, G-BASE data conditioning procedures for stream sediment and soil chemical analyses

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