Characterizing and representing inference histories in geologic mapping

Evaluation of the utility of a geologic map can require understanding of its knowledge evolution. In such cases, online usage further requires machine representation of both the knowledge and the evolution. To meet these needs, an informal structure is developed here that involves the interaction of the three reasoning forms of abduction, induction, and deduction. Empirical results are presented that support the structure, and a foundational ontology for science knowledge is adapted to represent the structure. These results lead to a new understanding of the role of the three reasoning forms in geologic mapping and constitute a new approach to the machine representation of geologic knowledge evolution. The approach also has potential to characterize the mapping of many types of geographic regions.