Align: A User-Friendly App for Numerical Stratigraphic Correlation

Abstract

Stratigraphic correlation underpins all understanding of Earth’s history, yet few geoscientists have access to, or expertise in, numerical codes that can generate reproducible, optimal (in a least-squares framework) alignments between two stratigraphic time-series data sets. Here we introduce Align, a user-friendly computer app that makes accessible a published dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithm that, in a minute or less, catalogs a library of alignments between two time-series data sets by systematically exploring assumptions about the temporal overlap and relative sedimentation rates between the two stratigraphic sections. The Align app, written in the free, open-source R programming language, utilizes a graphical user interface (e.g., drop-down menus for data upload and sliding bars for parameter exploration) such that no coding is required. In addition to generating alignment libraries, a user can employ Align to visualize, explore, and cull each alignment library according to thresholds on Pearson’s correlation coefficient and/or temporal overlap. Here we demonstrate Align with time-series records of carbonate stable carbon isotope composition, though Align can, in principle, align any two quantitative stratigraphic time-series data sets.