The Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was a global warming event of 5–6 °C around 56 million years ago caused by input of carbon into the ocean and atmosphere. Hydrothermal venting of greenhouse gases produced in contact aureoles surrounding magmatic intrusions in the North Atlantic Igneous Province have been proposed to play a key role in the PETM carbon-cycle perturbation, but the precise timing, magnitude and climatic impact of such venting remains uncertain. Here we present seismic data and the results of a five-borehole transect sampling the crater of a hydrothermal vent complex in the Northeast Atlantic. Stable carbon isotope stratigraphy and dinoflagellate cyst biostratigraphy reveal a negative carbon isotope excursion coincident with the appearance of the index taxon Apectodinium augustum in the vent crater, firmly tying the infill to the PETM. The shape of the crater and stratified sediments suggests large-scale explosive gas release during the initial phase of vent formation followed by rapid, but largely undisturbed, diatomite-rich infill. Moreover, we show that these vents erupted in very shallow water across the North Atlantic Igneous Province, such that volatile emissions would have entered the atmosphere almost directly without oxidation to CO₂ and at the onset of the PETM.

The Covid-19 pandemic occurred at a time of major revolution in the geosciences – the era of digital geology. Digital outcrop models (DOMs) acquired from consumer drones, processed using user-friendly photogrammetric software and shared with the wider audience through online platforms are a cornerstone of this digital geological revolution. Integration of DOMs with other geoscientific data, such as geological maps, satellite imagery, terrain models, geophysical data and field observations, strengthens their application in both research and education. Teaching geology with digital tools advances students' learning experience by providing access to high-quality outcrops, enhancing visualization of 3D geological structures and improving data integration. Similarly, active use of DOMs to integrate new field observations will facilitate more effective fieldwork and quantitative research. From a student's perspective, georeferenced and scaled DOMs allow for an improved appreciation of scale and of 3D architecture, which is a major threshold concept in geoscientific education. DOMs allow us to bring geoscientists to the outcrops digitally, which is particularly important in view of the Covid-19 pandemic that restricts travel and thus direct access to outcrops. At the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), located at 78^∘ N in Longyearbyen in Arctic Norway, DOMs are actively used even in non-pandemic years, as the summer field season is short and not overlapping with the Bachelor “Arctic Geology” course package held from January to June each year. In 2017, we at UNIS developed a new course (AG222 “Integrated Geological Methods: From Outcrop To Geomodel”) to encourage the use of emerging techniques like DOMs and data integration to solve authentic geoscientific challenges. In parallel, we have established the open-access Svalbox geoscientific portal, which forms the backbone of the AG222 course activities and provides easy access to a growing number of DOMs, 360^∘ imagery, subsurface data and published geoscientific data from Svalbard. Considering the rapid onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Svalbox portal and the pre-Covid work on digital techniques in AG222 allowed us to rapidly adapt and fulfil at least some of the students' learning objectives during the pandemic. In this contribution, we provide an overview of the course development and share experiences from running the AG222 course and the Svalbox platform, both before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Svalbard Composite Tectono-Sedimentary Element (SCTSE) is located on the northwestern corner of the Barents Shelf and comprises a Carboniferous–Pleistocene sedimentary succession. Due to Cenozoic uplift, the succession is subaerially exposed in the Svalbard archipelago. The oldest parts of the succession consist of Carboniferous–Permian mixed siliciclastic, carbonate and evaporite, and spiculitic sediments that developed during multiple phases of extension. The majority of the Mesozoic succession is composed of siliciclastic deposits formed in sag basins and continental platforms. Episodes of Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous contraction are evident in the eastern part of the archipelago and in nearby offshore areas. Differential uplift related to the opening of the Amerasian Basin and the Cretaceous emplacement of the High Arctic Large Igneous Province created a major hiatus spanning from the Late Cretaceous and early Danian throughout the Svalbard CTSE. The West Spitsbergen Fold and Thrust Belt and the associated foreland basin in central Spitsbergen (Central Tertiary Basin) formed as a response to the Eurekan Orogeny and the progressive northward opening of the North Atlantic during the Paleogene. This event was followed by the formation of yet another major hiatus spanning the Oligocene–Pliocene. Multiple reservoir and source-rock units exposed in Svalbard provide analogues to the prolific offshore acreages in the SW Barents Sea, and are important for the de-risking of plays and prospects. However, the archipelago itself is regarded as a high-risk acreage for petroleum exploration. This is due to Paleogene contraction and late Neogene uplift of the western and central parts in particular. There is an absence of mature source rocks in the east, and the entire region is subjected to strict environmental protection.

Digital outcrop models (DOMs) have revolutionized the way twenty-first century geoscientists work. DOMs are georeferenced three-dimensional (3-D) digital representations of outcrops that facilitate quantitative work on outcrops at various scales. Outcrop digitalization has been traditionally conducted using laser scanners, but in the past decade, it has seen an exponential growth because of efficient and consumer-friendly structure-from-motion (SfM) algorithms concurrent with the rapid development of cost-effective aerial drones with high-resolution onboard cameras. While DOMs are routinely used in geoscientific research, education, and industry, enhanced DOM usage is restricted because raw data (e.g., photographs) and metadata are often incomplete and/or unavailable. In this contribution, we present the Svalbox Digital Model Database (Svalbox DMDb), a database of metadata and openly available data packages for individual DOMs. The Svalbox DMDb is a regional DOM database geographically constrained to the Norwegian High Arctic archipelago of Svalbard at 74°N–81°N and 10°E–35°E. Svalbard offers exceptional-quality, vegetation-free outcrops with a wide range of lithologies and tectono-magmatic styles, including extension, compression, and magmatism. Data and metadata of the systematically digitalized outcrops across Svalbard are shared according to FAIR principles through the Svalbox DMDb. Fully open-access and downloadable DOMs include not just the DOMs themselves, but also the input data, processing reports and projects, and other data products such as footprints and orthomosaics. Rich metadata for each DOM include both the technical and geological parameters (metadata), enabling visualization and integration with regional geoscientific data available through the Norwegian Polar Institute and the Svalbox online portal. The current release of Svalbox DMDb, documented in this contribution, covers 135 DOMs cumulatively covering 114 km² of Proterozoic to Cenozoic stratigraphy.

Structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry enables the cost-effective digital characterisation of seismic- to sub-decimetre-scale geoscientific samples. The technique is commonly used for the characterisation of outcrops, fracture mapping, and increasingly so for the quantification of deformation during geotechnical stress tests. We here apply SfM photogrammetry using off-the-shelf components and software, to generate 25 digital drill core models of drill cores. The selected samples originate from the Longyearbyen CO₂ Lab project’s borehole DH4, covering the lowermost cap rock and uppermost reservoir sequences proposed for CO₂ sequestration onshore Svalbard. We have come up with a procedure that enables the determination of bulk volumes and densities with precisions and accuracies similar to those of such conventional methods as the immersion in fluid method. We use 3D printed replicas to qualitatively assure the volumes, and show that, with a mean deviation (based on eight samples) of 0.059% compared to proven geotechnical methods, the photogrammetric output is found to be equivalent. We furthermore splice together broken and fragmented core pieces to reconstruct larger core intervals. We unwrap these to generate and characterise 2D orthographic projections of the core edge using analytical workflows developed for the structure-sedimentological characterisation of virtual outcrop models. Drill core orthoprojections can be treated as directly correlatable to optical borehole-wall imagery data, enabling a direct and cost-effective elucidation of in situ drill core orientation and depth, as long as any form of borehole imagery is available. Digital drill core models are thus complementary to existing physical and photographic sample archives, and we foresee that the presented workflow can be adopted for the digitisation and digital storage of other types of geological samples, including degradable and dangerous ice and sediment cores and samples.