Define Macrostrat time intervals

A function to retrieve Macrostrat time interval definitions matching a user-specific search criteria. If no arguments are specified (the default), all time interval definitions are returned.

Usage

def_intervals(
  timescale = NULL,
  interval_name = NULL,
  interval_id = NULL,
  age = NULL,
  age_top = NULL,
  age_bottom = NULL,
  rule = NULL,
  true_colors = NULL
)

Arguments

timescale: character. The name of the desired timescale to return a definition for (e.g., "international epochs").
interval_name: character. The name of the desired interval to return a definition for.
interval_id: integer. The identification number(s) of the desired time interval to return a definition for.
age: numeric. Age in millions of years before present to return an interval definition for. All intervals overlapping with this age will be returned.
age_top: numeric. The minimum age for which interval definitions should be returned, in millions of years before present. If specified, age_bottom must also be specified, and this must be younger than age_bottom.
age_bottom: numeric. The maximum age for which interval definitions should be returned, in millions of years before present. If specified, age_top must also be specified, and this must be older than age_top.
rule: character. How should interval definitions be returned for the given age_top and age_bottom? Use "contains" to return all intervals that fall entirely within age_top and age_bottom. Use "exact" to return any intervals with both boundaries equal to age_top and age_bottom. Use "loose" (the default) to return all intervals touching the range of age_top and age_bottom. If age_top and age_bottom are not provided, this argument is ignored.
true_colors: logical. Should the original international time scale colors be returned? Defaults to TRUE.

Value

A data.frame containing the following columns:

int_id: The unique identification number of the time interval.
name: The name of the time interval.
abbrev: The standard abbreviation for the time interval name, if one exists.
t_age: The top age (minimum age) in millions of years before present.
b_age: The bottom age (maximum age) in millions of years before present.
int_type: The temporal rank of the interval (e.g., "age", "epoch", "chron").
timescales: A data.frame containing the timescale(s) that the interval is included in (see def_timescales() for more details), with the following columns:
- timescale_id: The unique identification number of the timescale.
- name: The name of the timescale.
color: The recommended coloring for units based on dominant lithology.

Developer(s)

Lewis A. Jones

Reviewer(s)

William Gearty

Examples