The Iberian Evaporite Structure Database (IESDB): An Evaporite Radar for Energy, Carbon, and Nuclear Waste Storage Facilities

Evaporite formations may represent suitable subsurface storage sites for carbon, nuclear waste, and Geo-energy applications, which are key for the Energy Transition. Consequently, the systematic indexation of the knowledge on evaporite structures is key for developing geoscience-based technologies to address the pressing societal challenges. However, vast amounts of subsurface and surface data about the stratigraphy, structure, petrophysics, and geochemistry of evaporite structures are often segregated, not systematically organized, and, sometimes, inaccessible. The Iberian Evaporite Structure DataBase (IESDB; https://iesdb.eu ) is a collection of 150 inventoried evaporite structures in Spain and Portugal, constituting the first comprehensive assessment from any region of the world that is focused on these type of structures. The IESDB is sourced from more than 1500 published and unpublished references and databases and includes varied information and figures of undeformed evaporite successions, outcropping and buried diapirs, evaporite-cored anticlines, evaporite-detached thrusts, and allochthonous bodies. Compiled data include key bibliographic references and a complete summary of the structure, stratigraphy, chronology, subsurface data, and mining activity. The IESDB meets the FAIR principles of data management and is presented as an open-access webpage where indexed structures can be selected by a multi-criteria search engine or visualized in an interactive map. The information compiled in the IESDB represents an opportunity to boost the scientific research on Iberian evaporites to tackle important societal challenges, and it can also foster similar initiatives in other regions.