SPARQL examples

Minerals Related Queries

The following section provides common queries for items in the GeoKB related to mineral resources, one of the principle uses of the knowledgebase.

Mines

This query searches for the first 100 items representing mines with their names, identifiers, and point coordinates (which are a mappable WKT point that can be pulled into a mapping application).

PREFIX wd: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/entity/>
PREFIX wdt: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/direct/>

SELECT ?mine ?mineLabel ?coordinate_location
WHERE {
  ?mine wdt:P1 wd:Q3646 .
  ?mine wdt:P6 ?coordinate_location .
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en" . }
}
LIMIT 100

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Rock Classification

We've started the GeoKB understanding of rock classification via the Mindat system. We will likely augment this over time with other interpretations and classification systems, but since we are pulling minerals from Mindat and want to link to rock types included in those records, starting with Mindat made some sense. The following queries show a bit of how to work with the classification itself in addition to what we link to specific classes.

Igneous Rocks

The following query starts with igneous rock and pulls the full classification from that point (* on the end of the predicate). Because we pull identifiers in this, you can use something like the graph view in Wikibase to visualize and explore the items through their connections.

PREFIX wd: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/entity/>
PREFIX wdt: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/direct/>

SELECT ?rock ?rockLabel ?subclass_of
WHERE {
  ?rock wdt:P2* wd:Q41459 .
  ?rock wdt:P2 ?subclass_of .
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en" . }
}

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Mineral-related Items Classified Multiple Ways

We've made a design decision in the GeoKB with items that we refer to in common usage to only declare or instantiate these entities with one, uniquely identified item that is then classified and characterized to indicate the different ways the concept can be used. An example of this are items that can be a mineral, a mineral commodity, and a chemical element. This is essentially dealing with the issue of the same word or phrase meaning different things in different contexts. The alternative would be to declare separate entities, each with their own specific classification and other characteristics, and then use relationships between the different items or disambiguation features in the knowledgebase to distinguish between them. We will have to determine exactly which approach makes the most sense in practical use over time.

The following query searches for items that are classified as chemical element, mineral, and mineral commodity in the same logical labeled entity.

PREFIX wd: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/entity/>
PREFIX wdt: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/direct/>

SELECT ?commodity ?commodityLabel
WHERE {
  ?commodity wdt:P1 ?instance_of .
  VALUES ?instance_of { wd:Q293 wd:Q280 wd:Q24 }
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en" . }
}

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Organizations

Entities representing organizations are important in the GeoKB in a couple of areas. We have information on entities such as publications and projects connected to USGS "sub-organizations" such as Science Centers and Labs. We also have information associated with external organizations such as mining companies used to retrieve and organize prospecting history for mineral resource assessments.

The following query retrieves information on organization entities that are characterized as "part of" the U.S. Geological Survey. (This is still a work in progress as we have an incomplete record of USGS organizations of interest and are working to harmonize across several sources.)

PREFIX wd: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/entity/>
PREFIX wdt: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/direct/>

SELECT ?item ?itemLabel ?itemAltLabel # Aliases can contain alternate names and acronyms for organizations
WHERE {
  ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q4 . # "instance of" "organization"
  ?item wdt:P62 wd:Q44210 . # "part of" "USGS"
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en" . }
}

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People

Items representing people associated with the USGS are another type of entity built out in the GeoKB. We use these as reference points and connections to the overall scientific record captured in this knowledge graph. Person records come from public sources such as our USGS Staff Profiles and are further discussed on the person classification talk page.

People by employer

This query pulls all people along with their email address (already publicly visible) and reference URL (pointer to USGS staff profile).

PREFIX wd: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/entity/>
PREFIX wdt: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/direct/>

SELECT ?item ?itemLabel ?email ?profile_url ?orcid
WHERE {
  ?item wdt:P1 wd:Q3 .
  ?item wdt:P107 wd:Q44210 .
  OPTIONAL {
    ?item wdt:P109 ?email .
  }
  OPTIONAL {
    ?item wdt:P31 ?profile_url .
  }
  OPTIONAL {
    ?item wdt:P106 ?orcid .
  }
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "[AUTO_LANGUAGE],en". }
}
LIMIT 10000

Try it!

Prefixes/Namespaces

SPARQL queries and work with RDF in general requires uses the concept of a short prefix string representing a URI to resolve an identifier. Prefix declaration in a query lets us use the short strings in place of constantly putting in a fully qualified and resolvable path. The wikibase.cloud folks have taken the stance that prefixes should always be explicitly declared as opposed to being in the default configuration for queries, which is good practice but a bit of a pain. Here is a rundown of the full set of prefixes for this Wikibase instance. You'll see the applicable prefixes from this exhaustive list in the query examples.

@prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix wikibase: <http://wikiba.se/ontology#> .
@prefix skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> .
@prefix schema: <http://schema.org/> .
@prefix cc: <http://creativecommons.org/ns#> .
@prefix geo: <http://www.opengis.net/ont/geosparql#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix wd: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/entity/> .
@prefix data: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Special:EntityData/> .
@prefix s: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/entity/statement/> .
@prefix ref: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/reference/> .
@prefix v: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/value/> .
@prefix wdt: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/direct/> .
@prefix wdtn: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/direct-normalized/> .
@prefix p: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/> .
@prefix ps: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/statement/> .
@prefix psv: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/statement/value/> .
@prefix psn: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/statement/value-normalized/> .
@prefix pq: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/qualifier/> .
@prefix pqv: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/qualifier/value/> .
@prefix pqn: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/qualifier/value-normalized/> .
@prefix pr: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/reference/> .
@prefix prv: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/reference/value/> .
@prefix prn: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/reference/value-normalized/> .
@prefix wdno: <https://geokb.wikibase.cloud/prop/novalue/> .