How Lithoen knows what it knows

Epistemic status

A number is not just a number: a measured depth, a consensus figure, a model output and an open question are different kinds of knowledge. Lithoen assigns every claim one of eight statuses, each with enforced evidence requirements.

Observedneeds 1+ evidence · Tier A / Tier B

A directly witnessed and recorded phenomenon: something happened and a qualified observer or instrument recorded that it happened.

Boundary: Not for numeric quantities (use MEASURED) and not for conclusions drawn from what was seen (use INFERRED).

Measuredneeds 1+ evidence · Tier A / Tier B

A quantity produced by an instrument or a defined measurement procedure, reported by the party that made or compiled the measurement.

Boundary: Not for values quoted from reference compilations without measurement provenance (use ESTABLISHED) and not for model outputs (use MODELLED).

Establishedneeds 1+ evidence · Tier A / Tier B / Tier C

Settled consensus or definitional knowledge within the discipline. Lithoen is citing the consensus itself, not an individual observation or measurement.

Boundary: Not for anything qualified experts still contest (use DISPUTED) and not for specific reported measurements (use MEASURED).

Inferredneeds 1+ evidence · Tier A / Tier B

A conclusion reached by reasoning from evidence rather than by direct observation or measurement, and presented as the current best supported interpretation.

Boundary: Not for proposals still lacking substantial support (use HYPOTHESIS) and not for outputs of a specific named model (use MODELLED).

Model outputneeds 1+ evidence · Tier A / Tier B

A value or statement produced by a named model or simulation. The model must be identified in a qualifier; the claim is only as good as the model.

Boundary: Not for direct measurements (MEASURED) or unnamed reasoning (INFERRED).

Hypothesisneeds 1+ evidence · Tier A / Tier B / Tier C / Tier D

A proposed explanation or prediction that is not established. May originate outside Lithoen or inside it (including AI-assisted generation, which must be marked per docs/scientific-policy/AI_POLICY.md).

Boundary: Never presented as fact. A hypothesis that gains decisive support is superseded by a new claim with a stronger status; the hypothesis record is retained.

Disputedneeds 2+ evidence · Tier A / Tier B

Qualified experts currently disagree, and Lithoen records the disagreement itself rather than adjudicating it. The claim text must state the positions.

Boundary: Requires at least two evidence records so the dispute is documented, not asserted. Not for settled questions with a fringe minority view.

Open questionneeds 1+ evidence · Tier A / Tier B / Tier C

Lithoen asserts that the answer is not currently known. The claim records the knowledge gap — with evidence that the gap is real — and records no value.

Boundary: Not a placeholder for "we have not looked it up yet" (simply omit such claims). UNKNOWN is a positive, sourced statement about the limits of current knowledge.

Source tiers

A tier describes a source’s authority, not its correctness — and it constrains what may be asserted on it. Secondary explanatory sources are never sufficient on their own, and core claims require primary or peer-reviewed support.

Tier A — primary authority

Geological surveys, national and international scientific agencies, and the standards bodies of the discipline, publishing within their own mandate.

Tier B — peer-reviewed literature

Peer-reviewed journal articles, monographs and conference proceedings.

Tier C — scientific institution reference

Universities, museums, learned societies and their compiled reference works: authoritative, but summarising primary results rather than reporting them.

Tier D — secondary explanatory

Secondary explanatory writing: encyclopaedias, science journalism, educational websites. Useful for navigation and orientation. Never sufficient on its own to support a Lithoen claim.

What is published, and what is not

Lithoen maintains working research alongside its public science, under explicit information classifications. Only records classified public — and individually reviewed and published — can reach this site; automated gates verify at every build that nothing else does.

Public

Publication-safe structured science: entities, claims, evidence and source metadata that Lithoen is willing to publish, together with the public educational content built on them.

Internal

Working research: normalisation notes, derived intermediate datasets, review queues and non-sensitive experimentation. Not secret, but not asserted publicly and not quality-assured for publication.

Restricted

Proprietary derived intelligence: exploration hypotheses, prospectivity outputs, internal rankings, proprietary methodology and unreleased analytical results. Commercially meaningful; disclosure is a business decision, never a default.

Confidential

Third-party obligations: partner and client data, licensed datasets whose terms forbid redistribution, contractual material and commercially sensitive negotiations. Phase 0 defines this class but stores nothing in it — see docs/data-governance/DATA_CLASSIFICATION.md.

On the use of AI

AI is a research assistant at Lithoen, never a source of scientific truth. No claim enters the canonical record because a model generated it: every claim requires traceable evidence from the source registry, and AI-assisted working notes and hypotheses are explicitly marked as such internally.