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Data Release for Secondary Hydrogeologic Regions of the Conterminous United States (ver. 2.0, June 2022)

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) previously identified 62 Principal Aquifers (PAs) in the U.S., with 57 located in the conterminous states. The USGS characterized areas outside of PAs as “other rocks;” other rocks account for about 40% of the area of the conterminous states. This paper subdivides the large area identified as other rocks into Secondary Hydrogeologic Regions (SHRs). SHRs are defined as areas of other rock within which the rocks are of comparable geologic age, lithology, and relationship to the presence or absence of underling PAs or overlying glacial deposits. A total of 69 SHRs were identified. SHRs were identified in two phases. In the first phase, Other Rock Regions (ORRs) were defined as regions underlain by geologic units of comparable age, lithology, and geologic or physiographic setting. ORRs were an intermediate product. In the second phase, ORRs were evaluated relative to the presence of PAs that may underlie the ORRs and (or) glacial deposits that may overly the ORRs. The presence or absence of stream-valley aquifers overlying an SHR was not considered, which is consistent with the identification of PAs. Identification and mapping of ORRs and SHRs was facilitated using digital databases and geographic information system tools. The SHRs were classified using three criteria: (1) presence or absence of underlying PAs or overlying glacial deposits, (2) primary lithology, and (3) geologic province and subprovince. The number and size of SHRs identified in this paper are comparable to the number and size of PAs previously identified by the USGS. With the identification of SHRs, all areas of the conterminous U.S. belong to an internally consistent mapped feature, thus providing a comprehensive framework for assessing groundwater at regional and national scales. Figures 1-3 are included for reference. Files are provided in Portable Network Graphic (PNG) format: Figure 1. Map showing the 69 Secondary Hydrogeologic Regions of the conterminous United States. Figure 2. Maps showing Secondary Hydrogeologic Regions (SHRs) classified by (A) Type; (B) Lithologic class, and (C) Geologic province and subprovince. Figure 3. Map showing Community Supply Wells (Price and Maupin, 2014) classified by the type of Secondary Hydrogeologic Region (SHR) that the well plots within. Type refers to the presence of a Principal Aquifer beneath (first letter) or glacial deposits above a SHR (second letter); Y= yes, present, and N = no, not present. There are about 143,000 wells shown: 9% are in SHRs classified as Type NN, 13% in Type NY, 3% in type YN, and 4% in Type YY; 71% are in Principal Aquifers.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
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Identifier USGS:5a5643b6e4b01e7be24449fc
Data Last Modified 20220629
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 0066029d-8016-455c-aacc-39fa905a614b
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -127.8898,22.8632,-65.34,51.5767
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 7ff2e0159489164bb5b01689cc4f1c68296e400fc0c65787c97080abdf8837f1
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -127.8898, 22.8632, -127.8898, 51.5767, -65.34, 51.5767, -65.34, 22.8632, -127.8898, 22.8632}

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