Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Directory of Public Repositories of Geological Materials

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

Overview This directory was developed to provide discovery information for anyone looking for publicly accessible repositories that house geological materials in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, this resource is intended to be a tool to facilitate a community of practice. The need for the directory was identified during planning for and follow-up from a drill core repository webinar series in Spring 2020 for public repository curators and staff in the U.S. and Canada hosted by the Minnesota Geological Survey and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Additional supporting sponsors included the U.S. Geological Survey National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program and the Association of American State Geologists Data Preservation Committee. The 10-part webinar series provided overviews of state, provincial, territorial, and national repositories that house drill core, other geoscience materials, and data. When the series concluded a small working group of the participants continued to meet to facilitate the development and production of a directory of repositories that maintain publicly-accessible geological materials throughout the U.S. and Canada. The group used previous directory efforts described in the next section, Summary of Historical Repository Directory Compilation Efforts, as guides for content during development. The working group prepared and compiled responses from a call for repository information and characterization. This directory is planned to be a living resource for the geoscience community with updates every other year to accommodate changes. The updates will facilitated through versioned updates of this data release. Summary of Historical Repository Directory Compilation Efforts 1957 – Sample and Core Repositories of the United States, Alaska, and Canada. Published by AAPG. Committee on Preservation of Samples and Cores. 13 members from industry, academia, and government. 1977 – Well-Sample and Core Repositories of the Unites States and Canada, C.K. Fisher; M.P. Krupa, USGS Open file report 77-567.USGS wanted to update the original index. Includes a map showing core repositories by “State” “University” “Commercial” and “Federal”. Also includes a “Brief Statement of Requirements for the Preservation of Subsurface Material and Data” and referral to state regulations for details on preserved materials. 1984 - Nonprofit Sample and Core Repositories Open to the Public in the United States – USGS Circular 942. James Schmoker, Thomas Michalski, Patricia Worl. The survey was conducted by a questionnaire mailed to repository curators. Information on additions, corrections, and deletions to earlier (1957,1977) directories from state geologists, each state office of the Water Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey, additional government agencies and colleagues were also used. 1997 - The National Directory of Geoscience Data Repositories, edited by Nicholas H. Claudy – American Geologic Institute. To prepare the directory, questionnaires were mailed to state geologists, more than 60 geological societies, private-sector data centers selected from oil and gas directories, and to the membership committee of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, one of AGI's member societies. The directory contains 124 repository listings, organized alphabetically by state. 2002 – National Research Council 2002. Geoscience Data and Collections: National resources in Peril. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press 2005 – The National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program (NGGDPP) of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) was established by The Energy Policy Act of 2005, and reauthorized in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, “to preserve and expose the Nation’s geoscience collections (samples, logs, maps, data) to promote their discovery and use for research and resource development”. The Program provides “technical and financial assistance to state geological surveys and U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) bureaus” to archive “geological, geophysical, and engineering data, maps, photographs, samples, and other physical specimens”. Metadata records describing the preserved assets are cataloged in the National Digital Catalog (NDC). References American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 1957, Sample and core repositories of the United States, Alaska, and Canada: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Committee on Preservation of Samples and Cores, 29 p. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 2018, US Geological Sample and Data Repositories: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Preservation of Geoscience Data Committee, Unpublished, (Contact: AAPG Preservation of Geoscience Data Committee) American Geological Institute, 1997, National Geoscience Data Repository System, Phase II. Final report, January 30, 1995--January 28, 1997. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/598388 American Geological Institute, 1997, National Directory of Geoscience Data Repositories, Claudy, N. H., (ed.), 91pp. Claudy N., Stevens D., 1997, AGI Publishes first edition of national directory of geoscience data repositories. American Geological Institute Spotlight, https://www.agiweb.org/news/datarep2.html Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Public Law 116-260, Sec.7002) Davidson, E. D., Jr., 1981, A look at core and sample libraries: Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin, 4 p. and Appendix. Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) Data Portal, Scientific Collections, https://info.deepcarbon.net/vivo/scientific-collections; Keyword Search: sample repository, https://info.deepcarbon.net/vivo/scientific-collections?source=%7B%22query%22%3A%7B%22query_string%22%3A%7B%22query%22%3A%22sample%20repository%20%22%2C%22default_operator%22%3A%22OR%22%7D%7D%2C%22sort%22%3A%5B%7B%22_score%22%3A%7B%22order%22%3A%22asc%22%7D%7D%5D%2C%22from%22%3A0%2C%22size%22%3A200%7D: Accessed September 29, 2021 Fisher, C. K., and Krupa, M. P., 1977, Well-sample and core repositories of the United States and Canada: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-567, 73 p. https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr77567 Fogwill, W.D., 1985, Drill Core Collection and Storage Systems in Canada, Manitoba Energy & Mines. https://www.ngsc-cptgs.com/files/PGJSpecialReport_1985_V03b.pdf Goff, S., and Heiken, G., eds., 1982, Workshop on core and sample curation for the National Continental Scientific Drilling Program: Los Alamos National Laboratory, May 5-6, 1981, LA-9308-C, 31 p. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5235532 Lonsdale, J. T., 1953, On the preservation of well samples and cores: Oklahoma City Geological Society Shale Shaker, v. 3, no. 7, p. 4. National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program. https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/national-geological-and-geophysical-data-preservation-program National Research Council. 2002. Geoscience Data and Collections: National Resources in Peril. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 107 p. https://doi.org/10.17226/10348 Pow, J. R., 1969, Core and sample storage in western Canada: Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, v. 17, no. 4, p. 362-369. DOI: 10.35767/gscpgbull.17.4.362 Ramdeen, S., 2015. Preservation challenges for geological data at state geological surveys, GeoResJ 6 (2015) 213-220, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.grj.2015.04.002 Schmoker, J. W., Michalski, T. C., and Worl, P. B., 1984, Nonprofit sample and core repositories of the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 942. https://doi.org/10.3133/cir942 Schmoker, J. W., Michalski, T. C., and Worl, P. B., 1984, Addresses, telephone numbers, and brief descriptions of publicly available, nonprofit sample and core repositories of the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 84-333, 13 p. (Superseded by USGS Circular 942) https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr84333 The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-58, Sec. 351) The National Digital Catalog (NDC). https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/national-geological-and-geophysical-data-preservation-program/national-digital U.S. Bureau of Mines, 1978, CORES Operations Manual: Bureau of Mines Core Repository System: U.S. Bureau of Mines Information Circular IC 8784, 118 p. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc170848/

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.

Downloads & Resources

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
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/3f7445e190ae0f7c2d5e3ba480c5c6e3
Identifier USGS:6108b1abd34ef8d70565fa60
Data Last Modified 20211006
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 786bf38e-2355-4824-80f2-66dfaa26b4a2
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -149.8103,29.866,-56.8605,62.4698
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash d8558b508e108228ccbf593cb3b71a83994d9521aeb970c4115890c68ca52071
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -149.8103, 29.866, -149.8103, 62.4698, -56.8605, 62.4698, -56.8605, 29.866, -149.8103, 29.866}

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.