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

Legacy Geochemical Data from Hardcopy Records of Selected Past U.S. Geological Survey Projects

Metadata Updated: September 12, 2025

This data release contains geochemical data from selected U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) projects from the 1960s-1980s that were previously unpublished as digital data. The objective of those projects was to describe the geology, determine petrologic and geochemical characteristics, or to evaluate the mineral resource potential of Federal Lands and adjacent study areas. These data comprise geochemical analyses from 36,498 samples--27,223 rock samples, 4,091 sediment samples, 2,351 soil samples, 330 heavy-mineral pan concentrate samples, 297 organic material samples, 58 mineral samples, 27 water samples, 11 miscellaneous samples, and 2,110 unspecified media samples. More than 78 percent of these samples were analyzed by a multi-element semi-quantitative visual 6-step emission spectrography method. Other analytical methods include flame-atomic absorption spectrophotometry, colorimetry, inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry, fire assay, and ion specific electrode. Included in this data set are 11,599 samples that do not have location coordinates. Also, 2,110 samples are only identified as "geologic material" samples since the specific sample media type information was not recorded. These data were included since they may still have value based on their general location and range of elemental concentrations.

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 September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 12, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 12, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-6217e392d34ec739b2dd2658
Data Last Modified 2022-08-11T00:00:00Z
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://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-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 79234657-fa47-4674-b10e-69e747c4bfeb
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -167.5000, 35.4800, -90.6250, 69.9881
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash b0970bbe12e55127ef5e9ff35c183b87eabb2e0be5291292b9d346f03bf7664e
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -167.5000, 35.4800, -167.5000, 69.9881, -90.6250, 69.9881, -90.6250, 35.4800, -167.5000, 35.4800}

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