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Shapefiles of ancient and modern passive margins for the world

Metadata Updated: January 8, 2026

Two shapefiles mapping the locations of ancient and modern passive margin boundaries are presented. These data are a digital recreation of the work originally published by Bradley (2008). The ancient passive margin data were used as an evidential layer to map prospectivity for sediment-hosted Pb-Zn mineral systems (Lawley and others, 2022). The ancient passive margins dataset includes additional attributes related to the boundary's orogenic setting and history, the length of the boundary, its estimated lifespan, and its modern-day country location. Although only ancient passive margin boundaries were analyzed for the United States, Canada, and Australia for this study, boundaries for the world are included in the shapefile. The modern passive margin dataset includes an identifier for the margin segment, a margin name, the associated ocean, and age ranges of basin initiation, mean age and length of the respective passive margin segment. The modern passive margin data were not used in prospectivity modeling for ancient deposits. The passive margin boundaries in both files are mapped as line segments in geographic coordinates using a WGS84 datum. References Bradley, D.C., 2008, Passive margins through earth history: Earth-Science Reviews, v. 91, no. 1-4, p. 1-26, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2008.08.001. Lawley, C.J.M., McCafferty, A.E., Graham, G.E., Huston, D.L., Kelley, K.D., Czarnota, K., Paradis, S., Peter, J.M., Hayward, N., Barlow, M., Emsbo, P., Coyan, J., San Juan, C.A., and Gadd, M.G., 2022, Data-driven prospectivity modelling of sediment-hosted Zn-Pb mineral systems and their critical raw materials: Ore Geology Reviews, v. 141, no. 104635, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oregeorev.2021.104635.

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 January 8, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 8, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date January 8, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 8, 2026
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_619550d9d34eb622f69061b7
Data Last Modified 2025-03-31T00:00:00Z
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 36e4de28-ef8b-42bb-97e8-f3685b6eeb29
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -180.0000, -90.0000, 180.0000, 90.0000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 50eb81264b7b44284ccf984c2e43a0ebbda20048db6911360d9bedd1ecfa2b54
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -180.0000, -90.0000, -180.0000, 90.0000, 180.0000, 90.0000, 180.0000, -90.0000, -180.0000, -90.0000}

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