Marine Geology Data

Descriptions, Photographs, and Analyses of
Marine and Lakebed Sediments and Rocks

World Data Center for Geophysics & Marine Geology, Boulder

NGDC archives hundreds of digital data files and analog data sets (paper, film, etc.) containing descriptions and analyses of marine and lacustrine sediment and rocks from the sea floor. Data are compiled from U.S. institutions and from international sources through exchange mechanisms including the World Data Center system.

The Index to Marine & Lacustrine Geological Samples provides searches of sea floor and lakebed cores, grabs, dredges, and drill samples available directly from participating oceanographic institutions.

The Index also provides links to data and images related to these samples, including direct links to view and download related data at NGDC, at the participating institutons, and external databases like PetDB.

The Marine Geology Inventory provides searches of all marine geologic data, digital and analog, archived by NGDC. Search results include links to download all digital data files for free, and to view most data reports in .PDF form.

Search results also include descriptions of and ordering information for offline analog data, and to the Online Store for purchase of posters and CD-ROM products.

Additional web interfaces are offered for some data sets, including text searches, ArcIMS interactive maps, Web Map Services (WMS), and Web Feature Services (WFS). Text and ArcIMS interfaces facilitate searching within the data set, subsetting, and downloading selected portions of the data.

Individual web interfaces are provided for data from the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), the Deck41 surficial sediment description database, a grain size database, a bibliography of marine minerals, and to the Index to Marine & Lacustrine Geological Samples.

Selected Static Digital Marine Geology Data Sets are also available for direct download, in addition to being available through searches of the marine geology inventory. These data sets include compilations from many sources, including integrated projects and US and non-US academic, commercial, and government agencies.

Contributions of sea floor data in any well documented form are welcome. Data contributed to NGDC are permanently archived and publicly available.

Marine geology data from the NGDC archive are also offered in other forms on other sites. Examples include goSeabed/dbSeabed, the National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored GeoMapApp, and the United Nations UNEP Shelf Programme interactive map.