NOAA National Geophysical Data Center and
World Data Center for Geophysics and Marine Geology, Boulder
Archive Responsibilities
for Marine Geological and Geophysical Data

Guidelines for contributing Marine Data to NGDC

NGDC acts as an archive and distribution point for marine geological and geophysical data collected with US National Science Foundation (NSF) funds. This role is outlined in NSF document 04-004 Policy for Oceanographic Data.

According to the NSF Guide to Programs, the NSF's Marine Geology & Geophysics Program

"Supports research on the structure of continental margins, oceanic rise systems, and deep-sea sedimentary basins; evolution of ocean basins; processes controlling exchanges of heat and chemical elements between seawater and oceanic rocks; tectonic and volcanic activity at mid-ocean ridges; chemical and mineralogic variations in marine sediments; deposition, erosion, and distribution of marine sediments; geologic and oceanographic processes controlling sedimentary systems; past oceanic circulation patterns and climates; evolution of microfossil groups; paleoenvironmental controls on fossil groups and sediment types; and interactions of continental and oceanic geologic processes."

NGDC also acts as an international data archive and exchange point for data in the World Data Center System, operating several World Data Centers, including the WDC for Geophysics and Marine Geology, Boulder.