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Project status is complete. Please check the CMRT project list for currently active projects.

National Surveys and Analysis - Central Region

Project Objectives

The objective of the integrated Surveys and Analysis (S&A) projects is to develop national digital datasets categorized in four major themes: geology, mineral deposits, geochemistry, and geophysics, and to integrate, analyze, and interpret these data and to support Minerals Program and other USGS projects to support a wide variety of studies including mineral resources related research, determining regional background values for chemical elements with known environmental impact, characterize regional mineral districts, defining metallogenic provinces, and studying the relationship between toxic commodities or mining practices and human health. These interpretive studies involve contributions from a wide variety of disciplines and partners.

Relevance & Impact

The successful completion of this project will result in a standard set of integrated GIS databases and interpretive products that address regional and national land-use, mineral development and mineral-environmental issues. These databases will meet ongoing needs throughout the Geologic Discipline for decision support and forecasting, and, specifically within the Mineral Resources Program, for mineral-resource and environmental assessment.

Based primarily on previously published state geologic maps, a nationwide integrated geologic database will be created suitable for plotting at 1:500,000-scale or smaller. The overall quality of the Mineral Resource Data System will be substantially improved, and it will provide a reliable source of information about the significant sites of mineral development and sources of mineral supply in the United States. We will have a stream-sediment geochemical database for the entire country, suitable for presentation and interpretation at regional and national scales. Aeromagnetic, gravity, and aeroradiometric geophysical data for the entire country will be newly compiled, and available for presentation and calculation of derivative maps, at a resolution of 1 to 2 km.

All these data will be available to USGS researchers and to the public, and will allow the rapid assembling of the basic geologic data necessary for scoping, for decision support, and for geologic forecasting. All four Surveys and Analysis projects will continuously produce state, regional, and national scale products, commonly resulting from cooperative work with state and other Federal agencies. As national scale datasets become available, products will be created that are suitable for release in part through the Mineral Program's "Spatial Data Delivery" Project, and, as appropriate, the National Atlas.

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