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About Us / Team Charter

We are approximately 100 dedicated professionals based in the Denver, Colorado offices of the USGS. We conduct objective scientific investigations that are focused on answering societally relevant questions posed by our clients and collaborators, especially the Mineral Resources Program. The Science Center is a very diverse group of geologists, geochemists, remote sensing specialists, and geochronologists. We were formed in 1995 during reorganization of the USGS Geologic Division by consolidating the former Branches of Geophysics, Geochemistry, Central Mineral Resources, and part of the Branch of Resource Analysis. In October 1999, the former Central Region Mineral Resources Team was cleaved to yield the current Central Region Mineral Resources Science Center and its companion Crustal Imaging and Characterization Science Center.

Historically, the mission of the Central Region Mineral Resources Science Center has been to:

• conduct research toward basic understanding of metallic and nonmetallic nonfuel mineral deposits and their geologic environments and processes of formation;
• apply this knowledge to assessments of the Nation's nonfuel mineral endowment;
• determine the potential environmental consequences of mineral resource development.

Within the U.S. Geological Survey, regional Mineral Resources Program Science Centers have been principal providers of this type of information. In light of the ideals inherent in the USGS Science Strategy, it has become ever more desirable to retain these basic goals and to augment them with additional goals that are increasing diverse, interdisciplinary, and address science needs expressed by other Programs of the Geologic Discipline, by the Bureau's other three Disciplines, and other Department of the Interior agencies.

Specifically, the Central Region Mineral Resources Science Center seeks to become a more comprehensive source of the diverse earth science data and interpretations required by Federal land use planners. Earth science-ecosystem-based geoenvironmental studies constitute a prime venue in which the talents of the Science Center can be applied. These studies offer data and interpretations for land use planning decisions that relate to crucial resource-environmental issues. Similarly, the Science Center offers Federal land use planners information concerning hazards related to the interplay between an area's geologic characteristics and proposed development scenarios. These studies require expertise resident within the Central Region Mineral Resources Science Center and, equally important, that obtained through collaboration with staff throughout the USGS.

Science Center Contacts