Index to Marine & Lacustrine Geological Samples

Access to rock and sediment cores, dredges, and grabs
from the sea floor and lakebeds

(http://seabedsamples.org)

Next Meeting: June 11-13, 2013
Hosted by the U.S.Geological Survey & the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

The Index to Marine and Lacustrine Geological Samples is a tool to help scientists locate and obtain geologic material from sea floor and lakebed cores, grabs, and dredges archived by participating institutions.

Sample material is available directly from the repository. Before proposing research on any sample, please contact the curator for sample condition and availability.

The Index describes the sample collections of twenty institutions and agencies, worldwide. The database, maintained by NGDC since 1977, evolves continuously under the guidance of the Curators' Consortium.

Data include basic collection and storage information. Lithology, texture, age, principal investigator, province, weathering, metamorphism, glass remarks, and descriptive data are included for some samples, at the discretion of the curator.

The Index provides links to view and download related data and images at participating institutions and NGDC and includes reciprocal links to the National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored Rolling Deck to Repository (R2R).

Several thousand samples in the Index also link to the NSF supported System for Solid Earth SAmple Registration (SESAR) by IGSN, the Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS) and PetDB.

Some U.S. repositories receive funding from NSF to prepare data for the Index, and NGDC is the NSF-designated "appropriate National Data Center" for data and information about geologic samples collected with NSF funds. For more information, see the NSF Division of Ocean Sciences Data and Sample Policy.

The Index is endorsed by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, Committee on International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE-XIV.2).

Look for data from the Index to Marine and Lacustrine Geological Samples, and for data digitized under the NOAA Climate Data Modernization Program (CDMP), in the NSF-funded GeoMapApp, and in the United Nations UNEP Shelf Programme.