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Preliminary digital data for a 3-layer geologic model of the conterminous United States using land surface, top of bedrock, and top of basement

Metadata Updated: February 22, 2025

This digital dataset compiles a 3-layer geologic model of the conterminous United States by mapping the altitude of three surfaces: land surface, top of bedrock, and top of basement. These surfaces are mapped through the compilation and synthesis of published stratigraphic horizons from numerous topical studies. The mapped surfaces create a 3-layer geologic model with three geomaterials-based subdivisions: unconsolidated to weakly consolidated sediment; layered consolidated rock strata that constitute bedrock, and crystalline basement, consisting of either igneous, metamorphic, or highly deformed rocks. Compilation of subsurface data from published reports involved standard techniques within a geographic information system (GIS) including digitizing contour lines, gridding the contoured data, sampling the resultant grids at regular intervals, and attribution of the dataset. However, data compilation and synthesis is highly dependent on the definition of the informal terms “bedrock” and “basement”, terms which may describe different ages or types of rock in different places. The digital dataset consists of a single polygon feature class which contains an array of square polygonal cells that are 2.5 km m in x and y dimensions. These polygonal cells multiple attributes including x-y ___location, altitude of the three mapped layers at each x-y ___location, the published data source from which each surface altitude was compiled, and an attribute that allows for spatially varying definitions of the bedrock and basement units. The spatial data are linked through unique identifiers to non-spatial tables that describe the sources of geologic information and a glossary of terms used to describe bedrock and basement type.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date February 22, 2025
Metadata Updated Date February 22, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date February 22, 2025
Metadata Updated Date February 22, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/2bc48b726d7b816b34457fccf68bb4b9
Identifier USGS:6524433ed34e44db0e2ec3ed
Data Last Modified 20241209
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 10b878a9-beae-4c6c-8c02-3c3940b0db8c
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -128.4905,22.3477,-65.2213,51.6246
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 7b2e5e8c29a0d5763dfbb5861fda400bb9a3732428986a8d113cabec5e3bb213
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -128.4905, 22.3477, -128.4905, 51.6246, -65.2213, 51.6246, -65.2213, 22.3477, -128.4905, 22.3477}

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