Index to Marine & Lacustrine Geological Samples

Last meeting May 3-6 2009
hosted by Florida State University

participants & most presentations posted

more presentations and minutes will be available later

A consortium of curators of sea floor and lakebed geological samples created, and oversees the Index to Marine and Lacustrine Geological Samples database. The US National Science Foundation (NSF) and NOAA/NGDC jointly sponsor the Index.

The purpose of the Index is to help researchers locate sea floor and lakebed cores, grabs, dredges, and drill samples curated by the participating repositories.

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.

Several repositories receive funding from NSF to prepare data for the Index. For more information, see the NSF Division of Ocean Sciences Data and Sample Policy.

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 at participating institutions and NGDC. Several thousand samples in the Index also link to the NSF-sponsored Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS) and System for Solid Earth SAmple Registration (SESAR). NGDC is a partner in MGDS and SESAR and provides reciprocal links to the Index by SESAR IGSN and MGDS field program.

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.

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

Related databases: Australian sample database, Canadian sample database, European sample database, IMAGES core archives, Japanese rock sample database.

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