U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BRANCH OF ATLANTIC MARINE GEOLOGY SEDIMENT DATABASE This database contains data on collection, location, description, and texture of samples taken by the marine sampling programs of the Branch of Atlantic Marine Geology of the U.S. Geological Survey. Most of the samples are from the Atlantic Continental Margin of the United States, but some are from as diverse locations as Lake Baikal, Russia, the Hawaiian Islands region, Puerto Rico, the Gulf of Mexico, and Lake Michigan. The database contains data for about 12,000 samples and includes texture data for approximately 2300 samples taken or analyzed by the Atlantic Continental Margin Program, a joint U.S. Geological Survey/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution project conducted from 1962 to 1970. This program was under the direction of K.O. Emery from 1962 to 1968, and the data were originally reported in Hathaway (WHOI Report 71-15, 1971). Texture data for approximately 8000 samples analyzed by the Sediment Laboratory of the Branch of Atlantic Marine Geology of the U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole MA. after 1980 are also included. Considerable data from the period 1970 to 1980 are yet to be digitized and added. The files in this subdirectory, ASCGROUP, contain the data and headings for the tables of data in uncompressed ASCII format. IMPORTANT NOTE: This database is in "flat file" form, which means that it is not "normalized". While this is considered inefficient from the point of view of database management, it is the simplest way of presenting the basic data. Since I know neither the software capabilities of the user nor the probable uses that may be made of the data, I have made no attempt to split the files to reduce blank regions or remove redundancies. The same data may be presented in more than one form, e.g.: phi class frequencies and cumulative frequencies. Even though each form can be derived from the other, presenting both eliminates the need for the user to program formulas to calculate one from the other. Although this may violate the principal of having a single entry for any given data item, it greatly simplifies the use of the file. If the user wishes to make the data base more efficient through "normalization", I feel that it is better that this be done by the user to fit both the applications available to the user and the database structural logic that is familiar to the user. The price paid for the "flat file" approach is additional storage space, rather wide records, and the possibility that corrections made here at the source may fail to be carried through to all forms of the data affected. We will make every effort to see that this last possibility does not happen. Samples of the data (about 25 records of the database) are given in the files named "sedsampl.???" where ??? = csv for comma separated values format; tsv for tab separated values. See file STRUCTUR.DOC for description of the files and their data. USE OF THE FILES 1) IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A DOS/WINDOWS COMPATIBLE COMPUTER, e.g a UNIX or MACINTOSH PLATFORM USE THIS ASCGROUP DIRECTORY If applications capable of using or importing .DB (Paradox) file structure are not available to the user, or if the self-extracting files (usable with IBM PC-compatible computers under the DOS operating system) in the PCZGROUP directory will not work, the user can download the files from this ASCGROUP directory. These files are provided to allow importation of the data into applications available in systems other than IBM PC-compatible computers. Together they occupy about 13 megabytes of disk space. If the user wishes to test the data first sample files of about 25 lines are available. These are named SEDSAMPL.CSV for comma separated values, and SEDSAMPL.TSV for tab separated values. 2) IF YOU HAVE AN IBM-PC COMPATIBLE COMPUTER YOU MAY USE THE COMPRESSED FILES IN DIRECTORY PCZGROUP, OR IN PDXGROUP (IF YOU HAVE PARADOX) If an IBM compatible computer using DOS is available, the user can download either the compressed files in the PCZGROUP subdirectory (see the README.1ST file in that directory) or the uncompressed files from this subdirectory (ASCGROUP), however we recommend that the compressed files be used to save download time; they are self-extracting in the DOS environment. However, if an application which can use .DB format database files is available, download the self-extracting compressed file SEDPDOX.EXE (2.3 Mb) from the PDXGROUP subdirectory. See the README.1ST file in that subdirectory. You may test to see if a .DB format file can be read by your application by trying the SEDSAMPL.DB file in this (ASCGROUP) subdirectory. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Contact: Polly Hastings U.S. Geological Survey 384 Woods Hole Road Quissett Campus Woods Hole, MA 02540-1598 Tel. 508 457 2289 e-mail pshoukimas@nobska.er.usgs.gov This database was assembled by John C. Hathaway, Geologist Emeritus, U.S. Geological Survey, and is now managed by Polly Hastings Version of March 7, 1994 DISCLAIMER This database, identified as Branch of Atlantic Marine Geology Sediment Database, has been approved for release and publication by the Director of the USGS. Although this database has been subjected to rigorous review and is substantially complete, the USGS reserves the right to revise the data pursuant to further analysis and review. Furthermore, it is released on condition that neither the USGS nor the United States Government may be held liable for any damages resulting from its authorized or unauthorized use. END