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 phastings@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