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Glacial Environments and Surficial Sediments (GESS) Geodatabase for the Glaciated, Conterminous United States

Dates

Publication Date
Time Period
2018

Citation

Haj, A.E., Soller, D.R., Buchwald, C.A., Kauffman, L.J., Heisig, P.M., and Reddy, J.E., 2018, Databases used to develop a hydrogeologic framework for Quaternary sediments in the glaciated conterminous United States: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F71R6PQG.

Summary

The Glacial Environments and Surficial Sediments geodatabase (GESS) data includes a polygon file with multiple attributes which describe the lithology, geomorphology, and related depositional environment of Quaternary-age surfical sediments in the glaciated conterminous United States. These attributes include: the map unit (GESS_MU), a geomorphic modifier (GESS_Modifier), a sediment stratification indicator (SedStrat), and a a sediment texture classification (Texture6). Possible GESS_MU values include: alluvial sediment, colluvial sediment, eolian sediment, lacustrine sediment, marine sediment, organic sediment, outwash, ice-contact deposits, island, residual soils, soliflucted sediment, till, bedrock, fill, and water. Possible GESS_Modifier [...]

Contacts

Point of Contact :
James E Reddy
Originator :
Adel E Haj, David R Soller, James E Reddy
Metadata Contact :
James E Reddy
Publisher :
U.S. Geological Survey
Distributor :
U.S. Geological Survey - ScienceBase

Attached Files

Click on title to download individual files attached to this item.

Fig. 3 - texture.pdf
“map unit texture”
34.32 MB application/pdf
Fig. 2 - GESS map units.pdf
“GESS map units”
27.43 MB application/pdf
GESS_poly.gdb.7z 30.97 MB application/x-7z-compressed

Purpose

The GESS represents the spatial descritization and classification of Quaternary-age, surficial sediments for the hydrogeologic framework -- a set of spatial databases that characterize in three dimensions the glacial sediments of the conterminous United States. These data are intended to aid in the identification and explanation of regional patterns in aquifer occurrence, productivity, and water quality in glacial sediments.

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