Data acquisition projects funded by Earth Mapping Resources Initiative

For geophysical studies, the boundaries were developed by USGS geophysicists or in collaboration with state geologists to best capture the geologic setting of possible critical minerals based on depth to potential resource being studied, topography, financial limitations on the size of survey and geologic data. Each geophysicist point of contact prepared their boundary as a shapefile and iteratively refined the area based on the above criteria until the planned boundary was defined.

For geologic mapping studies, the boundaries were developed by USGS geologists in collaboration with state geologists to best capture the geologic setting of possible critical minerals based on the regional geology, mineral resource information available, and financial limitations on the size of the area to be mapped. Each geologic point of contact prepared their boundary as a shapefile and iteratively refined the area based on the above criteria until the planned boundary was defined.

For lidar studies, the boundaries were developed by the USGS National Geospatial Program (NGP), 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) staff in close collaboration with Federal, State, and local partners either through Federal Partnerships or through the Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) process. The BAA provides detailed information on how to partner with the USGS and other Federal agencies to acquire high-quality 3D Elevation data.  Applicants may contribute funds toward a USGS lidar data acquisition activity via the Geospatial Products and Services Contracts (GPSC) or they may request 3DEP funds toward a lidar data acquisition activity where the requesting partner is the acquiring authority. Federal agencies, state and local governments, tribes, academic institutions and the private sector are eligible to submit proposals. Each agency and non-federal partner point of contact prepared their boundary as a shapefile and iteratively refined the area based on the partnerships criteria until the planned boundary was defined. Proposals were submitted through the BAA for awards based on the proposals ability to help complete blanket collection of the US and the best return on investment for 3DEP and its partners. Federal partnership projects were developed in collaboration through the interagency Federal 3DEP Working Group.

For geochemistry studies supporting geologic mapping, the boundaries established were the same as the geologic mapping boundaries. These were developed by USGS geologists in collaboration with state geologists to best capture the geologic setting of possible critical minerals based on the regional geology, mineral resource information available, and financial limitations on the size of the area to be mapped. Each geologic point of contact prepared their boundary as a shapefile and iteratively refined the area based on the above criteria until the planned boundary was defined.

Keywords drawn from USGS Thesaurus, Alexandria Digital Library Feature Type Thesaurus, Lithologic classification of geologic map units version 6.2, and Common Geographic Areas were assigned by a single person to each study. These controlled vocabularies may be found at https://apps.usgs.gov/thesaurus/

For geochemistry reconnaissance studies, the boundaries established were developed by USGS geologists in collaboration with state geologists to best capture the geologic setting of possible critical minerals based on the regional geology, mineral resource information available, and financial limitations on the size of the area to be mapped. Each reconnaissance geochemistry point of contact prepared their boundary as a shapefile and iteratively refined the area based on the above criteria until the planned boundary was defined.

Draft versions of FY20 planned acquisition areas were submitted from each Program and added to the Earth MRI acquisition area dataset and application. These areas are subject to change during the planning process and will be updated when finalized.

26 new study areas were included, topical and place keywords assigned. The same processes were used to define these new geological, geophysical, lidar, and geochemistry survey areas.

4 new FY 2021 geophysical preliminary study areas were included, topical and place keywords assigned.

Draft versions of FY21 planned acquisition areas were submitted. These areas are subject to change during the planning process and will be updated when finalized. The database structure was revised to reduce duplication and incorporate a new program, 3D geological model. The programs were modified from 4 categories (geologic mapping, geophysics, lidar, and geochemistry) to 5 (geologic mapping, geophysics, lidar, reconnaissance geochemistry, and 3D geological model). Where geologic mapping had a duplicate geochemistry polygon these were combined and are now represented together.

22 new study areas were included (18 + 4 existing geophysical survey areas), topical and place keywords assigned. The same processes were used to define these new geological, geophysical, lidar, 3D geological models, and reconnaissance geochemistry survey areas.

12 new geophysical preliminary study areas were included with topical and place keywords assigned. The same processes were used to define these new geophysical survey areas. 2 geometry updates for pids 1012 and 1019 were included. 2 surveys (pids 1001 and 1018) were combined into 1001 for a single geometry with a description update. 10003 geometry was updated for the lidar survey boundary. Two geophysical surveys were published in Alaska for pids 1013 and 1022.

1 geophysical survey area was added with topical and place keywords assigned (1035). 13 geophysical preliminary survey areas were updated with changes in survey geometry and survey name (1016, 1023, 1024, 1025, 1026, 1027, 1028, 1029, 1030, 1031, 1032, 1033, 1034). Four of the 12 preliminary study areas added 20220311 are now under contract and the provisional status was removed (1023, 1027, 1033, 1034). The same processes were used to refine these geophysical survey areas.

7 new lidar survey areas were included with topical and place keywords assigned (10011, 10012, 10013, 10014, 10015, 10016, 10017). The same processes were used to define these new lidar acquisition areas.

11 geophysical survey areas were updated with changes in survey geometry with provisional status removed (1023-1034). The same processes were used to refine these geophysical survey areas.

1 new lidar survey areas was included with topical and place keywords assigned (10018). The same processes were used to define these new lidar acquisition areas.

5 new areas were included for geologic mapping and reconnaissance geochemistry with topical and place keywords assigned (5044, 5045, 5049, 20034 and 20036). The same processes were used to define these geologic mapping and reconnaissance geochemistry acquisition areas.

Study area polygons were analyzed visually and through quantitative analysis. Those deemed needlessly complex were generalized using a python procedure calling Esri geoprocessing libraries. The resulting geometries represent the study areas well, yet reduced the size of the GeoJSON service and download packages by nearly 90%.

Analysis of the geographic area keywords that were generated by simple overlap calculations revealed appropriate terms applied to smaller study areas, and exceedingly large number of area terms applied to larger study areas. To simplify the geographic area terms, those terms identifying map quadrangles were selected at 1:250,000 or 1:100,000 scale where the study area was larger, and at 1:24,000 scale where the study area is small. Likewise hydrologic units were chosen as 4-digit or 2-digit HUCs for large study areas, and 8-digit HUCs for small study areas. This change reduces the complexity of those keywords when they are presented to users (by trading precision for simplicity) without detracting from their accuracy.

In FY 2022 new data collection types were established with Earth MRI funding and incorporated in the acquisition areas dataset developed. For mine waste analysis studies, the boundaries were developed by USGS scientists in collaboration with state geologists to best capture mine waste regions with possible critical minerals based on the regional geology, mineral resource information available, and financial limitations on the size of the area to be mapped. Each mine waste point of contact prepared their boundary as a shapefile and iteratively refined the area based on the above criteria until the planned boundary was defined.

In FY 2022 new data collection types were established with Earth MRI funding and incorporated in the acquisition areas dataset developed. For hyperspectral imaging studies, the boundaries were developed by USGS hyperspectral scientists and in collaboration NASA under an interagency agreement (IAA) to best capture the geologic setting of possible critical minerals based on the near surface potential resource being studied, topography, financial limitations on the size of survey and geologic data. Each hyperspectral scientist point of contact prepared their boundary as a shapefile and iteratively refined the area based on the above criteria until the planned boundary was defined.

The database database table was modified to remove CPHONE and add ALIAS.

29 new areas were included for geophysics, geologic mapping, reconnaissance geochemistry, mine waste, and hyperspectral with topical and place keywords assigned (1036-1046, 5046-5048, 5050-5057, 20033, 20035, 20037, 40001-40003, and 50001). Provisional status was applied to areas 1036-1045. The same processes were used to define these new acquisition areas.

Contact name and email addresses were updated for 5001, 5014, 5024, 5040, and 5056.

Publication information (YEAR END, PDATA, or partner products) were updated for 1010, 5004, 5007, 5008, 5013, 5015, 5031, and 10010.