Abstract:
In response to Executive Order 13817 of December 20, 2017, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) coordinated with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to identify 36 nonfuel minerals or mineral materials considered critical to the economic and national security of the United States (U.S.) (
https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2018/1021/ofr20181021.pdf). Acquiring information on possible domestic sources of these critical minerals is the rationale for the USGS Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI). The program, which partners the USGS with State Geological Surveys, Federal agencies, and the private sector, aims to collect new geological, geophysical, and topographic (lidar) data in key areas of the U.S. to stimulate mineral exploration and production of critical minerals.
The USGS has identified broad areas within the United States to target acquisition of geologic mapping, geophysical data, and (or) detailed topographic information to aid research, mineral exploration, and evaluation of mineral potential in these areas. Focus areas were defined using existing geologic data including data on known deposits in the United States. The focus areas are provided as geospatial data supported by tables that summarize what is known about the mineral potential and brief descriptions of data gaps that could be addressed by the Earth MRI program. A full discussion of Earth MRI and the rationale and methods used to develop the geospatial data are provided in the following report:
Hammarstrom, J.M., Dicken, C.L., Woodruff, L.G., Andersen, A.K., Brennan, S., Day, W.C., Drenth, B.J., Foley, N.K., Hall, S., Hofstra, A.H., McCafferty, A.E., Shah, A.K., and Ponce, D.A., 2022, Focus areas for data acquisition for potential domestic resources of 13 critical minerals in the conterminous United States and Puerto Rico—Antimony, barite, beryllium, chromium, fluorspar, hafnium, helium, magnesium, manganese, potash, uranium, vanadium, and zirconium, chap. D of U.S. Geological Survey, Focus areas for data acquisition for potential domestic sources of critical minerals: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2019–1023, 65 p.,
https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20191023D.
These geospatial data provide the locations of focus areas to be used for the planning and collection of geophysical, geological, and topographic (lidar) data pertaining to the Earth MRI study of critical mineral resources in the U.S. Focus areas are outlined solely on the basis of geology, regardless of political boundaries. Therefore, areas may include Federal, as well as State, tribal, and private lands, which may or may not be open to exploration and mining activities. These data are shared to meet open data requirements and are suitable for use in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) or other database and geospatial software used to derive maps and perform geospatial analyses.
Supplemental_Information:
The GIS data consist of a polygon layer, or “feature class”, which depicts the locations of focus areas, that might control the distribution of mineral deposits. Individual focus areas may be represented by one or more polygons. When a focus area is defined by more than one polygon, the polygons are grouped to form a “multi-part” feature in the GIS data. For example, the focus area pertaining to the Phosphoria Formation across multiple States consists of 984 polygons. These polygons are grouped and appear as a single record in the GIS attribute table with the UID “RM338”. In all, there are over 59,000 polygons that make up 833 focus areas. Polygons representing different focus areas may overlap. Viewing focus areas as outlines without color fills and with text labels will show where polygons overlap.
Data are provided in ArcGIS 10.8.1 file geodatabase (.gdb) and shapefile formats. The user is also provided a State boundary layer feature class published by Esri (2012) that was modified to include attribute information identifying the four regions used in the study – east, central, west, and Alaska. focusAreas_emri.gdb file geodatabase includes the following:
focusAreas_emri: potential data acquisition areas represented as polygons.
states_studyRegions: State boundaries that include study area regions.
Table data are provided as a single excel work sheet with tabs, listed below (as well as comma separated values (.csv) files.)
Abbreviations - list of abbreviations used in the data set.
Explanations - describes each attribute in the EMRI focus area tab as well as related GIS field name. For example, 'Critical mineral commodities' is the column name in the table and it is called 'CritMin' in the focusAreas_emri GIS table. Additional explanations are below for descriptions of fields in the References tab.
EMRI focus areas - full table of attributes for the focus areas.
References - table that lists the short reference, full citation, and links where available. * status defined in Explanations tab.
Mineral Systems - table 1 modified from Hofstra and Kreiner (2020) that relates critical minerals and commodities to deposit types and mineral systems.
Esri, 2012, USA States: Esri Data & Maps for ArcGIS, 2012 – World, Europe, and United States, Redlands, CA.
These data are published as a Science Base Data Release, however the Hammarstrom and others (2022) Open-File Report 2019–1023 contains the discussion of Earth MRI and the rationale and methods used to develop these geospatial data (
https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20191023D).
There is no guarantee concerning the accuracy of the data. Data have been checked to ensure the accuracy. If any errors are detected, please notify the originating office. The U.S. Geological Survey recommends users read all metadata prior to using data. Acknowledgment of the U.S. Geological Survey would be appreciated in products derived from these data. User specifically agrees not to misrepresent the data, nor to imply that changes made were approved or endorsed by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Development of the dataset was funded by the U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Resources Program. The spatial data set and supporting tables were developed by 4 regional teams: Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center (Reston, VA); Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center (Denver, CO); Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center (Spokane, WA and Tucson, AZ); and Alaska Science Center - Geology Office (Anchorage, AK). Database reviews and contributions were made by USGS personnel Heather Parks, Ryan Taylor, Carlin Green, Dan Hayba, Damon Bickerstaff, and Patricia Loferski.
Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys – Werdon, M.B.
Arizona Geological Survey - Richardson, C.A.
Arkansas Geological Survey - Cannon, C., Chandler, A., and Hanson, W.D.
California Geological Survey - Bohlen, S., Callen, B., Gius, F.W., Goodwin, J., Higgins, C., Key, E.L., Marquis, G., Mills, S., Tuzzolino, A., and Wesoloski, C.
Colorado Geological Survey - Morgan, M.L., and O'Keeffe, M.K.
Connecticut Geological Survey - Thomas, M.
Delaware Geological Survey - KunleDare, M., and Tomlinson, J.
Florida Geological Survey - Means, H.
Geological Survey of Alabama - VanDervoort, D.S., and Whitmore, J.P.
Idaho Geological Survey - Berti, C., Gillerman, V.S., and Lewis, R.S.
Illinois State Geological Survey - Denny, F.B., Freiburg, J., Scott, E., and Whittaker, S.
Indiana Geological and Water Survey - Mastalerz, M., McLaughlin, P.I., and Motz, G.
Iowa Geological Survey - Clark, R.J., Kerr, P., and Tassier-Surine, S.
Kansas Geological Survey - Husiuk, F., Oborny, S., and Smith, J.
Kentucky Geological Survey - Andrews, W.M., Harris, D., Hickman J., and Lukoczki, G.
Maine Geological Survey - Beck, F.M., Bradley, D., Marvinney, R., Slack, J., and Whittaker, A.H.
Maine Mineral and Gem Museum - Felch, M.
Maryland Geological Survey - Kavage Adams, R.H., Brezinski, D.K., Junkin, W., and Ortt, R.
Michigan Geological Survey - Yellich, J.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources - Arends, H., Dahl, D.A., and Saari, S.
Minnesota Natural Resources Research Institute - Hudak, G.J.
Minnesota Geological Survey - Block, A.
Missouri Geological Survey - Ellis, T., Lori, L., Pierce, L., Seeger, C.M., and Steele, A.
Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology - Gunderson, J., Korzeb, S.L., and Scarberry, K.C.
Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology - Faulds, J., and Muntean, J.L.
New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources - Gysi, A., Kelley, S.A., and McLemore, V.T.
North Carolina Geological Survey - Chapman, J.S., Farrell, K.M., Taylor, K.B., Thornton, E., and Veach, D.
North Dakota Geological Survey - Kruger, N.
Ohio Geological Survey - McDonald, J., and Stucker, J.
Pennsylvania Geological Survey - Hand, K., and Shank, S.G.
South Carolina Geological Survey - Howard, C.S., and Morrow, R.H.
South Dakota Geological Survey - Cowman, T., Luczak, J.N., and Myman, T.J.
Tennessee Geological Survey - Lemiszki, P.
Texas Bureau of Economic Geology - Paine, J.
Utah Geological Survey - Boden, T., Mills, S.E., and Rupke, A.
Virginia Division of Geology and Mineral Resources - Coiner, L.V., and Lassetter, W.L.
Washington Geological Survey - Eungard, D.W., and Skov, R.
West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey - Brown, S.R., Dinterman, P., and Moore, J.P.
Western Michigan University - Thakurta, J., Harrison, W., and Voice, P.
Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey - Ames, C., Gotschalk, B., Lodge, R., Stewart, E.K., and Stewart, E.
Wyoming State Geological Survey - Gregory, R.W., Lynds, R.M., Mosser, K., Toner, R., and Webber, P.
U.S. Geological Survey - Anderson, A.K., Bickerstaff, D., Bern, C.R., Brady, S., Brezinski, C., Brock, J., Bultman, M.W., Carter, M.W., Cossette, P.M., Crafford, T., Crocker, K.E., Day, W.C., Dicken, C.L., Drenth, B.J., Emsbo, P., Foley, N.K., Frost, T.P., Gettings, M.E., Grauch, V.J.S., Hall, S.M., Hammarstrom, J.M., Hayes, T.S., Hofstra, A.H., Horton, J.D., Horton, J.W., Hubbard, B.E., Hudson, M., John, D.A., Johnson, M.R., Jones, J.V. III, Kreiner, D.C., Mauk, J.L., McCafferty, A.E., McPhee, D., Merchat, A.J., Nicholson, S.W., Ponce, D.A., Roberts-Ashby, T., Rosera, J., San Juan, C.A., Shah, A.K., Scheirer, D., Siler, D.L., Soller, D.R., Stillings, L.L., Swezey, C.S., Taylor, R.D., Thompson, R., Van Gosen, B.S., Verplanck, P., Vikre, P.G., Walsh, G.J., Woodruff, L.G., and Zurcher, L.
