One of the biggest and most important tasks facing the Washington Geological Survey (WGS) is the preservation, cataloging, and digitization of data stored in physical collections produced over the 133-year history of the Survey. These include field notebooks, maps, out-of-print publications, field photos, thin sections, and more.
A team of data preservation experts at the Survey have been working hard for the past 10 years digitizing these unique records of Washington State’s geologic history, an enormous effort that is hitting a major milestone today with the release of the Washington Geological Survey Data Preservation Website! While this website marks a critical step for the data preservation project at WGS, this work will continue long into the future as thousands of additional items are still in need of digitization, and new records are periodically found (or donated to the Survey).
This data preservation work has been done through grant funding from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Data Preservation Program.
Check out the Data Preservation Website here: https://wgs-data-preservation.dnr.wa.gov/
Why is data preservation important?
For many items in these collections there is only one surviving physical document or item that exists, and many have been subject to damage and decay. Therefore, it is important for WGS to preserve these items before they are no longer usable.
These items also support geologic mapping and historical research, as some of the places documented are no longer accessible or have changed over the years due to growing cities or natural disasters.
What can be found on the new WGS Data Preservation Website?
The website is broken into types of preserved media, including thin sections (thin slices of rocks mounted on slides), photographs, field notebooks, and coal mine maps. Within each collection, users have the option to explore or search through the data in various ways: spatially through a map, by searching for key words, or filtering by the publication associated with the project.
Current Collections
In the Thin Section Collection users can search through images of thin sections sorted by rock type, explore the data in a map view, or explore the interactive Thin Section Experience. This Experience provides a background on thin sections, how they are used, and other supplemental information related to rock types and location methods used to create the dataset.
The Photograph Collection is made up of images dating back to the 1890s. These images document the history of the Washington Geological Survey, the state’s mining and mineral resource exploration starting in the 1920s, Mount St. Helens before and after its eruption in the 1980s, and more. Photographs can be searched in map view or gallery view.
In the Field Notebook Collection users can view a list of all the available scanned notebooks, provided for download in PDF format. The collection can be explored spatially on a map or viewed as part of an interactive story map.
The Coal Mine Map Collection currently has about 1,100 individual maps representing about 230 mines. Users can search the map collection using the Open File Report 94-7 publication link or searching by location using the map option.
Check out the Data Preservation Website here: https://wgs-data-preservation.dnr.wa.gov/
Let us know what you think!
Send your comments and questions to geology@dnr.wa.gov.
WASHINGTON STATE GEOLOGY NEWS 