U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Repository Report for the USGS Woods Hole Science Center or, How I lost my mind and found it in the freezer... Brian Buczkowski 2011 Curators of Marine and Lacustrine Geological Samples Meeting Brockenhurst, Hampshire May 16 th – 18 th, 2011 Image courtesy Dann Blackwood, USGS

Woods Hole, Massachusetts

Six Scientific Institutions 1. MBL 2. WHOI 3. USGS 4. WHRC 5. SEA 6. NOAA Image courtesy Marine Biological Laboratory Image courtesy WHOI

Facilities K.O. Emery Geotechnical Wing Moved in winter of 2007  ft 2 Refrigerated space (+4 o C)  420 ft 2 Frozen space (-20 o C)  Core lab & Prep area Images courtesy Dann Blackwood, USGS

Facilities

Walk-in Refrigerator and Freezer  High-density rolling storage  Designed by SpaceSaver  Stainless steel  Cold and humidity-tolerant  Racks for D tubes and whole cores

Facilities Core Lab/ Dry Storage (K.O. Wing)  Dried samples stored in white archival boxes  Computer station for temperature and facility monitoring  Core processing area  Core splitter  Sample photography station (in progress) Image courtesy Dann Blackwood, USGS

Facilities Dry Storage (MOF warehouse & WHOI)  Long-term storage at our warehouse and in the WHOI core storage facility Image courtesy Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Image courtesy Dann Blackwood, USGS

Facilities Laboratory Capabilities  Core splitter  Digital binocular microscopy  Grain size analysis lab  Gas hydrates lab  Layout area At WHOI  XRF, MSCL  NOSAMS lab  Rock lab

WHSC Collections 5100 core sections represented  Mass Bay, Mid-Atlantic Bight, Gulf of Maine, Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay, AMCOR >9000 grabs  Mass Bay, Great Lakes, Stellwagen Bank 3030 slides  Foram collections from Atlantic coast Gas hydrate samples  Gulf of Mexico, North Slope of Alaska Ice cores  West Antarctica and Greenland Images courtesy Dann Blackwood, USGS

Projects Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management  Seafloor Mapping Cooperative  Provide geologic information for ocean-resource management  Grab samples and vibracores in in conjunction with geophysics, video transects and photographs

Projects U.S. Extended Continental Shelf project U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea Interagency organization  USGS as sample repository  NGDC as data repository Sample Collections  HLY Dredges  HLY Dredges  HLY Cores from 6 sites Image courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

In the Archives Reorganizing the Archives  Repackaging the collections  Barcodes  Resorting into collections  Redesigning the database  New student employee for summer  Realigning to fit into the GCMS

The USGS Geologic Collections Management System Proposed management system for USGS geologic collections  Developed by the USGS National Geologic and Geophysical Data Preservation Program (NGGDPP)  Elements  Standardized forms for accession and evaluation  Proposed framework for addition into USGS ScienceBase  Proposal to implement IGSNs as standard UUID for all geological collections materials

Accessing the Collections Ocean Floor Samples Portal  Allows internal and external users to access the database  Text-based searches  Google Earth KML file  IMS Portal  Links to archive manual and other resources (link to NGDC Index)  Excel template available for download

Accessing the Collections

Sample Distribution

Activities Outreach and educational programs  Class visits to the USGS  The Woods Hole Science and Technology Education Partnership (WHSTEP) Images courtesy Chris Polloni, USGS