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

The GESS data includes 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 values include: e (end moraine), g (ground moraine), s (stagnation moraine), d (discontinuous or attenuated), or f (soliflucted). Possible SedStrat values include "0" (unstratified, and "1" (stratified). Possible values for Texture6 include mostly sandy, sandy-silty, mostly silty, silty-clayey, mostly clayey, and mostly organic.

Data and Resources

Field Value
accessLevel public
bureauCode {010:12}
catalog_@context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
catalog_describedBy https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
identifier USGS:5a382871e4b0d05ee8b21324
metadata_type geospatial
modified 20200814
old-spatial -124.969069883, 35.090811167, -65.343237884, 50.932504994
publisher U.S. Geological Survey
publisher_hierarchy Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 621a94586cf2cd87119ebbbd65a7825217c13f82
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-124.969069883, 35.090811167], [-124.969069883, 50.932504994], [ -65.343237884, 50.932504994], [ -65.343237884, 35.090811167], [-124.969069883, 35.090811167]]]}
theme {geospatial}
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • ckan
  • confined-and-unconfined-aquifers
  • geo
  • geoscientificinformation
  • geoss
  • glacial-drift
  • glacial-outwash-sediment
  • glaciology
  • holocene
  • hydrogeologic-framework
  • hydrogeologic-terranes
  • hydrogeology
  • national
  • north-america
  • pleistocene
  • quaternary
  • stratified-glacial-sediment
  • surficial-deposits
  • surficial-geologic-maps
  • surficial-geologic-units
  • surficial-sediments
  • till
  • united-states
  • usgs-5a382871e4b0d05ee8b21324
  • water-use
isopen False
license_id notspecified
license_title License not specified
maintainer James E Reddy
maintainer_email jreddy@usgs.gov
metadata_created 2025-11-21T13:20:51.059995
metadata_modified 2025-11-21T13:20:51.059999
notes The GESS data includes 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 values include: e (end moraine), g (ground moraine), s (stagnation moraine), d (discontinuous or attenuated), or f (soliflucted). Possible SedStrat values include "0" (unstratified, and "1" (stratified). Possible values for Texture6 include mostly sandy, sandy-silty, mostly silty, silty-clayey, mostly clayey, and mostly organic.
num_resources 2
num_tags 27
title Glacial Environments and Surficial Sediments (GESS) Geodatabase for the Glaciated, Conterminous United States