Water, energy, mineral resource assessments, and hazard and land-use assessments are central to the USGS mission and increasingly rely on subsurface information and 3D geologic models. There are also many emerging societal issues in which 3D geology becomes increasingly relevant, including assessment of brackish groundwater resources, unconventional oil and gas plays, geothermal systems, reservoirs for carbon sequestration, and many more. USGS science planning documents and strategic plans for the USGS National Cooperative Mapping Program (NCGMP) call for geologic mapping across the Nation to become increasingly three-dimensional (3D) in nature—a plan that has been endorsed by the Association of American State Geologists and is justified by the societal needs for this type of work.
The National 3D Geology task seeks to compile, synthesize, and distribute 3D geologic data at varying scales. Task activities are focused on three primary objectives:
(1) developing an inventory and catalog of subsurface models and digital datasets,
(2) integrating and synthesizing subsurface geologic datasets into a seamless 3D geologic database, and
(3) making 3D geologic data accessible.
National Geologic Synthesis
National Bedrock Geology
3D Sedimentary Basins
National Quaternary Geology
- Overview
Water, energy, mineral resource assessments, and hazard and land-use assessments are central to the USGS mission and increasingly rely on subsurface information and 3D geologic models. There are also many emerging societal issues in which 3D geology becomes increasingly relevant, including assessment of brackish groundwater resources, unconventional oil and gas plays, geothermal systems, reservoirs for carbon sequestration, and many more. USGS science planning documents and strategic plans for the USGS National Cooperative Mapping Program (NCGMP) call for geologic mapping across the Nation to become increasingly three-dimensional (3D) in nature—a plan that has been endorsed by the Association of American State Geologists and is justified by the societal needs for this type of work.
The National 3D Geology task seeks to compile, synthesize, and distribute 3D geologic data at varying scales. Task activities are focused on three primary objectives:
(1) developing an inventory and catalog of subsurface models and digital datasets,
(2) integrating and synthesizing subsurface geologic datasets into a seamless 3D geologic database, and
(3) making 3D geologic data accessible.
- Science
National Geologic Synthesis
The National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program (NCGMP) Strategic Plan of 2020 calls for the creation of a “variable-scale, national, integrated 2D and 3D geologic-framework model that enables the seamless construction of geologic maps within user-defined regions of interest across the United States by the year 2030” (USGS Open-File Report 2021-1013*). Congress recently directed NCGMP to “bring...National Bedrock Geology
Accessible, up-to-date information about the Nation’s bedrock geology is necessary to support infrastructure development, natural resource management, mineral assessments, water quality, and earth science research. The National Bedrock Geology task will construct a continuous digital geologic map of pre-Quaternary rocks and deposits across the United States at National scale, to fulfill the USGI...3D Sedimentary Basins
Detailed analysis and modeling of 3D basin architecture is a critical tool in the assessment of water, energy, and mineral resources, as well as paleoclimate and paleotectonic reconstructions. Sedimentary basins are of particular interest because they are repositories of economically important byproducts of sedimentary processes and are commonly rich in subsurface data. Due to the importance of...National Quaternary Geology
Quaternary geologic deposits represent important reservoirs of hydrologic, aggregate, and other resources and preserve a record of landscape evolution and the distribution and frequency of geologic hazards. These deposits are cataloged in thousands of geologic maps produced over many decades, but many are inconsistent with their neighbors, decades out of date, only available as static...