Physical repositories
Explore our Physical Collections
Our physical repositories preserve the integrity of tens of thousands of geological and geophysical resources for public use to prevent the costly loss of samples and to advance future discoveries.
Our repositories are located on the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood, Colorado.
USGS Core Research Center
The Core Research Center is home to more than 9,900 rock cores and 53,000 cuttings wells from 36 states. This represents more than 252 million linear feet of drilling that is available for reuse by government, industry, academia and the public.
The estimated current day replacement cost of this collection is estimated to be more than 80 billion dollars.
For information on the facility, accessing the collection, or public tours, please visit the Core Research Center website.
USGS Geological Materials Repository
The Geological Materials Repository is a repository of geologic samples obtained through research activities by USGS scientists.
These collections are described in the Registry of Scientific Collections and are available for reuse. If you would like to view materials in the repository or inquire about our policies, please contact geologicalmaterialsrepository@usgs.gov.
NSF Ice Core Facility
The National Science Foundation Ice Core facility stores meteoric ice cores from glaciated regions of the world including Greenland, North America and Antarctica.
The USGS manages and curates the ice core collection that contains over 25,000 m (15.5 miles) of ice cores collected since 1958. The facility provides opportunities to examine and measure ice cores while ensuring their preservation for future research.
For information on the facility, accessing the collection, or public tours, please visit the NSF-ICF website.