Stratigraphic Notes

Welcome to the resurrected series of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports on stratigraphy entitled “Stratigraphic Notes.” For several decades, until the mid-1990s, the USGS published volumes of short papers that highlighted stratigraphic studies, changes in stratigraphic nomenclature, and explanations of stratigraphic names and concepts used on published geologic maps. The purpose was to encourage formal documentation on these topics.

Today (2023) the need for such documentation has become especially important because of the increasing number of informal reports that use new or updated stratigraphic nomenclature. Because the North American Stratigraphic Code does not recognize informal reports as proper publications to formalize stratigraphic studies, a report series such as “Stratigraphic Notes” is needed to bridge this gap.

“Stratigraphic Notes” is a long-term (multiyear), multivolume publication containing articles that address updates or revisions to stratigraphic nomenclature (and whose content ultimately will be incorporated into Geolex, https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Geolex/). The papers in “Stratigraphic Notes” are meant to be an outlet to communicate changes in stratigraphic nomenclature, to support geologic map publications, and to facilitate compilation of new geologic maps and their databases.

The goal is to publish a new volume each year, each of which will contain papers that present results of stratigraphic studies drawn from scientific interpretations of stratigraphic and biostratigraphic changes related to changes in environments of deposition and facies, as well as interpretations of igneous and metamorphic units.

We welcome papers for the “Stratigraphic Notes” series from geoscientists of the USGS, of State Geological Surveys, and from academicians. Papers can be submitted for publication in “Stratigraphic Notes” by contacting the USGS Geologic Names Committee (gnc@usgs.gov). As new “Stratigraphic Notes” volumes are published, links to the volumes will be posted here at https://doi.org/10.3133/pp1879.