GEOLEX: THE U.S. GEOLOGIC NAMES LEXICON

GEOLEX, a component of the National Geologic Map Database (http://ngmdb.usgs.gov), is a database of ~16,000 geologic units described in the U.S., its possessions and territories, and bordering areas of Canada and Mexico. It is intended to provide to the Nation's geoscience community and the general public a standard reference for currently accepted geologic nomenclature. General and detailed information about these units have been compiled predominantly from USGS and State geological survey formal reports and maps published since 1836.

The original content in GEOLEX is from MacLachlan, M.E., and others, compilers (1996, Stratigraphic nomenclature databases for the United States, its possessions, and territories: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-6, release 3), and preceding geologic names lexicons that were published as U.S. Geological Survey Bulletins as early as 1902. GEOLEX content now is being supplemented with information from USGS card-catalog archival collections, as well as from recent stratigraphic and mapping studies conducted by the State geological surveys, the USGS, and universities.