THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA CORE AND SAMPLE REPOSITORY: AN INFORMATION SOURCE FOR THE STATE’S GEOLOGIC HISTORY

The Geological Survey of Alabama (GSA) serves as a repository for rock core and samples in order to provide services and information to the State’s citizens, industry and business interests, and other stakeholders to aid in the development of geologically related natural resources. Almost 81,000 boxes of material are stored in the repository. Sample boxes in the collection are inventoried with unique identification numbers, bar coded, and stored on shelves. Samples stored in the repository preserve and reflect the entire stratigraphic section in Alabama and serve as a basis for scientific research on subsurface geology. The collection has been used in core workshops hosted by GSA aimed at current professionals and for undergraduate and graduate students laboratory exercises. Scores of theses and dissertations have been produced over the years using the collection focused on Jurassic units that serve as oil and gas and potential lithium reservoirs in the southwestern part of the state, and these would not have been possible without this subsurface archive. Cretaceous and Jurassic strata represented in the collection are currently being evaluated for their carbon storage potential. Archived materials from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic section were recently used in a regional stratigraphic reconciliation project funded by the U.S. Geological Survey that resulted in finer subdivisions of the stratigraphy. A pre-Jurassic “basement” study was conducted by the GSA using materials from the collection, leading to the recognition of a previously unrecognized extensive bimodal igneous suite in south-central Alabama and spatial constraints and information on the termination of a regionally extensive Triassic basin and distribution of Suwanee terrain igneous and sedimentary rocks in the southeastern part of the state. The construction of a new Core and Sample Repository Building was recently completed, and the collection will be moved to this facility during 2025. The use, application, and communication of scientific data, information, and knowledge derived from the new repository and attendant collection are critical to future geoscience and public policy development decision making in energy, mineral, and water resources investigations and exploration.