Global Geology Data Sets

GIS data layers for marine geology and plate tectonics.

Grids available:

• Predicted bathymetry or ETOPO5/2/1  
• Predicted sea floor ages.
• Sediment Thickness
• Magnetic anomaly maps
• Marine sediments types (on geology menu)

Databases. These will be in c:\mapdata\database directory (or subdirectories there). All open on the map window toolbar with the Database button, and some can be opened rapidly using the button. 

• Volcanoes: 1518 volcanoes from the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian. Includes volcano type, elevation, and name. Included in MICRODEM full install.
• Plate boundaries: digitized outlines of the plates, from the Plates Project, University of Texas (old links now broken). Indicates the type of boundary and its name. Note the ridges are defined in the broad sense, and do not break out the smaller transform segments.
  • http://geoscience.wisc.edu/~chuck/MORVEL/PltBoundaries.html for the MORVEL 56 plate boundaries.
• Plate outlines: digitized outlines of the plates, from the  Plates Project, University of Texas (old links now broken).
• Continental crust blocks: digitized outlines of the continental blocks, from the  Plates Project, University of Texas (old links now broken). These work better for reconstructions than the plate outlines. These required a significant amount of cleaning up, especially for India and Eurasia.
• Earthquakes: data from USGS, with data, magnitude, and depth. These are different data sets, and may not be completely consistent. This site allows searching and output of additional data sets, which can be imported if you select the spreadsheet format (comma delimited), and use the Import, CSV file option.
  • Significant Worldwide Earthquakes (2150 BC-1994 AD) --3526 earthquakes. Included in MICRODEM full install.
• Earthquake focal mechanisms: from the Global CMT Project: >46,000 earthquakes from 1977 on. This has the focal mechanisms, depth, date, magnitude, and a rough classification of the earthquakes which have very little oblique slip.  You can get the current version of this file from inside MICRODEM.
• Hotspots: 56 hotspot locations from the  Plates Project, University of Texas (old links now broken).
• DSDP/ODP site locations: ODP site at Texas A&M, Deep Sea Drilling Project Sites: Legs 1-96, Sites 1-624, Ocean Drilling Program: Legs 100-199, Sites 625-1222 ArcView files (through Leg 190; provided by Dr. Sebastian Luning).
• Large Igneous Provinces: from University of Texas. Converted from a GMT file. Large igneous provinces (LIPs) are voluminous emplacements of predominantly mafic extrusive and intrusive rock whose origins lie in processes other than 'normal' seafloor spreading. LIPs include continental flood basalts and associated intrusive rocks, volcanic passive margins, oceanic plateaus, submarine ridges, seamount groups, and ocean basin flood basalts.
• Converted from the Global Relief Data on CD-ROM (may no longer be available).
  • Marine Fracture Zones
  • Marine Magnetic Anomalies

Data Bases for use in Plate Tectonics Calculations, but which you will not open yourself.

• Marine Magnetic Reversal Time Scale: . Included in MICRODEM full install.
• Plate Rotations, Total Reconstruction Poles, Hot Spot.  Included in MICRODEM full install. Used for plate reconstructions and rotations.
  • Cox, A., and Hart, R.B., 1986, Plate tectonics: How it works, Blackwell.
  • Duncan, R.A., and Richards, M.A., 1991, Hotspots, mantle plumes, flood basalts, and true polar wander: Reviews of Geophysics, vol.29, no.1, p.31-50.

Additional data

• Heat flow
• Global seafloor fabric;  
  • including fracture zones, extinct ridges, V-anomalies, discordant zones, and propagating rifts.
  • http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2011JB008413/full
• Magnetic anomalies
• Marine magnetic anomaly data
• National Geochronological Database
• World Stress Map:
  • Reinecker, J., Heidbach, O., Tingay, M., Sperner, B., & Müller, B. (2005): The 2005 release of the World Stress Map (available online at www.world-stress-map.org ).
    

Earthquake catalogs

• Main USGS global earthquake data (directions):  http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/
• University of Reno:http://www.seismo.unr.edu/Catalog/nbe-search.html
• Northern California: http://quake.geo.berkeley.edu/ncedc/catalog-search.html
• T-Phase earthquakes, PMEL  (data 1996-2002 on EPR, and 1999-2003 on MAR)
• http://www.ninepointfive.org/ 3D web visualization of earthquakes

Plate Tectonics

Geology Data sets:

Last revision 8/2/2018