USGS
 Environmental Geochemistry and Sediment Quality in Lake Pontchartrain

Appendix D
Sediment Database

See Table 8 for Quality Control Codes

This appendix provides the full sediment data in eight linkable subtables in three formats. In Microsoft EXCEL (spreadsheet) format the eight subtables (Station, Inorganic, etc.) are available as tabbed sheets within "pontdb.xls" (EXCEL version 5.0 or higher). The Microsoft ACCESS format presents the eight tables under a single database ("pontdb.mdb"). The tab-delimited version is presented as eight text files in a single directory \pontdb_txt. Users with the appropriate software may click on the linked names and open the data directly into the application.

The spreadsheet version is convenient for data analysis and graphical display. The database version is suited for complex data manipulation, transfer to other formats, and creation of special interpretive tables. The tab-delimited version permits transfer of the data to any desired software. The database version requires the largest space (~ 4 MB) and the tab-delimited version the least (~1.5 MB).

Full descriptions of field parameters are available in Appendix A. Descriptions of data structure, quality control and other operational issues are found in the Methods chapter. Note that all data is given as presented in raw form as provided by original sources (see also Disclaimer). Annotations based on quality screening techniques are provided in the quality-control field to the right of each chemical attribute column as illustrated below.  A capital W preceding other notes in the quality-control field signifies unresolved problems suggesting that the data be checked before use. "0" in a concentration field means that the constituent was below detection limit for the method utilized. Some other commonly occurring annotations are shown as abbreviations (see Table 8). Other comments may be described in text.

See Table 8. Quality Control Codes

AG_UG_G

AG_Q
1.36 W 
0.009 LL

also see Table 9: Other interpretive notes and Table 10: EPA station class codes

As discussed in the database structure section, this database is not "normalized". Qualifier and descriptive fields are in the same tables with analytical data fields, rather than placing them in separate tables. This is partly designed to avoid the separation of critical background information and quality designations from analytical data. Second, redundancy is permitted where this offers a template to permit data entry in original format. For example, both state plane coordinate and latitude/longitude fields are provided. Preserving data in original form and units is a critical element of this database and minimizes the need for reference to often hard-to-find original sources for secondary users.

    Database in MS Access 97 format zipped (554 KB)

    Database in MS Access 97 format (4132 KB)

    (note: the Access databases were created in v 8.0 (Access 97) and must be imported if used with lower versions)

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