Coal Fields of the Conterminous United States: National Coal Resource Assessment Updated Version By Joseph A. East U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2012-1205 The GIS files from the 2013 Coal fields of the conterminous United States: National Coal Resource Assessment updated version include a collection of shapefiles from four NCRA reports that were published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and one report that was published by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. The GIS ArcMap project is designed to be a complement to the published map sheet and to allow the user to examine detailed shapefiles and their associated data in the tables. The project does not recreate the original assessment GIS projects, but selectively includes the NCRA isopach and overburden shapefiles for the coal beds and zones, as well as new GIS data created for this publication, and allows the user to examine data from all five major coal regions in one project. The new data that have been created consist of: Coal Field Point Locations –point shapefile that shows the generalized location of a coal field or area and serves the function as a label for a related polygon EIA_Coal_Production –polygon shapefile containing individual annual State coal production information Coal Provinces – polygon shapefile displaying coal provinces Existing GIS data that have been updated in this publication include: NCRA Assessed Basins – polygon shapefile displaying all areas that were assessed in the NCRA Coal Fields – polygon shapefile displaying rank of coal from the rank attribute of the Coal_Fields shapefile Age of Coal Fields – polygon shapefile displaying rank of coal from the age attribute of the Coal_Fields shapefile Unassessed Mesozoic Basins – polygon shapefile displaying eastern Mesozoic basins that have not been quanitatively assessed by the USGS for coal resources, but potentially may contain coal. To access information on any of these datasets, the reader should examine the tables for each shapefile or use the identify function located in the ArcMap toolbox. Information for each NCRA assessment area can be accessed by expanding the layers for the Appalachian Basin, Gulf Coast, Illinois Basin, Northern Rocky Mountains and Great Plains, and Colorado Plateau, and zooming the view into the appropriate shapefiles. The entire assessment dataset for each assessment region can be accessed at: 1999 Resource Assessment of Selected Tertiary Coal Beds and Zones in the Northern Rocky Mountains and Great Plains Region. http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/p1625a/ National Coal Resource Assessment: Geologic Assessment of Coal in the Colorado Plateau: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/p1625b/ 2000 Resource Assessment of Selected Coal Beds and Zones in the Northern and Central Appalachian Basin Coal Regions. http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/p1625c/ Resource Assessment of the Springfield, Herrin, Danville, and Baker Coals in the Illinois Basin. http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/p1625d/ Geologic assessment of coal in the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plain, USA http://www.datapages.com/AssociatedWebsites/GISOpenFiles/GulfCoastCoalAssessment.aspx. For more information about GIS data for this Open-File Report contact: Joseph East jeast@usgs.gov phone: (703) 648-6450 U.S. Geological Survey National Center, MS 956 Reston, VA 20192 ------------------------------------------------------------------ This readme file is associated with data used to support Coal Fields of the Conterminous United States: National Coal Resource Assessment Updated Version. Files present with this 'readme.txt' are provided in ESRI shapefile (.shp) and ArcGIS Arcinfo Desktop - ArcMap project (.mxd). The ArcMap project file (Coal_Fields_GIS.mxd) was created in ArcMap version 9.3.1 (Build 3500) in a Windows xp SP3 environment. ----------------------------------------------------------------- U.S. GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED/LIMITED RIGHTS Any use of trade, firm, or product, names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. ESRI, ArcGIS, and Arcmap are registered trademarks of Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., in the United States and are either trademarks or registered trademarks in all other countries where they are used. Other companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners. ArcGIS Desktop software is the intellectual property of ESRI and is provided under license agreement. Software copyright (c) 1992-2010 ESRI. All rights reserved.