2008PRcores_xrf: CSV and XLS tables of x-ray fluorescence data from 12 cores collected by the U.S. Geological Survey offshore of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2008

Metadata also available as

Frequently-anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
2008PRcores_xrf: CSV and XLS tables of x-ray fluorescence data from 12 cores collected by the U.S. Geological Survey offshore of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2008
Abstract:
In 2008, as a collaborative effort between Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the U.S. Geological Survey, 20 giant gravity cores were collected from areas surrounding Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The regions sampled have had many large earthquake and landslide events, some of which are believed to have triggered tsunamis. The objective of this coring cruise, carried out aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel Seward Johnson, was to determine the age of several substantial slope failures and seismite layers near Puerto Rico in an effort to map their temporal distribution. Data gathered from the cores collected in 2008 and 11 archive cores from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory are included in this report. These data include lithologic logs, core summary sheets, x-ray fluorescence, wet-bulk density, magnetic susceptibility, grain-size analyses, radiographs, and radiocarbon age dates.
Supplemental_Information:
For more information on the USGS cruise, please see <http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2008-008-FA>.
  1. How should this data set be cited?

    U.S. Geological Survey, 2014, 2008PRcores_xrf: CSV and XLS tables of x-ray fluorescence data from 12 cores collected by the U.S. Geological Survey offshore of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2008: Open-File Report 2014-1227, U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Woods Hole, MA.

    Online Links:

    This is part of the following larger work.

    Hoy, Shannon K. , Chaytor, Jason D. , and Uri S. ten Brink, 2014, Core Data From Offshore Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands: Open-File Report 2014-1227, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.

    Online Links:

  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?

    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -67.0795
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -64.82283
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 19.17558
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 17.55293

  3. What does it look like?

  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?

    Beginning_Date: 18-Mar-2008
    Ending_Date: 24-Mar-2008
    Currentness_Reference: ground condition; cores collected in 2008

  5. What is the general form of this data set?

  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?

    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?

    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?

  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?

    Entity_and_Attribute_Overview:
    Although the core XRF data are not geospatial, they are related to the core locations which are available in the PRcore_locations shapefile available from <https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2014/1227/1-CoreLocations/PRcore_locations.zip>. The attributes listed belong to each of the 12 core table files (both CSV and XLS).

Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)

  2. Who also contributed to the data set?

  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?

    Jason D. Chaytor
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Research Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Rd.
    Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598

    (508) 548-8700 x2351 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    jchaytor@usgs.gov

Why was the data set created?

To provide xls and csv files of x-ray fluorescence data from 12 cores collected during USGS Field Activity 2008-008-FA from offshore Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. There are separate tables for each individual core and sometimes per each section.

How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?

    GGC (source 1 of 1)
    U.S. Geological Survey, 2014, Core data from offshore Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands: Open File Report 2014-1227, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.

    Online Links:

    Type_of_Source_Media: physical samples
    Source_Contribution:
    The gravity cores collected during U.S. Geological Survey field activity 2008-008-FA. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Giant Gravity Corer (GGC) was used to collect the 20 cores in 2008. The gravity corer is a large diameter (10 centimeter) sampler that collects cores up to 6.5 meters in length. During field activity 2008-008-FA the corer was not rigged with liner longer than approximately 3 meters. Although cores were attempted at 40 core sites, core was recovered at only 20 sites. Seven additional sites yielded only samples (bagged) from the core catcher or cutting head. Of the 20 successful cores, three also have cutter/catcher bag samples.

  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?

    Date: 2008 (process 1 of 4)
    Each core was cut into sections on the ship after collection. The cores were then split into halves back onshore.

    Person who carried out this activity:

    Jason D. Chaytor
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Research Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598

    (508) 548-8700 x2351 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    jchaytor@usgs.gov

    Data sources produced in this process:
    • Split_cores

    Date: 2011 (process 2 of 4)
    Once back onshore XRF geochemical measurements and linescan images of selected cores were acquired at a 1-millimeter (mm) resolution using an ITRAX micro-XRF scanner equipped with a 3-kilowatt (kW) molybdenum (Mo) target tube. The XRF scanning yields element intensities from the surface of split sediment cores that provide statistically significant results (greater than 100 counts per second) for potassium (K), chlorine (Cl), calcium (Ca), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), strontium (Sr), zirconium (Zr), and argon (Ar) . Whole-element counts are provided in this data release rather than ratios of element counts (Lowemark and others, 2010).

    Person who carried out this activity:

    Liviu Giosan
    Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    Associate Scientist
    Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    Woods Hole, MA 02543-1050

    (508) 289-2257 (voice)
    lgiosan@whoi.edu

    Data sources used in this process:
    • Split_cores

    Date: 2013 (process 3 of 4)
    Data were compiled into individual tables for each core and exported as XLS and CSV files using Microsoft Excel 2010.

    Person who carried out this activity:

    Shannon K. Hoy
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Research Associate
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598

    (508) 548-8700 x2297 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    shoy@usgs.gov

    Date: 2013 (process 4 of 4)
    Erroneous data points caused by the beginning and end of sections were flagged by either marking the text red (XLS) or adding an (*) for the CSV table. Some bad data points were marked with a ~ (CSV) if they were not caused by the beginning or end of sections, and corrected depth did not reflect their removal. No data values are any value of a -1.

    Person who carried out this activity:

    Shannon K. Hoy
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Research Associate
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598

    (508) 548-8700 x2297 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    shoy@usgs.gov

  3. What similar or related data should the user be aware of?

How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?

  1. How well have the observations been checked?

    Attributes were double checked that file name was in fact the correct core that the data belonged to.

  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?

  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?

  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?

    This data represent all of the cores that were analyzed with an ITRAX micro-XRF scanner. 12 of the 20 2008-008-FA cores yielded usable x-ray fluorescence (XRF) data. There is XRF data for core: 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 17, 18, 21, 22, 33, and 38.

  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?

    The file naming convention is as follows: CCCC_SSSSSS_XRF. CCCC stands for the core name which is ##GGC, GGC stands for giant gravity core. SSSSSS stands for the section information. Some files are only one section, some are multiple and some include the core catcher (examples below). XRF stands for x-ray fluorescence. There are 2 files for each core or section: an XLS and a CSV. The same data is in both tables, the only difference is that the CSV file marks erroneous data points with an (*) and the XLS table marks erroneous data points by putting the text in red.
    File Naming Examples: 

    > 5GGC_sect1_cc_XRF          Core 5, Section 1 and Core Catcher
> 5GGC_sect2_XRF                Core 5, Section 2
> 10GGC_sect1_XRF              Core 10, Section 1
> 9GGC_sect1&2_XRF            Core 9, Section 1 and 2
> 38GGC_sect3_XRF              Core 38, Section 3

How can someone get a copy of the data set?

Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?

Access_Constraints: None.
Use_Constraints:
The Public domain data from the U.S. Government are freely redistributable with proper metadata and source attribution. Please recognize the U.S. Geological Survey as the originator of the dataset.

  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)

    Jason D. Chaytor
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Research Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598

    (508) 548-8700 x2351 (voice)
    (508) 457-2310 (FAX)
    jchaytor@usgs.gov

  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set?

    Downloadable Data

  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?

    Neither the U.S. Government, the Department of the Interior, nor the USGS, nor any of their employees, contractors, or subcontractors, make any warranty, express or implied, nor assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product or process disclosed, nor represent that its use would not infringe on privately owned rights. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the USGS in the use of these data or related materials. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

  4. How can I download or order the data?

  5. What hardware or software do I need in order to use the data set?

    The end user must be capable of uncompressing a zip file and reading an XLS or CSV table.

Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:
Last modified: 13-Mar-2014
Metadata author:
U.S. Geological Survey
c/o Shannon Hoy
384 Woods Hole Road
Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598

(508) 548-8700 x2297 (voice)
(508) 457-2310 (FAX)
shoy@usgs.gov

Metadata standard:
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)

Generated by mp version 2.9.6 on Tue Oct 28 13:49:45 2014