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NoraResearchLab/cmibs-critical-metals-black-shales

Quick Links GitHub Hugging Face LinkedIn X CMIBS — Global Geochemical Database for Critical Metals in Black Shales 451,472 samples, 4,177,965 measurements, global coverage (seven continents), 1961-2014. Modernized from the USGS ScienceBase data release into two linked GeoParquet tables for AI, API, and GIS use. Contents geoparquet/samples.parquet — one row per sample: identifying/metadata columns, latitude, longitude, point… See the full description on the dataset page: https://huggingface.co/datasets/NoraResearchLab/cmibs-critical-metals-black-shales.

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CMIBS — Global Geochemical Database for Critical Metals in Black Shales

451,472 samples, 4,177,965 measurements, global coverage (seven continents), 1961-2014. Modernized from the USGS ScienceBase data release into two linked GeoParquet tables for AI, API, and GIS use.

Contents

  • —geoparquet/samples.parquet — one row per sample: identifying/metadata columns, latitude, longitude, point geometry (EPSG:4326)
  • —geoparquet/measurements.parquet — long format: one row per (sample, analyte), join back to samples on row_uid
  • —metadata.json — provenance, citation, counts, standardization notes, known caveats

Why two tables instead of one wide table

The legacy database mixes 130+ analytical methods across historical and new compilations with inconsistent per-method columns. Splitting sample metadata from analyte measurements (long format) avoids hundreds of mostly-empty columns and is the standard structure for programmatic geochemistry access.

Caveats

Analyte vs. identifying/metadata columns were split per source table using keyword heuristics on column names (see IDCOLUMNHINTS in the build notebook), not a hand-verified data dictionary — cross-check analyte column meanings against USGS documentation files bundled in the raw download before treating this as authoritative for a specific element.

Source & Citation

Granitto, Matthew, Giles, S.A., and Kelley, K.D., 2017, Global Geochemical Database for Critical Metals in Black Shales: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F71G0K7X

License

CC0 1.0 Universal