NoraResearchLab/ds424-geologic-map-north-america

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DS-424 Geologic Map of North America — GeoParquet Edition

A standardized, AI/API-ready GeoParquet conversion of the USGS Database of the Geologic Map of North America (DS-424, 2009). This dataset modernizes the original GIS distribution into a format built for programmatic access — no geological reinterpretation, only representation, validation, and metadata enhancement on top of the authoritative USGS/GSA source.

Quick Links

• —📦 Dataset on Hugging Face
• —🧑‍💻 Source code & pipeline on GitHub
• —🗺️ Original USGS DS-424 publication
• —📄 NGMDB GMNA resources page
• —🏢 NORA Research Lab on Hugging Face

Core Principle

We are not modifying the geology. We are modernizing the representation of the geology.

The original DS-424 dataset remains the authoritative source. This GeoParquet release is a derived, standardized representation intended for modern computational workflows — GeoPandas, databases, AI pipelines, and APIs.

Dataset Contents

All layers are reprojected to EPSG:4326 (WGS 84) and column names normalized to snake_case.

Usage

import geopandas as gpd

units = gpd.read_parquet("geologic_units.parquet")
contacts = gpd.read_parquet("geologic_contacts.parquet")
faults = gpd.read_parquet("faults.parquet")

print(units.crs)
units.plot(column="rocktype", legend=True)  # example — see metadata.json for actual field names

Or load directly from the Hugging Face Hub:

from huggingface_hub import hf_hub_download
import geopandas as gpd

path = hf_hub_download(
    repo_id="NoraResearchLab/ds424-geologic-map-north-america",
    filename="geologic_units.parquet",
    repo_type="dataset",
)
gdf = gpd.read_parquet(path)

Metadata & Provenance

Full field-level metadata (units, types, CRS, provenance, transformation log) is provided in metadata.json, generated automatically from the conversion pipeline. It documents:

• —Source dataset identity and publication details
• —Transformation steps applied (reprojection, column normalization, geometry repair)
• —Explicit confirmation that no new geological interpretation was introduced

Source Data

• —Title: Database of the Geologic Map of North America (DS-424)
• —Publisher: U.S. Geological Survey / Geological Society of America
• —Publication year: 2009
• —Original source: http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/424/
• —Distribution used: Shapefile release (GDAL/OpenFileGDB cannot read the compressed File Geodatabase distribution)

License

Distributed under the same terms as the source USGS/GSA data (public domain / CC0 for USGS-produced data). See the original DS-424 publication for full licensing details.

Citation

If you use this dataset, please cite the original USGS publication:

Garrity, C.P., and Soller, D.R., 2009, Database of the Geologic Map of North America; adapted from the map by J.C. Reed, Jr. and others (2005): U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 424.

And optionally reference this derived GeoParquet edition as prepared by NORA Research Lab.