The 60-page (10 Mb) National Geothermal Data System (NGDS) Atlas conveys the nature, quality and quantity of geothermal-related data available for all 50 U.S. states through the NGDS Catalog. Each U.S. state is portrayed in the Atlas in a succinct summary that includes that state’s contribution to the NGDS Catalog and an at-a-glance data wheel to characterize the types and volumes of data available.
NGDS CATALOG - The NGDS catalog exposes over 10 million data records and will grow as our contributors from industry, state surveys, and Department of Energy funded repositories continue to collect and add data. The Atlas illustrates the breadth and diversity of NGDS holdings, which range broadly from legacy data PDF documents to Excel data tables, to geologic map services, to well log data, to geochemical analyses and more.
Catalog data, summarized here, are exposed, discoverable, retrievable, and free.
- Aqueous chemistry—water chemistry parameters (~387,800)
- Borehole lithology—intervals and intercepts (~2 million)
- Borehole temperatures—down-hole temperature values (~538,800)
- Direct use & heat pump facilities (~14,000)
- Geochemistry—major- & trace-element analyses (~53,800)
- Geologic maps (~6,300 w/ ~815,600 geologic features)
- Southern Methodist University (~3 million geothermal data records)
- Water wells—supply, monitoring & irrigation (~520,000)
- Web Map Services—access to digital maps
- Well headers—location and elevation of wells (~1.85 million)
- Well logs—geophysical logs (~666,800)
The goal of NGDS is to accelerate geothermal deployment by driving down risks and costs that have historically deterred investment in geothermal energy production. The interoperable framework aids discovery of geology, faults and seismicity, heat flow, geochemistry, temperature, and drilling data from thousands of databases, geologic maps, and reports, and from millions of digitized records that were previously unavailable. NGDS conforms to the U.S. Geosciences Information Network (USGIN) specifications, a joint undertaking of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Association of American State Geologists (AASG).
USGIN meets all the requirements of the White House Open Data Policy and uses the same free, open-source content management system as Data.gov, making all NGDS data fully accessible. To continue growing this catalog, all DOE-funded geothermal projects will submit cutting-edge research onto the network through a dedicated node called the Geothermal Data Repository (GDR). Raw data, in turn, is modeled for data visualization of the subsurface by the private sector and research facilities.
To commercialize the enterprise for sustainability, the design team has transferred the NGDS to the newly formed non-profit USGIN Foundation, Inc., where staff will continue to input data and applications that can be easily deployed by the private sector to accelerate deployment of geothermal development.
USGIN meets all the requirements of the White House Open Data Policy and uses the same free, open-source content management system as Data.gov, making all NGDS data fully accessible. To continue growing this catalog, all DOE-funded geothermal projects will submit cutting-edge research onto the network through a dedicated node called the Geothermal Data Repository (GDR). Raw data, in turn, is modeled for data visualization of the subsurface by the private sector and research facilities.
To commercialize the enterprise for sustainability, the design team has transferred the NGDS to the newly formed non-profit USGIN Foundation, Inc., where staff will continue to input data and applications that can be easily deployed by the private sector to accelerate deployment of geothermal development.
Acknowledgments
Support for NGDS was provided by the Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Program, an Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy program under Award No. DE-E0002850. Major coordination provided by Association of American State Geologists (AASG).
