National Geologic Synthesis

The National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program (NCGMP) Strategic Plan of 2020 calls for the creation of a “variable-scale, national, integrated 2D and 3D geologic-framework model that enables the seamless construction of geologic maps within user-defined regions of interest across the United States by the year 2030” (USGS Open-File Report 2021-1013*). Congress recently directed NCGMP to “bring together detailed national and continental-resolution 2D and 3D information produced throughout the [U.S. Geological] Survey and by federal and state partners.” In response NCGMP instituted the US GeoFramework Initiative (USGI).

A seamless, integrated, 2D geologic map database does not exist for the Nation; no National-scale 3D compilation exists at all. These digital databases are necessary in support of resource management, critical mineral assessment, water quality modeling, infrastructure development, and geoscience research.  The National Geologic Synthesis (NGS) project was created as part of USGI to produce these data by coordinating with the branches of the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program and assembling a set of unified products from those contributions.