usSEABED: Offshore surficial-sediment database for samples collected within the United States Exclusive Economic Zone

This usSEABED database contains six point coverages of known sediment samples, inspections, and probes from the usSEABED data collection for samples collected within the United States Exclusive Economic Zone, integrated using the software system dbSEABED. Textural, statistical, geochemical, geophysical, dominant component, and color data are available as three files, which represent the ways the data were obtained: US9_EXT contains lab-based, analytical data (extracted data); US9_PRS contains data created from written descriptions by using fuzzy-set theory incorporated in the dbSEABED software (parsed data); and US9_CLC contains data created through the application of known relationships between analytical values or empirical relationships (calculated data). These three data files are also combined into a single output file, US9_ONE, for a more extensive and less duplicative coverage of the sea floor. The facies data layer, US9_FAC, represents concatenated information about components (minerals and rock type), genesis (metamorphic, carbonate, terrigenous), and other appropriate groupings of information about the sea floor parsed from written descriptions from cores, grabs, photographs, and videos. The component data layer, US9_CMP, gives numeric data about selected components (for example, minerals, rock type, microfossils, and benthic biota) and sea-floor features (for example, odors) at a given site; values in the attribute fields represent the degree of membership to that attribute's fuzzy set. In addition to the six point coverages, a source file, US9_SRC, is included with the database and contains information about the original data that were incorporated into the usSEABED database.