Metadata from the USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program

Metadata document scientific data in a consistent structure and format.
Topical browse interfaces show what data we have, by scientific category.
Categories are hierarchical like a tree. Click them to find the ones you need.
There are 4,873 metadata records here.

Common geographic areas

Names and identifiers of commonly-known geographic areas including oceans, continents, countries, states and provinces in North America, counties in the United States, USGS map quadrangles, and hydrologic units, nested and cross-referenced by overlap.

Subtopics:

Land (34 items)

Oceans (14 items)

USGS Thesaurus

Topics and methods of scientific study carried out by USGS, with product types, scientific disciplines, geologic time, and types of institutional structure and activities. Broad and shallow, used to help people find scientific information.

Subtopics:

Institutional structures and activities (7 items)

Methods (3364 items)

Product types (2871 items)

Sciences (2945 items)

Time periods (54 items)

Topics (4078 items)

Alexandria Digital Library Feature Type Thesaurus

Types of named geographic features. Applicable also to many unnamed features but reflects the level of detail traditionally shown on maps, so some feature types specified in scientific studies may not be well represented here. Not highly specific.

Subtopics:

Administrative areas (617 items)

Hydrographic features (83 items)

Manmade features (236 items)

Physiographic features (87 items)

Regions (20 items)

ISO 19115 Topic Category

General subjects for which geospatial data may be relevant. Few, broad terms.

Subtopics:

Biota (106 items)

Boundaries (46 items)

ClimatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere (255 items)

Elevation (1184 items)

Environment (1198 items)

GeoscientificInformation (3114 items)

Health (5 items)

ImageryBaseMapsEarthCover (1312 items)

InlandWaters (343 items)

Location (869 items)

Oceans (3967 items)

PlanningCadastre (1 items)

Society (1 items)

Structure (40 items)

Transportation (31 items)

Data Categories for Marine Planning

Categories spanning the breadth of information types required for ocean planning from a national, multidisciplinary perspective. Includes description, assessment, and prediction regarding governance, resources, uses, and infrastructure.

Subtopics:

Data Content Subjects (1705 items)

Data Content Types (1153 items)

Marine Realms Information Bank (MRIB) keywords

Theme keywords from the former Marine Realms Information Bank, focusing on characteristics of coasts and oceans, processes acting on them, and human concerns about them.

Subtopics:

Biota (14 items)

Coastal change hazards topics (730 items)

Discipline (858 items)

Feature type (1623 items)

Hot topics (533 items)

Research method (1299 items)