The U.S. Geological Survey hosts the National Geologic Map Database (NGMDB). This interactive tool serves as a national archive for high-quality, standardized geologic maps created by the U.S. Geological Survey and state geological surveys.
The MapView section of the NGMDB displays geologic maps from across the country dating back to 1879. The database is searchable by address, and results can be narrowed further using scale and date filters.
The U.S. Geological Survey hosts topoView, an interactive database of the survey’s topographic maps.
The map is searchable by address, and clicking on any point on the map brings up topographic maps of the area dating back to 1879. Map results can be narrowed further using scale and date filters.
Clicking the “show” option will overlay the selected map onto the coordinates of topoView’s base map. Adjusting the map overlay transparency allows comparison of historical and present-day topography.
All maps in topoView are downloadable in multiple formats.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water Information System (NWIS) created an interactive tool that maps water resources data at over 1.5 million sites across the country. The search tool allows the user to find sites by street address, location name, site number, state/territory, and watershed region. The sites are sorted into five main categories:
The United States Geological Survey and the West Virginia Geological & Economic Survey have teamed up with West Virginia University to initiate the Appalachian Geoscience GeoCamp this summer. Students will explore concepts and skills related to the earth sciences, including orienteering, topographic and geologic mapping, forest ecology and more. The GeoCamp experience will go far beyond indoor lessons and lectures by putting learning into the field alongside experts, to create hands-on experiences that allow students to explore possible future interests and careers.
The National Ground-Water Monitoring Network compiles information from over 7,000 groundwater monitoring wells across the country, including Federal, State, and local groundwater monitoring networks. Although the image above only shows the contiguous United States, the interactive map also includes wells from Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey provides an interactive map of geothermal resources in the state. The map shows temperatures at specific depths underground, as well as the depth required to reach specific temperatures. In addition, a large amount of related information is also provided, including:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides an interactive map of hazardous waste cleanups across the United States. The "Cleanups in My Community" map provides a huge amount of information on thousands of cleanups of many kinds. For every cleanup, users can access and download reports, assessments, compliance actions, and the EPA's assessment of the potential for any contaminated land to be used for renewable energy development.
The National Pipeline Mapping System (NPMS) Public Viewer from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration allows users to view pipelines and related information by individual county for the entire United States. The map includes:
The U.S. Geological Survey's National Coal Resources Data System comes with an interactive map that provides a huge amount of information on the distribution, thickness, and classification of coal in the United States.
The interactive map contains over 250,000 data points, each typically representing a core sample, drill hole, or driller's log in a specific location. You can use the "Filter" tool to focus in on specific areas, or on data collected by specific organizations. Commonly available data include:
The U.S. Geological Survey provides an interactive map of historical oil and gas production in the United States from 1859 to 2005, including Alaska and Hawaii. In this map, the country is split into quarter-mile cells and the production status of all wells in that cell are aggregated for each time period.
The map can be filtered to show oil and gas production pre-1900, for each decade of the 20th century, and for 2000-2005.