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Glacial Environments and Surficial Sediments (GESS) Geodatabase for the Glaciated, Conterminous United States

Published by U.S. Geological Survey | Department of the Interior | Metadata Last Checked: January 27, 2026 | Last Modified: 2020-08-14T00:00:00Z
The GESS data includes polygon file with multiple attributes which describe the lithology, geomorphology, and related depositional environment of Quaternary-age surfical sediments in the glaciated conterminous United States. These attributes include: the map unit (GESS_MU), a geomorphic modifier (GESS_Modifier), a sediment stratification indicator (SedStrat), and a a sediment texture classification (Texture6). Possible GESS_MU values include: alluvial sediment, colluvial sediment, eolian sediment, lacustrine sediment, marine sediment, organic sediment, outwash, ice-contact deposits, island, residual soils, soliflucted sediment, till, bedrock, fill, and water. Possible GESS_Modifier values include: e (end moraine), g (ground moraine), s (stagnation moraine), d (discontinuous or attenuated), or f (soliflucted). Possible SedStrat values include "0" (unstratified, and "1" (stratified). Possible values for Texture6 include mostly sandy, sandy-silty, mostly silty, silty-clayey, mostly clayey, and mostly organic.

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