Core Repository
What's in our repository?
- Approximately 35,000 boxes of rock cores from thousands of drill holes throughout the state
- These cores comprise more than 270,000 linear feet of subsurface rock samples from energy, mineral, and engineering investigations.
- Approximately 1,400 cores of unconsolidated sediment from the state
- These cores contain Quaternary-age (2.6 million years or younger) sediments that aid climate, mineral, and water resource investigations.
- More than 40,000 hand-size samples of limestone, coal, building stone, and minerals of Indiana
- These samples represent hundreds of investigations of the state's geological resources, particularly research on aggregate and coal.
- Tens of thousands of envelopes of fragmented rock pieces (cuttings) from more than 13,000 drilled wells (boreholes) throughout the state
- These cuttings often provide the only physical lithological data for the wells and can correlate to geophysical logs.
- Approximately 11,000 panels of heavy cardstock with chipped rock samples representing a rock core from Indiana
- These lithologic strips supplement the bedrock core collection and provide easy access to lithologic data.
- More than 3,200 latex peels of 1,075 vibracores containing unconsolidated sediment from beach ridges and wetlands around the Great Lakes
- The vibracore peel technique was developed by Dr. Todd Thompson, IGWS director, to document and archive sediment related to climatic and geomorphological changes in the Great Lakes region.
- Approximately 85,000 processed geochemical samples from across the state
- These samples represent hundreds of chemical and mineralogical studies of the state's energy, mineral, and water resources.
Value of geologic collections
The present-day replacement cost of the geologic materials housed in the IGWS repository is conservatively estimated to be up to $1.2 billion; many parts of the collections are unique and irreplaceable. Protecting these materials is vital because they contain data needed to inform evolving societal needs. Geologists frequently reanalyze existing samples as technology advances, as geological theory changes, and as new questions are asked concerning Indiana's energy, mineral, and water resources.
Geological repositories exist for the public good and lead to discoverable, accessible, and reusable data. They serve as a physical backup to digital data loss and inform generations of scientists, citizens, lawmakers, and businesses. IGWS collections support active research on climate, water availability, carbon sequestration, critical minerals, industrial minerals, and hazards mitigation.