Geospatial geologic structural datasets, Chattanooga Shale, Wells Creek Dolomite, and Knox Group, Tennessee, USA

Data about the top and bottom altitude, depth from land surface and/or the thickness of three geologic units in Tennessee were converted into geospatial format for this USGS data release from previously published paper maps and converted into digital formats for use by the public. The three geologic units were the Chattanooga Shale of Mississippian-Devonian age (Moore and Horton, 1999), the Wells Creek Dolomite of middle Ordovician age (Smith, 1959), and the Knox Group of lower Ordovician age (Newcome, 1954). These geologic units represent important geologic horizons across Tennessee. Geologic structure maps provide important information and, in digital format, support investigative and modeling efforts pertaining to water and mineral resources. Prior to this work, the paper source maps used for this data release existed in limited quantities, mainly restricted to the Nashville, TN offices of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) and United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The work for this project included (1) scanning and georeferencing original paper maps to create georeferenced images (GRI), (2) digitizing well location points and contour lines, (3) populating well and contour attribute tables with data from maps and associated reports, and (4) when possible, interpolating raster surfaces for the three geologic units of top and bottom altitude, depth from land surface to the top and bottom surface, and thickness. All raster surfaces were aligned to a modified version of the National Hydrogeologic Grid (Clark and others, 2018) to support USGS Lower Mississippi Gulf Water Science Center efforts to create a statewide hydrogeologic framework. All horizontal coordinated data are projected to NAD 1983 USGS Contiguous USA Albers. The raster vertical coordinate information was referenced to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). 
This data release includes GRIs, vector data of the wells and mapped contours of top, bottom, or thickness, raster data, and related metadata files for each three geologic units under the associated child item tab.
Dataset types can be identified by the following naming convention:
i_ = georeferenced map images (GRI)
po_ = points
c_ = contours and closed depressions
f_= faults and other structural features
p_ = extent polygon
ra_ = altitude raster
rd_ = depth from land surface raster
rt_ = thickness raster
The datasets included on this main landing page are as follows:
project_metadata.xml – metadata file for general project information
studyarea_ext.zip:
p_chttshl_ext.shp - mapped extent of the Chattanooga Shale in Tennessee
p_wllscr_ext.shp - mapped extent of the Wells Creek Dolomite in Tennessee
p_knx_ext.shp - mapped extent of the Knox Group in Tennessee
The datasets included on the child item pages are as follows:
Chattanooga Shale: geospatial geologic structural datasets in Tennessee:
chttshl_metadata.xml - metadata file     
chttshl_alldata.zip:
GRI/
i_chttshl_btm.tif - structure contour map of the bottom of the Chattanooga Shale (Moore and Horton, 1999)
i_chttshl_data.tif - map of data used to create structure and isopach maps (Moore and Horton, 1999)
i_chttshl_thk.tif - thickness contour map for the Chattanooga Shale (Moore and Horton, 1999)
polygons/
p_knx_ext.shp - study area extent for the Chattanooga Shale
p_hohenwald.shp - polygon for extend of the Hohenwald Platform (Moore and Horton, 1999) - supplemental data
rasters/
ra_chttshl_btm.tif - altitude raster for the bottom of the Chattanooga Shale
ra_chttshl_tp.tif - altitude raster for the top of the Chattanooga Shale
rd_chttshl_btm.tif - depth from land surface raster of the bottom of the Chattanooga Shale
rd_chttshl_tp.tif - depth from land surface raster of the top of the Chattanooga Shale
rt_chttshl.tif - thickness raster for the Chattanooga Shale
vectors/
c_chttshl_btm.shp - structure contours for the bottom of the Chattanooga Shale
c_chttshl_btm_modified.shp - modified structure contours for the bottom of the Chattanooga Shale (hachures removed from closed basins). This vector used to interpolated raster for the bottom of the Chattanooga Shale
c_chttshl_thk.shp - thickness contours for the Chattanooga Shale
c_chttshl_thk_modified.shp - modified thickness contours for the Chattanooga Shale (hachures removed from closed basins). This vector used to interpolated raster for the thickness of the Chattanooga Shale
po_chttshl.shp - point data of altitude and thickness for the Chattanooga Shale
Knox Group: geospatial geologic structural datasets in Middle Tennessee:
knx_metadata.xml - metadata file
knx_alldata.zip:
GRI/
i_knx_tp.tif - structure contour map on the top of the Knox Group (Newcome, 1954)
i_knx_outcrop.tif - map of the Wells Creek Disturbance (Wilson and Stearns, 1968)
polygons/
p_chttshl_ext.shp - study area extent for the Knox Group
p_hohenwald.shp - extent of the Hohenwald Platform - supplemental data
rasters/
ra_knx_tp.tif - altitude raster for the top of the Knox Group
rd_knx_tp.tif - depth from land surface raster of the top of Knox Group
vectors/
c_knx_tp.shp - structure contours for the top of the Knox Group
c_knx_tp_modified.shp - modified structure contours for the top of the Knox Group (hachures removed from closed basins). This vector used to interpolated raster for the top of the Knox Group
po_knx_tp.shp - point data for the altitude of top of the Knox Group
Wells Creek Dolomite: geospatial geologic structural datasets in Tennessee:
wllscr_metadata.xml - metadata file
wllscr_alldata.zip:
GRI/
i_wllscr.tif - thickness contour map for the Wells Creek Dolomite (Smith, 1959)
polygons/
p_wllscr_ext.shp - study area extent for the Wells Creek Dolomite
rasters/
ra_wllscr_btm.tif - altitude raster for the bottom of the Wells Creek Dolomite (same dataset as ra_knx_tp.tif [Newcome, 1954; Smith, 1959])
ra_wllscr_tp.tif - altitude raster for the top of the Wells Creek Dolomite
rd_wllscr_btm.tif - depth from land surface raster of the bottom of the Wells Creek Dolomite (same dataset as ra_knx_tp.tif [Newcome, 1954; Smith, 1959])
rd_wllscr_tp.tif - depth from land surface raster of the top of the Wells Creek Dolomite
rt_wllscr.tif - thickness raster for the Wells Creek Dolomite
vectors/
c_wllscr.shp - thickness contours for the Wells Creek Dolomite
po_wllscr.shp - point data for the thickness of Wells Creek Dolomite
References:
Moore, J.L., and Horton, A.B., 1999, Structure and Isopach Maps of the Chattanooga Shale in Tennessee, Tennessee Dept. of Conservation, Division of Geology, Report of Investigations 48, 3 plates.
Newcome, R. Jr., 1954, Structure contour map on top of the Knox Dolomite in Middle Tennessee, Tennessee Division of Geology, Ground-Water Investigations Preliminary Chart 5, 1 sheet.
Smith, O. Jr., 1959, Isopach map of the Wells Creek Dolomite in Middle Tennessee: Tennessee Division of Water Resources, one sheet.
Wilson, C.W. and Stearns, R.G., 1968 Geology of the Wells Creek Structure, Tennessee: Tennessee Division of Geology, Bulletin 68, 248 p.

Tags: central-basin, contouring, cumberland-plateau, earth-structure, elevation, geographic-information-systems, geology, geoscientificinformation, geospatial-datasets, highland-rim, inlandwaters, maps-and-atlases, natural-resource-exploration, stratigraphic-thickness, structure-contours, tennessee, usgs-66fae9a9d34e6d68f514c5a4, water-resources
Organization: Department of the Interior