Environmental and Mineralogical Characteristics of Tourmaline-bearing localities in the United States

Background

This dataset contains the compiled mineralogical records of 458 tourmaline-bearing sites in the United States. Environmental parameters associated with each locality such as surface temperature, precipitation, and geothermal gradient have also been recorded. Geological processes were identified for each locality using site and mineral descriptions from mineral databases and they were also interpreted using machine learning algorithms. Market basket analysis algorithms were utilized to identify patterns within the mineralogical data and these patterns were attributed to the geological processes listed in the dataset.

Data Sources

Mineral occurrence data were retrieved from Mindat.org for the tourmaline minerals schorl, dravite, elbaite, uvite, and foitite. Mineral descriptions listed in the Handbook of Mineralogy (Anthony et al., 2004) web database aided in the identification of different geological processes. Geothermal gradient data are interpolated from values listed in geothermal temperature studies conducted by Batir et al. (2013), Kron and Stix (1982), and Nathenson and Guffanti (1987). Elevation data were retrieved from the USGS Elevation Point Query Service and the climatic data from the WorldClim dataset. Köppen-Geiger climatic zones were assigned to each locality using data published by Kottek et al. (2006) and made available at http://koeppen-geiger.vu-wien.ac.at/