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

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.