RU_CAGeochem, a database and sample repository for Central American volcanic rocks at Rutgers University

***Attention: there is a newer version of this dataset available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1594/IEDA/100403.*** We present a database for Central American volcanic rocks and related components. The Rutgers University Central American Geochemical data (RU_CAGeochem) includes the active volcanoes related to the Cocos-Caribbean convergent plate boundary that extends from Guatemala to Costa Rica in Central America. The RU prefix signifies that the data and/or samples are primarily from the long-term Central American research project started at Dartmouth College in 1970 and continued at Rutgers University between 1974 to the present. The database is decidedly uneven because of the impressive improvement of analytical techniques during the period of sample and data production. Further complications arise because most of the sampling and analysis were part of the educational process for many different undergraduate and graduate students using different types of instruments. This note presents, as a reasonably coherent whole, geochemical data and metadata for about 1325 samples collected by at least 40 students and colleagues. Many new Sr, Nd and Pb isotopic ratios are included here but most of the new data are metadata that provide greatly improved descriptions of the locations and status of the samples as well as estimates of data quality.