Chemical analyses of soils and other surficial materials of the conterminous United States

This data set contains geochemical data from soils and other
regoliths collected and analyzed by Hans Shacklette and
colleagues beginning in 1958 and continuing until about 1976.
Geochemical point-symbol maps were plotted from these data and
published as U.S.G.S. Professional Paper 1270 entitled "Element
Concentrations in Soils and Other Surficial Materials of the
Conterminous United States". The samples were collected at a
depth of about 20 cm from sites that, insofar as possible, had
surficial materials that were very little altered from their
natural condition and that supported native plants. The sample
material at most sites could be termed "soil" because it was a
mixture of disintegrated rock and organic matter. Some of the
sampled deposits, however, were not soils as defined above, but
were other regolith types. These included desert sands, sand
dunes, some loess deposits, and beach and alluvial deposits that
contained little or no visible organic material. The samples
were chemically analyzed by a variety of techniques in the U.S.
Geological Survey laboratories in Denver, CO.