USAP-DC

This award, provided by the Office of Polar Programs, supports the establishment of a repository for polar geological materials. The objective of this project is to construct and operate a Polar Rock Repository to serve the U.S. Antarctic and Arctic earth science community. This National Polar Rock Repository would house sample collections from Antarctica and the Arctic obtained by U.S. earth scientists through more than 40 decades of fieldwork, and provide for future needs. The United States does not currently have such a facility, and rock collections are scattered throughout the country, often in inadequate and uncurated storage. The rock collections would be catalogued and curated, and accessible to the U.S. earth science community and overseas colleagues, as well as being available for earth sciences educational purposes. All collection and appropriate analytical data will be stored in the on-line Antarctic Geologic Database recently designed by BPRC personnel and available via the Internet. The Database can be expanded to include Arctic rock and sedimentary core collections.

The award will help to support construction of a single-floor building with about 6,000 square feet of storage apace on The Ohio State University campus, adjacent to an already existing cold storage building that houses sediment cores and other samples, and adjacent to Scott Hall (site of laboratories and offices of the Byrd Polar Research Center). In Scott Hall, work rooms with rock saws and a drill press, wet laboratory/sample preparation facilities, microscope and photographic equipment are available for preliminary rock and fossil examination. The planning and construction phase is expected to take about two years. This award also supports a Curator and student help for the set-up and establishment phase of the National Polar Rock Repository following completion of construction.

Access to the collections will be possible by direct physical examination of the specimens by a visiting scientist, by loan/request of sample splits, and via the on-line Database. A National Steering Committee will provide input from the U.S. earth science community for this facility and will oversee policies, procedures and management.

Such a national storage and research facility is of vital importance for the continuing high quality research conducted by the U.S. It provides, along with a database of sample information, an essential resource for focused proposal preparation, and an invaluable source of material for future research that should make future fieldwork more efficient and effective by facilitating pilot studies and other sample-based research. This latter aspect could reduce environmental impacts in sensitive polar regions.

Geological field expeditions in polar regions are logistically difficult, financially expensive, and can have a significant environmental impact on pristine regions.  The scarcity of exposed rock outcrop in Antarctica, which is 98% ice-covered, makes previously collected rock samples very valuable to the science community. The U.S. Polar Rock Repository (PRR) was established at the Ohio State University in 2003 to meet the need for preserving rock, dredge, and terrestrial core samples from polar areas. The PRR curates geological samples collected primarily from Antarctica and the southern oceans and acquires these collections through donations from institutions and scientists. The existence of the PRR allows samples collected at a high financial cost to be used to their full scientific potential. Currently more than 40,000 samples are available as no-cost loans for research, education, and museum exhibits. In addition to the physical samples, the PRR archives supporting materials from the collector, such as images of the samples, field maps, air photos, thin sections, and any associated bibliography/DOIs. Scientists, graduate students, and undergraduate students routinely use samples from the PRR for their research projects. The PRR also freely loans an educational 'rock box' that contains representative rock, fossil and mineral samples, books and activities about geology and Antarctica to K-12 teachers from across the United States.

The PRR provides stewardship of polar rock sample collections and metadata. It is one of the few lending rock repositories to allow destructive research techniques to be used on samples. The PRR website and in-house digital metadata archive provides for global dissemination of data and also a unique resource for pilot studies, proposal preparation and field logistics planning. The PRR fulfills the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), Antarctic Data Management (2009) directive of providing free, full and open access to metadata and collections. Over the course of the next 5 years, the PRR will work proactively with the research community to acquire scientifically valuable rock collections and supplementary materials that will enhance the PRR collection. Samples will be cataloged following standard curatorial practices and will be made discoverable through the public facing portion of the Collections Management system developed at the Byrd Polar Climate and Research Center. The preservation of these physical samples, along with archiving of associated metadata, and inclusion of DOI?s in a discoverable online database, allows for transparency and reproducibility in polar earth science research. The Collections Management System will continue to be updated and improved. The Curator will continue to advance the discoverability of the PRR by attending meetings, creating a webinar and contacting scientists about new collections at the facility. The PRR will continue to fulfill loans of samples and enhance the links with other respositories and data management entities to better enable interdisciplinary research. Educational outreach to K-12 schools will continue with the 'polar rock box' being freely available to US schools.

Project Summary

Intellectual Merit:
The United States Polar Rock Repository (USPRR) was established to curate and loan geologic samples from polar regions to researchers and educators. OPP established the USPRR in part to avoid redundant sample collection and thus reduce the environmental impact of polar research. The USPRR also provides the research community with an important resource for developing new research projects. The USPRR acquires rock collections through donations from institutions and scientists and makes these samples available as no-cost loans for research, education and museum exhibits. Sample metadata is available in an on-line database. The database also includes rock property information, such as magnetic susceptibility and specific gravity, which are useful for geophysical studies. Researchers may request samples for analysis using an online request form. The USPRR fulfills several data management directives, including the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, Antarctic Data Management directive of providing free, full and open access to both metadata and the samples. The intellectual merit of the USPRR lies in the global dissemination of scientific information to researchers.

Broader impacts:
The broader impacts of the USPRR include lessening environmental impacts resulting from redundant fieldwork in Polar Regions. The USPRR provides educational information about Antarctica via the website, by visiting the repository or borrowing a "USPRR rock box". Working at the repository provides students with opportunities to learn about the geology of Antarctica as well as doing research, learning new skills in digital imaging, curation and database management.

Abstract

This award supports the United States Polar Rock Repository (USPRR). The repository houses a research collection of geologic samples from Antarctica and the Arctic, along with associated materials such as field notes, photographs, maps, analytical data, paleomagnetic cores, thin sections, and microfossil mounts. It provides open access to these samples for researchers and collects legacy collections from institutions across the US. The USPRR integrates geologic and geophysical data from cataloged samples where possible, and maintains online sample, map, and rock physical property databases accessible via the world-wide-web. The broader impacts of the facility include new research infrastructure, improving planning for polar research, and providing information for educators and children to learn about polar geology via the website and facility tours.

This award supports the United States Polar Rock Repository (USPRR). The repository houses rock collections from Antarctica and the Arctic, along with associated materials such as field notes, annotated photos and maps, raw analytic data, paleomagnetic cores, ground rock and mineral residues, thin sections, and microfossil mounts, microslides and residues. It provides open access to these samples for researchers, and is currently collecting legacy collections from institutions across the US. The USPRR integrates geologic and geophysical data from cataloged samples where possible, and maintains online sample, map, and rock physical property databases accessible via the world-wide-web. The broader impacts of the facility include new research infrastructure, improving planning for polar research, and providing information for educators and children to learn about polar geology via the website and facility tours.