Continued Operation of the OSU/CEOAS Marine and Geology Repository

The College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University maintains the OSU/CEOAS Marine and Geology Repository (OSU-MGR) as an NSF-sponsored community facility. The mission is to archive and distribute geological samples, predominantly sediment cores, rocks, nodules and sediment trap samples, for scientific research and education.

The repository was established in 1971 and since that time OSU-MGR has grown to curate four primary collections. (1) NSF’s Marine Geology Collection: Consisting of 15,196 m of marine sediments from 6,603 cores, 14,674 rock samples from 529 dredges, 568 rock samples from 61 dives (Alvin, ROV), 528 deep-sea manganese nodules, and 1,644 sediment trap samples. (2) NSF’s Antarctic core collection: Consisting of 16,187 m of marine sediments from 7,352 cores and 7,993 m of drill core from 92 sites, including ANDRILL, CRP, CIROS, DVDP and others. (3) NOAA R/V Okeanos Explorer Dive Collection: Consisting of 365 rocks from 187 dives. And (4) various other core and rock collections, including 567 m of Pacific NW lake sediments and 8,061 m of terrestrial drill core from across Oregon.

For almost 50-years these materials have been archived and described with continuous NSF funding, with more than 186,000 samples distributed over the past 29-years to scientists, educators, and museums throughout the United States and around the world. With more than 27,000 samples taken over the last grant period, the demand for repository samples remains high, and is a predictable component of today’s scientific need.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.