Link: http://energy.usgs.gov/Coal/AssessmentsandData/Peat/tabid/734/Agg3630_SelectTab/3/Default.aspx

Provisional Peat Database

Disclaimer: The data you have secured from this USGS Database are provisional and subject to revision. The data are released on the condition that neither the USGS nor the United States Government may be held liable for any damages resulting from its authorized or unauthorized use.

Introduction to the Provisional Peat Database

Two EXCEL files contain provisional U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data on peat and related plant/sediment/water chemistry. Samples are largely from the U.S., but samples were also collected in other countries. PEATDATA.xlsx covers mostly the United States and a few samples from six other countries. INDONESIA_PEATDATA.xlsx contains data only for Indonesia. The files present much of the information gathered in previous investigations by USGS researchers and laboratories on the occurrence and chemistry of peat. The intent of these provisional databases was to capture and preserve older USGS peat information in a common, digital format for easier use. Original descriptive terms by the sample collectors were retained and, as a result, their terms may not necessarily match modern definitions and usage.

Click on the “Data” tab (the tab above that is associated with this webpage that you are now viewing) and you can view the distribution of data as maps by State or country, download the EXCEL files, and download a bibliography related to these samples. Please download the README file [.docx] for additional information on attribute definitions and Table 1 [.docx] for analytical methods.

Downloading the Data

Samples in the two provisional EXCEL databases include samples of peats, marls, water, peat substrate, and vegetation. PEATDATA.xlsx covers mostly the United States (U.S.) and a few samples from six other countries. INDONESIA_PEATDATA.xlsx contains peat, water, and sediment data only for Indonesia. Much of the older U.S. information is imprecisely located, with original sampling locations indicated by step and measures, but many locations have been estimated or semi-verified by consulting online topographic quadrangles for the existence of peatlands and local landmarks. Samples should be located within a mile or less of their actual locations (Sample Location Maps), except for locations that represent the corner of a topographic quadrangle that were unable to be refined and thus have an attribute noting the coordinates as being the southeast corner of a quadrangle (SECQ).

Sample attributes include location, thickness/depth if known, and other descriptive information; major-, minor-, and trace-element concentrations on an as-determined analytical basis; and ultimate and proximate analyses, forms of sulfur, gross calorific value on a dry analytical basis; moisture content; ash deformation temperatures and free-swelling index (see README file [.docx] for a complete list). The moisture values contained in PEATDATA.xlsx and INDONESIA_PEATDATA.xlsx do not reflect consistent conditions for sample collection or handling and thus are not particularly useful. Major-, minor-, and trace-element geochemistry are determined on peat ash (quite often from older semi-quantitative methods, such as six-step emission spectroscopy). Censored values are indicated in the database by less than (<) and greater than (>) symbols. A few elemental values are on a whole-sample (not ash) basis and these are indicated in the database.

The chemical fields within the database are shown in Table 1 [.docx] with their respective analytical methods, the sample analytical basis, and references in which the methods are described. ASTM currently has thirteen standard test methods or practices specifically for peat (ASTM, 2012), but the chemical analytical methods are generally the same as those used for coal, which are the ASTM methods cited in Table 1 [.docx].

Complete List of Provisional Peat Database Materials:

README [.docx]

PEATDATA.xlsx

INDONESIA_PEATDATA.xlsx

Sample Location Maps

Table 1 - Chemical Parameters and Analytical Methods [.docx]

Peat Bibliography

Peat publications with USGS researcher involvement or authorship, compiled largely from the sample collector names listed in the PEATDATA.xlsx database, are included in a bibliography [.docx]. Although not a comprehensive list of all peat citations, it is a fairly complete list of reports related to past work conducted by the Eastern Energy Resources and Eastern Minerals and Environmental Resources Science Centers at the USGS.

Acknowledgments

USGS researcher, Cornelia C. Cameron (1911-1994), in a New
Hampshire marsh in 1989. Photo courtesy of John Jackson.

References

ASTM, 2012, search by keyword = peat, Accessed 1/3/2012, http://www.astm.org/Standard/index.shtml