EDMAP: How the USGS Trains the Next Generation of Geologic Mappers

Detailed geologic maps are the basis of most earth science work — reducing natural hazards, finding and exploring resources, planning infrastructure and more. EDMAP, part of the USGS's congressionally mandated National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, is a partnership between the USGS and colleges and universities that trains earth science students to become geologic mappers, under a faculty member serving as principal investigator.

From 1996 to 2021, EDMAP funded mapping training for 1,373 students at more than 170 universities.

Funding and matching

• A principal investigator may request up to $35,000 per year for a graduate student and $25,000 for an undergraduate (junior or senior), including all administrative and overhead costs.
• Every federal dollar is matched 1:1 by the university. Matches can include direct funds, faculty or student salary, integral volunteer services, purchased, rented or donated supplies (donations at no more than fair market value), field travel and lodging, and sample preparation and analysis.
• Not allowed as a match: travel or registration for professional meetings, or federal money.

Two kinds of project

As mapping technology changes, the USGS widened EDMAP to support new USGS and state geological survey priorities. Both options are one-year, mentored projects that require fieldwork and a geologic map.

The USGS hopes the wider range of projects will increase diversity among participating institutions and students.

Geologic mapping of Pennsylvanian-age strata in eastern West Virginia. Photo: Christopher S. Swezey, U.S. Geological Survey.

Who can take part

• A geologic map, for EDMAP, shows the constituents, composition, structure, geologic history or spatial relations of Earth materials and formations at or beneath the surface.
• Proposals come from faculty or adjunct faculty at an accredited university in the United States or a U.S. territory, in departments such as geology, geoscience, earth science, geography, environmental science, hydrology and geological engineering. Collaborations among institutions are encouraged.
• Students must be graduate or upper-level undergraduate students in geoscience or a related field, with suitable earth science training before the project starts.

Two projects under way

• Faulting on the Olympic Peninsula. A Western Washington University team (2021) is mapping a complex pattern of faults along the western Sadie Creek fault on the peninsula's north flank, recently discovered by an airborne lidar survey. Mapping postglacial and glacial landforms should show the kinematics, rate and extent of earthquake slip — and the frequency and history of ruptures — to inform local communities about seismic risk.
• The Markagunt megaslide, Utah. A Kent State University at Trumbull team (2021) is mapping the Spry intrusion and volcanic rocks within the Markagunt megascale gravity slide in south-central Utah's Fremont Pass and Bull Rush Peak quadrangles. One of the larger ancient landslides on land anywhere, it formed in the Oligocene or Miocene on the flank of a huge, growing stratovolcano complex — a guide to what a similar slide could do today where large populations live beneath volcanoes, as in Japan, the Canary Islands and the Philippines.

In their words

Past participants call EDMAP "very important … professionally and personally" and "one of the most rewarding experiences of my life" — one recipient spent two months mapping in the rugged Grand Mesa National Forest. Another went on to become a USGS Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow.

How to apply

1. Go to grants.gov. Applications usually open in October or November and close in December or January.
2. Under "Grant Opportunities," search for EDMAP.
3. Submit before the deadline.

Sources

Based on "The EDMAP Program: Training the next generation of geologic mappers," U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2023–3002, U.S. Geological Survey; a work of the United States government in the public domain.