Generalized Thermal Maturity Map of Alaska

Thermal-maturity data-indicators of maximum burial temperatures-provide important constraints both on basin evolution and on terrane amalgamation. To help elucidate these relations, and to provide constraints for hydrocarbon assessments, the U.S. Geological survey (USGS) has compiled thermal-maturity data from Alaska for many decades. This report is a digital release of our current understanding of thermal-maturity patters in Alaska.

The 10 ARC/INFO coverages used to construct the map, together with the directory "INFO" (needed by ARC/INFO to support the coverages), are found in the "coverages" subdirectory. These coverages can be used by any GIS capable of importing files in ARC/INFO format. Export version of these coverages are found in the subdirectory "export files." These files can be imported into ARC/INFO with the "import" command.

Shapefile versions of 9 of the ARC/INFO coverages are found in the subdirectory "shapefiles." Each shapefile actually consists of three files, with extensions .shp, .shx., and .dbf; all are needed for importation into a GIS supporting the shapefile format. Inset figures and text, as well as the map title, headers, and latitude-longitude ticks, were created as a separate file. This file is available in Adobe Illustrator 6.0 format (insets.ill) and in Encapsulated PostScript format (insets.eps) in the subdirectory "insetfigures." The subdirectory "miscfiles" contains many important files needed to use these coverages in ARC/INFO or another GIS.