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represent quadrants of the Pacific, and the other, Antarctica. Twenty-one of 47 planned maps have been published since the project began 11 years ago. During 1983, activities centered on the completion of the first three map series, Plate Tectonics, Geologic, and Mineral Resources; publication of the next two map series, Energy Resources and Geodynamics, will commence in 1984.

Antarctica

The Survey, in cooperation with the National Science Foundation, compiles and publishes base maps of selected areas in Antarctica in support of the scientific research projects of the United States Antarctic Research Program. Maps of Antarctica are subdivisions of the International Map of the World system and use symbols approved by the Scientific Committee on Antarctica Research. Available maps include topography at a scale 1:50,000; shaded relief at scales of 1:250,000 and 1:500,000, some of which cover coastal areas of Wilkes Land and Enderby Land; base maps at a scale of 1:1,000,000 produced in accordance with specifications of

the International Map of the World; sketch maps with shaded relief at a scale of 1:500,000; and Landsat satellite image maps at scales of 1:500,000 and 1:1,000,000.

In 1982-83, for the 25th year, the National Mapping Division of the Survey again provided a field team to establish Antarctic mapping control. This team worked jointly with two cartographers from the New Zealand Department of Lands and Survey to establish horizontal and vertical control using conventional angulation and electronic distance measuring equipment as well as Navy navigation satellite doppler receivers. For the 11th consecutive year, two Survey employees wintered-over at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station; round-the-clock overflights of U.S. Navy navigation satellites were tracked, and the seismic station, a vital link in the Worldwide Standardized Seismograph Network, was maintained. A Survey photonavigator assisted the Navy flight crews in obtaining new aerial photograph coverage over a portion of the dry valley area of Antarctica. The Geological Survey continues to maintain the U.S. Antarctic Cartographic Library, which contains international holdings of cartographic

materials including aerial film, aerial photographs, and Antarctic maps.

Mexico

Survey and Mexican scientists cooperated on a number of geological mapping and mineral research projects in 1983. A hydrothermally altered zone that appears to have excellent potential for mineral deposits has been delineated in the La Purisima-San Ignacio area. A classical porphry copper-type zone of hydrothermal alteration was discovered in the vicinity of Sonora where sampling, analysis, and evaluation of the potential for production of copper continues. Copper and manganese ores near La Paz and Todos Santos may have formed in association with subaqueous basin-floor discharges of hot springs. On Magdalena Island, magnesite and malachite mineralizations were found in a metamorphased ophiolite sequence in the basement terrane. A sea floor origin analagous to the modern Red Sea geothermal system may be the model for the copper deposit in the Baja. Also in 1983, monitoring studies continued on El Chichon

volcano which erupted in 1982.

Information Systems Division

Mission

The Information Systems Division provides guidance and advice to the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, the Department of the Interior, other government agencies, and the other Divisions of the Survey on all matters relating to Bureau information technology and automated data processing (ADP) services. It provides for the coordination and growth of information systems and guidelines for data standardization, data administration, and data base management. The Division is responsible for telecommunications management. It supports production systems and conducts ADP research into better ways to use technology to solve mission-related problems.

Budget and Personnel

The Information Systems Division had a budget of $22.6 million for fiscal year 1983. Other Survey Divisions and Department of Interior and Federal agency users provided funding.

As a Department of the Interior General Purpose Computer Center, the Division computing facilities were available to other Interior offices and bureaus as well as to all Survey divisions.

Division staffing consists of 168 full-time employees, primarily computer specialists, computer analysts, mathematicians, systems programmers, computer scientists, and technicians. The staff is augmented by part-time and intermittent employees who greatly assisted in fulfilling the mission of the Division. These employees served customers from the five ADP Service Center sites nationwide: National Center, Reston, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Menlo Park, California, Denver, Colorado, and Flagstaff, Arizona.

Accomplishments

Use Assistance Centers

The Information Systems Division established a user support section at each of its five ADP Service Centers to provide assistance for the full range of services supported by the sites. These services include solving user computer problems, supporting the use

of proprietary software packages, analyzing user requirements for computer support, and designing and programming new systems.

Digital Private Automatic Branch Exchange

The Division is developing a Request for Proposals (RFP) to get replacement telephone systems for Reston and Menlo Park. The systems will provide touchtone service and extensive support to digitized voice and data communications. Use of the new systems should result in a significant cost savings and provide the Survey with improved voice and data communications capabilities for the next decade.

Communications Network Management Services

Developing an RFP for a nationwide network dedicated to Survey activities was a major activity this fiscal year. The new network will include a feature for linking all Survey computers as host computing resources and will provide access to these resources for all local and remote location users. The design of the network allows for expansion and will allow new technology to be installed and used throughout the entire life of the contract. This service will replace many fragmented communications facilities and will result in a unified approach to communications within the Survey. Within the next several years, this service should provide the capability to merge digitized voice and data over common communications lines resulting in significant opportunities to reduce expenses.

Tymnet Improvements

Tymnet, a nationwide communication network used by the Survey, was augmented to provide interim communications support to the Water Resources Division Distributed Information System minicomputers. The significant improvements include additional host computer connections and take advantage of the technology that was acquired with the minicomputers. Also, special Tymnet user names

were established for each Division or organization to provide usage statistics that will enable the Divison to improve data communications facilities at remote Survey offices.

Large Scale Optical Disk Storage

The amount of scientific data that the Survey digitizes and stores is increasing. Laser optical disk technology provides a method to more efficiently store needed data and preserve it with a high degree of reliability and a lower storage cost. The Information Systems Division, in conjunction with the National Mapping Division, established a program to test the technology and plans to design and implement an earth science digital data library using optical disk mass storage capability.

Optimum Use of Mainframe Computer Capacity

The Division began the rearrangement of its mainframe computers to make more cost effective and efficient use of its resources. The Multics computer sites are being consolidated; the system in Menlo Park was shutdown, and the system at the National Center will be phased out in fiscal year 1984 and its workload shifted, as was Menlo Park's workload, to the Multics system in Denver.

An Amdahl V8 mainframe computer was purchased to assist in combining the Washington ADP Service Center workload with that of the National Center. The computer will replace two Itel computers at the Washington ADP Service Center and reduce operating costs.

Acquisition Support

During fiscal year 1983, the Division continued to support the other Survey Divisions in acquiring ADP resources. The efforts included requirements definition, documentation preparation, regulatory approvals acquisition, technical evaluation of proposed resources, contract administration functions, and management of the bureau ADP reutilization program.

ADP acquisition specialists were added to the staffs in Menlo Park and Denver to provide additional support to the field centers. Over 3,100 requests for equipment, software, and services with expenditures exceeding $40 million have been processed

this fiscal year. Programs supported were the Water Resources Distributed Information System, Earthquake Studies, Digitized Mapping Information, administrative support functions, merging of General Purpose Computer Centers, Public Inquiries System, Marine Geology research, and office automation projects.

Increased Support for Minicomputers

The Reston ADP Service Center created the Multics-Minicomputer Technical Support Section to better serve the users of minicomputers within the Survey and installed several minicomputers belonging to other divisions. It also began to install the communications equipment required to link the nationwide network of minicomputers and mainframe computers.

Major Activities

Information Systems Division personnel provided major leadership and support for two bureauwide activities:

Information Systems Council

The Information Systems Council is made up of Division and regional policylevel representatives who meet monthly to review and recommend ADP technical policy, to coordinate ADP technology within the Survey and with the Department of Interior, and to provide guidelines for major information programs and systems of the Survey.

The Council began two studies this year: an evaluation of telecommunications in the Survey and an analysis of the current and anticipated use of mainframe computers by the Survey. The evaluation of telecommunications is significant because data and voice communications costs will become an increasingly larger component of future Survey budgets. An analysis of mainframe computer use was prompted by the rapid growth of the use of small computers throughout the Survey.

The Council also began a program to increase the ADP procurement authority of the Central Region Procurement and Contracts Section from $10,000 to $50,000 and is investigating ways to ease the acquisition and use of technology at all field sites.

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