Macrostrat column ingestion format

These templates and format specification for stratigraphic column data allow preparation of stratigraphic information for ingestion into Macrostrat using tabular formats (e.g., Excel spreadsheets). These ingestion templates were created in 2025-2026 by Evgeny Mazko and Daven Quinn for use by the broader geology community.

Overview

These column ingestion sheets can be used to describe chronostratigraphic charts (i.e., based on age), measured sections (height), or boreholes (depth), using the following sheets of tabular data.

• The units sheet is the core of the ingestion format, carrying information about individual stratigraphic units and their positions within a column (in age or depth/height space).
• The columns sheet carries metadata about columns
• The metadata sheet carries information about the project, compiler, and import defaults
• Other ancillary sheets (e.g., facies, refs) provide additional metadata that helps fill the data table
• Column associated data sheets can be included to provide additional information about units, facies, or other aspects of the column.

Altogether, these formats provide a flexible way to describe stratigraphic columns and associated information. They are good target for data ingestion but may also serve as an easy-to-produce archival format as well (e.g., for paper supplementary materials).

Columns ingested using these tools will be ready to be represented in Macrostrat's database and open-source visualization tools. For example:

• Las Animas Arch composite column
• ODP Site U1332, Hole C borehole log showing integration with PBDB for fossil taxa.

Template files

Several Excel templates are provided in the Excel Templates folder as starting points for column ingestion. All templates follow the same format, with differences primarily in which fields are available by default in the units sheet. Some documentation is provided in the templates themselves, but this is subsidiary to the full format documentation provided below.

Format documentation

Examples

Several example datasets are provided in the Examples folder, including both chronostratigraphic columns and measured sections.

• An excerpt of the Eastern European Platform chronostratigraphic chart from the Russian Geologic Survey, showing capture of regional chronostratigraphic data (Evgeny Mazko, 2025).
• A generalized lithostratigraphic column from southern Namibia, showing a minimal height-based column with a basic age model (Daven Quinn, 2026).
• Detailed measured sections for the Zebra River Group, showing a fully developed dataset including bed-scale measured section data, facies information, and datasets beyond this specification linked into the column framework (samples, notes, carbon isotope measurements, and sequence-stratigraphic surfaces) (Daven Quinn, 2026).

Ingestion approach

The units sheet is the core of the ingestion format, carrying information about bodies of rock within a column and the stratigraphic names, lithology, and environmental information that describe them. However, the scale of units varies dramatically between scales of stratigraphic columns. These templates support a range of approaches to defining units, with shorthands that can speed data entry for common use cases.

Ingestion of chronostratigraphic columns, measured sections, and borehole logs are supported using the same ingestion process and fields, but the formatting requirements differ slightly in order to accommodate different patterns that are present across scales and types of data.

Composite columns

Composite columns (in Macrostrat, col_type: "column") represent chronostratigraphic charts with no direct physical measurement of unit thicknesses or positions. Instead, units are defined by their age ranges. For chronostratigraphic columns, age information must be provided to define an age model, in the form of relative positions within chronostratigraphic intervals (e.g., "Lower Silurian", "Upper Devonian"). Absolute ages are not currently supported.

Measured sections

Measured sections are detailed stratigraphic or borehole logs defined in terms of physical positions (height or depth). These columns (col_type: "section") are typically much more detailed than chronostratigraphic charts (i.e., an individual unit may represent a single cm- to meter-scale bed, rather than an entire Formation or Member). Measured sections are typically simpler than chronostratigraphic columns, without overlapping units or complex hierarchical structures. Efficient entry of these columns is supported by several affordances for rapid data entry, including:

• A Facies table, which summarizes of environmental and lithologic information that can be applied across many units
• Top and bottom positions are inferred, allowing only one of t_pos or b_pos to be specified if there are no gaps or overlaps within a section.
• Shorthand fields relating to typical lithostratigraphic measurement practices, such as grainsize and covered.

Most importantly, unit descriptions such as lithology, environment, and facies can "fill up" to subsequent units, allowing for more rapid data entry when many adjacent units share similar characteristics.

Next steps

This spec will be refined as it is used by the community. Potential improvements are described in the Future updates document. This spec for ingestion is not currently supported by ingestion scripts, but this work is in progress as part of the Macrostrat v2 effort. Ingestion scripts will target the following workflows:

• Creation and revision of columns to the Macrostrat website and database (with appropriate permissions)
• Offline validation and visualization
• Creation of Geopackage-based relational datasets for offline use and editing (using a prototype .mcol Macrostrat column exchange format)

These tools will allow progressive enhancement of an in-progress stratigraphic dataset and eventual inclusion into the Macrostrat database for broader use.

Support

This work is part of the "Macrostrat v2" effort and is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant OAC-2311091 to Daven Quinn and collaborators.