This proposal requests funding for curatorial activities at the Marine Geological Samples Laboratory (MGSL) of the Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO). The facility serves as the central repository for marine geological samples collected by faculty, staff and students of the Graduate School. The present collection consists of 1813 deep sea cores, 586 dredge samples and 763 coastal and deep-sea grab samples. During the past three years there has been a continued strong demand for sediment core and dredge rock samples distributed from the MGSL to qualified investigators. Information about the sample collection at URI is now available online through the MGSL website with interactive maps for determining sample distribution. It is anticipated that sample request demand will continue to grow as new cores and dredge samples are added to the collection. URI has demonstrated its institutional commitment to the facility through the hiring of three new faculty members at the GSO who all have active research programs that will utilize existing, and provide new, seafloor samples to the MGSL. During the next three years, proposed activities will include curation of new core and dredge rock samples, further description of existing samples, enhancement of the MGSL website, submittal of sample information to the NGDC core curators' database, routine logging for new core acquisitions, and a new initiative to register all repository samples with the System for Earth Sample Registration
