Geologic Materials Center to relocate

The Alaska Geologic Materials Center, the state’s repository of rock samples, is to move from its current location in Eagle River to new and much larger premises in Anchorage. According to an article by State Geologist Bob Swenson in an Alaska Geological Society newsletter the state has purchased the DeBarr Sam’s Club building in Anchorage and will retrofit the building to house the center. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has contributed $2.5 million to the purchase, in support of the center’s educational role, Swenson said.

The Material Center staff hopes to start moving the rock collection into the new facility in the spring of 2014. State funding for the acquisition of the facility was approved as part of the state budget, Swenson said.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources operates the center in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The center contains a major archive and library of Alaska rock samples and holds an almost complete collection of core and drill-cutting samples from oil and gas wells drilled in Alaska and on the Alaska outer continental shelf. The collection at the center also includes numerous microscope slides from well samples and many thousands of rock samples from the mining industry.

But over the years the center’s collection has outgrown its current location in Eagle River, with more than 60 percent of the collection now having to be housed in a series of shipping containers stacked outside the facility’s building. Plans for the layout of the new facility include sample viewing rooms and warehouse space for companies to store private and confidential collections, Swenson said. And future possibilities in the new facility include the hosting of workshops, college courses and university research, he said.

—Alan Bailey