About the MGS Website
The Maryland Geological Survey (MGS) World-Wide Web Server project, MGS Online, was initiated in 1996 by the Coastal and Estuarine Geology program (now the Coastal and Environmental Geology program) of the Maryland Geological Survey. We began using a T1 line in 2000 to connect to the Internet, greatly improving our ability to deliver content and data at much higher speeds.
The website was extensively redesigned in 2013 with the following intentions:
- to make the navigation more logical
- to make more information from the Hydrogeology Program available online
- to make more publications available online
- to update the HTML and CSS coding to the most recent standards (still in progress)
- to make the webpages mobile-friendly (still in progress)
- to update the aesthetic design.
Our world wide web presence provides to the public geological information about the State of Maryland. It is an earth science reference for students, teachers, professionals and the research community. We offer online publications, facts, data, maps, bibliographies and files pertaining to a variety of geologic and environmental topics. The Survey has provided these online services and maintained an Internet presence since 1994. We are continually adding content and expanding our coverage to meet the needs of our customers. To see how we have evolved check out the history of MGS Online on the Wayback Machine at http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://mgs.dnr.md.gov .
Maryland Geological Survey does not collect or save information about our online customers. We do not use cookies. Please refer to the Department of Natural Resources' Online Privacy Policy for additional information on information technology policies in Maryland.
Maryland Geological Survey is a non-profit, government agency within the Maryland Department of Natural Resources' Resource Assessment Service. Any fees charged for products or services are used solely to offset production costs. MGS Online is an unfunded initiative. Almost all of the text, graphics, and content you see on our web pages is created by MGS personnel. Much of this was created for the World Wide Web. However there are a number of things you see that were produced by talented people outside MGS. We want to give proper credit and our thanks to these individuals and organizations for these graphics, scripts, animations, icons, and other features.
| Feature | Found on page | Name (linked to source) | Author |
| publications search | MGS Reports MGS Maps MGS Data |
Simile Exhibit* | many people |
| pop-up messages and images | Shoreline Change Maps for Tidewater Maryland (PDF format) Shoreline Change Map Data for Tidewater Maryland (Vector format) MGS Staff over the years and others |
OverLIB* | Eric Bosrup |
| tooltips | Index to Maryland Topographic Maps, and others | qTip* | Craig Thompson |
| file-type icons | MGS Maps: CD by Edward Boatman from The Noun Project Map by Cris Dobbins from The Noun Project Document by Jamison Wieser from The Noun Project |
The Noun Project* | many people |
| interactive map and data viewer | Interactive Water-Level Mapper Tool, and others | Simile Exhibit* | many people |
| interactive map and data viewer | Coastal Plain Approriated Water Use, and others | Tableau Public* | many people |
| interactive map viewer | Arsenic Occurrance Maps, and others | ArcGIS online* | many people |
| *freeware or shareware | |||
The content of the WWW pages is made possible by all staff of the Maryland Geological Survey. Particular notice is given to our HTML production staff, past and present: