Sediment Sample Archive Database Search Form Instructions

The Sediment Sample Archive Database Search Form, located in the upper frame, is used to search the Sediments database for sediment samples collected by EML. All of the Search Form selection options are linked to this instructional frame. Please select your search criteria and submit the Form. After submitting the Form, your search will be executed and the search results will appear in this frame, replacing these instructions.

Please be patient and only click submit *once*.

You can move the window separator up or down to show the results better or execute another search from the Form.

The time taken to execute your query depends on the number of records returned. If you do not set limits on the records sought above, your query will return a large number of records, which may take several minutes to process and lead to a timeout error. Limiting your query to one site or to a range of dates is highly recommended. More limited queries should be much faster, and very specific queries should execute almost instantly. You can also reduce this delay by selecting fewer records to be displayed at one time. Once you click the submit button, there will be a pause while the query is executed on our database; then the data will begin downloading. Depending upon your web browser, you may or may not receive a visual indication of activity after clicking the submit button but the query *is* working.

Please be patient and only click submit *once*.

Selecting sites: There are several dozen different lakes where sediment samples have been collected under EML's sediment sampling program. You can search for every location or limit your search to a specific state.

Selecting dates: You can select a beginning and ending month/year to limit your search, or you can search through all samples collected.

Selecting just a year will include all samples from that year and later/earlier. Selecting both a month and year will return all samples from that month and later/earlier. Selecting a month without a corresponding year is not meaningful. If your start date is after your end date, your results set will be quite small.

Selecting a sort type: You can choose to have returned data sorted by location first and then date, or by date first and then location.

Displaying records: This box allows you to select how many records will display on screen at one time. Extremely large HTML tables can cause problems with your web browser when it attempts to parse and display them and can increase the time needed to download the information over a slow internet connection. Choosing a large number of records at a time can create tables large enough to crash your web browser. You have been warned. On the other hand, the query is executed again for each page displayed, which can be time-consuming if the query is complex. This choice is only meaningful for the hyperlinked display and is ignored for the comma-delimited format.

Standard display: Clicking the Submit button will submit the search and return it in standard form. All records which meet your criteria will be displayed. Each record represents one sample stored in EML's archive.

Comma-delimited display: Comma-delimited format is useful to allow people to download sections of the database and import them into spreadsheet or database applications. The format parallels the hyperlinked display - it should provide exactly the same records and fields as the hyperlinked display. You can thus refine your query with the web display and then download a file suitable for data manipulation. After clicking on the button, your web browser will ask if you want to save the file to disk - you should answer yes and give it a name ending in .txt because it is a plain-text file. When importing, you should treat all fields (or at least the sample ID fields) as "text" and not as "general" or "numeric" because some fields may have leading zeros which will be eliminated if they are treated as numbers.

The EML Sample Archives makes available environmental radiological data collected for programs funded through the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, the U. S. Energy Research and Development Administration and the U. S. Department of Energy. All of these programs have been terminated. The databases were last updated in 1999. No additional data will be added to these databases. Any inquiries about these programs should be made to webmaster@eml.doe.gov.