🪨 Macrostrat Geology Units Scraper

🚀 Export the full geologic column for any location in seconds. Drop a latitude/longitude and pull back every stacked rock unit with names, ages, lithology and depositional environment, ready as CSV, Excel, JSON or XML.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-06-05 · 📊 23 fields per record · point-and-column coverage · powered by the open Macrostrat database

Macrostrat is a community geologic database that stitches together stratigraphic columns from across North America and beyond. This Actor turns that database into clean, structured rows: give it a point on the map (or a stratigraphic name) and it returns every geologic unit in that column, from the youngest surface formation down to the deepest mapped layer, with absolute ages in millions of years (Ma), rock type, depositional environment, mapped thickness and the official display color.

Coverage: Any location served by the Macrostrat column model (dense coverage across the United States, with growing global columns). A single query near Madison, Wisconsin returns 15 units spanning roughly 458 to 1100+ million years, ideal for testing before scaling out.

🎯 Target Audience	💡 Primary Use Cases
Geologists, geoscience students, GIS analysts, data journalists, EdTech builders, environmental and resource consultants	Building geologic profiles, populating maps and dashboards, age dating a site, lithology lookups, teaching stratigraphy, enriching environmental reports

📋 What the Macrostrat Geology Units Scraper does

• Accepts a latitude/longitude point and returns every geologic unit in the Macrostrat column at that location.
• Alternatively accepts a stratigraphic name (formation/group) to pull all matching units across columns.
• Extracts unit and formation/group names, top and bottom ages in Ma, lithology, depositional environment, mapped thickness, column id and area, center coordinates and the official display color.
• Outputs flat, analysis-ready rows. Download as CSV, Excel, JSON or XML, or pull via API.

🎬 Full Demo (🚧 Coming soon)

⚙️ Input

Field	Key	Type	Description
Latitude	lat	string	Latitude of the query point (decimal degrees, WGS84).
Longitude	lng	string	Longitude of the query point (decimal degrees, WGS84).
Stratigraphic name	stratName	string	Optional. Look up units by formation/group name instead of by location. When set, lat/lng are ignored.
Max Items	maxItems	integer	Free users limited to 10 (preview). Paid users up to 1,000,000.

Example 1 — by location (default, near Madison, WI):

{
    "lat": "43",
    "lng": "-89.3",
    "maxItems": 10
}

Example 2 — by stratigraphic name:

{
    "stratName": "Mancos",
    "maxItems": 50
}

⚠️ Good to Know: A location query returns the units stacked in a single Macrostrat column, so most points return between 5 and 30 units. To map a wide region, run several points or use a stratigraphic name lookup. Ages are model estimates in millions of years (Ma) and member is only populated for units that carry a named member.

📊 Output

Field	Key	Description
📌 Unit	unitName	Mapped unit name (e.g. "St Peter Fm").
🪨 Formation	formation	Formation name, when assigned.
🗂 Group	group	Group name, when assigned.
🧩 Member	member	Member name (only for units with a named member).
🏷 Strat name	stratName	Full stratigraphic name.
⬆ Top age (Ma)	topAgeMa	Youngest age boundary in millions of years.
⬇ Bottom age (Ma)	bottomAgeMa	Oldest age boundary in millions of years.
🕰 Top interval	topInterval	Named geologic interval at the top.
🕰 Bottom interval	bottomInterval	Named geologic interval at the bottom.
🧱 Lithology	lithology	Rock types present in the unit.
🌊 Environment	depositionalEnvironment	Depositional environment(s).
🌄 Outcrop	outcrop	Outcrop status (surface, subsurface or both).
📏 Max thickness (m)	maxThicknessM	Maximum mapped thickness in meters.
📐 Min thickness (m)	minThicknessM	Minimum mapped thickness in meters.
🎨 Color	color	Official display hex color.
🆔 Unit id	unitId	Macrostrat unit identifier.
🆔 Column id	columnId	Macrostrat column identifier.
🆔 Section id	sectionId	Macrostrat section identifier.
🗺 Column area (km²)	columnAreaKm2	Area of the column footprint.
📍 Column lat	columnLat	Column center latitude.
📍 Column lng	columnLng	Column center longitude.
🔗 Source URL	sourceUrl	Macrostrat API request used.
🕒 Scraped	scrapedAt	ISO timestamp of the run.
❌ Error	error	Null on success, message on failure.

Real sample records:

[
  {
    "unitName": "St Peter Fm",
    "formation": "St Peter Sandstone",
    "group": null,
    "stratName": "St Peter Sandstone",
    "topAgeMa": 458.2,
    "bottomAgeMa": 459.186,
    "lithology": "quartz arenite",
    "depositionalEnvironment": "inferred marine",
    "outcrop": "both",
    "maxThicknessM": 35,
    "color": "#FCF768",
    "columnId": 187,
    "columnAreaKm2": 18140.93,
    "scrapedAt": "2026-06-05T15:56:13.407Z",
    "error": null
  },
  {
    "unitName": "Oneonta Fm",
    "formation": "Oneota",
    "group": "Prairie du Chien",
    "stratName": "Oneota Formation",
    "topAgeMa": 477.1,
    "bottomAgeMa": 486.85,
    "lithology": "dolomite, quartz arenite",
    "depositionalEnvironment": "inferred marine",
    "outcrop": "both",
    "maxThicknessM": 30,
    "color": "#4D52E7",
    "columnId": 187,
    "columnAreaKm2": 18140.93,
    "scrapedAt": "2026-06-05T15:56:13.500Z",
    "error": null
  },
  {
    "unitName": "Jordan Fm",
    "formation": "Jordan",
    "group": null,
    "stratName": "Jordan Formation",
    "topAgeMa": 486.85,
    "bottomAgeMa": 488.2625,
    "lithology": "quartz arenite",
    "depositionalEnvironment": "marine",
    "outcrop": "both",
    "maxThicknessM": 15,
    "color": "#FCF768",
    "columnId": 187,
    "columnAreaKm2": 18140.93,
    "scrapedAt": "2026-06-05T15:56:13.526Z",
    "error": null
  }
]

✨ Why choose this Actor

• Real ages, not labels. Every unit ships absolute top and bottom ages in Ma, not just period names.
• Clean, flat rows. Nested lithology and environment arrays are flattened into readable text fields.
• Two query modes. Search by map point or by stratigraphic name, no GIS software required.
• No keys, no friction. Built on the open Macrostrat API, so there is nothing to register or rotate.
• Export anywhere. CSV, Excel, JSON, XML or API in one click.

📈 How it compares to alternatives

Approach	Setup	Ages in Ma	Flat export	Point lookup
This Actor	None	Yes	Yes (CSV/Excel/JSON/XML)	Yes
Raw Macrostrat API	Manual JSON parsing	Yes	No (nested JSON)	Yes
Desktop GIS + geology layers	Heavy install	Sometimes	Manual	Yes
Static PDF geologic maps	None	Rarely	No	No

🚀 How to use

1. Sign up for a free Apify account with this referral link.
2. Open the Macrostrat Geology Units Scraper and go to the input tab.
3. Enter a latitude and longitude (or a stratigraphic name) and set Max Items.
4. Click Start and watch the geologic column fill in.
5. Download your dataset as CSV, Excel, JSON or XML, or grab it via the API.

💼 Business use cases

🏗 Environmental & resource consulting

Need	How this helps
Site characterization	Pull the full geologic column under a project location in one query.
Desktop study reports	Drop ages, lithology and thickness straight into deliverables.

🎓 EdTech & research

Need	How this helps
Teaching stratigraphy	Generate ready-made column datasets for any classroom location.
Comparative studies	Batch many points to compare geologic histories across regions.

🗺 Mapping & GIS

Need	How this helps
Map enrichment	Join units to coordinates and official display colors.
Dashboards	Feed age and lithology fields into BI tools.

📰 Data journalism

Need	How this helps
Explainers	Back stories about deep time with sourced, structured ages.
Visualizations	Export clean rows for charting geologic timelines.

🔌 Automating Macrostrat Geology Units Scraper

Connect runs and datasets to the tools you already use:

• Make and Zapier — trigger runs and route new rows on a schedule.
• Slack — post a summary of new units to a channel.
• Airbyte — sync datasets into your warehouse.
• GitHub Actions — kick off scheduled runs from your pipelines.
• Google Drive — drop exports into a shared folder automatically.

🌟 Beyond business use cases

• Research: assemble reproducible geologic datasets for papers and theses.
• Personal: learn the deep history beneath your home town.
• Non-profit: support conservation and hazard-awareness projects with open geology.
• Experimentation: prototype geoscience apps and visualizations quickly.

🤖 Ask an AI assistant

Paste your exported rows into ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or Microsoft Copilot and ask it to summarize the geologic history, build a timeline, or explain the lithologies in plain language.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do I need a Macrostrat API key? No. Macrostrat's API is open and keyless, so the Actor works out of the box.

Q: How many units does a location return? A single column typically returns 5 to 30 units. The default Madison, WI point returns 15.

Q: What do the ages mean? topAgeMa and bottomAgeMa are the youngest and oldest age boundaries of the unit in millions of years before present.

Q: Can I search by formation name instead of coordinates? Yes. Set stratName (e.g. "Mancos") and the location fields are ignored.

Q: Why is member sometimes empty? Only units that carry a named member populate it. It is left null otherwise rather than filled with a placeholder.

Q: What export formats are supported? CSV, Excel, JSON, XML and the Apify API.

Q: How fresh is the data? It is pulled live from Macrostrat at run time, so it reflects the current database.

Q: Does it cover areas outside the United States? Macrostrat has dense US coverage and a growing set of global columns. Points without a column return no units.

Q: Can I run many locations at once? Run the Actor once per point, or schedule a series of runs through Make, Zapier or the API.

Q: Is this affiliated with Macrostrat? No. It is an independent tool that reads only publicly available Macrostrat data.

🔌 Integrate with any app

Every run produces a standard Apify dataset, so you can pull results through the Apify API, webhooks, or any of the 5,000+ apps reachable through Make and Zapier.

🔗 Recommended Actors

Browse more open-data and research scrapers in the ParseForge collection — including geospatial, scientific and public-records tools that pair well with geologic data.

💡 Pro Tip: browse the complete ParseForge collection.

🆘 Need Help? Open our contact form

⚠️ Disclaimer: independent tool, not affiliated with Macrostrat. Only publicly available data collected.