Changelog

Here, we describe notable changes to the Macrostrat platform as a whole.

October 2026

The initial public release of Macrostrat Version 2!

Website 5.3.0. The map, columns, lexicon and documentation are one site, with site search, sign-in with ORCID, and pages about Macrostrat and its community. Earlier addresses, Sift's included, redirect to their new pages. Website changelog
Map ingestion and compilations. Maps are ingested through a staged pipeline and combined into compilations; the first are the USGS National Geologic Synthesis, Japan and Arizona. Map ingestion, Map compilations
Map tiles. Tiles for any compilation by name, and a WMTS service for raster layers, so GIS clients such as QGIS can load them. Tileserver changelog
API v2 2.4.0. Faster map queries based on our new unified map system, and a /version route that reports deployment details. The routes are otherwise unchanged. API v2 changelog
API v3 remains in development; its routes may change. Data services

Macrostrat's old website and the Sift application are still available here.

Cloud-native platform: Macrostrat moved from a single server to containers on a Kubernetes cluster at UW–Madison's Center for High Throughput Computing.
Unified database: data were consolidated into one PostgreSQL/PostGIS database; before that, columns and the lexicon were in MariaDB.