diff --git a/src/pg/sql/42_observatory_exploration.sql b/src/pg/sql/42_observatory_exploration.sql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fd6961f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/pg/sql/42_observatory_exploration.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+-- Functions used to search the observatory for measures
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- TODO allow the user to specify the boundary to search for measures
+--
+
+CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION cdb_observatory.OBS_Search(
+  search_term text,
+  relevant_boundary text DEFAULT null
+)
+RETURNS TABLE(description text, name text, aggregate text, source text)  as $$
+DECLARE
+  boundary_term text;
+BEGIN
+  IF relevant_boundary then
+    boundary_term = '';
+  else
+    boundary_term = '';
+  END IF;
+
+  RETURN QUERY
+  EXECUTE format($string$
+              SELECT description,
+                name,
+                  aggregate,
+                  replace(split_part(id,'".', 1),'"', '') source
+                  FROM observatory.OBS_column
+                  where name ilike '%%%s%%'
+                  or description ilike '%%%s%%'
+                  %s
+                $string$, search_term, search_term,boundary_term);
+  RETURN;
+END
+$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
diff --git a/src/pg/test/expected/42_observatroy_exploration_test.out b/src/pg/test/expected/42_observatroy_exploration_test.out
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b95c1f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/pg/test/expected/42_observatroy_exploration_test.out
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+\i test/sql/load_fixtures.sql
+SET client_min_messages TO WARNING;
+\set ECHO none
+Loading obs_table.sql fixture file...
+Done.
+Loading obs_column.sql fixture file...
+Done.
+Loading obs_column_table.sql fixture file...
+Done.
+Loading obs_column_to_column.sql fixture file...
+Done.
+Loading obs_85328201013baa14e8e8a4a57a01e6f6fbc5f9b1.sql fixture file...
+Done.
+Loading obs_3e7cc9cfd403b912c57b42d5f9195af9ce2f3cdb.sql fixture file...
+Done.
+Loading obs_ab038198aaab3f3cb055758638ee4de28ad70146.sql fixture file...
+Done.
+Loading obs_a92e1111ad3177676471d66bb8036e6d057f271b.sql fixture file...
+Done.
+Loading obs_11ee8b82c877c073438bc935a91d3dfccef875d1.sql fixture file...
+Done.
+Loading obs_d34555209878e8c4b37cf0b2b3d072ff129ec470.sql fixture file...
+Done.
+obs_search_stu
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+("The total number of all people living in a geographic area.","Total Population",sum,es.ine)
+("The total number of all people living in a given geographic area.  This is a very useful catch-all denominator when calculating rates.","Total Population",sum,us.census.acs)
+("The total number of all people living in a given geographic area.  This is a very useful catch-all denominator when calculating rates.","Quantile:Total Population",quantile,us.census.acs)
+(3 rows)
diff --git a/src/pg/test/sql/42_observatory_exploration_test.sql b/src/pg/test/sql/42_observatory_exploration_test.sql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..22c811e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/pg/test/sql/42_observatory_exploration_test.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+\i test/sql/load_fixtures.sql
+
+SELECT cdb_observatory.OBS_Search('total_pop');