diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index ff66df7..a195276 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -47,7 +47,8 @@ Suggests:
     sf,
     stars,
     testthat (>= 3.0.0),
-    fs
+    fs,
+    gdalraster
 Config/testthat/edition: 3
 URL: https://github.com/njtierney/geotargets, http://geotargets.njtierney.com
 BugReports: https://github.com/njtierney/geotargets/issues
diff --git a/R/tar-terra-rast.R b/R/tar-terra-rast.R
index c5eb1b4..bc76dd3 100644
--- a/R/tar-terra-rast.R
+++ b/R/tar-terra-rast.R
@@ -83,13 +83,22 @@ tar_terra_rast <- function(name,
   drv <- get_gdal_available_driver_list("raster")
   filetype <- rlang::arg_match0(filetype, drv$name)
 
-  # currently only "drop" and "zip" are valid options
+  # various methods for packaging geospatial data and auxiliary files
   preserve_metadata <- preserve_metadata %||% "drop"
-  preserve_metadata <- rlang::arg_match0(preserve_metadata, c("drop", "zip"))
+  preserve_metadata <- rlang::arg_match0(preserve_metadata, c("drop", "zip", "gdalraster_sozip"))
 
   # ensure that user-passed `resources` doesn't include `custom_format`
   check_user_resources(resources)
 
+  if (preserve_metadata == "gdalraster_sozip") {
+      check_pkg_installed("gdalraster")
+  }
+
+  # ensure that user-passed `resources` doesn't include `custom_format`
+  if ("custom_format" %in% names(resources)) {
+      cli::cli_abort("{.val custom_format} cannot be supplied to targets created with {.fn tar_terra_rast}")
+  }
+
   name <- targets::tar_deparse_language(substitute(name))
 
   envir <- targets::tar_option_get("envir")
@@ -135,13 +144,17 @@ tar_terra_rast <- function(name,
 }
 
 tar_rast_read <- function(preserve_metadata) {
-  switch(preserve_metadata,
-    zip = function(path) {
-      tmp <- withr::local_tempdir()
-      zip::unzip(zipfile = path, exdir = tmp)
-      terra::rast(file.path(tmp, basename(path)))
-    },
-    drop = function(path) terra::rast(path)
+  switch(
+      preserve_metadata,
+      zip = function(path) {
+          tmp <- withr::local_tempdir()
+          zip::unzip(zipfile = path, exdir = tmp)
+          terra::rast(file.path(tmp, basename(path)))
+      },
+      gdalraster_sozip = function(path) {
+        terra::rast(paste0("/vsizip/{", path, "}/", basename(path)))
+      },
+      drop = function(path) terra::rast(path)
   )
 }
 
@@ -179,6 +192,34 @@ tar_rast_write <- function(filetype, gdal, preserve_metadata) {
         overwrite = TRUE,
         gdal = gdal
       )
+    },
+    gdalraster_sozip = function(object, path) {
+      tmp <- withr::local_tempdir()
+      dirpath <- file.path(tmp, dirname(path))
+      tmppath <- file.path(tmp, path)
+      dir.create(dirpath, recursive = TRUE)
+      terra::writeRaster(
+        object,
+        tmppath,
+        filetype = filetype,
+        overwrite = TRUE,
+        gdal = gdal
+      )
+      raster_files <- list.files(dirpath, full.names = TRUE)
+      # create seek-optimized zip file using gdalraster
+      # always create sozip regardless of file size (sozip_enabled = "YES")
+      gdalraster::addFilesInZip(
+        path,
+        raster_files,
+        full_paths = FALSE,
+        overwrite = TRUE,
+        sozip_enabled = "YES",
+        num_threads = 1,
+        quiet = TRUE
+      )
+      # TODO: allow user control of number of threads?
+      #       how does num_threads interact multiple workers etc.?
+      unlink(tmppath)
     }
   )
 }
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-tar-terra-rast.R b/tests/testthat/test-tar-terra-rast.R
index 2acdef3..2dc1377 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-tar-terra-rast.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-tar-terra-rast.R
@@ -151,3 +151,32 @@ tar_test("metadata is maintained", {
   expect_equal(terra::units(x), rep("m", 3))
   expect_equal(terra::time(x), as.Date("2024-10-01") + c(0, 1, 2))
 })
+
+tar_test("metadata is maintained (gdalraster SOZip)", {
+  skip_if_not_installed("gdalraster")
+  tar_script({
+    library(targets)
+    library(geotargets)
+    library(terra)
+    geotargets_option_set(terra_preserve_metadata = "gdalraster_sozip")
+    make_rast <- function() {
+      f <- system.file("ex/elev.tif", package = "terra")
+      r <- terra::rast(f)
+      r <- c(r, r + 10, r / 2)
+      terra::units(r) <- rep("m", 3)
+      terra::time(r) <- as.Date("2024-10-01") + c(0, 1, 2)
+      terra::metags(r) <- "FOO=BAR"
+      terra::metags(r, layer = 1) <- "asdf=hjkl"
+      r
+    }
+    list(
+      tar_terra_rast(r, make_rast(), filetype = "HFA")
+    )
+  })
+  tar_make()
+  x <- tar_read(r)
+  expect_equal(terra::units(x), rep("m", 3))
+  expect_equal(terra::time(x), as.Date("2024-10-01") + c(0, 1, 2))
+  expect_equal(terra::metags(x), c(FOO = "BAR"))
+  expect_equal(terra::metags(x, 1), data.frame(layer = 1, name = "asdf", value = "hjkl"))
+})