Geological mapping gets joined up

BBC News (Jennifer Carpenter)

The world's geologists have dug out their maps and are sticking them together to produce the first truly global resource of the world's rocks.

The OneGeology project pools existing data about what lies under our feet and has made it available on the web.

Led by the British Geological Survey (BGS), the project involved geologists from 80 nations.

Between 60% and 70% of the Earth's surface is now available down to the scale of 1:1,000,000.

"That's 1cm for every 10km of the Earth's surface," explained Ian Jackson from the BGS and leader of the OneGeology Project.

"With that resolution, people can focus in on a small part of their city.

"Eventually, people will be able to get up close and see the rocks beneath their house."

Mr Jackson said this was because the geological maps were being constantly updated.

"Every time someone bores a hole in the ground, and hauls out some rock, we can refine our maps a little bit more."

Project organisers explained that what is novel about this project is that it takes local geological information and makes it global.

See the above page for more.
The project's website is at: http://www.onegeology.org/