Arctic geological map in final stages
Last Updated: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 | 1:39 PM CT
CBC News
A preliminary version of the map was completed in 2008 after a two-year collaboration by seven countries, including Canada. (Geological Survey of Canada/Natural Resources Canada)Canadian scientists are putting the finishing touches on the world's first detailed geological map of the Arctic.
The Geological Survey of Canada already published a preliminary map late in 2008, but a final copy will be released next year.
The geological map will let people compare rock types all around the North Pole, making it the first map of its kind to be published in such detail, said Marc St-Onge, a senior research scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada.
The production of the map comes at a time when the mining industry is growing increasingly interested in exploring untapped mineral resources in the Arctic world, said St-Onge, who co-led Canada's mapping effort.
St-Onge and other federal scientists worked with the United States, Russia and four other European countries on the map.
"Every country, to start with, wanted their own geology 'right way up,' so to speak, when you hang the map on the wall," St-Onge told CBC News on Monday.
"To get out of that diplomatic challenge, we turned to the 1606 map by Gerard Mercator."
The Mercator map projection, which is commonly used for nautical purposes, is oriented to Greenwich, England.
The geological map uses data from a variety of sources, such as geophysical surveys, satellite images and traditional knowledge from local elders.
