This project is initiated by DDE and Commission for Geological Map of the World (CGMW)

PI: Manuel Pubellier

Grant from DDE up to $150,000 USD for a maximum of 2 years.

DDE and CGMW will co-own the products of the project, which will be explicitly described in more details in the agreement to be signed.

Funding requested: $150,000 (1st year $75,000; 2nd year $75,000)

Project Summary:

The necessity and urgency for the international community in Earth sciences to have a digital geological map of the world at a scale 1:5M has been widely recognized; currently it only exists at the scale 1:35M. The project aims at establishing an all-digital, correlation of the geological maps of each continent and ocean. Existing maps produced under the supervision of CGMW have for historical reasons have different legends, different stratigraphic cuts, and different databases related to the legends. The project will construct the uniform, homogenous and digital geological map of the world at a scale 1:5M, which could be used as a portal or an entry point to access other geological data of the DDE initiative. The DDE Geological Mapping Group (GMG) will spearhead the project to make contributions for growth of the DDE database systems.

The first year of the project is dedicated to a critical evaluation of the structure and content of each continental map to assess the links and differences. A large correlation table will be established to target the critical points. Visits and joint working meetings with geological surveys will be organised to discuss the trans-boundary connections of stratigraphic entities and structural continuities. The legend system will be established, and an adequate meta-database will be constructed for the 1:5M geological map of the world. The second year of the project is scheduled to compile the digital geological map of the world at a scale 1:5M, and construct the database. The 1:5M Geological Map of the World as well as the database will be uploaded to DDE platform in July 2022, and the digital map will be released in the DDE and CGMW websites in December 2022.