THE THIRD CENTURY OF GEOLOGICAL MAPPING: WHAT WILL CHANGE?

In geological mapping, the current acceleration of data acquisition, technological progress, and scientific insights is concurrent with escalating societal demands related to energy, minerals, water, hazards, climate change, environment, waste, and engineering, as well as research priorities. The third century of geological mapping therefore is being launched with a renewed determination to fulfil our obligations to society. Much is unchanged since publication of the William Smith Map in 1815, while much will change in our third century. What is unchanged is that mapping is: focused on user needs while accommodating unanticipated applications; conducted as part of a well-planned program based on ongoing assessment of required data; based on compilation of available data, new field work, and required analyses; based on sound stratigraphic naming; focused on the highest level of detail where needed; assembled as a jurisdiction-wide seamless compilation; and committed to regular updating. What has changed is the move of geological mapping from the library to the database, and on to the GIS and the web. As we observe on our phones, this means that all mapping now must be seamless, queryable, coordinated, and zoomable, while at the same time subject to peer-review. This means that while the most detailed mapping will continue where needed, we now require a complete and jurisdiction-wide compilation of quadrangle and county-scale mapping to support applications and to manage content ASAP. Furthermore, due to the demands of users and the opportunities of technology, we need to: reconcile our mapping from onshore to offshore with topographic and bathymetric data; coordinate with soil mapping; map on a material properties basis; categorize using broadly accepted terminology; map in 3D, in which the extent, thickness, and properties of all little-deformed sediment and rock units, and geometry of selected basement structures, are distinguished; coordinate with increasingly 3D versions of regional, continental, and global-scale maps; link our mapping to a compilation of scanned and searchable publications, as well as consistent and comprehensive geological, geophysical, geochronological, and geochemical databases; and ensure that mapping is readily accessible through robust and ideally open-source software.