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| A brief review of the history of the Geological Survey
and an overview of it's mandate and operation.
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The geology of Newfoundland and Labrador is a remarkable natural
phenomenon, and an integral part of the heritage, economy and life
of the Province. The rocks of Newfoundland and Labrador provide a
magnificent outdoor laboratory for studying the history of our planet,
as well as abundant mineral resources that have been exploited for
thousands of years. The mandate of the Geological Survey of Newfoundland
and Labrador is to map the geological framework of the province; to
interpret and explain its geological evolution; and to describe,
interpret and explain the distribution, nature, quantity and origin of
the province's mineral resources.
The Geological Survey is a division of the
Mines Branch. The Survey currently has 5 sections (Regional
Geology; Mineral Deposits; Geochemistry, Geophysics and Terrain Sciences;
Geoscience Data Management and Geoscience Publications and Information) and a
geochemical laboratory. It is headed by the
Director
of the Geological Survey. The
Survey offices are in the capital of
Newfoundland, St. John's, at 50 Elizabeth Avenue. Each section of the Survey is administered
by a senior geologist. |
Officially, the first geological
surveys of the island of Newfoundland were begun as early as 1839 by
James Beete Jukes, It was, however, in 1864 that the first systematic
geological investigations began, when the Geological Survey of
Newfoundland was inaugurated under the directorship of
Alexander
Murray (see the Newfoundland's Museum's notes). Murray and his assistant (and
eventual successor),
James Howley, were truly remarkable pioneering
geologists whose work formed the basis for the first geological map
of Newfoundland, published in 1907. After Howley's death in 1909,
the Survey was temporarily disbanded. It was resurrected for a few
years in 1926 under H.A. Baker, but it was not until the early
thirties, under the leadership of Government Geologist
A.K.
Snelgrove, an ex-patriot Newfoundlander working at
Princeton University, that the Geological Survey was revived and a continuous
series of geological investigations commenced within the country's
Department of Natural Resources (or its equivalent). After
Confederation, a single Provincial geologist, sometimes with one or
two assistant geologists, carried out regional investigations of
specific commodities, such as silica and chromite. Very little
classical geological mapping was being done due to limited funding.
This all changed in the 1970s: government sponsorship of
mineral-development activities resulted in the growth of a modern
geological survey. With a research and support staff of approximately
sixty people, the current Geological Survey is well poised to provide the sophisticated
geoscientific database that the province needs for the next decade
and beyond.
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