2007ANNUAL REPORT GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NORWAY GEOLOGY FOR SOCIETY .'5 .ORGESGEOLOGISKEUNDERSKELSE 'EOLOGICAL3URVEYOF.ORWAY Photo: Cathrine Dillner Hagen Photo cover and page 3: Morten Smelror Lay out: Lisa Løseth, NGU Text: Gudmund Løvø and Erik Prytz Reitan, NGU Printing: GRØSETTM – production is climate-neutral with compensation for CO2 emission. NGU’s northern focus 4 Content rock’n brass 6 a climate of change 8 mapping “sans frontières” 10 man and the environment 12 full gas! 14 the submarine landscape 16 the Barents Sea story 18 permafrost with a fever? 20 cliffhanger 22 digital gold 24 accounts 26 NGU in brief 27 www.ngu.no • GEOLOGY FOR SOCIETY NGU’s northern focus by Morten Smelror Norway governs huge areas of land and sea in our ties with the arctic research communities. the far north. These northern regions are rich in Thus, during the past year, NGU’s engagement natural resources, but are also vulnerable to in the far north was strengthened significantly human activity, pollution and climate change. in many geoscience disciplines, including They are important for the nation as a whole, geological and geophysical mapping, mineral and the government of Norwayhas therefore resource studies, landslide assessment, as well as proposed a separate strategic plan for the far environmental and climate studies. north, with proper exploitation of the possibilities in this region as its priority for the near future. The International Polar Year (IPY), which started on March 1st , 2007, also contributes to draw con- Sensible use of resources and sustainable siderable attention to the planet’s arctic regions. management of the arctic natural environment During the next two years, research and financing require good knowledge of these resources from more than 60 countries will be coordinated and of the relationships between ecology and in an extraordinary effort to improve our under- geology in the arctic regions. The strategic plan standing of the Arctic and Antarctic regions. In for the far north aims at Norway becoming the fact, the IPY (2007-2008) represents the largest international leader for research on-, for- and in international collaboration on research ever, the arctic region. To achieve this goal, we need andNorwegian research organizations have a to carry out research and development across prominent role. NGU contributes here to projects the traditional science disciplines. We also need focussing on climate change, permafrost and good collaboration for proper management and environmental geochemistry in the Arctic. communication of this new knowledge. NGU established already in 1996 an office in Tromsø, to This Annual Report provides insight into some work closely with the other scientific communi- of NGU’s projects carried out in 2007. Several of ties at the Polar Environment Centre, as well as these projects will continue into 2008, further collaborating closely with the geoscientists at the contributing to improve our knowledge of the University of Tromsø. In 2007, NGU also signed an possibilities found in our nation’s northernmost agreement on cooperation with the University regions. Centre on Svalbard (UNIS) to further strengthen Morten Smelror, managing director 4 5 www.ngu.no • GEOLOGY FOR SOCIETY rock’n brass Mineral resources in the north of Norway may the environment. Indeed, geological processes be exploited better and ensure a more profitable are responsible for where mineral resources are mining industry. More research and develop- found in nature. Mineral deposits that may be ment will lead to increased mining activity, better exploited economically give high rates of return product quality and more specialized mineral per surface area. products. Carbonates, such as limestone and dolomite, In fact, Norway’s mining industry is more active are the most important industrial minerals in today than it has been for many years. Mineral Norway. Carbonates are used in the chemical resources in the whole Nordic region have and metallurgical industry, in the production of attracted considerable international attention. cement, in filler and pigment, in agricultural and Prices are increasing, especially for metals. the environmental remediation, in the manufacturing The Directorate of Mining (Bergvesenet) pro- of glass and as building material. cessed last year 3378 applications for mineral claims, compared with only 535 applications as Many user sectors nowadays increase product recently as in 2005. requirements, and the industry makes a greater effort in achieving products with better quality at The Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) de- higher prices. cided to focus in 2007 especially on the mineral resources in Norway’s three northernmost coun- The last couple of years, new and exciting map- ties. We increased our field investigations and ping has been carried out of large occurrences of strengthened our collaboration with the industry. soapstone in the Linnajavri area in the municipal- ity of Hamarøy in Nordland county. These are the One of the reasons for this activity comes from most important soapstone deposits in Norway, the authorities indicating an industrial policy containing talcworth several billion Euro. Soap- for the north that is proactive and aimed at the stone is used as building stone and in furnaces future. The government is currently working on a and ovens, while talc is also used as filler in paper new Mineral Law, which will improve conditions and in paint. for responsible exploitation of mineral and metal deposits. Many areas in northern Norway have rocks that may contain economically interesting mineral Good planning of land usewill facilitate the deposits. The objective is always to search for, and exploitation of mineral deposits without signifi- to find, economically interesting deposits of, for cantly disturbing or damaging the landscape and instance, ultra-pure quartz, copper, nickel and gold. Axel Müller, scientist Industrial minerals and metals 6 7 www.ngu.no • GEOLOGY FOR SOCIETY a climate of change Scientists have discovered several dramatic The rising sea level caused the icecap in north- changes in climate during the last ice age. west Russia to float and break apart. It became thinner and melted completely relatively quickly, Under the umbrella of the International Polar thus freeing the lakes from being dammed up by Year 2007-2008, NGU manages a major research the ice. The waters from the huge lakes surged project called SciencePub. Scientists in this project northward again and out into the Kara Sea and map the natural changes in climate from the last White Sea. All of these dramatic changes were sign- interglacial period, through the last ice age, till the ificant for both the climate and marine currents in present, a period covering the last 130,000 years. the Barents region. Many years of geological fieldwork in north-west Russia continually reveal new pieces of this great The sea level rose rapidly, and land, that had been puzzle. pressed down by the heavy icecaps, were inun- dated by the sea. In some of the larger river valleys The inland icecaps, acting as heavy lids on the in north-west Russia, the sea reached 200-300 northern land masses, caused the damming up of kilometers further inland compared with today. huge lakes in Russia during extended periods of time. These ice-dammed lakes were larger in size Only when we know what happened in the past, compared with the largest lakes on Earth known may we understand better what may happen today. The entire drainage system was reversed, in the future. SciencePub therefore also aims at with rivers, which today drain northwards, running explaining how humans adapted to the large south toward the Caspian, Black or Mediterranean changes in climate during and after the last ice seas during glacial periods. age. But the icecaps were always changing in size and Archaeologists from the University of Tromsø try the ice front was constantly moving, sometimes to find out from where the first humans arrived in surging forward and then retreating again. North Calotte about 10,000 years ago. They search for homesteads, tent rings and fireplaces, finding Around 60,000 years ago, in the middle of the last pieces of tools and traces of artefacts, investigating ice age, the enormous icecaps were melting. The raw materials, and scrutinizing characteristic marks climate at that time was colder than today, but a from making tools. strong thawing of large icecaps in America and Antarctica caused a chain reaction affecting also In addition, geological fieldwork and research is the Barents Sea region. carried out in the Barents Sea, on Spitsbergen and northeastern Greenland. Astrid Lyså, scientist Quarternary geology and climate 8 9 www.ngu.no • GEOLOGY FOR SOCIETY mapping “sans frontières” Six nations in the Circum-Arctic territory are pool- this mapping project will be valuable, both for ing their resources to compile digital bedrock geoscience in general, for understanding the and geophysical maps of the world’s northern- geological evolution of the Circum-Arctic region, most regions. The maps will provide a starting and for further investigations of both known and point for prospecting for geological resources in unknown geological resources. these regions. For example, many petroleum experts believe The initiators of this international mapping pro- that 25% of the world’s hitherto undiscovered oil ject are the geological surveys of Russia, Sweden, and gas resources are located in the Arctic. Finland, USA, Canada and Norway. A number of other countries contribute researchers to the This borderless mapping covers the collection, project. compilation and processing into a common for- mat of the magnetic and gravimetric data from This work is a direct result of an agreement on each participating country. The magnetic data collaboration signed by the six nations in June from Canada, Alaska and north-western Europe 2005. The agreement covers several projects are compiled on a grid of 1x1 km. Data from the under the umbrella “Geological atlas of the marine areas and from Russia are compiled on a Circum-Arctic region on a scale of 1:5 million”.