Geological Services towards a Sustainable Use and Management of the Subsurface: A Geoethical Imperative

Lithuania is a comparatively small country (65 000 km2) with prevailing flat, glacial and post glacial relief composed of soft sediments without any rocky formations visible on the surface. There are no underground mines, but rather only pits for sand and gravel and few quarries of dolomite and limestone. Oil is produced from 15 oil fields in the west of the country. All potable water is taken from aquifers, with negligible if any concern. Most people, therefore, know very little about the geology of Lithuania and hardly realize what the Geological Survey is doing. Only in rare cases of hazardous events, like the Kaliningrad earthquake in 2004, or landslides devastating Gediminas Hill in 2016–17, or the largest karst sinkholes, is the name of the Geological Survey visible in the mass media. Nevertheless, the Geological Survey operates with several duties, private sector geological companies are generating business, and geosciences are on the agenda of scientific institutions. The aim of this study is to take a deeper look into the current factors that are determining the role of the Geological Survey of Lithuania at present, and to outline circumstances which could influence the role of the Survey in the future.

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European mineral intelligence – collecting, harmonizing and sharing data on European raw materials

Jørgensen

Wittenberg

Deady

et al. 2023

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The major share of raw materials needed to sustain our present lifestyle and even more importantly, required for the crucial green transition, are sourced outside Europe. The European Commission aims to enhance Europe's resilience and strengthen domestic sourcing. Although Europe has a long tradition of mining and extractive activities, it is acknowledged that there are several challenges to achieve European sourcing of certain raw materials such as the critical raw materials. A basic prerequisite to enable access to domestic raw materials is information on raw material occurrences, current and past mining activities, resources and reserves. The Geological Survey Organisations (GSOs) of Europe play a key role in generating, compiling, gathering, and storing the most up to date information as well as long-term data series on raw materials at national and regional levels. Over the last decade, the GSOs have joined forces and taken essential steps to harmonise and share data on raw materials. The results of this cooperation are illustrated as interactive maps on the European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI). This paper describes the data compiled in cooperation between the GSOs, and analyses the strengths and weaknesses of as well as opportunities for and threats towards the data.

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Geological Services towards a Sustainable Use and Management of the Subsurface: A Geoethical Imperative

Cited by 3 publications

References 8 publications

Contemporary Geoethics Within the Geosciences

Contemporary Geoethics Within the Geosciences

How to demonstrate the role of geology in a modern society: the case of Lithuania, where geology is not visible

European mineral intelligence – collecting, harmonizing and sharing data on European raw materials

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