Geological Survey of Canada 8.0: mapping the journey towards predictive geoscience

Lebel, D

doi:10.1144/sp499-2019-79

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Geological maps also provide a high value to society, with an estimated 4:1 to 100:1 benefit-to-cost ratios (Berg et al, 2019). The observations and technical knowledge encoded in these databases over many decades represents a massive human effort, with contributions from hundreds of geoscientists, and are probably the most important contribution of geological survey organizations to society (Howard et al, 2009;Lebel 2020;Culshaw et al, 2021). Most geological map databases, and geoscience more generally, contain an untapped wealth of information in the form of unstructured and semi-structured text data.…”

Section: Natural Language Processing For Knowledge Discoverymentioning

confidence: 99%

Applications of Natural Language Processing to Geoscience Text Data and Prospectivity Modeling

et al. 2023

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Geological maps are powerful models for visualizing the complex distribution of rock types through space and time. However, the descriptive information that forms the basis for a preferred map interpretation is typically stored in geological map databases as unstructured text data that are difficult to use in practice. Herein we apply natural language processing (NLP) to geoscientific text data from Canada, the U.S., and Australia to address that knowledge gap. First, rock descriptions, geological ages, lithostratigraphic and lithodemic information, and other long-form text data are translated to numerical vectors, i.e., a word embedding, using a geoscience language model. Network analysis of word associations, nearest neighbors, and principal component analysis are then used to extract meaningful semantic relationships between rock types. We further demonstrate using simple Naive Bayes classifiers and the area under receiver operating characteristics plots (AUC) how word vectors can be used to: (1) predict the locations of “pegmatitic” (AUC = 0.962) and “alkalic” (AUC = 0.938) rocks; (2) predict mineral potential for Mississippi-Valley-type (AUC = 0.868) and clastic-dominated (AUC = 0.809) Zn-Pb deposits; and (3) search geoscientific text data for analogues of the giant Mount Isa clastic-dominated Zn-Pb deposit using the cosine similarities between word vectors. This form of semantic search is a promising NLP approach for assessing mineral potential with limited training data. Overall, the results highlight how geoscience language models and NLP can be used to extract new knowledge from unstructured text data and reduce the mineral exploration search space for critical raw materials.

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Section: Natural Language Processing For Knowledge Discoverymentioning

confidence: 99%

Applications of Natural Language Processing to Geoscience Text Data and Prospectivity Modeling

et al. 2023

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“…The above-described geoscientific activities are in most countries typical survey tasks (e.g. Hill et al, 2020;Lebel, 2020;Smelror, 2020;van Doorn 2012), but were carried out by SNG commissions and their academic members, as Switzerland only established its own geological survey in 1986. The CHF 3′000.-subsidy by the Swiss Federal Council to the SGK for the production of a Switzerlandwide geological map in 1860 represents the first contribution to an SNG commission that was directly coming from a federal office.…”

Section: A Geological Survey For Switzerlandmentioning

confidence: 99%

120 years of georesources research in Switzerland: the Swiss Geotechnical Commission (1899–2018)

et al. 2022

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Geological surveys have a wide range of tasks for their countries: to map the geology and to assess the georesources potential for metallic ores, industrial minerals, geothermal energy, fossil fuels, aggregates and groundwater. In Europe, most countries founded geological surveys around the mid-nineteenth century in order to create an overview of the geological resources they wanted to exploit. In Switzerland, at that time, the industrial revolution triggered a tremendous demand for infrastructure and energy raw materials. However, no national georesources institution was established when the nation-forming process among the 25 cantons culminated in the foundation of the Swiss Federal State in 1848. The Swiss Geological Survey was founded 138 years later in 1986. How did Switzerland map the country, assess the resource potential and provide fundamental data for land use planning without such an organisation? This paper elaborates on the evolution of Swiss institutions mandated to study the geological resources, with a focus on the Swiss Geotechnical Commission (SGTK, 1899–2018). Given the low financial resources, no long-term nation-wide investigation programs could be implemented. The commission's study program was mainly driven by external societal and political factors. World War I for example reactivated the search for coal which was intensively exploited during those years. Before and during World War II, the focus temporarily shifted to oil and gas exploration. From 1970 onwards, SGTK was involved in several applied research projects and collaborations with various industry partners. In this paper, we revisit the key turning points in the evolution of the commission's investigation program, including related financial and organisational aspects, and discuss how Switzerland’s federalistic structure influenced the geological survey activities. The history of the SGTK represents an exemplification of how a nation managed its geological survey activities, until 1986 in the absence of a geological survey and without large hydrocarbon and metallic ore resources and a corresponding, significant mining industry. The SGTK case also shows that flexible, project-based investigations can be advantageous as they respond to current challenges at short notice. This could to some degree substitute the initial absence of a geological survey, as shown by the numerous SGTK monographs that are key references also 100 years after their publication.

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“…At the same time, the planet faces significant environmental degradation, not least of which is that resulting from climate change (Lebel 2020;Smelror 2020). These issues are often framed, both locally and globally, in emergency management terms.…”

Section: Global Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This implies deeper entrenchment of Earth system monitoring technologies and integrated data management. Lebel (2020), in tracing the evolution of the Geological Survey of Canada through seven generations of national and global trends, shows how this evolution has been shaped by three factors: policy relevance, enabling technology and the scientific methods of the time. In the next 25 years, he points to sustainability as the key policy driver and the need for GSOs to develop capacity for predictive geoscience, comprising massive data integration and modelling of Earth processes, all the while keeping in mind the social context.…”

Section: Global Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The changing role of Geological Surveys: introduction

Hill

Lebel

Hitzman

et al. 2020

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This volume is a collection of papers authored by senior managers and heads of Geological Survey organizations (GSOs) from around the world in an attempt to provide a benchmark on how GSOs are responding to national and international needs in a rapidly changing world. GSOs face an uncertain future and need to understand global trends. Whereas population trends are somewhat predictable, societal responses to change are much less so and technological change is fundamentally disruptive and chaotic. As countries adopt sustainable development principles and the public becomes increasingly (but not necessarily reliably) informed about environmental issues using social media, the integration of resource development and environmental stewardship becomes increasingly important. GSOs will continue to provide key information about Earth systems, natural hazards and climate change in this context. This introduction comprises a short review of the global trends affecting GSOs, a snapshot of the state of GSOs, examples of how GSOs are adapting their activities to the modern world, including the growing use of big data, and an examination of international collaboration between GSOs. The time is perhaps ripe to reinforce international collaborations through a global network of GSOs. To achieve this will require leadership and a focus on the big picture of global sustainability.

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Geological Survey of Canada 8.0: mapping the journey towards predictive geoscience

Cited by 4 publications

References 18 publications

Applications of Natural Language Processing to Geoscience Text Data and Prospectivity Modeling

Applications of Natural Language Processing to Geoscience Text Data and Prospectivity Modeling

120 years of georesources research in Switzerland: the Swiss Geotechnical Commission (1899–2018)

The changing role of Geological Surveys: introduction

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