There is good news for geologic mapping, both at the national and state levels. The National Geologic Mapping Act of 1991 has been introduced in the Senate as S. 1179 and in the House of Representatives as H.R. 2763. These bills call for systematic geologic mapping of the entire United States. In most states, including Nevada, mapping will be at a scale of 1:24,000. The bill authorizes funding for geologic mapping to be coordinated and published by the USGS and by state geological surveys. It also provides for funding to help universities revitalize training of geologic mappers.
Geologic mapping is needed in Nevada for many worthwhile purposes, including emergency preparedness (assessing the hazards of earthquakes, floods, landslides, and volcanic eruptions), environmental protection (screening and characterizing sites for the disposal of hazardous, toxic, and nuclear waste; restoring and reclaiming damaged sites; evaluating radon hazards; and protecting the quality of groundwater), land-use planning (determining the adequacy of locations for critical facilities, housing developments, parks, and wilderness areas), and resource extraction (finding groundwater, mineral, and energy resources, then extracting them in an environmentally safe manner).
NBMG wishes to thank the Geological Society of Nevada for helping to initiate the Nevada Geologic Quadrangle Mapping Program. We also greatly appreciate the financial contributions to the program from Echo Bay Exploration, Homestake Mining Company, Magma Copper Company, Phelps Dodge Mining Company, and Santa Fe Pacific Mining, Inc. With these plus additional funds from the State of Nevada, 12 proposals received in 1991 have been approved (see map).
This program is designed to encourage geologists to submit their 7.5-minute quadrangle maps to NBMG for publication. The program provides a small amount of money to help defray field expenses. It is therefore most attractive to graduate students, professors, consultants, company geologists, and government geologists who have already been mapping in an area or for whom salary expenses are otherwise covered. Geologists wishing to submit proposals for the Nevada Geologic Quadrangle Mapping Program should follow the guidelines set forth in the request for proposals on the back page of this newsletter.
NBMG serves as a repository for unpublished geologic maps and reports on Nevada geology and mineral resources. Maps and reports that have not been reviewed are catalogued and placed in the NBMG open files. If appropriate, after thorough peer review, NBMG will also publish geologic maps and manuscripts. We prefer to discuss an outline of the manuscript and the scale and detail of the geologic map prior to submission for review.
Please contact Jon Price or Larry Garside at NBMG for further information on the National Geologic Mapping Act, the Nevada Geologic Quadrangle Mapping Program, or publication of your maps by NBMG.
---Jonathan G. Price, Director/State Geologist