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Commission for the Geological Map of the World

The Commission for the Geological Map of the World (CGMW or CCGM in French) is an international association in the field of geology. Its main role is the production of small-scale maps of continents and oceans, regions of the Earth and the whole World in the field of Geosciences. It is an organization affiliated to IUGS (International Union of Geological Sciences) and IUGG (International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics) and a UNESCO related scientific NGO.

Brief history

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The origin of CGMW is rooted in the II IGC (International Geological Congress) held in 1881 in Bologna (Italy), when it was decided to draw a Geological map of Europe. When created, the CGME (Commission for the Geological Map of Europe) was made up of 6 members, representing Austria, Germany, Hungary,France, Great Britain and Russia, and Berlin was proposed as the place for Headquarter seat (1). At the XI IGC (1910, Stockholm, Sweden), in its resolutions, the CGME considers “that it will be possible to achieve a first edition in one year time […]” and the possibility of preparing an international map of the World supported by wide international cooperation is officially mentioned for the first time (2). At the XII IGC (1913, Toronto, Canada), while CGME presented the first edition of the Geological Map of Europe (49 sheets at 1:1.5M scale), the resolution on the project of an "International Geological Map of Europe and new map of the World" (3) was accepted. The Resolution on the project at the XIV IGC (1926, Madrid, Spain) on the discussion on problems of the geological maps of Europe and the World in the relevant Commissions continued (4). The name of the Commission: “Commission de la Carte géologique internationale du Monde” first appeared at a meeting on 27 May 1926 (5).

In short, the date of CGMW foundation as an autonomous commission can be defined as 1913 not as a part of the CGME, but in its own name. The World War II strongly lowered the international activities of geologists and the first post WWII CGMW meeting was held at the XVIII IGC (1948, London, UK) where the relationships between IGC and CGMW were stated: la Commission de la Carte Géologique du Monde est une Commission du Congrès Géologique International [The CGMW is a Commission of the IGC]. In 1962, the CGMW General Assembly (G.A) was held in Paris, and for the first time at UNESCO. This schedule of a G.A in Paris, between those held every four years during the CGIs, was to become the rule (i.e a G.A every two years). In 1966, the CGMW joined the IUGS (International Union of geological Sciences, itself founded in 1961). “At present, therefore, this Commission is a permanent commission and affiliated to IUGS as an International Association of IGC (6).

The statutes of CGMW were established for the first time in 1966 and, after some revisions finally stabilized (7) at the XXVI IGC (1980, Paris, France) and remain roughly unchanged up to now (2024). From 1980, CGMW has now a legal frame under French law, since it was officially registered on October 26, 1981 as a “French Association governed by the law of 1901” (8). The article 5 defines that “Statutory members are national organizations responsible for solid earth science mapping of all the countries or territories of the world which adhere to CGMW “ and “ … Associate members are public or private organizations interested in and supportive of the CGMW’s work …“. A detailed history of CGMW can be found in (9) and (10).

CGMW World maps

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The launch of a Geological Atlas of the World at 1:10M scale project (continents and oceans) was approved (11) during the XX IGC (Mexico City, 1956) and launched in 1966. This huge project was shared between CGMW (preparation of maps) and UNESCO (grants to CGMW collaborators and printing). The 22 maps of the Geological Atlas of the World were co-published by CGMW and UNESCO from 1974 to 1984.

In January 1983, the wall map concept of the Geological Map of the World was revived at the UNESCO G.A. (12) and the 1rst edition at 1:25M scale was published in 1990. For the first time, continental geology was shown, alongside ocean geology, on a single map. The 2nd edition (2000), benefited essentially from new imaging techniques based on satellite altimetry combined with on-board multibeam echo sounder bathymetry, representing a remarkable technological breakthrough: the ocean floor took on a new aspect, clarifying the structure of the oceans on a smaller scale than before. On the 3rd edition (2010) (11), the grain morphology of the ocean floor was even finer, thanks to data freely available from the world's major geophysical databases. In addition, the considerable growth and greater reliability of geochronological techniques has finally enabled us to achieve better resolution of Precambrian main subdivisions. Above all, the survey of major magmatic pulses on land and offshore (hot spots, trapps, oceanic plateaus, etc.) was taken into account, leading to a significant upgrade of the 2nd edition.

CGMW Continental and oceanic maps

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Geological and Tectonic maps of the continents (at 1:5M scale) and structural maps of oceans (at 1:20M scale) were drawn by the regional (Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Southern and Eastern Asia, Australia-Oceania, Middle East, Northern Eurasia, Europe) and thematic (Tectonic-, Metallogenic-, Magmatic & Metamorphic-, Naturals Hazards-, Sea-Floor-, Hydrogeologic- and Geophysical- maps) CGMW sub commissions leading to a complete coverage of the Earth (13).

The Standard Color Codes for the Geological Time actualized by ICS (International Commission on Stratigraphy of the IUGS) are determined by CGMW (14).

In 2020 IUGS, launched the Deep-time Digital Earth (DDE), a big science program dedicated to facilitate innovation in understanding the Earth’s evolution and applications as well as the Sustainable Development Goals. In the frame of this new program, CGMW produced a 1:5M scale fully digital seamless Geological Map of the continents and oceans of the World based on CGMW‘s geological maps of the 6 continents and the World ocean. CGMW remains in charge of the actualization and upgrade of this digital map.

References

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(1) Congrès Géologique International, Compte rendu de la 2ème session, Bologne (1881) Vol. 2, Imprimerie Fava et Garagnani, 1882. (cf. p. 138).

(2) Compte-rendu de la XI session du Congrès Géologique International (Stockholm, 1910) Kungl. boktryckeriet, P.A. Norstedt & söner, Stockholm, 1912 (cf. p.179).

(3) International Geological Congress, 12th session, Canada (1913), cf. p. 141-142.

(4) Comptes-rendus de la XIVe session du CGI Espagne, Gráficas Reunidas (1927) cf. pp. 131-132

(5) ibid, p.180.

(6) CCGM-CGMW Bull. no. 5, p.10.

(7) https://scholar.google.fr/scholar?q=CGMW+geology+statutes&hl=fr&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart

(8) Journal Officiel de la République française, 13 Novembre 1981, p. 9903.

(9) Bouysse Ph. (2013). The CGMW: Genesis and development over one century of existence, published as the supplement to CGMW Bulletin 57. The pdf file (French or English version) can be downloaded for free on the CGMW website: https://ccgm.org.

(10) Zhamoida A. (2007). ЧЕТВЕРТЬ ВЕКА В КОМИССИИ ПО ГЕОЛОГИЧЕСКОЙ КАРТЕ МИРА [A quarter of century at the Commission for the Geological Map of the World]. Saint-Petersburg.

(11) International Geological Congress, XX CGI, Mexico City, note n° 19.

(12) CCGM-CGMW Bull. no. 32, 1983, Resolution no. 11 p. 147.

(13) https://ccgm.org

(14) https://timescalefoundation.org/charts/rgb.html

(15) https://www.iugs.org/dde

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