BGS wins contract to map UAE geology
01 August 2002
The British Geological Survey (BGS) has won a £7 million ($11 million) contract to map the geology of north-eastern UAE.
The BGS, part of the UK-based Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), competed with organisations from all over the world for the complex and demanding four-year project.
"The final decision was based on quality and reputation," says BGS executive director Dr David Falvey. "The BGS remains the world's gold standard of national geological surveys."
BGS researchers will undertake studies in the Northern Emirates where ophiolites -sections of the oceanic crust and upper mantle - have been pushed onto the continental margin of limestones and other sediments by powerful plate tectonic forces. Detailed mapping will provide geological maps at scales of 1:50,000 and 1:100,000, together with some detailed coverage at 1:25,000.
The four-year contract, which started at the end of April this year, will involve a multidisciplinary expert team of up to 30 BGS people, including staff of the NERC Isotope Geology Laboratory (NIGL).
Most of the fieldwork will be carried out during the cooler months between October and April, with supporting work, such as satellite interpretation and rock analyses, continuing throughout the year.
To add to the in-depth interpretation, a new airborne magnetic and radiometric survey and deep seismic profiling will be carried out.
The UAE expects to benefit from this work in many ways. For the first time, there will be a published, in-depth, understanding of the geology of the region, according to Falvey.
This may lead to the discovery of metallic and industrial minerals and, possibly, new oil and gas resources, although the latter is not a principle objective of the work, he adds. Other studies will relate to geohazards, groundwater, engineering geology and environmental studies.
