South Korea has completed its 1:50,000-scale national basic geologic map, 102 years after the project began. The map divides South Korea into 357 sheets and records the rocks, strata and faults that make up the country's land, establishing a national standard system for geologic information. The Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, which led the mapping effort, plans to digitize the geologic data accumulated over the past century and apply artificial intelligence to develop it into three-dimensional geologic information that shows underground structures.
Kwon Yi-kyun, president of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, outlined the plan in an interview with Seoul Economic Daily on the 10th. "Completing the national basic geologic map is not an end but a new beginning, a point where our country moves up a level," the president said.
The national basic geologic map systematically records, on top of topographic maps, the types and formation periods of rocks, the distribution and sequence of strata, and geologic structures such as faults and folds. South Korea began modern national geologic surveys with the establishment of a geological survey office in 1918 and published its first 1:50,000-scale geologic map in 1924.
The survey area later expanded to regions needed for resource and economic development, including the publication of a geologic map of the Taebaeksan area in 1962. This year, the final sheets covering mountainous, border and island regions were filled in, completing all 357 sheets for South Korea. "Internationally, a scale of about 1:50,000 is regarded as the standard for high-resolution geologic maps," the president said. "Korea can now be considered to have joined the top tier in national geologic information, alongside countries such as Britain and France."
A national basic geologic map cannot be completed quickly by deploying large numbers of workers. Geologists must visit mountains, fields, rivers and coastlines in person to observe rocks and strata, collect samples and then analyze mineral composition, microstructures and geochemical properties. "Korea's geologic structure is complex, with strata from many different periods appearing across multiple regions," the president said, describing the difficulty of producing the maps. "It is also impossible to produce large numbers of experts with proven technical skills in a short time."
Even so, major countries value geologic maps as national infrastructure information for resource security and the safe use of national territory, and they invest specialists and budgets over long periods to build and update high-resolution geologic data. Geologic maps serve as basic data for tasks such as coping with instability in critical mineral supply chains, responding to the climate crisis and expanding the use of underground space. The depth of geologic information required also varies by purpose. "As basic scientific data for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste, geologic information down to at least 1 to 1.5 kilometers is needed," the president said. "Surface resources have already been developed extensively, so understanding deep geologic structures now matters for security."
"Going forward, we must organize and upgrade the geologic information accumulated over 100 years and develop the surface-focused two-dimensional geologic map into three-dimensional geologic information that shows what lies underground," the president said. The aim is to shift from a system that simply shows where particular rocks are located to one that allows a three-dimensional understanding of how rocks and strata connect and break off beneath the surface. To that end, the institute first plans to build a seamless geologic map that corrects inconsistencies and gaps among the 357 sheets, which were produced in different periods using different technologies, and links them into a single map. It will also resurvey and update areas as needed.
The next step is converting the 2D geologic map, which shows the distribution of rocks at the surface, into 3D geologic information showing how rocks connect and break off underground. Digitization of a century's worth of geologic data, which will form the basis for the 3D conversion, is also under way. "The records of 100 years of geologic surveys are sitting in some cabinet, on a researcher's computer, on a hard disk, or in field notebooks on a bookshelf," the president said. "How to draw out those records is the No. 1 question on my mind." The institute plans to collect and digitize such material while standardizing data it produces in the future so that AI can use it.
The institute has also finished a "pixelation" project that divides the country into fine units. It plans to build a data system that accumulates information on groundwater, faults, soil, rocks and mineral resources produced by the institute, universities and companies, organized by location. "Once a location-based dataset is built, AI can analyze correlations and connections between data from different fields that were previously hard to access," the president said. "Through analysis that was beyond human capacity, we will be able to produce new results."
