From its founding in 1842 onwards, the Geological Survey of Canada had a strong mandate to catalogue and promote the mineral resources of Canada. By the early 1900s, its extensive program of regional geological studies and exploration had resulted in the discovery of important mineral resources throughout the country. In 1909, the Survey published a summary of its findings on the geology and economic minerals of Canada. The author G.A. Young was to go on to be a respected editor of Survey publications and later its Chief Geologist (1924-1943).
In A Descriptive Sketch of the Geology and Economic Minerals of Canada, Young divided the information into six regions: the Appalachians, St. Lawrence Lowlands, Laurentian Plateau (roughly covering the Canadian Shield), Arctic Archipelago, Interior Continental Plain, and Cordilleran Region. The 151-page volume included two maps at a scale of 1 inch = 100 miles.
The publication was so well received that it became the first of a series titled Economic Geology Series Number 1. The last edition of the series, Geology and Economic Minerals of Canada, published in 1970, weighed in at 838 pages with eight maps.
Category: Publications
Decade: 1900s
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