Geochemical Atlases

Geochemical atlases are maps or databases providing regional coverage for a given media type (soil, sediment, groundwater, rocks, etc) at a large scale. They often cover a whole country or a larger region. They may be designed for the needs of mineral exploration, agriculture, land planning or risk management, but in most cases, they may also be used for other purposes. They are most useful for interpreting geochemical anomalies as well as for identifying local pollution.

They may be available free of charge – as a public service – or for a moderate publication cost. The earlier ones are available in printed form, while more recent ones are available online, sometimes with GIS features.

Most known atlases are listed here. Industry initiatives may lead to regional geochemical atlases as well, but they are usually not made public.

The list below is by far not exhaustive, do not hesitate to inform us of your own finds to be shared.

Table 1: Main atlases

Region	Media	Density	URL
Africa - Zimbabwe			Ultra-low density geochemical mapping in Zimbabwe http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03756742/144/part/PC
Argentina	stream sediments	1:250,000 scale maps compiled from exploration projects. Two coverages: Pb-Zn-Cu coverage with locally other elements; and a multi-element coverage including up to 48 elements by ICP/AES, ICP/MS and INAA.	http://www.segemar.gov.ar/index.php/geoquimica/nuestro-alcance
Australia	National Geochemical Survey of Australia (NGSA) catchment outlet sediment	1,315 sites from 6,174,000 km²	http://www.ga.gov.au/ngsa http://geea.lyellcollection.org/content/16/1/3.full.pdf+html
Australia	Yilgarn Craton regional survey shallow groundwater	2507 samples from 657,000 km²	http://geea.lyellcollection.org/content/16/1/100.abstract
Brazil	Stream and overbank sediments, soil and water, pan concentrates	359 samples from 625,000 km²	http://www.cprm.gov.br/publique/cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start.htm?UserActiveTemplate=cprm_layout&sid=13 - GEOBANK (database) - Geochemical Maps Catalog - International Geochemical Mapping Pilot Project: summary edition - The geochemical Atlas of Rio das Velhas Basin (in Portuguese)
Canada	surficial sediments, water, bedrock, vegetation	variable	http://geochem.nrcan.gc.ca Canadian Database of Geochemical Surveys (CDoGS)
Canada - Newfoundland and Labrador			https://gis.geosurv.gov.nl.ca Includes lake-sediment geochemical coverage of the entire province and till-geochemical coverage of about half of the island of Newfoundland (with data still being added) as well as links to numerous focused surveys of rock, till, lake and stream geochemistry Canadian Database of Geochemical Surveys (CDoGS)
Canada – Labrador and Quebec (Geochemical atlas of northeastern Quebec and adjacent areas in mainland Newfoundland and Labrador)	lake sediments	6 to 8 samples per 100 km²	https://doi.org/10.4095/306596 Multi-element ICP-MS analyses, after aqua-regia digestion, of about 21,000 samples
Chile	stream sediments and top soil	1 sample per 20 km²	http://geoportal.sernageomin.cl/geoportal/catalog/main/home.page http://www.sernageomin.cl/presentaciones-geologia.php (Click on: “Mapa geoquímico del Norte de Chile (Juan Pablo Lacassie, Sernageomin)“: A powerpoint presentation with current advances of the project, in Spanish).
Chile - Northern			http://www.sernageomin.cl/pdf/presentaciones-geo/Mapa-geoquimico-del-Norte-de-Chile.pdf
China			Information expected soon
Europe FOREGS	Subsoil and topsoil, humus, stream water, stream sediment, floodplain sediment	1 sample per 160 km² (850 samples on average)	http://www.gtk.fi/publ/foregsatlas/
Europe	soil	2,219 agricultural soil samples and 2,127 grazing land soil samples at 1 site per 2500 km²	GEMAS (Geochemical Mapping of Agricultural and Grazing Land Soils) Project http://www.eurogeosurveys.org
Jamaica	stream sediments, soil		http://eshare.uwimona.edu.jm/xmlui/handle/1119/6
Japan			https://www.gsj.jp/Map/EN/geochemistry.html
Mexico	soil	1,327 sites (at 1 site per 1600 km²), 3,526 samples	Not yet online, under completion
Peru			http://data.gov.uk/dataset/northern-peru-regional-geochemical-exploration-survey
Saudi Arabia	stream sediment, soil	ongoing	http://www.sgs.org.sa/English/MineralResources/Pages/GechemicalExploration.aspx
UK	soil	5,691 samples for km²	www.bgs.ac.uk/gbase/advsoilatlasEW.html More information on GBase to be added soon
USA	soil	4,857 sites (1 site per 1600 km²), 14,434 samples	USGS Soil Geochemical Landscapes of the Conterminous United States Project Raw data: https://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/801/ Geochemical and mineralogical maps: https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2014/1082/ Interactive web site, including interpretations of geochemical and mineralogical patterns: https://pubs.usgs.ogv/sir/2017/5118/

Table 2: European atlases

Region	media		density	URL
Baltic Region	terrestrial mosses and the organic soil layer		476 samples	http://arkisto.gtk.fi/sp/sp50.pdf
Barents	stream water, minerogenic stream sediment, humus, moss, plants, minerogenic soil, complete soil profiles		498 sampling sites from 658 000 km²	http://newprojects.gtk.fi/barents/
Cyprus	subsoil (50–70 cm), topsoil (0–25 cm)		1 sampling sites per ~1 km²	http://www.moa.gov.cy/moa/gsd/gsd.nsf/All/7E66423FF53B23DFC22585FA002EC099?OpenDocument Geochemical data in the form of rasters available at GeoPortal of the Geological Survey Department with ArcGIS login https://gsd.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=e6f54157fe8640cc853df09bf2e75dd7
Europe FOREGS	subsoil, topsoil humus stream water, stream sediment, floodplain sediment		1 sample per 160 km² (850 samples on average)	http://www.gtk.fi/publ/foregsatlas/
Europe	soil		2,219 agricultural soil samples and 2,127 gazing land soil samples at 1 site per 2500 km²	GEMAS (Geochemical Mapping of Agricultural and Grazing Land Soils) Project http://www.eurogeosurveys.org
Europe	Geochemical Atlas of Northern Europe: humus, moss, soil, stream sediment, stream water		58,311 samples	http://www.gtk.fi/publ/negatlas/index.php
Finland	Geochemical Atlas of Finland, part 1: The hydrogeochemical mapping of Finnish groundwater		approximately 3,600 samples across the entire country	http://tupa.gtk.fi/julkaisu/erikoisjulkaisu/ej_005.pdf
Finland	Geochemical Atlas of Finland, Part 2: Till		1,057 samples, 1 sample per 300 km²	http://tupa.gtk.fi/julkaisu/erikoisjulkaisu/ej_008.pdf
Finland	Geochemical Atlas of Finland, Part 3: Environmental geochemistry – stream waters and sediments		1,166 samples, density approximately 1 sample per 300 km²	http://tupa.gtk.fi/julkaisu/erikoisjulkaisu/ej_020.pdf
Finland	Regional Geochemical Mapping: Till		82,062 samples, 1 sample per 4 km²	http://arkisto.gtk.fi/tr/tr_130.pdf http://geomaps2.gtk.fi/activemap/
Finland, Russia	Geochemical atlas of the eastern Barents region: organic soil, minerogenic soil, terrestrial moss, stream water and sediment, vegetation		1 sampling site per 100 km²	http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03756742/83/1-3
France	agricultural soil	734,00 sites from 500,000 km²	http://www.gissol.fr/programme/bdetm/bdetm.php (in French)
France	stream sediment, soil, heavy minerals	more than 200,000 samples, heterogeneous distribution	http://sigminesfrance.brgm.fr/telechargement/divers/geochimie_inventaire.pdf (in French)
Germany	soil	one sample per 380 km²	http://www.bgr.bund.de/EN/Themen/Sammlungen-Grundlagen/GG_geol_Info/Projekte/geochemical_atlas_of_germany/geochemical_atlas_germany_en.html
Italy	topsoil, subsoil, stream water, stream, floodplain sediment	extract from FOREGS	http://geo.geoscienze.unipd.it/sites/default/files/182/estratto_atlante.pdf A list of regional atlases is available here
Northern Fennoscandia	till, stream sediments, stream organic matter, stream moss, heavy mineral fraction	7,267 sampling sites	Nordkalott Project: Geochemical Atlas of Northern Fennoscandia, 1:4,000,000 http://www.gtk.fi; Only printed version available (Bølviken, B. et al. 1986.)
Sweden	geochemical atlas, maps and data	2,578 samples at 1 sample per 150 km²	Geochemical Atlas of Sweden: https://www.sgu.se/en/mineral-resources/geokemisk-kartlaggning/geochemical-atlas-of-sweden/ (in English and Swedish)
United Kingdom	soil	5691 samples for km²	www.bgs.ac.uk/gbase/advsoilatlasEW.html More information on GBase to be added soon