Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 September 2014
Following an initiative taken by the Russian Ministry of Natural resources and Ecology and by the Federal Agency of Mineral Resources (Rosnedra) in 2003 international cooperation on compiling a new generation of circum-Arctic geological and geophysical maps (in scale 1: 5 000 000) was undertaken by a consortium of national agencies from Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the USA. The polar stereographic maps include onshore and offshore geological coverage to 60° N. The bedrock map and database was first published in 2008, the geophysical maps were completed in 2010, while a tectonic map is currently in press. The new circum-Arctic maps are formally published under the Comission for the Geological Map of the World (CGMW/CCGM). A metallogenic map and database of the main occurrences of onshore and offshore metal deposits is scheduled to be completed in 2016.