Most US government maps are available in a single clearinghouse. https://nationalmap.gov/. State governments and counties also have websites with geological (need it for a septic permit) data and land plots. The data is just getting more open, which is awesome. It may be in different formats, but nothing a few lines of python and a PostGIS database can't handle.
This is definitely the right direction. But the thing I really want is a map of minerals, faults, and topography. I am finding topography, but not the other two. Perhaps I'm just not seeing them? Imagine how much better our earthquake predicting abilities might become if we could couple global seismic data with a full map of Earth's fault lines. I know thin is pretty unlikely, but humanity would be better off, and most importantly, it would be really cool (we could learn a lot of stuff)
The reason some geological maps are almost impossible to find is because they are treated as a national safety item. In some countries the law forbids companies from making these available. So an oil company that created the map can only use it and in a pretty controlled fashion.
More that that, even if the map can be used more freely in the country (by multiple parties) it may be illegal for the map to cross the border in any form. This also means electronic signals over the internet if they cross the border.
I guess the reason some of them are getting out in the open is because they are no longer considered "critical".
Disclaimer: My work intersected the oil and gas domain at some point.
>The reason some geological maps are almost impossible to find is because they are treated as a national safety item. In some countries the law forbids companies from making these available. So an oil company that created the map can only use it and in a pretty controlled fashion.
/THE/ reason.
Also, this is why some believe the war in Afghanistan was even waged - was to get the "boots on ground*" == on-top of the $1T in mineral deposits.
While we kvetch constantly about stupid political distractions, there are, in fact, many government-corporate entities that are in the long-game.
The point is that we are already in the long war for resource control. And sadly, I would say that the US is not in the upper-hand at this time, aside from building up the military...
I received the following (candid) comment from a geologist that I asked. He said that I could share his comment
> I don't have time to write the essay on this, but we definitely DONT wage war to get "boots on the ground". That's absurd and if true why go to that effort when there is the rest of the world to but your boots on without war. That's one of the biggest problems. The Afghan Geo Survey was at PDAC pleading people to come work in their country but, I for one won't be going AND NO ONE is going to put money into that huge risk. Why would they with the rest of the world available to make a real map you have to have boots on the ground, (like Iv done for 40 years) not a computer with .tab and .shp files. That is a derivative product that comes after collection of real data that costs money and is proprietary intellectual capital. Nobody sees my map without a non disclosure agreement or confidentiality agreement. And that happens across the world for any private expenditure. Exxon, Total, Shell, etc possibly have the the most vast earth science databases created by mankind. They represent $trillions of investment and are not about to make that publicly available.
Publicly available earth science information is created by, curated by, and made available through governments, =tax $. Thus, it is meager, everywhere.
I'm sorry - but I feel that this post agrees with my comment.
When I said "get boots on the ground" I was also saying that the point of having a military presence is a long-term play ensuring that we secure some avenue to access of minerals at-some-point in the future - and this aligns with the corporate goals as well.
Maybe I worded it poorly, but for the most part - I feel I am saying the same thing as your friend, though I am more cynical of the motives of our government/military and more suspicious that they are much more cunning than they would want the general populous to believe.
