Commission for the Geological Map of the World (CGMW) Bureau Meeting

On December 01, 2020, the Bureau Meeting of the Commission for the Geological Map of the World (CGMW) was held in the video conference mode. The President of the Commission Dr. M. Pubellier and Secretary General Dr. P. Nehlig addressed the participants with a welcome speech, as well as the representative from the IGCP UNESCO Program Dr. O. Lopez who in her speech noted the full UNESCO support of CGMW activities. From the Russian side, RAS Corresponding Member Dr. O. Petrov, VSEGEI Director General, Vice-President of the Subcommission for Northern Eurasia, Academician A.I. Khanchuk, President of the Subcommission on Tectonic Maps and Dr. G.L. Leichenkov, Vice President of the Antarctic Sub-Commission took part at the Bureau Meeting.

The agenda of the working meeting included two main blocks. The first one was devoted to changes in the Bureau staff. New candidates for leading positions in CGMW Subcommissions were discussed, and Dr. T. Tolmacheva, VSEGEI Scientific Secretary was elected to the position of the Secretary General of the Subcommission For Northern Eurasia.

During the main part of the Bureau Meeting results achieved by the regional and thematic CGMW Subcommissions in the period 2018-2020 and the results of programs and projects of the Subcommissions for mapping were considered. In the course of the session, the coordinators of the mapping projects briefly presented their reports, the results of existing and scheduled projects.

The report by the Vice-President of the Antarctic Sub-Commission Dr. G.L. Leichenkov was devoted to the updated Tectonic Map of Antarctica. The Presentation delivered by RAS Corresponding Member Dr. O.V. Petrov, in collaboration with Academician A.I. Khanchuk, was devoted to a report on the activities of the Subcommission for Northern Eurasia and the Subcommission on Tectonic Maps. It was noted that during the reporting period, the Subcommission for Northern Eurasia and the Subcommission on Tectonic Maps prepared and published the Tectonic Map of the Arctic (2019) in Paris, and a monograph on the tectonics of the Arctic and Asia was prepared for publication by Springer.

Also, a new project "Tectonic Map of the World at 1: 35M scale" was presented, which has been implemented since 2020 jointly by the CGMW Subcommissions for Northern Eurasia, Tectonic Maps and Antarctica, with the support of the Governing Council of the International Deep-time Digital Earth (DDE) Program. The recent Tectonic Map of the World (scale 1: 45 M) was compiled in 1982 by CGMW Subcommission on Tectonic Maps under the leadership of Academicians V. Khain and Yu. Leonov.

Thus, the compilation of new tectonic maps of the Arctic, Asia and Antarctica by CGMW subcommissions for Northern Eurasia, Antarctica and Tectonic Maps, traditionally led by Russian scientists, served as the basis for the CGMW proposal to compile a new Tectonic Map of the World.

Over 30 experts took part in the meeting. Resolution following the meeting will be prepared by the organizers within a few weeks, and sent to the participants before the CGMW General Assembly, which, by prior arrangement, will be held in May 2021.