ALBANIAN GEOLOGICAL SURVEY (National Committee for IUGS)
About us
AGS can be considered as the oldest Scientific Institution in Albania. Its story began in 1921 -1922, when the Minister of Agriculture and Public Works nominated the Czech-Austrian geologist Dr. Ernst Nowack as Head of Geological Office. His mission was the compilation of the Geological Map of Albania at 1:200 000 scale and the assessment of the mineral bearing and oil perspective of the country.
Since 19th century, and after that, during the First World War, different French, Austrian, Hungarian and Italian geologists carried out geological studies in Albania. One of them was Dr. Nowack who, after an oceanographic expedition in Adriatic Sea, had the possibility to explore the onshore as a geologist of the Austro-Hungarian Army.
Based on this experience and on materials supplied by other geologists such as Franz Baron von Nopsca and Jacques Bourcart, in 1929 Nowack published in Innsbruck the first Geological Map of Albania and in Salzburg the explanatory text.
The most intensive activity was developed during the period 1927-1945 when the Polish geologist Prof. Stanislav Zuber got the mission to prospect ore deposits and oil resources, contracted by the Italian enterprise AIPA. In 1943 he compiled the Geological Map of Albania at 1:200 000 scale and the Tectonic one at 1:400 000 scales. The destiny of Prof. Zuber was very tragic. He died in a communist prison in 1946.
After the Second World War the Albanian Geological Survey was reorganized in 1952, with the main goal to support the national economy, meeting the demand for mineral resources. The foundation of the Faculty of Geology and Mine, at the same period, combined with the help of foreign geologists from Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Poland etc., was a great support for consolidation of institutions and capacity building.
During this period was carried out an enormous prospecting exploration work in evidencing, discovering ore deposits, oil, and gas sources. Numerous thematic studies in the field of regional geology, hydrogeology, soil science and engineering geology, compiling and publishing different maps have been completed. In the Archive of the AGS are deposited 7500 reports, studies and research projects.
The political system change of 1990s was a knock for the AGS. By mistake, AGS was transformed into Geoalba Ltd. Later (1998), with the Law for Albanian Geological Survey, AGS was named as the scientific and technical adviser of the Albanian government in the field of geo-sciences.
At the beginning of 2007, the Albanian Geological Survey became a member of EuroGeoSurveys, becoming one of the first Albanian Institution completely integrated in the European structures. Albania became a member of IUGS in 1990.
In agreement with the Government Program, the AGS is involved in the implementation of the objectives dealing with evaluation and management of drinking water reserves, raw materials, energetic resources, managing and planning of urban territory, environment protection and geo-hazards evaluation. AGS is involved in the reformation and integration processes for sustainable development of the country.
The basic product.
(Geological mapping)
The result of each study and research in geology is the production of geological mapping. The first geological map published by the Albanian Geological Survey can be considered that of Ernst Nowack, 1929 printed in Innsbruck, Austria. Since then are published periodically regional maps at the scale 1:200 000, devoted to geology (1954, 1967, 1983, and 2002), ore deposits, tectonics, minerals, hydrogeology, and geological risk.
Since 1997, the Albanian Geological Survey began to work on the preparation of multi-functional series of maps, at 1:50000 scales, based on the scheme of topographic sheets.
The geologic mapping effort is working not only to cover the territory of Albania but also for the correlation of the border areas with those of Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro, bringing also an example of productive cooperation with the Geological Surveys of the other countries of the region. All the products are digitalized and included into the GIS system.
The fulfilling of the process gives us the opportunity to switch to a new stage of more detailed mapping of the territory of our country...
“Bulletin of geological science”
This is the scientific periodical issue of the Albanian Geological Survey. It was firstly published in 1965 under the title “Studies Summarize” as an issue of the scientific research branch of AGS, Institute of Geological Research.
The current name was given in 1982.
As the only scientific publication in the field of geology, “Bulletin of geological science” has succeeded to present all the Albanian scientific opinion during 36 years.
Initially were published four numbers per year and two after the year 1990. Inside its pages are presented all categories of studies such as geology, stratigraphy, tectonics, economic geology, paleontology, petrography, mineralogy, geophysics, geochemistry, hydrogeology, engineering geology, geo-environment, regional geology studies, even in the field of mining.
Until 1990 articles were accompanied by a bilingual Russian and French abstract, and then the abstract was presented in English only. Newsletter continues to invite all of specialist areas of Geosciences to publish their opinion in its pages.
The official language of “Bulletin” is Albanian, with an abstract in English, but during the last decade we began publishing papers entirely in English followed by a summary in Albanian.
The “Bulletin of geological science” and his predecessor, “Studies Summarize” are registered with the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), respectively ISSN 0254-5276 and ISSN 0370-1638.
1