Research

The Northwest Territories Geological Survey (NTGS) conducts independent research and collaborates on research projects with a number of partners. The majority of the research involves collecting data from remote areas of the territory, however there are other initiatives that analyze existing data.  The current projects are organized by research topic:

Minerals

gold, quartz

Research related to minerals ranging from regional scale geology to studies of specific mineral deposits.  These studies involve a wide variety of methods ranging from cutting-edge geochemical and isotopic studies to microscopic examination.  These studies are applied to variety of materials including: metals, emeralds, diamonds and alkaline rocks.

Bedrock Mapping

Rocks that have been melted under high pressure and temperature. Photo Credit: NTGS Bedrock mapping involves recording the characteristics of rocks that are exposed on the land, mainly by walking over them and breaking them open with a rock hammer.  These projects seek to unravel the geologic history of the NWT and result in new or updated geology maps.

 

Petroleum

From helicopter looking down & across. Eroded mountains with smooth tops, gullies; silvery grey on upper slopes, yellow-green with vegetation on lower slopes, intermittent resistant bands describe open folds. Sliver of sky is darkly cloudy.

Petroleum is a a liquid mixture of hydrocarbons present in certain rock layers that can be extracted and refined to produce fuels like gasoline. The Petroleum Group at the NTGS is responsible for the evaluation of the petroleum potential of sediments that were deposited from 530 to 10 million years before present. 

Environment and Permafrost

Permafrost thaw slump

Environmental Geoscience examines Earth sciences as it pertains to human activity and environmental science.  Research topics are related to permafrost, climate change, geohazards, and infrastructure.