Geophysical cartography in Poland : an overview

Regional analysis and mapping of various geophysical data has been recognized as an important — even crucial — element of geological studies for many years. Due to rapid development of advanced numerical tools it is presently possible to construct, maintain and comprehensively analyse even very large geo-databases, including seismic, gravity, magnetic, geothermal and other geophysical data. In many countries, national geological surveys, commercial companies and research institutions are involved in mapping projects focused on spatial representation of geophysical data that could later be used for various studies. Recently, new policy of the Polish Ministry of Environment regarding geological cartography in years 2005–2020 has been declared (cf. Ber & Jezierski, 2004). In this document, geological cartography is used as a rather wide term that includes also other geo-disciplines like geoenvironmental studies or surface geochemistry. Among them, mapping of geophysical data is also mentioned. In this paper, short overview of the current state-of-the-art of selected aspects of regional geophysical mapping in Poland is given, with some remarks regarding potential directions of future work.