Rola Państwowego Instytutu Geologicznego w badaniach genezy i określeniu wielkości polskich zasobów solnych po II wojnie światowej

The Polish Geological Institute (PIG),established in 1919 as the geological survey, during the last 100 years carried out geological prospection of Poland, worked out the actual knowledge of geology and hydrogeology of the country, as well as discovered most of mineral deposits, essential to the national economy. This synthetic review presents the PIG achievements in prospecting and documenting of most deposits of rock and potash salts as well as in successful creation and application of new methodology and technics (e.g. chemostratigraphy, resource aspects of facies analysis, 3D images of salt deposits and structures, interferometry) to predict salt occurrences with optimal resource parameters, explain the tectonic and stratigraphic problems and to propose tools favoring the mining safety. The data regarding regional geology, collected during a century, enabled estimation of accessible prospective resources of both salt types and selection of optimal salt occurrences forfuture management as storages for hydrocarbons, gas (air, hydrogen) and safe waste disposals.