GEUS publishes new digital geological map of South and Southwest Greenland

Published 17-11-2025

A newly updated seamless digital map – covering, among other areas, the region around Godthåbsfjord – together with accompanying GIS data, provides researchers, industry and public authorities with important new insights into Greenland’s subsurface.

A section of the newly released seamless 1:100,000 geological map of southwest Greenland, which for the first time provides a coherent overview of the geology in the Godthåbsfjord region. The map brings together several decades of fieldwork and modernised data processing into one unified geological reference.

Today, The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) releases a new and updated digital geological mapping of South and Southwest Greenland. The new seamless map represents an important step in the ongoing work to digitalise and harmonise legacy geological data and offers researchers, authorities and industry detailed and coherent knowledge of the Greenlandic bedrock.

The map integrates 21 digitised geological map sheets at a scale of 1:100,000, originally published by the Geological Survey of Greenland (GGU) and GEUS between 1966 and 2011. The result is a modern, integrated dataset that for the first time presents the geology of the region in a single unified digital model.

Freely available data

In addition to the digital map viewer, GEUS provides complete GIS data packages for free download in both ArcGIS Pro and QGIS formats. This enables users to incorporate the map data directly into their own geospatial analyses and projects.

The dataset provides a consistent and detailed geological framework, particularly suited for research, mineral exploration, teaching and spatial planning. The map is optimised for digital viewing at a scale of 1:100,000, combining high detail with modern user-friendliness.

The 2025 edition of the map series builds on the 2019 version, which included 16 harmonised map sheets. The new release adds a further five 1:100,000 map sheets from the area around Godthåbsfjord and northwards between 64° and 66°N. The original map sheets – Qôrqut, Kapisillit, Fiskefjord, Ivisârtoq and Isukasia – were published between 1984 and 2011.

The geological representation of Bjørneøen (Qoomup Qeqertarsuaq) and Storeø (Qeqertarsuaq) in Godthåbsfjord is among other things based on a simplified interpretation of more detailed mapping carried out by geologist Claus Østergaard in 2005.

The new version has been produced by a multidisciplinary team consisting of senior researcher and geologist Thomas Find Kokfelt, together with GIS developers and geologists Katja Tandrup Walentin, Tjerk Heijboer, Eva Willerslev and Christian Brogaard Pedersen.