In March 1979, the U.S. Geological Survey celebrated its 100th year of service to the Nation and 10 decades of stewardship of the land and its resources. During this year, as in the previous 99, the Survey discharged its national trust by collecting, analyzing, and disseminating earth science information and by continuing its somewhat more recent responsibilities of supervising the development of energy and mineral resources on Federal lands.

The basic mission of the Survey has changed over the years, and the scope of its activities and the power of analytic tools have also increased by several orders of magnitude-from the early surveys of then "remote" western areas of the United States to surveying and mapping the mountains of the Moon and the polar caps of Mars and from the use of surveyor's transits, picks, the travelling chemistry kits to interpretation of Earth imagery. These representative advances illustrate important and continuing trends for at no previous time have our earth resources been so precious or our consciousness of their finiteness so acute.

The Yearbook reports a broad range of the Survey's accomplishments during the past fiscal year and offers an overview of its future. Many of the topics touched on below will continue to be important resource issues in the coming decade.

ENERGY

Providing the earth science knowledge needed to satisfy the Nation's growing demands upon a declining energy resource base and addressing the environmental implications of satisfying those demands will continue to be a major responsibility for the Geological Survey in the foreseeable future.

During fiscal year 1979, the Department of the Interior, which manages the development of energy resources on Federal lands, proposed a new leasing program that would accelerate Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas exploration and announced the resumption of coal leasing on Federal lands. Several recent legislative initiatives including the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act Amendments of 1978, the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, and the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978 directly affected the programs and activities of the Geological Survey.

OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF OIL AND GAS

The need to identify frontier offshore areas that have the potential to increase the Nation's oil and gas reserves and, consequently, would be favorable target areas for the accelerated Federal OCS leasing program continued to be a critical part of the Survey's mission

during fiscal year 1979. These frontier areas are located in deep waters that have more hostile environments for development than the current oil- and gas-producing leased areas. The Survey's investigation will supply industry with the necessary knowledge to develop techniques and to design the equipment required to safely and successfully recover the oil and gas discovered in these frontier offshore areas.

During fiscal year 1979, 678 offshore oil and gas leases were offered for sale by the Department of the Interior. Based on evaluations made by the Geological Survey, 290 of those tracts were leased for exploration by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The revenue from the sale of these leases brought $2.8 billion into the Federal treasury. To comply with the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act Amendments, the Survey devised new regulations governing industry operations on the OCS and began compilation of indexes and summary reports of OCS-related research and activities to better communicate scientific findings to the public.

In addition to assessments of oil- and gas-resource potential, the Survey also continued to provide analyses of geologic hazards in potential OCS leasing areas. An oilspill trajectory analysis computer model was developed that determines the probability or risk of an oilspill occurring in a proposed leasing area and the potential path that it may follow. This modeling technique was included in 10 environmental impact statements, which were used by BLM in their administration of the OCS leasing process during 1979.

COAL

The Secretary of the Interior announced an accelerated Federal coal leasing program on June 1, 1979. The Survey's role in the program is to provide geologic- and water-resources information and evaluations that can aid in the coal lease decisionmaking process. To respond to this need, the Survey completed the first of a series of coal folios covering three 1° x 2° quadrangles, and the necessary field work was begun in many other quadrangles. These folios integrate information on the occurrence of coal on Federal lands with various environmental factors, such as geochemistry and ground stability, to assist Federal officials in the design of coal development plans that are in the best public interest. The Survey also expanded the program of water-data collection and analysis to meet requirements of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. To comply with other responsibilities in the coal leasing program, the Survey classified over 1.2 million acres of Federal land into Known Recoverable Coal Resource Areas, completed 146 map quadrangles under the Coal Resource Occurrence/Coal Development Potential Mapping Program, and developed 26 coal economic evaluations to support coal leasing decisionmaking.

The Grand Tetons. (Photograph by National Park Service.)