A snapshot of Ireland’s earth science agency

As director of the Geological Survey of Ireland for the last seventeen years, Dr Peadar McArdle has managed to steer the agency on a course that has given the public a wider awareness of the potential economic benefits of the marine environment.

After a primary degree in geology from UCD in the early 70s, McArdle continued with postgraduate research before heading to Africa where he gained invaluable experience as a young geologist with the national survey of Malawi. 

On his return to Ireland he spent a short time in the private sector with Silvermines before joining the Geological Survey in 1975 where he was involved in the minerals area.

Since becoming director in 1992, McArdle says that much of his focus has been on the needs of a modern day geological survey and transforming some of the services it can provide:

“We are witnessing huge developments in seabed surveying in particular.We have put a lot of effort into supporting and trying to work with a variety of partners in the whole area of geoscience in order to build capacity so as to provide excellent services and research that Ireland can benefit from,” he says.

In this regard McArdle praises Peter Heffernan of the Marine Institute and the GSI’s own late Ray Keary – both of whom he credits with having spearheaded the current interest and excitement that the marine environment offers.

And despite the GSI’s relatively low public profile he is nevertheless clearly proud of the work that it undertakes:

“GSI is a lean organisation and we are relatively small. Nevertheless, we’re very focussed on what we do and we are very relevant in that we do.”

The GSI was founded in 1845, but when did it first undertake marine surveying?
The GSI was one of the first national geological surveys established anywhere in the world, second only to the British Geological Survey. At that time it was effectively finding quarries and small mineral workings – mainly on big estates. Over the years however, our role has expanded enormously so that now we are multi-sectoral.

We apply geoscience in all kinds of areas: infrastructure, natural resources, environment and so forth, and of course that includes the marine environment. We do not claim to have started marine geology in Ireland – that honour goes to Alexander Nimmo – but from the point of view of systematic surveying, that began in the early 20th century – between 1900 and 1906, sampling off the west coast of Ireland with the Helga. A lot of discoveries were made then, including the existence of relatively young sediments offshore that didn’t appear onshore. That had significance later on for oil exploration.

The GSI co-operates with many different bodies, in particular the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland. What is the extent and nature of this work in relation to the water environment?
In a North-South context we have a strong relationship with the GSNI – especially in developing the National Geoscience Programme which is an integrated vision of the benefits of geoscience investment. It sets out objectives in areas such as services, research education and outreach, and recognises that the sector accounts for 4% of GNP and about 1,5% of national employment in areas such as mining, energy and aggregates. The sector also serves a range of extractive industries, such as zinc and salt mining, the quarrying of aggregates as well as offshore gas production.

How does the Geoscience Programme impact on the marine?
It focussed on the need for near-shore surveying which lead eventually to the INFOMAR Project (Integrated Mapping For the Sustainable Develoment of Irelandn’s MARine Resource). That was underpinned about a year ago when Ministers Nigel Dodds and Eamon Ryan signed an agreement on North-South cooperation to facilitate better services in areas such as water supply, infrastructure development, mineral exploration and tourism. This sets out a good framework that we’ve worked on since and staff from both Surveys cooperate closely on common key issues.

INFOMAR is the successor programme to the Irish National Seabed Survey (1999-2005), what are its key technologies?

They are both ship-borne and air-borne, with most of the effort taking place on board Marine Institute vessels in particular. Inshore Ireland readers will know that INFOMAR is a joint venture between the GSI and the Marine Institute, and we are very proud of this relationship and it works very well indeed.

Multibeam is the key technology employed, which is an accoustic technique that directs a sound beam towards the seabed and then catches the reflections from it. This gives us very detailed bathymetry data as well as a very good idea of the nature of the seabed. Much of the work, particularly on the nature of the seabed, is also confirmed by taking physical samples. These are necessary to ‘ground truth’ the data.

For example, if we are going to construct a fisheries habitat map we need to be sure of what we are talking about. Therefore, we need to get ‘ground truth’ information. Other techniques include gravity and magnetic surveys that provide information on the bedrock geology beneath the seafloor. This would have a lot of applications for exploration and energy and even renewables.

What technology is used for air-borne surveying?
We use LIDAR, or Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging. This is a near-shore surveying technique particularly useful in rugged or complex bays. The use of aircraft allows the laser measurements to be made much more efficiently than surveying the same areas with boats and echo sounders. Tenix LADS Corporation of Australia is the company that carries out these surveys for us.

Basically, it functions in the same way as the acoustic beams in the water except in this case it uses a laser beam. It’s effective in very shallow waters to a depth of about 20 metres but only where the water isn’t turbid. So the west coast of Ireland is much better than the east coast.

A number of the bays along the western seaboard are being mapped using LIDAR to give us high resolution information. All of this information if being fed into a major database – a data centre indeed – in GSI and the Marine Institute. So data management is a major part of this.

To date we’ve collected over seven Terabytes of data which is very substantial. It would be one of the largest national data sets at this stage.

Have these surveys revealed any interesting results so far?
Yes indeed, and we have been delighted by the level of interest shown by Inshore Ireland and indeed the regional media because there have been very significant discoveries. Firstly, on the seabed itself, we have been able to map Ice Age deposits in some considerable detail, and iceberg scours have be delineated in very fine detail. This gives us valuable information about the course of the Ice Age and the extent of the ice sheets at that time.

In addition to these we have also been able to extend – in a very detailed way – the pattern of onshore geology to the area offshore. This knowledge supports a whole range of applications – from renewable energy, to extraction, engineering and also maritime safety, such as aid to shipping safely in and out of ports despite shifting sands with time.

Is the data available to the public?
Yes it is – almost in real time – and it is freely available. We made a decision a little over a year ago that such information would be available free-of-charge to all users. That decision has been noted internationally, and I think it is already benefitting many different customers and users.

We are also trying to provide the information not alone digitally, but also over the Internet. W’re not quite there yet but that’s where we are heading so that people will eventually be able to do business with us on line.

What are Groundwater Protection Schemes?
These are are county-based projects undertaken jointly between the GSI and Local Authorities. Their overall aim is to preserve the quality of groundwater, particularly for drinking water purposes.

Basically, there are two components to a Groundwater Protection Scheme – an information layer that shows the distribution of aquifers, where there are decent quantities of ground water. The other layer shows how vulnerable each of these might be, and that relates to how well the aquifer area is covered with impermeable soil.

A strong thickness of boulder clay over an aquifer usually means it’s going to be very well protected. In areas like parts of East Galway and Clare where you have a limestone aquifer and no covering of clay means the aquifer is extremely vulnerable. Of course, this all influences the planners in terms of the planning decisions they make, and what activities can take place in particular areas.

What role has the GSI in protecting drinking water sources?
With 15-20% of all drinking water in this country coming from groundwater,our focus is very much on this element, in other words, springs and boreholes. We work with a whole series of partners in this area, in particular the EPA and the Department of the Environment in terms of supporting the groundwater element.

We undertake what’s called source protection work for the county councils. If, for example, a county council has a significant groundwater source we delineate the zone from which surface water is abstracted and ultimately this helps to make sure the aquifer that feeds it can be protected.

How is the GSI involved with the Water Framework Directive?
We have worked closely with the consultants from the River Basin District Projects. We would have serviced the WFD’s Working Groups and Committees that discuss and decide on the various technical issues at local and regional level to ensure things work well.

Another division of the GSI is involved with developing landscape tourism. What is this?
We are interested in promoting and supporting sustainable tourism based on landscape resources. A key way of doing this is by promoting areas of outstanding geological heritage called Geoparks, such as the Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark in Co Fermanagh which extends into Co Cavan. Here visitors can explore a natural underworld of rivers, waterfalls, winding passages and chambers.

Then there is the Copper Coast European Geopark on the south-east coast between Tramore and Dungarvan in Co Waterford, comprising 25 kilometres of spectacular coastline. GSI works together with the local communities in terms of providing the geological imports to both projects. Of course this also has a strong North-South dimension, and we’ve been working for the past 10 or 15 years with GSNI in this whole area, producing products that we hope will support the development of such tourism through the brand ‘Landscapes from Stone’.

What is the standing of the GSI internationally?
Very strong I am pleased to say because we are the first country to have thoroughly and systematically mapped its seabed area. And of course, our seabed is very substantial in terms of national territory. Two people of great vision have been involved with this, namely Peter Heffernan, chief executive of the Marine Institute who has been intrumental in developing a very strong marine strategy. He has shown great creativity and determination.

Also, our own late Ray Keary spent a lifetime working in marine geology. He developed tremendous insights into what could be achieved if we knew more about the seabed. He was very influential with people in terms of conveying his vision.

These two people set the scene, and then we were subsequently fortunate to get the necesssary funding for the Irish National Seabed Survey back in 1999. And we were delighted to have the Marine Institute as one of our partners, in addition to others. That lead on to the INFOMAR project in 2006, which was designed to complete the inshore work.

And then just before Christmas, we were delighted to learn that Cabinet approved the extension of the INFOMAR project for another five years, that’s very positive news!