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March 30, 2026

News and notes

This week, before going on to discuss the geology and mineral resources of Norway, we will first look at some news items I thought were interesting.

If you enjoy my blogs, bookmark the site and check on Mondays rather than relying on social media postings which can get lost in the shuffle. For my news items, I try to stick to open access papers.

Comments

After my last posting, one of my readers, Marcus S., commented that one for the former rulers of the present North Macedonia, Despot Stefan Lazarević (yes, that was his title in the medieval Serbian Despotate) was one of the first people to promulgate a law to regulate mining in 1412. Anyone interested in the history of this law, called the Закон о рудницима or Novo Brdo Code, check out this Wikipedia article or this article.

If anyone has comments on any of my postings, please leave a comment on the Linkedin page for the posting or email me at raymondreichelt@gmail.com.

Geopolitics

Oil prices up to March 30, 2026
Credit: Oilprice.com

Iran War

There are lots of news items on the Iran War; Reuters continuing coverage is here. Below are a few items I thought were interesting.

• Commentary from Alexander Dugin: The War Trump Cannot Win.

• The Iran War is causing an energy crisis: Doomberg on Decouple and Soar Financially.

• Russia Warns Situation At Bushehr Nuclear Plant Deteriorating After 3rd Airstrike In Ten Days.

• Pentagon preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, Washington Post reports.

• Video: $200 Oil. The World Economy is OBLITERATED.

• Risk premium: Middle East crude oil tanker rates reached a multi-decade high in March.

• Southeast Asia turns to nuclear as Iran war disrupts energy supplies.

• Iran war deals harder blow to natural gas than oil: Maguire.

Other Geopolitics

• Russia's Baltic Ports Burning Again as Ukraine Drone Campaign Enters Third Day.

• Visual Capitalist: Half the World’s Oil Comes From Just Five Countries.

• Critical minerals: The War Beneath the Headlines: A Thesis That Hits a Nerve.

• China maps ocean floor as it prepares for submarine warfare with US.

• China Is About to Lose Its Cuban Military Bases.

• Oh oh: The Treasury just declared the U.S. insolvent. The media missed it.

Research and News

• Near-concordant zircon Pb-loss array caused by melt-mediated coupled dissolution-precipitation replacement reactions: Signatures and geological significance.

• Related to today’s posting: Contourite deposits reveal late Paleocene to early Eocene deepwater circulation in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea.

• Paleomagnetism: Robust Directional Analysis of Magnetic Microscopy Images Using Non-Linear Inversion and Iterative Euler Deconvolution.

• More paleomagnetism: Northeastern Greenland Paleomagnetic Records Indicate the Influence of Geomagnetic Flux Lobe Intensity on Virtual Geomagnetic Pole Migration During the Holocene.

• Sedimentology: Volume 73, Issue 3, Pages: 589-837, April 2026.

• Thermal and fluid evolution during contact metamorphism around the Kevitsa and Satovaara intrusions: implications for sulfur and metal mobilization in the host black schist.

• The Role of Clay Minerals in the Formation of Ferromanganese Nodules (FMNs) in Subtropical Monsoonal China.

• Constraints on Noble Gas Variability in OIB and MORB From Non-Equilibrium Magmatic Degassing Models.

• Short, steep, and supercritical—Submarine fans in active rifts.

• The Messinian Salinity Crisis Between Italy and Albania: The Peri-Adriatic Depression and Southern Adriatic Basin Records.

• Geochemical and thermodynamic indications of active silica phase transitions.

Planetary Geology

• An ancient sandstorm recorded by supercritical climbing wind ripple strata in Gale crater, Mars.

• In situ U–Pb chronology and chemistry of zirconolite in the andesitic meteorite Erg Chech 002.

Plate Tectonics

• Mantle Dynamic Topography of the Fringing Oceanic Basins of Antarctica.

• Oligocene-Miocene uplift and denudation of the Afro-Arabian dome inferred from weathering geochemistry of Levant Basin sediments.

• Fault Friction, Plate Rheology, and Mantle Torques From a Global Dynamic Model of Neotectonics.

• Tectonostratigraphic Evolution of the Guyana Basin: Implications for Sediment Routing and Slope Stability.

• Climate and Tectonic Forcing of Depositional Evolution in the Southern North China Basin Since ∼3 Ma.

• Growth and Chemical Evolution of the Kohistan Arc Crust, Northern Pakistan, Western Himalayas.

Paleontology

Need a lawn ornament? TheWorld’s Largest Dinosaur needs a new home. (photo by R. Reichelt, July 1, 2025)

• Individual foraminiferal analysis: A promising tool for high-resolution temperature and pH reconstruction.

• Phylogenetic affinity between Archeoentactinia and the Entactinaria: evidence from the middle Cambrian Inca Formation, Georgina Basin, Australia, and Lower Ordovician Cow Head Group, Newfoundland.

• Taphonomy and environmental distribution of Pseudophillipsia in the middle Permian Kamiyasse Formation of the Southern Kitakami Terrane, Japan.

• The oldest larval crinoid: pentacrinoid stage crinoid from the Cannifton Quarry Lagerstätte (Ordovician, Katian) of Ontario, Canada.

• Diversity of Triplicatella and related hyoliths in Cambrian Series 2 of Greenland (Laurentia).

• 3D analyses of the first ortholasmatine harvestmen from European Eocene ambers; Phys.org summary here.

• Description of the first Mesozoic bird eggs from Korea and a new mid-Cretaceous theropod-dominated egg locality; Phys.org summary here.

• Giant dragonflies: Oxygen supply through the tracheolar–muscle system does not constrain insect gigantism; The Conversation summary here.

Ore Deposit Geology

• Paleogeographic and Structural Controls on the Sediment-Hosted Zhaishang Au Deposit, West Qinling Orogen, China.

• In-situ mineral chemistry, sulfur and lead isotopes, and paragenetic analysis to unravel the ore-forming processes in Qibaoshan Co-Ni-Cu-Pb-Zn deposit (Qin-Hang metallogenic belt, South China).

Mining and Energy

• Video: Why gold prospectors in Switzerland extract gold from gravel pits.

• There’s money to be made from chaos: LNG arbitrage creates winners from energy shock.

• Codelco sees war disruptions adding 5% to cost of making copper.

• Major win for the U.S. as $1.8b iron ore project backed by billionaire Robert Friedland secures key approval in Liberia.

• From the US EIA: Monthly Energy Review.

• Ukraine’s Rare Earth Map Comes Into Focus-But the Hard Part Still Lies Ahead.

• Utah: Energy Fuels boosts rare earths capacity with first terbium output.

• Central banks’ gold buying momentum carries into 2026.

• Closing Down Germany’s Nuclear Plants ‘Huge Strategic Error’ Says International Energy Agency.

Environmental Geology and Hydrogeology

• US firm validates safe disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear reactor using borehole tech.

• Fractured rock hydrogeology: Sequential Fracture Activation and Stress Evolution During EGS Stimulation at Utah FORGE Revealed by Waveform Cross-Correlation.

• Gulf of Mexico oil spill spread hundreds of miles, killed wildlife and polluted Mexican reserves.

• The springs of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the evaluation of their hydrogeological and ecological security.

• Mountain front recharge of a karst aquifer in the Denver Basin, southeastern Wyoming (USA): Recharge mechanism and multiyear drought impacts.

• Offshore fresh (or freshened) groundwater: Research achievements and future perspectives.

Glaciers and Climate Change

• Lots of recent papers on glaciers in The Cryosphere from the EGU.

• Shock New Evidence Showing No Link Between CO2 and Temperature Over Last Three Million Years Stumps Net Zero Activists.

• Entrained debris records regrowth of the Greenland Ice Sheet after the last interglacial.

• Late Glacial to early Holocene hydroclimate and environmental changes in northern Central America coupled to upstream regional monsoon convection.

Bad Science

• The Lancet retracts half-century-old unsigned commentary on talc for undisclosed industry ties.

• Publisher to retract entire conference proceedings, ban editor who wrote most of them.

Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Geohazards

Seismic Monitor

Active Volcano Map

Volcanoes

• Smithsonian / USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report.

• United States Geological Survey (USGS) Volcano Observatories:

• Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles: Volcanism on the other side of the world from the Yellowstone Caldera.

• Cascades Volcano Observatory Weekly Update.

• Volcano Watch – Taking Kīlauea’s Temperature.

• Video: An Underwater Eruption Seems Very Likely After Yet Another Earthquake Swarm.

• Melt re-injection into large magma reservoir after giant caldera eruption at Kikai Caldera Volcano; Phys.org summary here.

• Crustal Magma Storage and Plumbing System Beneath the Tianchi and Wangtian'e Volcanoes, Changbaishan Intraplate Volcanic Field, China and North Korea.

• Long-standing volcanic eruption theory might be backward.

• Drilling into a volcano: Disequilibrium response to tapping crustal magma reveals storage conditions.

• Balancing Yellowstone’s hydrothermal heat budget with a seismically constrained magma reservoir.

• Prolonged storage of supervolcanic magma revealed by titanium diffusion in plutonic K-feldspar.

Earthquakes

• Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC).

• Earthquakes Monitoring Live Worldwide.

• Japan's seismologists look to 'small tremors' as key to predicting next megaquake.

• M6.5 subduction earthquake rattles northern Honshu, Japan; USGS summary here.

• Seismic rhythms: Earthquake response to tectonic, hydrological, and tidal forcing in California.

• M7.5 earthquake near Tonga is the largest of 2026 (so far); USGS summary here.

• New funding advances earthquake early warning for Alaska.

Geohazards

• NASA Image of the Day, March 26: A Hot Start to Spring in the Southwest.

Free Geology Books and Other Stuff

Free geology books can be downloaded from these sites:

• OreZone Readers and Experts Telegram Channel; the Ore Zone channel also shows employment opportunities for geologists.

• The Groundwater Projecthas many groundwater geology books for free downloadtogether with free online courses, listed here.

• Free Groundwater Modeling Courses from the HydroGeoCenter.

• From Western Australia: Carbonatite, lamprophyre and host rocks in the northern Aileron Province.

• The Geology of Indonesia: Volume 1 and Volume 2.

• Brett Davis’ book on veins in a deforming rock mass: “The Veining Bible”; also at this site.

• From the Mineralogical Society of America: Handbook of Mineralogy.

• Systematic geochemical classification of felsic igneous rocks of the Yilgarn Craton.

• From the Arizona Geological Survey: Geochemistry Diagram Generator v 1.0.

Upcoming Events

• 2025-2026 Howard Street Robinson Lecture Tour, last lecture in Saskatoon April 8, 2026

• 14-15 April 2026: 2026 IAH Ireland Conference – Groundwater 2035, Tullamore, Ireland

• GAC-MAC 2026 St. John's NL, St. John's Convention Center, May 25-28, 2026.

• PEG2026: 11th International Symposium on Granitic Pegmatites; 16th–19th August 2026, in Perth, Western Australia.

• 14-18 September 2026 , IAH 2026, 53rd Congress of the International Association of Hydrogeologists; Budapest Congress Center.

• September 30 - October 3, 2026 SEG 2026 Conference Salt Lake City, United States.

• Paleoamerican Odyssey 2026, October 14-17, 2026, Santa Fe Convention Center, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

• Society of Petroleum Engineers Distinguished Lecturer Schedule.

• American Geophysical Union List of Upcoming Meetings.

• The Geological Society: Events & Courses.

• Upcoming Distinguished Geoscience Australia Lectures (DGALs).

March 30, 2026

Geology and Mineral Resources – Norway

Introduction

Figure 1 – Norway and the Neighbouring Scandinavian Countries
Credit: Mapsland, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Licence

The Kingdom of Norway is a country of 5,477,028 people on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The Kingdom includes the Arctic islands of Jan Mayen and the Svalbard (Spitsbergen) archipelago. Norway also administers Bouvet Island, located in the Subantarctic and claims the Antarctic territories of Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land. Norway has an area of 385,207 square kilometres and borders on the Sweden, to the east, together with small borders with Finland and Russia in the northeast. To the north, west, and south are extensions of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans including the Barents Sea, the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea, and the Skagerrak.

Norway is a relatively rich country with a per capita GDP (PPP) of $107,890 and a very high Human Development Index of 0.970.The Norwegian economy is an example of a mixed economy; a prosperous capitalist welfare state, that combines of free market activity and large state ownership of key sectors. It is a pleasant place to live In 2018, when Donald Trump indicated that he would rater have immigrants from Norway than other countries, few Norwegians thought that it be worthwhile to move to the USA.

Norway’s five biggest exports ranked by international revenues for 2025 were petroleum gases, crude oil, fresh whole fish, refined petroleum oils and raw aluminum. Collectively, that cohort of major commodities generated approaching more than two-thirds (68.6%) of total Norwegian exports. The main destinations for Norwegian exports were United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, France, Denmark, Belgium, United States of America, Finland, China, and Italy. In 2025, Norway’s top ten imports were: machinery including computers, vehicles, electrical machinery and equipment, mineral fuels including oil, articles of iron or steel, optical, technical, medical apparatus, pharmaceuticals, furniture, bedding, lighting, signs, prefab buildings, plastics, plastic articles, and inorganic chemicals. The main countries of origin for imports were China, Germany, Sweden, United States of America, Denmark, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Poland, Italy, France, Finland, and Brazil.

For more details on the country, check out the Wikipedia and Grokipedia articles on the country.

Geology

Figure 2 - Map of the Geological Units of Fennoscandia
Credit: Jonas Börje Lundin, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

Figure 2, above, summarizes the geological units in Scandinavia, also called Fennoscandia. In Norway, these units include:

• The oldest, Archean and Proterozoic aged rocks, in the Kola domain. There are also Archean to Paleoproterozoic rocks in the Lofoten – Vesterålen area of northern Norway.

• The rocks of the Transscandinavian Igneous Belt that formed 1810 and 1650 million years ago (Mya) during the Mesoproterozoic Era.

• The rocks of the Sveconorwegian Orogen that were formed 1140 to 960 Mya, also during the Mesoproterozoic, around the same time as the Grenville Orogeny in North America and during the formation of the supercontinent Rodinia. The breakup of Rodinia led to the formation of Iapetus.

• Formed during the Caledonian Orogeny, about 490 to 390 Mya, were the Caledonian nappes, discussed below.

Figure 3 – Caledonian Orogeny at the end of the Devonian
Credit: Woudloper, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 1.0 Generic license

A major influence on the geology of Norway was the Caledonian Orogeny that climaxed during the Devonian Period when, after the closure of the Iapetus Ocean, the Baltica and Laurentia continents were pushed together, raising the mountains now called the Scandinavian Caledonides that were part of ancient Pangea. The process was fairly complicated, so if you want to dig into the story of the Caledonian Orogeny, start with the Science Direct reference noted above together with the articles in Wikipedia and the summary from the London Geological Society.

Of course, the story doesn’t end with the formation of the Caledonides. When the Pangea broke up, beginning in the Late Jurassic, forming the early Atlantic Ocean, sediments were deposited in the new ocean, as in Figure 4, below.

Figure 4 - Geological map of the North Sea, the North Atlantic and westernmost Barents Sea
Credit: Figure 4 in Bjørlykke, 2019

Finally, we have a more detailed geological map from the Geological Survey of Norway, below.

Figure 5 – Geology of Norway
Credit: Geological Survey of Norway, NLOD License

Figure 6 is a geological map of Spitsbergen.

Figure 6 – Geological Map of Spitsbergen (Svalbard)Credit: Figure 1 in Bond et al, 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

The Geological Survey of Norway has a wide variety of geological maps here including an interactive bedrock map of Norway is shown here.

Paleontology

With all its tortured geology, you wouldn’t expect there to be many fossils in the rocks of Norway. But there are, mostly in Spitsbergen but also from the Oslo region. Here are a few examples.

Arctolepis

Figure 7 – Arctolepis fossil from Spitsbergen
Credit: Ghedoghedo, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Arctolepis was a genus of of placodermarthrodire fish that lived during the Early Devonian Period. Fossils of Arctolepis were found in the Spitsbergen Islands of Norway.

Balnibarbi

Figure 8 - Balnibarbi
Credit: Apokryltaros, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

Balnibarbi was a trilobite that lived during the Early Ordovician Period, about 479 to 472 Mya during the Floian Stage. Balnibarbi are another fossil from Spitsbergen.

Elegantaspis

Figure 9 - Elegantaspis
Credit: Apokryltaros, Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Elegantaspis reticornis was another arthrodire placoderm fish that lived during the Early Devonian. Fossils of Elegantaspis were found in Spitsbergen, Norway.

Olenus

Figure 10 - Olenus
Credit: Dwergenpaartje, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Not from Spitsbergen, Olenus was a genus of ptychopariid trilobite that lived during the Upper Cambrian. Fossils of Olenus were found in black bituminous shales in the Oslo region of Norway.

Mineral Resources

Figure 11 - Zoisite var. Thulite from Tvedestrand
Credit: Dave Dyet, public domain

According to the USGS Minerals Yearbook, the mineral industry in Norway includes the production of metallic minerals, industrial minerals (including those from pegmatites), and mineral fuels such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas. The most recent statistics on mineral production in Norway, from the USGS, are here. The Mindat.org site on Norway is here (there’s no map of mineral occurrences)

Let’s look at where some of these minerals are extracted.

Metallic Minerals

• Iron ore is mined at Mo i Rana and was formerly mined at Bjornevatn.

• Titanium is mined at the Tellnes, Norway Ilmenite Open-Pit Mine, copper and nickel are also taken from this deposit. The Tellnes mine exploits the world's largest ilmenite-norite intrusion.

Industrial Minerals

• Cement is produced at plants in Brevik and Kjopsvik.

• Graphite is mined at the Traelen Graphite Mining Project.

• Lime is produced at the Verdal plant.

• Olivine is mined at Aheim, this is the world’s largest commercial olivine deposit.

• Nepheline syenite is mined at Stjernøy.

• Silicon metal is produced at plants in Straumen, Orkanger, and Holla.

• Both crushed and dimension stone – dolostone, limestone, and quartzite – are quarried at various locations in Norway.

Pegmatites

Pegmatites are often an important source of industrial minerals, especially rare earth minerals and lithium minerals. Here are a few links to studies of pegmatites in Norway:

• Müller, A., P. M. Ihlen, B. Snook, R. B. Larsen, B. Flem, B. Bingen, B. J. Williamson, 2015, The Chemistry of Quartz in Granitic Pegmatites of Southern Norway: Petrogenetic and Economic Implications, Economic Geology 2015; 110 (7): 1737–1757. https://doi.org/10.2113/econgeo.110.7.1737

• Müller, A., T. Husdal, Ø. Sunde, H. Friis, T. Andersen, T. S. Johansen, R. Werner, Ø. Thoresen, S. Olerud, 2017, Norwegian Pegmatites I: Tysfjord Hamarøy, Evje Iveland, Langesundsfjord, Geological Society of Norway (NGF); https://geologi.no/images/GeologiskeGuider/PEG2017_Excursion_Guide_NGF_Series_2017-6_red.pdf

• Sunde Ø., 1, H. Friis, T. Andersen, 2019, Pegmatites of the Larvik Plutonic Complex, Oslo Rift, Norway: field relations and characterisation, Norwegian Journal of Geology, 99, 1,https://dx.doi.org/10.17850/njg99-1-05

• Steffenssen, G., A. Müller, F. Munnik, H. Friis, M. Erambert, M. Kristoffersen, N. Rosing-Schow, 2020, Unusual scandium enrichments of the Tørdal pegmatites, south Norway. Part I: Garnet as Sc exploration pathfinder, Ore Geology Reviews, Volume 126, 2020, 103729, ISSN 0169-1368, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oregeorev.2020.103729

• Müller, A., Romer, R. L., Augland, L. E. et al., 2022,Two-stage regional rare-element pegmatite formation at Tysfjord, Norway: implications for the timing of late Svecofennian and late Caledonian high-temperature events. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 111, 987–1007 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-022-02166-5

• Tassis G., M. Brönner, and B. E. Larsen, 2024, Unveiling Tysfjord’s Subsurface: GREENPEG Project’s 4-Year Journey in Pegmatite Exploration through GPR and ERT, European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers, NSG 2024 5th Conference on Geophysics for Mineral Exploration and Mining, Sep 2024, Volume 2024, p.1 – 5, https://doi.org/10.3997/2214-4609.202420017

• Paasche, H., Dumais, M. A., Haase, C., Larsen, B. E., Nasuti, A., Saalmann, K., Tassis, G., Wang, Y., Müller, A. and Brönner, M., 2025, Data-Driven Pegmatite Exploration Targeting in a Geologically Underexplored Area in the Tysfjord Region, Norway. Geophysical Prospecting, 73: e70060. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2478.70060

Fuel Minerals

• Coal is mined on Spitsbergen Island by Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani AS.

• Petroleum and natural gas come from offshore fields, as shown on Figure 12, below.

Figure 12 – Norwegian Continental Shelf
Credit: figure in Norway’s Petroleum History, Norwegian Offshore Directorate

Summary

Figure 13 - Norway Reflection
Credit: James Wagner, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

Norway has a lot going for it. As the USGS summary on Norway’s mineral industry says: “The geologic diversity among Norway’s terranes offers a wide variety of mineral occurrences for exploration and development”. They have continued to develop their oil and gas deposits and are “fast tracking” critical mineral development. Add to their enthusiasm for mineral exploration and development is the fact that Norway is a stable polity and consequently a good place to do business. I hope to visit it some day.

Standard Caveat

J. Robert Oppenheimer on freedom and scientific inquiry

The purpose of my weblog postings is to spark people's curiosity in geology. Don't entirely believe me until you've done your own research and checked the evidence. If I have sparked your curiosity in the subject of this posting, follow up with some of the links provided here. If you want to, go out into the field and examine some rocks on your own with the help of a good field guide. Follow the evidence and make up your own mind.

In science, the only authority is the evidence.