Summary of activities, U.S. Geological Survey Saudi Arabian project, 1950 to 1974

Abstract

The U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) first began work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1950 under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Finance and National Economy. The basic objective of the work was to investigate the mineral and water resource potential in western Saudi Arabia, but little was known of the region and it therefore was necessary to prepare geographic and geologic maps. Aerial photographs were taken and controlled mosaics produced, some paid for by the USGS but most paid for by the Saudi Arabian government, and reconnaissance geologic mapping was undertaken until the USGS team left Saudi Arabia in 1955. This mapping, in cooperation with mapping of the Arabian American Oil Company, was compiled as a series of scale 1:500,000 geographic and geologic maps in Arabic and English covering all of Saudi Arabia. A total of 42 of these maps were prepared. Three scale 1:2,000,000 geographic and geologic maps in Arabic and English, covering the Arabian Peninsula, also were prepared from this work. All of the maps were printed in the United States and published by the USGS, the last in 1963. Other work done by the USGS between 1950 and 1955 included locating and examining ancient mines, indentifying the Wadi Fatima oolitic iron deposit and other iron deposits in northwest Saudi Arabia, and advising on many water supply problems including those for Riyadh, Qizan, Qunfudhah, Rabigh, Yenbo, Umm Lejh, and Al Wajh. The mapping work and the geologic investigations laid the groundwork for the more detailed studies that followed.