by GÉZA CHIKÁN
Since its foundation, one of the principal tasks of the Hungarian Geological Survey has been the overall mapping of the country. This in
cludes the representation on map of the survey results, that is the plotting and publication of small-scale and large-scale geological maps.
The staff members of the Survey have always tried to do their best in keeping the work stand
ard as high as possible. Economic and social conditions, however, have often prohibited the geologists from being "perfectionists" in making plans for their work. Nonetheless, the geological mapping has been in progress at all times since its beginning and the high standard of the work done by the Hungarian surveyors has widely been acknowledged. Already in the first hundred years of their activity, high-qual
ity geological maps were produced on varied scales. At a later date, the quality and also the necessity of the mapping was fully admitted by the one-time Director of the Survey, J. Fülöp, as testified to by the fact that he himself discussed the history, situation and tasks of the geological mapping in a book written on the hundred-year history of the Hungarian Geological Survey.
Without repeating these data, but relying upon them, the author of the present paper intends to review the facts of the development in survey
ing Hungary's territory during the past 25 years. As for this, Fig. 1 and 2 show the situa
tion in 1970 and in 1994, respectively.
As widely known, the geological mapping is an examination of the geological setting of an area, formed during millions of years, with the collection of all data and information available thereon, which have to be interpreted and rep
resented on a map showing the combined re
sults of the geological processes. Accordingly, the priorites of a survey are pre-determined by the level of geological knowledge attained in given area, in conjunction with the stage of the genera! progress of geosciences. At the same time, the execution of this work much depends on the existence and size of the claims laid by the society to the geological sciences. Thus the events and proceedings of the geological map
ping in Hungary have been largely affected by the economic and social changes taking place in Hungary and abroad.
The most important factors influencing the expected results and the financial background of the work are related not only to global phe
nomena but also to the modification of the economic policy inside the country. At the beginning of the seventies the energy crisis, about the turning of the seventies into the eighties the forging ahead of the "green" move
ments and of the environment-protectional views, moreover the accidents in nuclear power plants, the great natural disasters taking place in the eighties and, last but not least, the politi
cal changes in Eastern Europe have produced quite an effect on the research strategy direction and possibilities of the geological activities in Hungary, in general, and on the geological map
ping in particular.
The guiding principle of J. Fülöp's review given in 1969 was characterized by the leading idea of those times. Accordingly, the most im
portant aim of geological mapping was to lay foundations to the exploration of mineral re
sources. This very aim determined all the priori
ties in selecting areas and slinging out methods.
The mapping of the mountainous regions was
Fig. 1. Index of mapping 1970
1. 1:200 000-scaled maps completed, 2. New maps completed, 3. Mapping areas for 1970
Fig. 2. Index of mapping 1994
1. Maps ready for computer processing, 2. Mapping areas for 1994, 3. Areas without detailed mapping
in the limelight, and even there the study of the features and in the limelight, and even there the study of the features and areal extent of the Quaternary cover was more or less neglected.
The maps predicting mineral resources were prioritary and planned to be done on the long run. Besides the prediction of minerals, however, other practical purposes also came into the centre of interest, e.g. those of engineer
ing geology. The strategy outlined for the first years after the centenary was based upon the viewpoints mentioned above. Thus besides the survey bound to the idea of laying foundations to mineral exploration in various regions (Transdanubian Central Range, Börzsöny Mts, Mecsek Mts, Cserhát Mts and Tokaj Mts) con
siderable attention was paid to the 1:100 000- scale mapping of the Great Hungarian Plain, started in the early sixties. Also the detailed and at the same time comprehensive engineering-ge
ological mapping of the Lake Balaton region and of the metropolitan area of Budapest, were introduced (Konda 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976a, b).
In spite of this fact, in the first half of the seven
ties the main emphasis was on the search for mineral resources. Joining the mapping done in the mountainous regions, "pre-forecast of ex
pectable mineral resources" were elaborated for the same areas. The contemporaneous economic trends seemed to justify this work. The oil crisis and the broadening of the international market urged the planners of the Hungarian economy to exploit the mineral resources of the country to the largest extent possible. Discussion was going on in professional circles and even in the press whether Hungary is poor or rich in min
eral resources. However, just in view of the oil crisis it became soon obvious that Hungary can
not act independently from the trends and facts of world economics, consequently only the market-competitive mineral resources can be taken into account as a numeral wealth.
During those years, and partly in terms of the above-described considerations the geological mapping and map plotting was still continued in the Transdanubian Central Range, in North Hungary and, to a lesser extent, in the Great Hungarian Plain. At the same time, the en
gineering-geological mapping of the Lake Bala
ton region and that of Budapest and other towns were terminated. In accordance with the scheduling of the related work procedures, pub
lication activity was first concentrated on send
ing to press the 1:200 000-scale map series, planned to be a country-wide one and editing
mapsheets of Tokaj, eastern Mecsek, Mátra Mts, and of Dorog Basin, surveyed in the sixties, with the pertinent explanatory notes. A new mapping was initiated in the Börzsöny Mts as
"a complex study for outlining occurrences of metallic mineral resources". The mapping of the Recsk-Rudabánya tectonic belt (Darnó Line zone), as well as the fieldwork conducted in the Velence Hills and at Balatonfő had by and large the same goal. In that period the geological pro
fession was so highly appreciated socially and financially that the Survey was able to finance, at least partially, geological exploration carried out by outside companies. Funds at hand al
lowed the Survey to deepen lots of deep drillings and survey boreholes, and even in some years some money was saved due to the lack of available drilling capacity. New, mostly instrumental methods were introduced. Among others, aerial photo interpretation and satellite imagery became institutional in the geological mapping. Between 1970 and 1980 about 60 maps were published on different scales, some of them in more than ten versions, and with expla
natory notes (Konda 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980).
By the end of the seventies, the impact of the energy crisis and the subsequent economic re
cession made itself felt: funding became re
duced. At the same time a problem which had been disregarded or neglected took a conspicu
ous shape: the disclosure and extraction of min
eral resources seriously affects the natural en
vironment. For a long time the "green" move
ments focused on the preservation of the still existing natural treasures. Later on they started to call attention to the fact that all kinds of human activity are affecting processes taking place in the nature, and in most cases nega
tively. Damages cannot be avoided even by careful planning and organized supervision thereto. Three Miles Island and Chernobyl ex
emplified the starting up of potentially uncon
trollable processes triggered by certain elements of human intervention. The earthquake of August 1985 in the region of Peremarton, Hun
gary, was a minor event on a world scale, however, it worried the people thinking e.g. of the security of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant.
This was a warning saying that the geological understanding of such seismic zones should be improved.
The forging ahead of applied geological re
search is characteristic from the point of view of geological mapping in the period concerned (Hámor 1981b, 1982, 1983, 1984a, 1985a). In line
with the advancement of practical studies in ge
ology the mapping of the Great Hungarian Plain was successfully terminated in 1984, in
volving one-third of the country and producing lots of information and maps of manysided use
fulness. Upon these experiences, a similar map
ping was launched in the Little Hungarian Plain, with the use of even more modern and efficient methods and tools, including comput
erized map plotting. At the end of the eighties a likewise modern and complex geological survey was started in the adjacent region of southern Transdanubia, where no such detailed and inte
grated geological mapping has been executed so far. By this time the environmental conditions around Lake Balaton have become almost dis
astrous. The Survey contributed to the solution of the problem with an environmental-geologi
cal surveying of the holiday resort area border
ing Lake Balaton. The mapping of the Darnó Line region became somewhat reduced in com
parison with that planned beforehand. From here the focus of work was transferred to the Aggtelek-Rudabánya Mts, the map of which was later published. During this period new large-scale mapping was begun only in a few re
gions such as the Balaton Highland bordered by the Bakony Mts, the NE Transdanubian Centra!
Range and the Bükk Mts. Of these, the map of the Balaton Highland has been completed in draft manuscript form, whereas the fieldwork in the two other regions had to be suspended in 1994.
In the second half of the eighties the deteri
oration of environmental conditions raised many problems to be solved partly by means of contribution from geology. Many times it was necessary to meet long-felt needs of mapping to be executed now quickly and at the cost of con
siderable effort. The debate on the Gabcikovo- Nagymaros Dam System, the security problems related to the Nuclear Power Plant of Paks as re
gards potential earthquakes, the problems of waste disposal, all these reflected the necessity of continuing large-scale geological surveys, since they are important also from the point of view of society.
Economic troubles have resulted in the decrease of orders expectable from outside com
panies. In the early eighties the Survey made a renewed attempt at the synthesising of achieve
ments to the extent permitted by the existing in
tellectual capacity (Hámor 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992).
The plotting of a series of 1:500 000-scale ge
ological maps was commenced. The first sheet, a surface geological map, was issued in 1983. It was followed by different thematic maps on tec
tonics, subsurface geology, lithostratigraphy, en
gineering geology, hydrogeology etc. Some re
gional maps representing the details of large- scale mapping generalized on a smaller scale, also were published. Nevertheless, the number of the maps published in the former years was no longer attained.
After the change of the political system in Hungary in 1990, new conditions set in. It was necessary to reconsider the necessities and possibilities of the geological mapping in Hun
gary (Chikán et al. 1992). A new conception had to be outlined for the forthcoming years, taking into account the restricted possibilities. As based upon the Geographic Information System (GIS) starting to be developed at the end of the eighties creation of a "Unified Geological Map System" was decided. The work aimed at the preparation of uniformly plotted maps pub
lished on a scale of 1:25 000 for the mountain re
gions on a 1:100 000 scale for the lowland and hilly regions. The necessity of producing such maps is backed up by the fact that the map material issued in older times is considerably heterogenous. These maps plotted at very different times should be updated, unified and made ready for computer processing. Thereby the demands that would be laid in this field to the information service of the Survey from out
side clients could be suitably met. Pattern maps for mountains and lowlands have already been prepared, and they constitute a good basis for the further unification. To this, however, the completion of mapping in many areas is also needed. As being short of money, the plan of the large-scale mapping had to be given up, and only small-scale surveying is now in progress in areas where the surveyors are charged with the accomplishment of special tasks (the Little Hungarian Plain and Transdanubia). Since as long as two years ago, no boreholes deeper than 10 metres have been drilled. To the solution of environmental problems, a manysided work is being done in the framework of an Austrian- Slovak-Hungarian Danube Region (DANREG) Projekt. Within the declining map publication, only one piece of 1:100 000-scale map series of the Little Hungarian Plain was issued in 1993.
During the seventies and the eighties Hungar
ian survey expeditions worked in Cuba,
Mon-golia and Vietnam. The experience gained in foreign countries might be of help at home, too.
The importance of geological mapping has al
ways been more or less acknowledged in pro
fessional circles. However, even some geologists expected of it the performance of such duties which do not belong to the scope of this survey type if taken in the proper sense. According to the prevailing economic trends the success of geologi
cal mapping was assessed now upon the mineral resources discovered during the work, then ac
cording to its usefulness for the purposes of en
gineering or environmental protection. Neverthe
less, it should be made clear that the mapping and representation of the geological setting of an area has to be done independently from the ten
dencies predominant at a given time. The making of topographic map is also necessary in itself, whatever its superimposed content is, that is to
say their later use might be. Naturally; the possible practical utilization of the results of ge
ological mapping should be taken into con
sideration, but the conceptions of a country
wide geological survey must not be changed re
peatedly under way upon momentaneous prac
tical claims. Priorities should be determined in advance, before the elaboration of the basic strategy to be properly considered in time to
gether with the appropriate scale and working methods, as well as the predictable manpower, expenditure and schedule. When all these re
quirements are clear and the programme has been accepted, the work can be started. In this way; with the use of the formerly gathered ex
perience and in harmony with the needs of the society; the grade of the geological knowledge of Hungary will be kept up with the general ad
vancement of science.