Government of New Brunswick

New Brunswick contains a diversity of bedrock types that range from 1 billion years to 200 million years old. Geology maps showing the regional distribution and structure of these rocks play a crucial role in attracting mineral and hydrocarbon exploration to the province.

These high-quality digital maps cover all of New Brunswick at scales of 1:20 000 and 1:50 000.

Bedrock geology maps are used:

  • to interpret the geologic evolution of the New Brunswick Appalachians;
  • as essential tools in the exploration for mineral and hydrocarbon deposits;
  • to evaluate groundwater resources;
  • to help determine appropriate locations for highways, pipelines, waste disposal and heavy industry sites; and
  • as the geological framework for environmental assessments, land use plans, forest inventory databases, and similar applications.

Each year the Geological Surveys Branch initiates geoscientific field projects to serve as a basis for mineral and petroleum exploration and for land-use planning in New Brunswick. Field projects are conducted under our Bedrock Mapping, Surficial Mapping, Metallic Mineral Deposits, Hydrocarbon Resources, Geochemistry and Coastal Mapping programs.

The Bedrock Nomenclature of New Brunswick includes detailed descriptions of all lithostratigraphic and intrusive units adopted by the Geological Surveys Branch to denote rock units in the Province. No attempt has been made to classify the units into formal and informal categories as defined in the North American Stratigraphic Code (1983). Descriptions of bedrock units in use in the Province are available in the Bedrock Lexicon.