GEOSCIENCE ATLAS:
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS





1) What is the Atlas used for?

2) What information is available on the Atlas?

3) What browsers work best with the Geoscience Atlas? How should the browser be set up?

4) Problems - the Atlas does not look correct; there are no icons to expand the Groups; I'm not getting the information I expect; I can't click on anything

5) Can I download data? If so, which layers can I download?

     5a) If I don't have a GIS program how can I view the data I download?

6) What projection and datum are used?

7) What is the format of the downloaded data?

8) The geology polygons I downloaded are all one colour - how do I colour the geology polygons?

9) The point (or line) data I downloaded does not have the same symbols as on the Geoscience Atlas - how do I get the same symbology?

10) Where can I get a legend for the bedrock geology map?

11) Can I view the shapefile attribute table as a spreadsheet?

12) The order of the Contents is not the same as previously?

13) Who can I email or speak to about the Geoscience Atlas?

Contact Information



FAQ : Answers

1) What is the Atlas used for?
The Geoscience Atlas provides access to predominantly geological, geochemical and geophysical data collected by the Newfoundland and Labrador Geological Survey Division, the Mineral Lands Division and the Geological Survey of Canada. This data can be viewed by turning various layers on and off. Topographic data, as static base maps, are also available to provide a spatial framework to view the data. The geoscience data, but not the data provided by other groups, such as the Land Use layers, is available for download (see other FAQ's, layer information and the Atlas Help for more information on downloading data).

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2) What information is available on the Atlas?
The Atlas contains geoscience information and ancillary data.  The geoscience information is predominantly gathered by the Newfoundland and Labrador Mines Branch personnel and the Geological Survey of Canada, including bedrock and surficial geology, till sediment, lake sediment and rock geochemistry, regional and detailed geophysics, mineral lands information (e.g., claim boundaries, mining leases), and some land use layers (e.g., Labrador Inuit Lands, public water supply areas, municipal boundaries). For a complete list go to the List of Layers.

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3) What browsers work best with the Geoscience Atlas? How should the browser be set up?
The Geoscience Atlas works best with recent versions of Internet Explorer, Edge, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Other browsers may work (e.g. Apple Safari) but not all Atlas tools and functions will work well. Make sure that pop-ups are enabled on your internet browser for this site. Ad blockers cause problems (Contents panel expand (+) and collapse (-) buttons may not work) so make sure to disable the blocker for this site.

To be assured of getting the most recent website information, turn off caching or delete the last cache when new data is loaded into the Atlas (see the What's New file).

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4) Problems: the Atlas does not look correct; there are no icons to expand the Groups; I'm not getting the information I expect; I'm not getting any information; I can't click on anything.
Make sure the correct layer has been turned on in the Contents panel. Note that information is not available for Base Map topographic layers. Pop-ups need to be enabled on your internet browser for the Geoscience Atlas site. Ad blockers also cause problems with not being able to expand the Group layers in the Contents panel so make sure to disable any ad blockers for this site.

If you click on an object (e.g, till or lake sediment sample site) and no information is displayed in the Search Results window then refresh the screen (F5) and try again.  You will lose any drawn graphics.  If you are using Google Chrome, 'not being able to get information when clicking on a feature' has been logged as an official 'bug' (as of March 2021) - using another browser (e.g., Mozilla Firefox or MS Internet Explorer or Edge) will solve this issue.

If you are still not getting the correct information or the Atlas seems to be 'glitchy' (not providing the expected results), then it might be better to close the Geoscience Atlas and clear history (e.g., browsing, form, and cookies) for your internet browser. This will reset Geoscience Atlas parameters back to the default view - note that you will lose cookies, login information and form information if you haven't set up which parameters to clear in your browser. You may also have to clear your cache in the History settings.

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5) Can I download data? If so, which layers can I download?
Yes, the geoscience layers 'owned' by the Newfoundland and Labrador Geological Survey and a few other provincial government departments are available for download through the Geoscience Atlas. Layers that we do not own are not available for download but may be available from the Contact information in the help file (blue underlined text in the Contents panel) for that layer.

For vector data (i.e., point, line and polygon data) only the information bounded by the map window will be downloaded by the 'Download Data' tool. For raster data (i.e., geophysical images) the whole layer is downloaded in the chosen format.

Topographic data on the Base Maps is not available for download but most  of this data is available from the federal governments Geogratis site.  Go to the Geoscience Online website (https://gis.geosurv.gov.nl.ca/) and click on the links in the National GIS Resources section.

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5a) If I don't have a GIS program how can I view the downloaded data?
The vector data can be downoaded in ESRI shape file format which can be viewed by many free programs (see below). Also, the .dbf file, downloaded as part of the shape file, can be opened in many spreadsheet programs such as MS Excel. The .dbf file contains the attribute table listings. Raster data can be downloaded as images such as tif, jpg, and png which can be viewed in many free viewers.

QGIS is a free and open source GIS. It is available at https://www.qgis.org.

ArcReader is a free ArcGIS viewer that provides an easy way to explore, visualize, and share GIS information. Review and download the program at: https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcreader

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6) What projection and datum are used?
Downloaded data is provided in latitude-longitude, North American Datum 1927 or UTM, NAD27 datum.

The projection of data in the Geoscience Atlas map window is Transverse Mercator but centered on longitude 59.5°, and using the NAD27 datum with a scale factor of 0.998, known locally as NF_GNL1.

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7)What format is the downloaded data?
Downloaded data from the Search Results window is provided in ESRI shape file format, in a latitude-longitude, NAD27 coordinate system or UTM, NAD27.
Downloaded data from the Download tool is provided in a number of formats such as ESRI shape file or file geodatabases for feature class data (vector data) and jpg, tif or png for raster formats.

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8) The surficial and bedrock geology polygons I downloaded are all one colour - how do I colour the polygons?

For all the Bedrock Geology lines and polygons, go to the Bedrock Geology help file > Symbology Files section to view the procedure or download the necessary files (e.g., layer files, program files) to colour or symbolize lines in the ArcGIS, MapInfo, or QGIS programs.

Similarly, for the Surficial Geology polygons, go to the Surficial Geology help file > Symbology Files section to view the procedure or download the necessary files (e.g., layer files, program files) to colour or symbolize lines in the ArcGIS, MapInfo, or QGIS programs.

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9) The point (or line) data I downloaded does not have the same symbols as on the Geoscience Atlas - how do I get the same symbology?
This will depend on the GIS program you are using and which layer you want to symbolize.

To symbolize such symbols as the striation symbols, please download this zip file containing the 'Geomant' font set and copy it to the Windows\Fonts folder.

Other symbols will have to be manually set. Contact the GeoscienceOnline@gov.nl.ca of the NL Geological Survey for help with symbolizing.

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10) Where can I get a legend for the bedrock geology?
The Bedrock Geology help file has pdf files for the legends for detailed and regional (i.e., 1:1 million) bedrock geology.  Coloured legends for the specific geology downloaded will be available in the future.

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11) Can I view the shape attribute tables as a spreadsheet?
Yes, download the layer information in ESRI shape file format - this is composed of a group of files (e.g. shp, dbf, sbx, prj). The tabular information is contained in the .dbf file. This file can be opened in most spreadsheet programs (e.g., MS Excel). The data won't be well formatted but it will be available to view and manipulate.

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12) The order of the Contents is not the same as previously?
The order of the Contents Panel groups should be Map Layers, Coastal Monitoring, Indexes, Land Use, Mineral Lands, Geochemistry, Bedrock Geology, Surficial Geology and Geophysics. If the order is not as indicated above then layers may not be listed correctly in the Download list or the Attribute Queries list and will be difficult to find. Reset the order by refreshing the current page by clicking on the refresh icon, click on F5 or close the browser window and open it again. This may have to be done two or three times.

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13) Who can I email or speak to about the Geoscience Atlas or a particular layer?
Go to the help file for that layer (click on the blue underlined text in the Atlas Contents panel) and the contact information will be at the bottom of the file. For the Geoscience Atlas or any geoscience questions or comments please go to the GeoscienceOnline@gov.nl.ca link to contact us.

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CONTACT

Questions, comments or suggestions can be directed to:

Geoscience Online
Email: GeoscienceOnline@gov.nl.ca

Geoscience Data Management
Geological Survey Division, Mines Branch
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
P.O. Box 8700
St. John's, NL A1B 4J6

t. 709-729-2301

(updated May, 2021)