With articles and lesson plans, the September issue of Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears gets down to the rocks and minerals that lie below all that ice and snow. The web site OneGeology strips all earth’s coverings—plants, soils, water, and man-made structures—away to launch the first-ever collection of digital geological maps of the world.

 Earth and computer scientists from 79 countries worked on the global project to make geological maps from every part of the world accessible on the Internet. A web language has been written for geology that will allow nations to share data.  

The prototype OneGeology Portal was launched at the International Geological Congress in Oslo, Norway, on August 6, 2008. It is now available for anyone to view and for OneGeology participants to register their data.

OneGeology, supported by UNESCO and other bodies, is a project of the UN International Year of Planet Earth 2008.

An extra feature of the OneGeology site is a section illustrating the many ways in which geology enriches our lives, from serving as inspiration for art and music to providing place names and other words to our vocabulary. Another section in development, OneGeology4Youngsters, is designed for students under 12 years.