“The center has formulated an ambitious scientific program for mapping all elements on the Earth to generate a Digital Chemical Earth and document global geochemical data, which serve the global science community and assist with sustainable long-term environmental and resources management.” Said Gretchen Kalongi, Assistant Director, in the 37^th session of General Conference of UNESCO.

“China will cooperate with all countries in the world to establish the global geochemical baselines and observatory networks, to create the Chemical Earth Platform, and to share geochemical big data for quantifying future global geochemical changes and serving with decision makers,” said Jiang Daming, minister of the Ministry of Land and Resources of P.R.China, in the opening ceremony of the Center.

Missions in the first Six Years

a.       To set up international cooperation networks in the field of global-scale geochemistry, and to foster knowledge and technology for global sustainable development of natural resources and environments.

b.       To cover 25% of the land surface area of the Earth by global geochemical baseline mapping, priority in the regions of the “Silk Road” countries, and to document concentrations and distributions of 76 elements.

c.       To build the educations and training base, to hold at least 5 training courses on global-scale geochemical knowledge and geochemical mapping methodologies, and to provide technical assistance to developing countries.

d.       To establish a digital Chemical Earth Platform for geochemical big data management based on the Internet, to promote equal access to basic services for global-scale geochemical data and knowledge-sharing, and to build up a bridge between scientific community, decision makers and the general public.

Scopes of the Six-year Plan

a.       Establishment of the global geochemical baselines, which will cover 1/4 land surface of the earth in the 6 years;

b.       Establishment of critical zone geochemical observatory networks with 100 obsernatory stations set up;

c.       Assessment of global distributions of resource potential reserves for 50 ore forming elements by using baselines data;

d.       Assessment of environmental contamination status and risks of toxic heavy metals;

e.       Exploration for knowledge of major historic geological events and its geochemical responses;

f.        Development of the internet-based “Chemical Earth” platform, providing services to public with Big Data and knowledge of global-scale geochemistry;

g.       China-Mongolia-Russia-Kazakhstan Geochemical Atlas;

h.       China-Europe Silk Road Geochemical Mapping ；

i.         ASEAN Geochemical Mapping.