Abstract German forces occupied Norway from June 1940 to secure the strategically important iron ore railway from Lulea in Sweden to Narvik in Norway and to improve the German base for war against the UK. Increasing in number to a peak in 1943, by 1945 more than 60 German and Austrian military geoscientists had supported the army, air force and paramilitary construction agency, Organisation Todt, from 1942, mostly assisting fortification works along the Norwegian coast that formed part of the Atlantic Wall. In total, six military geology units (Wehrgeologenstellen) were deployed to support Army Headquarters Norway: WG18 and WG33 were assigned to the 17th Fortress Engineers in Oslo; WG22 to the 16th Fortress Engineers at Trondheim; WG3 and WG31 to the 15th Fortress Engineers at Narvik; and WG27, not for construction works, but to support the headquarters of Dietl’s Lapland Army, operationally deployed SW of Murmansk. Engineering work at strategic locations also included airfields, U-boat pens, roads and railways. Military geologists contributed to tasks related both to the Precambrian/Paleozoic bedrock and to its locally thick Quaternary cover, notably pioneering applications of rock mechanics and soil mechanics for major excavations, and locating sources of raw materials and drinking water.

Abstract One hundred years ago, standards in geological report writing were formalized within the Royal Dutch Shell Group. Chief Geologist Josef Theodor Erb defined these standards in an internal report aimed at geologists working for Shell subsidiaries. His purpose was to raise the level of scientific reporting and to provide a measure of uniformity in geological reports sent to head office from all parts of the world. Ultimately, ‘Uniformity in Geological Reports’ was to allow the chief geologist to readily identify and follow-up on the better business opportunities. With time, Erb’s report developed into the Shell ‘Standard Legend’. Erb’s career is symptomatic of a developing company culture, which he embraced as his life’s goal. Realizing the shortcomings of this narrow personal philosophy of life may have been at the root of the mental problems that led to his death.

Abstract Using two hypothetical effusive events in the Chaîne des Puys (Auvergne, France), we tested two geographical information systems (GISs) set up to allow loss assessment during an effusive crisis. The first was a local system that drew on all immediately available data for population, land use, communications, utility and building type. The second was an experimental add-on to the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS) global warning system maintained by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) that draws information from open-access global data. After defining lava-flow model source terms (vent location, effusion rate, lava chemistry, temperature, crystallinity and vesicularity), we ran all available lava-flow emplacement models to produce a projection for the likelihood of impact for all pixels within the GIS. Next, inundation maps and damage reports for impacted zones were produced, with those produced by both the local system and by GDACS being in good agreement. The exercise identified several shortcomings of the systems, but also indicated that the generation of a GDACS-type global response system for effusive crises that uses rapid-response model projections for lava inundation driven by real-time satellite hotspot detection – and open-access datasets – is within the current capabilities of the community.