Preface to the Norwegian edition
At a meeting on May 5th, 1982, the Norwegian Council of Geology passed a resolution for the establishment of a Norwegian Committee on Stratigraphy (Norsk stratigrafisk komite, NSK). The status, mandate, composition and working methods of the committee were defined at the same meeting (Appendix 1). On December 16th, 1982, the Council appointed the committee members, and on January 15th, 1983, the committee held its statutory general meeting electing Anna Siedlecka (Geological Survey of Norway -- Norges geologiske undersøkelse -- NGU) as chairman with Tore Torske (University of Tromsø -- Universitetet i Tromsø -- UiT) as her deputy. The other members during the 4-year period of 1983-86, were Svein Gjelle (NGU), Atle Mørk (Continental Shelf Institute, Norway -- Institutt for kontinentalsokkelundersøkelser -- IKU), Rolf Sørensen (Agricultural University of Norway -- Norges landbrukshøgskole -- NLH), Jan Vollset (Norwegian Petroleum Directorate -- Oljedirektoratet -- OD) and David Worsley (Saga Petroleum), with Arne Solli (NGU), Jenö Nagy (University of Oslo -- Universitetet i Oslo -- UiO), Johan Petter Nystuen (NLH), Eiliv Larsen (NGU), Jan Mangerud (University of Bergen -- Universitetet i Bergen -- UiB), Arild Andresen (UiT), Per Blystad (Åse Moe -- OD) and Audun Hjelle (Norwegian Polar Research Institute -- Norsk polarinstitutt -- NP) as deputies.
Atle Mørk and David Worsley took the initiative for setting up a body to attend to questions concerning Norwegian stratigraphy. In a written proposal sent to the Norwegian Council of Geology (Norsk geologiråd) they emphasized the need for a stratigraphical committee and outlined the tasks and working methods of such a body. As a result of this approach the Council, in a letter dated December 19th, 1979, appointed a committee consisting of Anna Siedlecka, Jan Vollset and David Worsley (chairman) charged with formulating a proposal for the working methods, responsibilities, terms of reference and members of a Norwegian Committee on Stratigraphy. The committee`s proposal of April 14th, 1980, formed the basis for the terms of reference and guidelines which the Council subsequently adopted for NSK.
The work of the Norwegian Committee on Stratigraphy is an extension of that performed by a previous stratigraphical group under the auspices of the Norwegian Geological Society. This group, with Professor Gunnar Henningsmoen as chairman, was active from the mid-1950`s to the end of the 1960`s. Its results included formulation of rules for Norwegian stratigraphical nomenclature (Henningsmoen 1961). The group also worked on approval and registration of stratigraphical units in Norway and Svalbard for a projected new version of the Norwegian section of the International Stratigraphical Encyclopedia (Major et al. 1956, Strand & Størmer 1956). To achieve uniform stratigraphical nomenclature in each country, stratigraphers in Finland and Sweden were approached with a view to cooperation. The activities of the group stagnated towards the end of the 1960`s because the initiators had other pressing tasks.
An increasing need for advice on the use of stratigraphical terminology and for rules for erecting stratigraphical and other geological units has been clearly apparent in recent years. This is connected with the geological mapping of the country, earth science research in general, and, not least, the explosive advance in geological research and oil prospecting in the North Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea. Because of this need, the Norwegian Committee on Stratigraphy has, throughout the 4-year period, placed priority on formulating a Code for naming geological units in Norway (Appendix 1).
The sections dealing with lithological, biostratigraphical, chronostratigraphical and morphostratigraphical units, along with that on climatostratigraphy, formed the basis for the preparation of "Rules and recommendations for naming geological units in Norway". Responsibility for compiling these sections was assigned to the following members of the committee (in alphabetical order): Eiliv Larsen, Atle Mørk, Anna Siedlecka and Tore Torske -- lithological units; Atle Mørk and David Worsley --biostratigraphy and chronostratigraphy; Eiliv Larsen, Jan Mangerud and Rolf Sørensen -- climatostratigraphy and morphostratigraphy; Per Blystad contributed the section on seismostratigraphy.
There has throughout been broad agreement within NSK about the great need for recommendations and advice concerning nomenclature and erection of units in the fields of structural geology and tectonostratigraphy. The committee therefore decided to extend the Code to include these non-stratigraphical entities. In spring 1984, NSK appointed a committee to work specifically on structural and tectonostratigraphical units. This committee, consisting of Johan Petter Nystuen (chairman), Roy Gabrielsen (Saga Petroleum) and Johan Naterstad (NGU), prepared the sections on these units. Sylvi Haldorsen (NLH) contributed the material concerning terminology relating to ice-contact deposits. The Norwegian Committee on Stratigraphy extends its gratitude to these for their work.
While the Code was being prepared, its content, scope and related language problems were discussed at several full meetings of the committee. Valuable comments and suggestions for improvements were sent to the committee by many Norwegian geologists in response to notes about specific points and to the entire code when it was sent out on hearing in the winter of 1985/86. NSK also had assistance from the Norwegian Language Council (Norsk språkråd), and received valuable advice and comments from the State Adviser on Geographical Names (Statens navnekonsulent). The committee offers its thanks to all the individuals and institutions who have contributed constructive criticism.
At the meeting of the Norwegian Committee on Stratigraphy on March 25th, 1985, it was proposed that Johan Petter Nystuen should be the editor of the Code, and he accepted the task. He has put a great deal of effort into the job of editing and has also supplemented the work with, for example, the introduction, sections concerned with pedostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy, diachronous units and deformational-diachronous units, and the illustrations. Thanks to his invaluable work the Code has achieved consistency in content and language. The Norwegian Committee on Stratigraphy hereby expresses its heartfelt thanks to Johan Petter Nystuen for this time-consuming task. He has shown professional skill, a realistic outlook and an ability to give the text clear wording. NSK also wishes to thank Marie-Louise Falch and Aslaug Borgan at the Institute of Earth Sciences at the Agricultural University of Norway for, respectively, word processing the manuscript and doing the final draughting of the illustrations. Eiliv Larsen is thanked for the work he carried out on final preparation of the manuscript for printing.
The Norwegian Committee on Stratigraphy is grateful to Norsk Hydro A/S, Saga Petroleum A/S and Statoil for financial support enabling the Code to be printed in Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift. NSK would also like to thank Snorre Olaussen and Statoil for permission to use Statoil`s Geological Time-scale; the cost of reprinting this for the Code was met by Statoil.
Finally, NSK would like to thank all those institutions and firms who have permitted employees to devote valuable working hours to the task of preparing the Code.
This Code is the first work of its sort and size to be published in Norwegian. Using the Code in practice is the only way any weak points, deficiencies and ambiguities will be revealed. NSK is publishing "Rules and recommendations for naming geological units in Norway", which is a result of valuable cooperation between representatives of various branches of the Norwegian geological fraternity, in the hope that the product will help many geologists in their everyday work.
Trondheim, June 18th, 1986
Anna Siedlecka
Chairman of the Norwegian Committee on Stratigraphy