The New Jersey Geological Survey is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year, as is the British Geological Survey. They are the oldest state and national geological surveys in the world respectively.
NJ is hosting the 102nd annual meeting of AASG as I write this and a recurring theme of the first sessions is the societal relevance of the work of state geological surveys.
At yesterday's opening session, U.S. Rep. (and physicist) Rush Holt noted that America does not appreciate what State Geological Surveys contribute to the nation’s well being.
In the UK, the BGS' OpenGeoscience web page attracted 38 million page views in its first week online, which says the public demand for good, unbiased information is huge. Our job is to get it out in an easy to access and understandable manner.
