When Afghanistan made the news in June of 2010, it wasn’t for the usual reasons. The US Government had brought in geologists to evaluate Afghanistan’s mineral resources and their conclusions were spit-take worthy. The iron, copper, gold, lithium, and rare earth elements present are worth something in the neighborhood of $1 trillion. This is a country whose GDP has recently climbed to $30 billion.

Ongoing work by the United States Geological Survey has developed the information Afghanistan will need to begin exploiting the resources that promise to revolutionize its economy. Last week, the USGS announced the release of incredibly detailed maps of Afghan geology. The maps (which are available for download) were created using airborne spectral surveys. In areas of bare rock or thin soil, the instruments can identify minerals in bedrock by the spectral fingerprint of the sunlight reflected off the surface. This technique had been used in targeted areas previously, but the coverage now extends nearly to the nation’s borders.

In a place like Afghanistan, it would take a very long time for geologists to cover all that ground by foot, and an understanding of the geology is critical to hunting down mineral deposits. In the press release, USGS Director Marcia McNutt says, “When compared with conventional ground mapping, use of this technology has accelerated by decades the identification of the most promising areas for economic development in Afghanistan.”