Netherlands Indies Geological Survey

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tagsorganization, government, dutch, colonial, geological-survey
aliasesDienst van den Mijnbouw, Geological Survey of the Netherlands East Indies, Netherlands Indies Geological Survey, NIGS

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The Netherlands Indies Geological Survey (Dienst van den Mijnbouw in Nederlandsch-Indië) was the geological-survey arm of the Bureau of Mines in Indonesia, responsible for the systematic geological mapping and mineralogical survey of the Netherlands East Indies. The Geological Survey’s field-geologists — Zwierzycki, Hövig, Tobler, Jansen, Lindberg, Wolvekamp, Fennema, Rinaud, Philippi, Hengeveld, Fryling, Van Loheezen and others — produced the printed and archived reports on which Van Bemmelen’s *Geology of Indonesia* (1949) depends, and the Survey’s cartographic output — including the 1:1,000,000 geological map (sheet I, Atjeh) compiled by Zwierzycki in 1922 — is the standard cartographic basis for the colonial geological literature on Atjeh.

Functions and field-geologists

The Geological Survey’s functions included:

  • The systematic geological mapping of the Netherlands East Indies, at scales ranging from 1:1,000,000 (the overview sheets) to 1:200,000 (the detailed sheets) and 1:100,000 (the special-purpose sheets).
  • The mineralogical survey of the archipelago, including the systematic inventory of coal, gold, iron-ore, copper, lead-zinc, manganese, mercury and other mineral occurrences.
  • The compilation and publication of the Verslagen en Mededeelingen series (with the Bureau of Mines).
  • The archiving of the unpublished Geological Survey reports, which form the principal source-base for Van Bemmelen’s compilation.
  • The training and deployment of the field-geologists whose names are attached, in the colonial geological literature, to the mineral occurrences of Atjeh and the rest of the East Indies.

The Geological Survey’s field-geologists were typically Dutch mining engineers or geologists, employed by the colonial state and posted to the Survey’s field-stations across the archipelago. The Survey’s work on Atjeh was conducted by field-geologists based either at the Survey’s headquarters in Batavia or at the field-stations in northern Sumatra (including Kota Radja and Medan). The Survey’s reports on Atjeh — both the printed Verslagen en Mededeelingen and the unpublished “Geol. Survey Report, Arch. Bur. of Mines” — are accordingly the principal source for the colonial mineralogical record of the residency.

The 1:1,000,000 geological map

The Survey’s most widely cited cartographic output for Atjeh is the 1:1,000,000 geological map (sheet I, covering Atjeh and the West-Atjeh coast), compiled by Zwierzycki in 1922. The map is reproduced (in adapted form) as Fig. 28 of Van Bemmelen’s *Geology of Indonesia* under the title “Basin of Meulaboh (West coast of Atjeh)”, and it remained the standard cartographic basis for all subsequent geological work on the West-Atjeh coastal plain. The map distinguishes Alluvium, Neogene (Pliocene, Miocene), Paleogene (Oligocene, Eocene), Permo-Carboniferous, andesitic effusiva, andesite, basalt, diabase, gabbro, serpentine and granite — the full range of the surface geology of the West-Atjeh coast.

The Fennema government crew

The Geological Survey’s earliest documented intervention in the northern-Sumatran oil industry was the 1885 despatch of a government crew, under the leadership of the mining engineer Fennema, to assist the private concessionary J. Zulkler with the drilling of the Telaga Said well. The drilling “proved to be an outstanding success”, and the episode is the founding instance of the public-private partnership model that would subsequently characterise the entire East Indian oil industry: private concessionaries held the legal rights, but the government — through the Geological Survey and the Bureau of Mines — supplied the geological expertise and (in the early years) the drilling equipment.

Significance

The Netherlands Indies Geological Survey is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history because it was the colonial-state institution responsible for the geological mapping and mineralogical survey of Atjeh — the institution whose field-geologists (Zwierzycki, Hövig, Tobler, Jansen, Lindberg, Wolvekamp, Fennema, Rinaud, Philippi, Hengeveld, Fryling, Van Loheezen) produced the printed and archived reports on which Van Bemmelen’s treatment of Atjeh’s mineral geography depends. The Survey’s 1:1,000,000 geological map of Atjeh (Zwierzycki, 1922) is the standard cartographic basis for the colonial geological literature on the residency, and the Survey’s archives — both the printed Verslagen en Mededeelingen and the unpublished “Geol. Survey Report, Arch. Bur. of Mines” — are the principal source for any modern study of Atjeh’s colonial mineral economy.

See Also

Source

The Geology of Indonesia, by R. W. van Bemmelen, Vol. II: Economic Geology (The Hague: Government Printing Office; Martinus Nijhoff, 1949), pp. 7–8 (Fennema government crew, Zulkler concession), p. 121 (Zwierzycki 1:1,000,000 map of the Basin of Meulaboh, Fig. 28), pp. 205–211 (Geological Survey field-reports on Atjeh mineral occurrences).

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