Estonian georesources in the European context

Estonia is situated on the southern buried slope of the Baltic Shield where the sedimentary bedrock overlies the Precambrian crystalline basement. The Cambrian section contains mainly sandstone and clay (e.g. famous “blue clay”), Lower Ordovician is represented by sandstone, including phosphate Obolus sandstone (shelly phosphorite), and Upper Ordovician by oil shale (kukersite). Estonia is not very rich in useful minerals, but we have some georesources sizeable in European context: oil shale (the Estonia deposit is the largest commercially exploited and best-studied oil shale deposit in the world), phosphorite (the well-studied Rakvere deposit is the largest phosphorite deposit in Europe, but not exploited), and peat (Estonia is considered as a country richest in peatlands in North Europe). Unfortunately, for more than 80 years oil shale and phosphorite have been mined and industrially used in environmentally hazardous ways, devastating large regions in northern and northeastern Estonia. The mining is mainly causing technological and technical, environmental, economic and social problems.