The activity is organized after five key principles:[3] The Geological Survey of Norway was established on 6 February 1858 by Order in Council.

[4] The survey would serve to map the country's agricultural areas and mineral deposits, as well as systematically study how the Norwegian landscape had been formed.

The first years of its existence, mapping the bedrock, superficial deposits and mineral resources was its principal task, but it contributed to a Norwegian sense of ownership to the land, something that was especially important around 1905, after the Union with Sweden was dissolved.

Manager Kjerulf along with Dahll and several assistants had, after about twenty years of work, completed three impressive sets of maps.

The maps and their descriptions gave new and valuable knowledge about the Norwegian landscape, and showed that it was possible to combine the scientific, economic and cultural ambitions Kjerulf had fronted when he set out to create the survey.