The International Geological Map of Asia at the scale of 1:5 000 000 (IGMA5000) compiled by the IUGS Commission for the Geological Map of the World (CGMW) Subcommission for South and East Asia in collaboration with the subcommissions for Northern Eurasia, the Middle East and Seafloor Maps is a major cooperative project under the aegis of CGMW with the support of UNESCO and IUGS. Launched in 2005 and completed in 2012, the enterprise involved more than 100 geologists from 20 Asian and European countries, namely Cambodia, China, DPR of Korea, France, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam. It was also backed by the substantial efforts of the China Geological Survey and published by the Geological Publishing House (Beijing) in June 2013. The IGMA5000 is the first-of-its-kind digitally-created international geological map of Asia depicting the geology of both the continent and offshore areas. The map spans the entirety of Asia and its peripheral regions from the Alps in the west to the Mariana Trench in the east and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Java Trench in the south. It will provide an essential foundation for users to explore the geology of Asia from a global perspective and help with the understanding of the tectonic relationship between the Asian continent and its neighboring continents and oceans.