BGS Geology 50k: Superficial Deposits Map of Great Britain

A 1:50,000 scale vector map of Great Britain's superficial geological deposits, created by the British Geological Survey. The data identifies landscape areas as polygons attributed with geological names and rock type descriptions based on the BGS Rock Classification Scheme. Superficial deposits are the youngest geological formations from the Quaternary period, extending back about 2.58 million years, and include materials like glacial deposits, river terrace deposits, blown sand, and peat.

Use Cases

• Modeling floodplain and groundwater dynamics based on mapped river terrace and alluvial deposits.
• Assessing land suitability for construction or agriculture based on the distribution of unconsolidated sediments like clay, sand, and gravel.
• Studying past glacial activity and ice sheet extent based on the mapped distribution of glacial deposits.
• Identifying areas of peat accumulation for carbon storage or conservation planning.

Strengths

• Provides onshore coverage for all of England, Wales, Scotland, and the Isle of Man.
• Attributed with geological names and descriptions based on the standardized BGS Rock Classification Scheme.
• Focuses on the Quaternary period, covering the most recent ~2.58 million years of geological history.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale ML tasks.

Provenance

Source

British Geological Survey (BGS)

Collection Method

Digital mapping of landscape areas (polygons) attributed with geological data.

Time Range

Quaternary period (last ~2.58 million years)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-09 08:30:30.267301; freshness should be verified.

Geography

England, Wales, Scotland, Isle of Man (onshore Great Britain)