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BGS 1:63 360 / 1:50 000 series geological maps

The 1:63 360 / 1:50 000 scale map series are the most useful scale for most purposes. They provide almost complete coverage of onshore Great Britain. The BGS collection of 1:63 360 and 1:50 000 scale maps comprises two map series: - Geological Survey of England and Wales 1:63 360 / 1:50 000 Geological Map Series [New Series]. These maps are based on the Ordnance Survey One-inch New Series topographic basemaps and provide almost complete coverage of England and Wales, with the exception of sheet 180 (Knighton). The quarter-sheets of 1:63 360 Old Series sheets 91 to 110 coincide with sheets 1 to 73 of the New Series maps. These earlier maps often carry two sheet numbers which refer to the Old Series and the New Series. - Geological Survey of Scotland 1:63 360 / 1:50 000 Geological Map Series. These maps are based on the Ordnance Survey First, Second, Third and Fourth editions of the One-inch map of Scotland. The maps used the most recent topographic basemap available at the time. In the Western Isles, one-inch mapping was abandoned and replaced by maps at 1:100 000 scale, which are associated with this series. Sheets were traditionally issued at 1:63 360 scale, with the first 1:50 000 maps appearing in 1972. Sheets at 1:50 000 scale may be either facsimile enlargements of an existing 1:63 360 sheets, or may contain new geology and cartography. The latter bear the additional series designation '1:50 000 series'. Within the Scottish series, new mapping at 1:50 000 scale was split into east and west sheets. For example, the original one-inch sheet 32 became 1:50 000 sheets 32E and 32W. A number of irregular sheets were also introduced with the new 1:50 000 scale mapping. There are a number of irregular special sheets within both series. Geological maps represent a geologist's compiled interpretation of the geology of an area. A geologist will consider the data available at the time, including measurements and observations collected during field campaigns, as well as their knowledge of geological processes and the geological context to create a model of the geology of an area. This model is then fitted to a topographic basemap and drawn up at the appropriate scale, with generalization if necessary, to create a geological map, which is a representation of the geological model. Explanatory notes and vertical and horizontal cross sections may be published with the map. Geological maps may be created to show various aspects of the geology, or themes. The most common map themes held by BGS are solid (later referred to as bedrock) and drift (later referred to as superficial). These maps are, for the most part, hard-copy paper records stored in the National Geoscience Data Centre (NGDC) and are delivered as digital scans through the BGS website.

Simple

Alternate title

BGS 50k maps

Date (Publication)
1856
Citation identifier
http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13608196
Point of contact
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

British Geological Survey

Enquiries

enquiries@bgs.ac.uk

Distributor

British Geological Survey

Enquiries

enquiries@bgs.ac.uk

Owner

British Geological Survey

Enquiries

enquiries@bgs.ac.uk

Point of contact
Maintenance and update frequency
As needed

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

  • Geology

BGS Thesaurus of Geosciences

  • Geological models

  • Geological surveys

  • Maps

  • UK Location (INSPIRE)

  • Geological maps

  • Geology

  • Geological mapping

dataCentre
  • UK Location (INSPIRE)
Keywords
  • NERC_DDC

Access constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints
no limitations
Other constraints
The dataset is made freely available for access, e.g. via the Internet. Either no third party data / information is contained in the dataset or BGS has secured written permission from the owner(s) of any third party data / information contained in the dataset to make the dataset freely accessible.
Use constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints

The copyright of materials derived from the British Geological Survey's work is vested in the Natural Environment Research Council [NERC]. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, via the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Manager. Use by customers of information provided by the BGS, is at the customer's own risk. In view of the disparate sources of information at BGS's disposal, including such material donated to BGS, that BGS accepts in good faith as being accurate, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the quality or accuracy of the information supplied, or to the information's suitability for any use. NERC/BGS accepts no liability whatever in respect of loss, damage, injury or other occurence however caused.

Other constraints

Available under the Open Government Licence subject to the following acknowledgement accompanying the reproduced NERC materials "Contains NERC materials ©NERC [year]"

Other constraints

There are no restrictions on the use that may be made of the dataset, although an appropriate copyright acknowledgement must be made when any part of the dataset is reproduced. Either no third party data / information is contained in the dataset or BGS has secured written permission from the owner of any third party data / information contained in the dataset to make the dataset freely available without any use constraints - inclusion of any third party data / information will affect the copyright acknowledgement that needs to be made.

Spatial representation type
Vector
Denominator
50000
Denominator
63360
Denominator
100000
Language
English
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information
Geographic identifier
GBN

ISO 3166_2 2009 revision

Geographic identifier
GREAT BRITAIN [id=139600]

British Geological Survey Gazetteer: Geographical hierarchy from Geosaurus 1979 creation

N
S
E
W
thumbnail




Begin date
1856
End date
2015
Supplemental Information

In some cases, BGS may hold multiple copies of the same map - for example if there were originally different copies held in different Survey offices, or at different locations at the same site. As a result of this, there may be multiple scans for the same map.

Unique resource identifier
OSGB 1936 / British National Grid (EPSG::27700)
Unique resource identifier
WGS 84 (EPSG::4326)
Distribution format
Name Version

PDF

Distributor contact
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

British Geological Survey

Enquiries

enquiries@bgs.ac.uk

Distributor
OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name

HTTP

https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/data/MapsPortal

BGS Maps Portal

Hierarchy level
Dataset
Other

dataset

Conformance result

Title

INSPIRE Implementing rules laying down technical arrangements for the interoperability and harmonisation of Geology

Date (Publication)
2011
Explanation

See the referenced specification

Pass
No

Conformance result

Title

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Date (Publication)
2010-12-08
Explanation

See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:323:0011:0102:EN:PDF

Pass
No
Statement

The geological maps were created by the Geological Survey from approximately the 1850s onwards. The paper maps were scanned to TIF image format at 300 dpi as part a scanning project in 2014. JPEG2000 and PDF copies were created from the master TIF scans.

Metadata

File identifier
120e1002-dcdd-1b22-e063-0937940ae43d XML
Metadata language
English
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Date stamp
2025-02-11
Metadata standard name
UK GEMINI
Metadata standard version

2.3

Metadata author
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

British Geological Survey

enquiries@bgs.ac.uk

Point of contact
Dataset URI

http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13608196

 
 

Overviews

overview

Spatial extent

thumbnail

Keywords

UK Location (INSPIRE)


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