Major shales and clays in England and Wales

Use this page to select an occurrence map of a shale or clay unit to view.

Six major shale or clay units in England and Wales are listed below. Click on the name of one of the units in the list to see a thumbnail map of the distribution of that shale or clay. Once you have selected the unit that you are interested in, follow the link for information about the geology, hydrogeology and hydrocarbon potential of the unit, and to see a more detailed map of the distribution of the shale or clay.

Click the info icon to get more information about the shale maps where available.

Blank map

Shale occurrence map

About the shale/clay maps

More information on the selection and definition of the six shale and clay units is given in the methods section or download the data used to prepare the maps.