BGS Geology - 50k (DiGMapGB-50) Superficial version 8

Data identifying areas (shown as polygons) attributed with geological names and rock type descriptions. The scale of the data is 1:50 000 scale. Onshore coverage is provided for all of England, Wales, Scotland, and the Isle of Man.

Superficial deposits are the youngest geological deposits formed during the most recent period of geological time, the Quaternary, which extends back about 2.58 million years from the present. They lie on top of older deposits or rocks referred to as bedrock.

Superficial deposits were laid down by various natural processes such as action by ice, water, wind and weathering. As such, the deposits are denoted by their BGS lexicon name, which classifies them on the basis of mode of origin (lithogenesis) with names such as, 'glacial deposits', 'river terrace deposits' or 'blown sand'; or on the basis of their composition such as 'peat'.

Most of these superficial deposits are unconsolidated sediments such as gravel, sand, silt and clay. The digital data includes attribution to identify each deposit type (in varying levels of detail) as described in the BGS Rock Classification Scheme (volume 4).

The data are available in vector format (containing the geometry of each feature linked to a database record describing their attributes) as ESRI shapefiles and are available under BGS data licence.