Britain beneath our feet

Britain beneath our feet This site accompanies the book and CD ROM of the same name. It provides generalised maps of Britain based on data we have collected. Our GeoIndex website is more useful for indicating the availability of data for site specific investigations.

Please read our software disclaimer before using Britain Beneath Our Feet.

The landscape may be seen as a stage on which we act out the conflicts inherent in all land use. It is a source of mineral wealth and water, but may also be seen as a location for a major engineering project or a receptacle for rubbish. Government and industrialists may look at the landscape and see the challenge of combining mineral extraction with a respect for the environment. Increasingly, the public will have a view on these matters too, but may also simply wish to understand the land they live in: Why is my soil light or heavy, acid or limy? What made that hill in the distance? Why is there a spring here?

This online atlas is a brief introduction to the wealth of digital data, information and knowledge that the BGS holds on the land beneath our feet — knowledge that can help us all to address the questions above. Whatever we may feel about the economic, environmental and aesthetic costs and benefits of our future plans for this landscape, there cannot be an informed decision without knowledge of what is there.

Britain Beneath our Feet allows the user to search and interrogate data, to look at the separate components of individual map themes or to combine them. For more information on the detailed digital data and relevant contact addresses, please click here.

This website is designed to be viewed using Netscape Navigator 6+ or Microsoft Internet Explorer 6+ at 1024x768 screen resolution. It will work at lower resolutions, but may require scrolling. It has been tested on PC and Macintosh OSX platforms. The GIS functionality works with PCs only. For full functionality it is recommended that you use a PC with the latest version of your preferred browser. The latest browser versions tested with this site are:

  • Internet Explorer 6 for PC
  • Netscape 7 for PC
  • Safari 1.2 for Macintosh OSX

Copyright

Britain Beneath Our Feet is produced by the British Geological Survey and copyright NERC.