Seabed sediments 250K

BGS Datasets

Key information

Scale:
1:250 000
Coverage:
UK and adjacent European waters
Availability:
Free
Format:
GIS polygon data (ESRI, GeoPackage)
Price:

Free for commercial, research and public use under the Open Government Licence. Please acknowledge the material.

Uses:
Regional-level use

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Supporting documents

The 1:250 000-scale offshore geological maps are available digitally as two themes: offshore bedrock geology and seabed sediments.

The overlying column of sea water imposes major limitations offshore that makes it impossible to use normal, onshore, geological mapping techniques. However, other techniques such as ship-board geophysical surveys can be used that allow geological interpretations using evidence not normally available onshore.

The seabed sediments theme is only mapped offshore, where it commonly forms a veneer on the seabed. The map is based on seabed grab samples of the top 0.1 m, combined with cores and dredge samples as available.

The sediments are classified according to Folk (1954), which divides sediments into 15 classes, according to the proportions of sand, gravel and mud present.

Download BGS Offshore seabed sediments 250k data

Thank you for your interest in our digital data. BGS is constantly reviewing and developing our suite of data products and we value feedback from users to ensure that we are meeting their needs. Understanding how our data is being used also helps us to tailor future development plans and verify that we are providing data in the correct formats.

Before you download the data, we would really appreciate some feedback on how you plan to use BGS seabed sediment data. The information provided through this form is anonymous and will only be used by BGS and our partners to improve our products and services. It will be held securely and will not be used to identify any individual. For details on how we use your information, please view our privacy notice.

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Footnotes

1. Folk (1954)

FOLK, R.L. 1954. The distinction between grain size and mineral composition in sedimentary rock nomenclature. Journal of Geology 62 (4), 344-359

Footnote
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