BGS to update geological maps of Strathmore

A re-survey of Strathmore, eastern Scotland, has been commissioned under BGS’s national mapping programme. The area was last surveyed in the 1880s and the re-survey will provide updated geological data and information for the region. 

Field studies will be conducted between Montrose and Alyth from May to June 2024 and in September 2024 and spring 2025. The field survey will be done on foot, making observations of rock exposures, soils and the form of the landscape. Geological maps will then be drawn up using the field observations alongside analyses of borehole records, historic maps and remote-sensing datasets, such as digital terrain models and aerial photos.

The geology of the region includes the sandstones, siltstones and conglomerates of the ’Old Red Sandstone’, which were deposited by rivers in hot and dry conditions some 400 million years ago in the Devonian Period. The reddish colour of these rocks and the rich soils derived from them are characteristic of the region. The higher ground of the Ochil Hills is underlain by volcanic rocks, which are typically associated with acidic soils.

The survey will address questions about the arrangement of the sandstones, conglomerates and volcanic units and develop new understanding of how they have been deformed by faulting and folding.

The results will also help BGS to better understand ground conditions and the pathways for groundwater flow, supporting groundwater management and assessments of geothermal resource potential. In the future, this will help farmers and other rural businesses identify more reliable groundwater sources and make decisions around investment in ground-source heat pumps.  Geological maps produced from this work will form part of the national geological map, which can be freely viewed on the BGS maps portal or on the GeoIndex (onshore) on the BGS website. Research papers and reports will also be accessible via the BGS website and NERC Open Research Archive services.

The Strathmore area was last surveyed nearly 100 years before we knew about plate tectonics and before there were aerial photos. With this re-survey, we can re-shape our understanding of a key part of Scotland’s geological past by looking at these rocks and structures with new eyes, both in the field and using modern digital data resources.

Katie Whitbread, BGS Survey Geologist and Strathmore project lead.

For further information about BGS and the Strathmore project, please contact BGS enquiries (enquiries@bgs.ac.uk) or telephone 0115 9363100.