BGS Seabed Geology: Offshore East Anglia version 1.0
The BGS Seabed Geology: Offshore East Anglia digital map provides detailed and accurate characterisation of the seabed geology, based on seabed and shallow-subsurface data. This dataset incorporates three complementary map components (Substrate Geology, Structural Geology, and Geomorphology), provided as discrete layers for viewing within a Geographic Information System (GIS). The bedrock geology of the mapped area comprises Cretaceous age Chalk Group sedimentary rocks. These rocks crop out extensively at seabed across the southern and central parts of the dataset forming an extensive bedrock platform and Europe’s largest known offshore chalk reef. This reef has been designated the Cromer Shoal Chalk Beds Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) owing to the range of unique floral and faunal habitats that it supports. The Chalk Group is covered across the central (partly) and southern parts of the dataset by natural superficial deposits that accreted during the Quaternary. These include preglacial delta bottom-set (Westkapelle Ground Formation) and delta top-set (Yarmouth Roads Formation); and glacial sediments and landforms that were deposited and formed during at least two separate phases of glaciation that inundated parts of the southern North Sea and adjacent East Anglia during the Middle Pleistocene (Anglian / Elsterian) and Late Pleistocene (Late Devensian / Late Weichselian). Collective geological evidence includes extensive areas of out-cropping subglacial till; the presence of largely concealed and infilled over-deepened (>100 m deep) subglacial tunnel valleys, ice-marginal moraines, and a glacially disrupted chalk surface that includes the development of incised meltwater channels, detached and transported glacitectonic bedrock rafts and megablocks. Post-glacial environments from the Late-Pleistocene – Holocene (prior to marine inundation) included fluvial and estuarine deposition, that together with variable infill of late-glacial valleys are included within the Botney Cut Formation. Holocene marine transgression flooded the region, with shallow marine sedimentation active through modern times resulting in the variable cover of unconsolidated marine sediments, as well as the distribution of extensive current-induced bedforms, e.g., sediment banks, sediment waves and fields of mega ripples which are recorded within the Seabed Geomorphology dataset. Each theme is provided as distinct layers for viewing within a Geographic Information System (GIS). The “Substrate Geology” layer shows the distribution of bedrock and unlithified superficial deposits present at the seabed (below a thin veneer of seabed sediments, ‘one-metre principle’ described below) as a series of polygons; The “Structural Geology” layer represents the structural features observed at rockhead as a polylines layer, and “Geomorphology” theme consists of points, polylines, and polygons layers to portray the main seabed morphological and geomorphological features.
Simple
- Date (Creation)
- 2024-02
Distributor
British Geological Survey
-
Enquiries
0115 936 3276
The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South
,
EDINBURGH
,
LOTHIAN
,
EH14 4AP
,
United Kingdom
0115 936 3142
0115 936 3276
Point of contact
British Geological Survey
-
Enquiries
0115 936 3276
The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South
,
EDINBURGH
,
LOTHIAN
,
EH14 4AP
,
United Kingdom
0115 936 3142
0115 936 3276
- Maintenance and update frequency
- notPlanned Not planned
- GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
- BGS Thesaurus of Geosciences
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- Geomorphology
- Surficial geology
- Mapping
- EGDI
- Structural geology
- Bed rock
- Sea floor
- UK Location (INSPIRE)
- dataCentre
- Keywords
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- NERC_DDC
- Access constraints
- otherRestrictions Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- licenceOGL
- Use constraints
- otherRestrictions Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- The copyright of materials derived from the British Geological Survey's work is vested in the Natural Environment Research Council [NERC]. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, via the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Manager. Use by customers of information provided by the BGS, is at the customer's own risk. In view of the disparate sources of information at BGS's disposal, including such material donated to BGS, that BGS accepts in good faith as being accurate, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the quality or accuracy of the information supplied, or to the information's suitability for any use. NERC/BGS accepts no liability whatever in respect of loss, damage, injury or other occurence however caused.
- Other constraints
- Available under the Open Government Licence subject to the following acknowledgement accompanying the reproduced NERC materials "Contains NERC materials ©NERC [year]"
- Spatial representation type
- vector Vector
- Metadata language
- EnglishEnglish
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
- Geographic identifier
-
UK CONTINENTAL SHELF [id=121701]
- Date (Creation)
- 1979
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S
E
W
- End date
- 2024-02 Before
- Unique resource identifier
- WGS 84 / UTM zone 31N (EPSG::32631)
- Distribution format
-
-
ESRI Shapefile (.shp)
()
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ESRI layer file (.lyrx)
()
-
ESRI Shapefile (.shp)
()
Distributor
British Geological Survey
-
Enquiries
0115 936 3276
The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South
,
EDINBURGH
,
LOTHIAN
,
EH14 4AP
,
United Kingdom
0115 936 3142
0115 936 3276
- OnLine resource
- GeoIndex Offshore Homepage
- OnLine resource
- Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- Hierarchy level
- dataset Dataset
Conformance result
- Date (Publication)
- 2011
- Explanation
- See the referenced specification
- Pass
- No
Conformance result
- Date (Publication)
- 2010-12-08
- Explanation
- See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:323:0011:0102:EN:PDF
- Pass
- No
- Statement
- The delineation and classification of the geological substrate units were based primarily on what can be observed and interpreted from the multibeam echo-sounder (MBES) bathymetry data collected during the Civil Hydrography Programme (CHP) surveys managed by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). CHP data are made available via an Open Government Licence. Within the Offshore East Anglia area, mapping utilised 6 contiguous high-resolution multibeam datasets: • CHP surveys - Cromer Shoal Chalk Beds Multibeam Survey CSCB_3_2014 (2014) - HI1515 Haisborough Sand to Outer Dowsing Channel Area (2018) - HI1673 Sheringham Shoal (2020) - HI1447 Blakeney Overfalls (2014) - HI1427 The Would North, Centre and South (2015) - HI1428 Newark Banks to Cross Sands (2014) MBES backscatter, physical samples (e.g., grabs, cores, and boreholes), seismic data, academic and publicly accessible industry literature, and previous BGS mapping (e.g.,1:250k maps) were also used to further inform the geological interpretation. The geological analysis, interpretation, and mapping were carried out for presentation at 1:10,000 scale in 2021-23 by Jonathan Lee, Dayton Dove and Nicola Dakin. Important contributions including scientific (and technical) advice and review were provided by: Andrew Finlayson, Margaret Stewart and Emrys Phillips. The dataset compilation was done by Joana Gafeira. The analysis, interpretation and mapping methodology are described in more detail in the user guide for this dataset OR/24/003.
- File identifier
- 1a9990d7-3091-0f1e-e063-0937940a4e50 XML
- Metadata language
- EnglishEnglish
- Hierarchy level
- dataset Dataset
- Date stamp
- 2025-11-13
- Metadata standard name
- UK GEMINI
- Metadata standard version
- 2.3
Point of contact
British Geological Survey
The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South
,
EDINBURGH
,
LOTHIAN
,
EH14 4AP
,
United Kingdom
+44 131 667 1000
- Dataset URI
- http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13608247
Overviews
Spatial extent
N
S
E
W
Provided by
Associated resources
Not available
NERC Data Catalogue Service