Web services — geology maps, earthquake data and more

We are making more of our geological data available in open formats so that they can be used in mashup type applications within GIS software and Geobrowsers such as Google Earth. In addition to their full software products, ESRI® make the ArcGIS Explorer data viewer, MapInfo® make the MapInfo® ProviewerTM data viewer and Intergraph make the GeoMedia Viewer data viewer freely available. Open Source software for interacting with spatial data services are also available as are numerous web-based systems. Please note the terms and conditions of use for such software. We hope these services stimulate innovative uses of our data and promote interoperability.

Terms of use

All the data services listed here are delivered under the Open Government Licence, subject to the following acknowledgement accompanying the reproduced BGS materials: "Contains British Geological Survey materials © NERC [year]".

Map data services

search iconKML — UK geology and UK and worldwide earthquake maps
Viewable in Google Earth and Google Maps and an increasing number of other GIS, geobrowser systems and virtual globes.
OGC Associate Member logoWeb Map Services (WMS) — UK geology datasets
Viewable in GIS software such as ESRI's ArcGIS.
Also in geobrowsers and virtual globes such as Google Earth.
Also accessible from portal-style websites using a map-based interface.
RSS logoGeoRSS feeds — UK and worldwide earthquake maps
These feeds work as normal RSS feeds, but have additional location information embedded in each item. Viewable in applications such as Google Maps.
BGS 625 000 scale geology drapped on an eggEmbed a UK geology or earthquakes map
Include an interactive geology or earthquakes map of the UK in your own website

Other data services

Semantic web logo Linked data

Linked data allows powerful and easy re-use of data by interconnecting data, putting it in to context and enabling comparisons.


RSS logo RSS news feeds

Get our news releases and the latest updates to our website as soon as they are posted without having to check it yourself for changes.


Database icon Vocabulary web service

Standardised terms that cover a wide range of geoscience specialisms. The BGS vocabulary web service has been implemented as a RESTful web service. It provides programmatic access to our dictionaries and their terms.