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The British Geological Survey (BGS) is a partly publicly-funded body which aims to advance geoscientific knowledge of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 landmass and its continental shelf
Continental shelf

The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain, and was part of the continent during the glacial periods, but is undersea during Ice age such as the current epoch by relatively shallow seas and Bay....
 by means of systematic surveying, monitoring and research. The BGS headquarters are in Keyworth
Keyworth

GeographyKeyworth is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England. It is located about 6 miles southeast of the centre of Nottingham....
, Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire is an Counties of England in the East Midlands, which borders South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire. The county town is traditionally Nottingham, though the council is now based in West Bridgford, a suburb of Greater Nottingham ....
, but other centres are located in Edinburgh
Edinburgh

Edinburgh ; is the Capital city of Scotland, a position it has held since 1437. It is the seventh largest city in the United Kingdom and the second largest Scottish City status in the United Kingdom after Glasgow....
, Wallingford
Wallingford

Wallingford is a small market town and civil parish in the upper Thames Valley in Oxfordshire, England....
, Cardiff
Cardiff

Cardiff is the Capital , largest city and most populous Unitary authority#Wales in Wales. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for many national cultural and sport institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of Welsh Assembly Government ....
, Exeter
Exeter

Exeter Exeter was the most south-westerly Roman fortified settlement in Roman Britain and has existed since time immemorial. Exeter Cathedral, founded in 1050 is Anglicanism....
, and London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
. The current motto of the BGS is: Geoscience for decision making.

Geological Survey was founded in 1835 at St.






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The British Geological Survey (BGS) is a partly publicly-funded body which aims to advance geoscientific knowledge of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 landmass and its continental shelf
Continental shelf

The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain, and was part of the continent during the glacial periods, but is undersea during Ice age such as the current epoch by relatively shallow seas and Bay....
 by means of systematic surveying, monitoring and research. The BGS headquarters are in Keyworth
Keyworth

GeographyKeyworth is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England. It is located about 6 miles southeast of the centre of Nottingham....
, Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire is an Counties of England in the East Midlands, which borders South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire. The county town is traditionally Nottingham, though the council is now based in West Bridgford, a suburb of Greater Nottingham ....
, but other centres are located in Edinburgh
Edinburgh

Edinburgh ; is the Capital city of Scotland, a position it has held since 1437. It is the seventh largest city in the United Kingdom and the second largest Scottish City status in the United Kingdom after Glasgow....
, Wallingford
Wallingford

Wallingford is a small market town and civil parish in the upper Thames Valley in Oxfordshire, England....
, Cardiff
Cardiff

Cardiff is the Capital , largest city and most populous Unitary authority#Wales in Wales. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for many national cultural and sport institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of Welsh Assembly Government ....
, Exeter
Exeter

Exeter Exeter was the most south-westerly Roman fortified settlement in Roman Britain and has existed since time immemorial. Exeter Cathedral, founded in 1050 is Anglicanism....
, and London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
. The current motto of the BGS is: Geoscience for decision making.

History and previous names

The Geological Survey was founded in 1835 at St. Bede's College, Manchester as the Ordnance Geological Survey, making it the world's oldest national geological survey
Geological survey

The term geological survey can be used to describe both the conduct of a surveying for geological purposes and an institution holding geological information....
. In 1965, it was merged with the Geological Museum
Geological Museum

The Geological Museum is one of the oldest single science museums in the world and now part of the Natural History Museum in London. It transferred from Jermyn Street to Exhibition Road, South Kensington in 1935 in a building designed by Sir Richard Allison and John Hatton Markham of the Office of Works....
 and Overseas Geological Surveys, under the name of "Institute of Geological Sciences". On the 1st January 1984, the latter was renamed British Geological Survey (BGS), a denomination still carried today.

Competences

The BGS advises the British government on all aspects of geoscience, as well as providing impartial advice on geological matters to the public, academics and industry. BGS is a component body of the UK Natural Environment Research Council
Natural Environment Research Council

The Natural Environment Research Council is a United Kingdom Research Council that supports research, training and knowledge transfer activities in the environmental sciences....
 which is the UK's leading body for fundamental, strategic and applied research and monitoring in the environmental science
Environmental science

Environmental science is an expression encompassing the wide range of scientific disciplines that need to be brought together to understand and manage the natural environment and the many interactions among physics, chemistry, and biology components....
s. The core outputs of the BGS include geological, geophysical, geochemical and hydrogeological maps
Geologic map

A geologic map or geological map is a special-purpose map made to show geological features.The stratigraphic contour lines are drawn on the surface of a selected deep stratum, so that they can show the topographic trends of the strata under the ground....
, descriptions and related digital databases. One of the key strategic aims for the next decade
Decade

A decade is a period of ten years. The word is derived from the late Latin language decas, from Greek language decas, from deca. The other words for spans of years also come from Latin: lustrum , century , millennium ....
 is to complete the transition from 2-D mapping
Cartography

File:Mediterranean chart fourteenth century2.jpgCartography is the study and practice of making Geography Map. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that we can model reality in ways that communicate spatial information effectively....
 to a 3-D modelling culture. The BGS has an annual budget of £
Pound sterling

----The pound sterling , subdivided into 100 pence , is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependency and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory....
57M, about half of which comes from the government's Science Budget, with the remainder coming from commissioned research from the public and private sectors.

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