A collection of seventy-eight maps covering thirteen National Grid 1:10 560 map sheets in the area of the Lothian oil shale field published between 1977 and 1982. Each map shows the extent of a single oil shale seam. An oil shale seam refers to a layer or deposit of sedimentary rock rich in organic material known as kerogen, which has the potential to yield hydrocarbons such as oil and gas through a process called pyrolysis. Oil shale is different from conventional oil and gas reservoirs in that the hydrocarbons are not present in a liquid or gaseous form but are trapped within the solid structure of the shale rock. The maps were published by the Institute of the Geological Sciences in Edinburgh (previous name for the British Geological Survey). This entry relates to hardcopy maps stored in the National Geological Data Centre (NGDC) and digital files produced by scanning them, as well as any derivative files. These maps are hard-copy paper records stored in the National Geoscience Data Centre (NGDC).
