British Geological Survey scheme for classifying discontinuities and fillings

Abstract

This report presents a scheme for classifying and naming geological discontinuities and their fillings, and provides guidance for describing discontinuities in rock masses. The scheme is a new BGS corporate standard analogous to more established standards like the BGS Rock Classification Scheme. Its purpose is to provide geologists with the means to collect and store discontinuity and filling data succinctly and consistently, in any setting and at any scale; to supply a set of approved terms and their definitions to the dictionaries that support BGS databases, and to permit BGS staff, customers and other users to better understand BGS outputs that incorporate discontinuity data