The British Geological Survey (BGS) plans to develop what it calls an \'Earthwise\' garden at its headquarters in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire.

Intended primarily as an educational facility, the garden will comprise 14 separate sections linked by pathways taking the visitor through the geological history of the planet. There will be fossils and dinosaurs and works of art.

The Survey\'s intention is to increase the number of visitors to its site, which currently stands at about three a day. The Survey\'s site has plenty of parking space, a restaurant and a shop selling fossils and minerals that visitors could utilise.

The design of the garden was the result of an international competition run by the Royal Institute of British Architects, won by a team from London.

"One of the key messages of the exhibition will be the impact of humans on the Earth," said Adrian Cook, Environment Officer at the BGS, who attended the British Stone annual meeting to ask for the support of British stone producers in creating the garden.

He said humans were currently causing a mass extermination of species equivalent to the meteorite impact that is thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs.

However, the garden would be intended to show how resources could be used sustainably so that companies\' association with the project would help establish their environmental credentials.

The Survey had given itself five years to build the garden - two years to raise the £2million it was anticipated it would cost and three years to build it.

British Stone members felt the project should be more ambitious and suggested if it cost ten times as much it would probably attract funding from the Lottery or the Government.